topic Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless in Electronics

Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

Junky — Mon, 16 May 2022 21:05:22 GMT

Hello All, I and my wife have been QVC Tracfone users for years. This past year has been extremely horrible with Tracfone website and its service.

Many of the phone add on cards to your phone service are not available on its website. One must go find the older card offers at a nearby store (say Walmart, Target, etc) to obtain.

The TF website Talk, Messages and Data offerings are now trying to force you into a monthy plan. Even those offerings are now limited.

Even today, the Tracfone website is down, as of this writing, and a user cannot log into their account, or contact customer service, or even use the online chat (which is useless because its just a computer with standard responses even though you ask a specific question.)

We have three active QVC tracfones to which in less than a month, most of our talk and message values will deminish with our usage and we are changing out to a more quality service company (now with a better price overall and our phones are compatible)

We have recently emailed QVC with these continuous probems with Tracfone service with our concern regarding QVC selling these products to QVC customers.

Years back, both I and my wife raved about Tracfone and mentioned to others of its great price through QVC and the Tracfone service.

Not any more. We now tell people to stay as far away from Tracfone.

Good Luck, you'll need it

If your purchasing a Tracfone and its service.

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

Kachina624 — Mon, 16 May 2022 21:31:55 GMT

@Junky There have been other recent complaints here about TracFone service. I just activated a phone and had no problem, however I didn't need to call for help.

What new company are you now going to use?

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

hckynutjohn — Mon, 16 May 2022 21:34:13 GMT

@Junky

I bought 2 Samsung Ao2 phones a few months ago from HSN. Came with the 1500 package and chargers. Signed up new phones online without any problems.

Like you a Tracfone user from the 1st time HSN sold them. I am pretty much a non-user, it's only carried in my car for emergencies, like when I don't come home, and need to call my wife and tell her I am in the ER.

Obviously I never need any cards or whatever to add to my 1500 with the 12 month service. Pretty much buy a new phone every year and for my use 1500+1 year works great.

My phone has all the do-dads that I never use, I mean, it is after all a telephone! For $59.95 delivered and $4.99 per month? Can't beat it!

hckynut 🥅🏒 🇺🇸

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

Shelbelle — Mon, 16 May 2022 21:40:43 GMT

I gave up on Tracfone years ago, the worst CS in the world!!!

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

10sluvr — Mon, 16 May 2022 21:44:54 GMT

i've been using tracfone for about 8yrs and hubs 6yrs. we just got HSN TS samsung phone. i activated yesterday and had no problems. you need some patience.

About a month ago, i needed more data and tried to do on line. didn't work. i then went to my phone and it worked there. no clue why. i wonder if they are trying to get more people to use the app and not online? we are in a more rural setting and have good coverage. I cringe at the $$ somepeople spend on phones. we still have a land line, so my phone gets very little use.

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

MoJoV — Mon, 16 May 2022 22:50:45 GMT

@Junky I agree with you. I've used Tracfone for alot of years. They are making it so difficult to buy texts and minutes. Used to be able to buy from the phone, now it's a complicated set of hoops to jump through online. My husband has Consumer Cellular now....we'll see how that is.

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

walkingal — Mon, 16 May 2022 23:10:59 GMT

I agree with the criticism here regarding Tracfone, and especially the customer service. May of last year, I purchased the Samsung Galaxy A01 5.7" HD+ Tracfone. The vendor always makes everything look so easy during her presentations. I'll keep using it until I find something else. I finally figured out how to receive and make calls and setting the alarm clock. I'm thinking about the Jitterbug flip phone. I don't need bells and whistles.

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

PickyPicky3 — Tue, 17 May 2022 01:31:32 GMT

Verizon bought Tracfone from the original Mexican company about a year ago

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

Venezia — Tue, 17 May 2022 04:52:01 GMT

No luck needed for DH and myself. We've been Tracfone customers for over 20 years now and have no intention of switching providers.

We just got new phones a couple of months ago and transferred everything over with no problems. I have a lot on my phone so mine took about a half hour start to finish. His was done in minutes.

I add texts to my phone pretty frequently by going on the website - again, no problem. You just have to pay attention to what you're doing.

Just because someone has a problem doesn't mean everyone needs to be warned to stay away. We love our Tracfones.

ETA: @Junky I just realized you posted a similar complaint about a month ago. You say you've now moved on to another carrier, so perhaps just time to "move on"?

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

hckynutjohn — Tue, 17 May 2022 08:27:22 GMT

@walkingal wrote:
I agree with the criticism here regarding Tracfone, and especially the customer service. May of last year, I purchased the Samsung Galaxy A01 5.7" HD+ Tracfone. The vendor always makes everything look so easy during her presentations. I'll keep using it until I find something else. I finally figured out how to receive and make calls and setting the alarm clock.

I'm thinking about the Jitterbug flip phone. I don't need bells and whistles.

@walkingal

If you "don't need bells and whistles", read my post here. Pretty simple for me with my Samsung Ao2, I don't use them. And you can find on the Samsung website, or even Utube, how to make and receive telephone calls. Some even take you step by step.

I build my own computers, so I usually can figure out how to work most electronics, including my Ao2 cell phone. However, since I am buying it to use it only as a telephone, and for $4.99 per month? I just don't waste my time figuring out features that I never use.

There are still cell phones and companies out there that have easy to use cell phones, but! You bess expect to pay more than my $4.99 per month for any of them.

hckynut(john)🥅🏒 🇺🇸

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

SusieQ_2 — Tue, 17 May 2022 22:47:04 GMT

@Venezia , I agree with you about the ease of using the Tracfone website for both activation and adding on services.

I'm sorry the new poster @Junky isn't happy with the service but there's a lot of misinformation in his original post.

The add-on services are always available on the website. The poster @Ainhisg gave excellent directions as to how to find them in another thread. I have never felt forced into buying a monthly plan--don't really look at them as the add-ons are always available and I'm usually just looking to add more texts.

Speaking of the add-ons, once the company did away with the 3x offer on QVC phones, the prices of add-ons were lowered to the point that it's no more expensive now than when the 3x cards were the norm. Five dollars for 1000 texts is a great price especially considering you can buy a Tracfone smartphone with an entire year's service and 1500 minutes of text, talk and data for under $100. If anyone knows of a better deal I'd be interested in hearing about it.

I recently (April 22nd) bought a beautiful new phone from HSN and activation took less than 5 minutes. It took me longer to add some of my apps than it did getting the phone up and running. Signing into my Google account made the transfer a breeze.

My main reason for posting is to let people know that I've been using Tracfone for many, many years and couldn