topic Re: Trouble with Tracfone in Electronics

Trouble with Tracfone

MoJoV — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 00:18:37 GMT

I tried buying texts on my Tracfone, I always do. But now it won't let me. Also I try to sign in and it tells me my phone is not activated. What? I've had this phone for a year and use it all the time, texting, talking, getting and receiving pictures. When I go to chat help it tells me I'm #48! in line. Anyone know what's up. I know Verizon bought Tracfone so I'm expecting the worst.

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

D Kay — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 00:35:06 GMT

Try going to their website. That's what I do when I buy more minutes etc. I don't use the app.

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

kitcat51 — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 01:07:21 GMT

My Tracfone was locked for 3 days after a months use, received an email from them with a phone number & date to call for instructions to unlock...my phone is working now but never found out why it happened, maybe it was the Verizon sale. Good luck, CS didn't help me..if you find out what happened please post an update @MoJoV.

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

Mz iMac — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 01:13:44 GMT

@kitcat51 You didn't save the email w/unlock instructions in case it happens again?

Asking because if you did save it, copy/paste the instructions here for the OP to try.

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

kitcat51 — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 01:38:05 GMT

@Mz iMac wrote:
@kitcat51 You didn't save the email w/unlock instructions in case it happens again?
Asking because if you did save it, copy/paste the instructions here for the OP to try.

@Mz iMac I was so frustrated I didn't think to save the email. I called the number from my home phone on the date I was given & the message stated my Tracfone phone was unlocked & to hit restart.

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

MoJoV — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 03:00:10 GMT

@kitcat51 thanks for your reply. When you say your phone was locked do you mean you couldn't use it or what? I can still call etc but I was running low on texts. Can't get in to buy more at the app. Website is pretty useless too. Disgusted with tracfone. After all these years I guess Verizon totally messed it up.

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

Venezia — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 04:30:10 GMT

@MoJoV - I just bought extra text minutes on the 6th; no problem, other than I found the website a bit more confusing than in the past.

And today, DH and I activated new phones without any problems. We bought the Motorola G Stylus that the Q has on sale for $129.95 through today (I think that's when it ends).

Try this: go to their website, then click on "Shop".

Second column over: "Plans & Service", click on "Plan Add-Ons".

That should show you a screen where you enter your phone number and then can click on the texts or other add-ons and add them to your cart for checkout.

(ETA: You say you've had the phone for a year. You haven't run out of service days, have you? Just a thought.)

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

kitcat51 — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 04:56:49 GMT

@MoJoV wrote:
@kitcat51 thanks for your reply. When you say your phone was locked do you mean you couldn't use it or what? I can still call etc but I was running low on texts. Can't get in to buy more at the app. Website is pretty useless too. Disgusted with tracfone. After all these years I guess Verizon totally messed it up.

I couldn't make or recieve calls, Tracfone emailed me that my cell phone was locked but never explained why...I had to use my home phone to call the phone number on the day Tracfone requested & was told my cell was now unlocked & to hit restart. I've been a Tracfone customer since 2009 with no problems so my guess is it's the Verizon switch over...ugh. Good luck with the text purchase @MoJoV

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

Flatbush — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 06:19:59 GMT

My UPDATE

Finally after waiting and waiting for the invisible Tracfone to arrive, DH went to Target and a sales lady called the company (Verizon ? ) she has done this before and had a LOT of patience and had them activate the new phone that he just bought. It took her 1 1/2 hours of mostly waiting on the phone while DH waited too.

Once again, even she was told they did not know when the phone would arrive.Now he needs to call the credit card company and get our $ back. Worst on tech phone experience ever.

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

millieshops — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 10:14:25 GMT

@MoJoV I bought a Tracfone only once -- because I had difficulty with their customer service. Years before Verizon was involved.

I have come to believe all companies feel just fine until something frustrating happens. The list of the violators gets longer every day.

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

MoJoV — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 18:40:54 GMT

@Venezia I followed your instructions and got my texts! Thank you so much. It was a confusing path like you said. It was so simple to do on the phone app. which apparently they don't do anymore..

Again Thank you!

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

Mz iMac — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 18:52:16 GMT

@MoJoV If you have so much trouble w/Tracfone why not switch to carriers whose CS are US BASED & user friendly?

Consumer Cellular

consumercellular.com/whyus

Jitterbug

livelydirect.com/phones/phone-plans/

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

Venezia — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 19:12:07 GMT

@MoJoV - Glad to help and thank you for letting me know you were able to purchase the texts you wanted.

ETA: DH and I have only ever had Tracfones, going on more than 20 years now. We both have online accounts set up, so we've become very familiar with things over the years.

There are a lot of people on these boards who are happy to help with questions.

So far, our new phones are looking pretty good!

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

gardenman — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 11:25:45 GMT

@Venezia

That Moto G Stylus is a nice phone. I've had mine since last June and it's by far the best phone I've had.

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

Venezia — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 17:25:22 GMT

@gardenman wrote:
@Venezia

That Moto G Stylus is a nice phone. I've had mine since last June and it's by far the best phone I've had.

@gardenman - I was just about to log onto ProBoards to tell you we've managed to set them up without any problems. (And thank you for the advice you gave me on that board.)

The only thing I'm noticing is that the battery life isn't anywhere near what they claim. I'm okay with having to charge it every night, but it would be nice, if I didn't have to. It's not like I use it to surf the web or watch videos.

The other thing is that last night, I reached to pick it up from the table beside me and the phone was literally hot. No idea why. Have you had anything like that happen?

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

gardenman — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 20:31:31 GMT

@Venezia

No heat from mine at all. As to battery life, mine's been up since around 5:00 this morning and its at 78% here at 4:30 PM. I haven't done a lot with it today. (I spent the morning out tire shopping.) I've been on Twitter with it, checked my emails and whatnot, but it hasn't been a phone intensive day. Most days I end up around 50%.

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

Venezia — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 02:35:43 GMT

@gardenman - Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it.

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

Venezia — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 06:58:35 GMT

@gardenman - Did you see that the Moto G Stylus is now on sale at HSN for $99? I jumped on it at $129 with the Q, having continually checked HSN's price and it wasn't budging. Days after we got ours, they dropped the price!

I know you mentioned possibly wanting to buy another one, so I thought I'd mention it, just in case.

Re: Trouble with Tracfone

gardenman — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 12:11:50 GMT

@Venezia wrote:
@gardenman - Did you see that the Moto G Stylus is now on sale at HSN for $99? I jumped on it at $129 with the Q, having continually checked HSN's price and it wasn't budging. Days after we got ours, they dropped the price!

I know you mentioned possibly wanting to buy another one, so I thought I'd mention it, just in case.

Yeah, @Qgirl26 told me about it on another thread, and I ordered one and it'll be here on the ninth. (Give or take a bit as it's coming UPS Sure Post which is anything but sure.) It's too good of a deal. After taxes, it'll only cost me $8.88 a month for the next year at that price. I'll move everything over to the new one and reuse the case I have and set my old one (still in perfect condition) aside as a spare. My service will extend through September 2023.

HSN is now selling the 5G version of the phone for $259, so they're flushing out the older 4G versions, but I seldom use the online data, so that's not a huge issue for me. Motorola still has the 4G version on their site for $299, and the stats for the 4G and 5G versions are pretty similar. Oddly the 4G version has a closer macro focus on the camera (2 cm versus 5 cm) but the camera specs are pretty much the same other than that. The 5G version has more RAM (6 GBs versus 4 GBs) but RAM hasn't been an issue for me. The 5G version has a newer CPU, but once again, my phone is very peppy with the current CPU, so not a big issue for me.

For $99 it was too good of a deal to pass up. It would cost $60 or more to add a year's service to my existing phone, so for $40 more, I get a brand new 128 GB phone and a year's service.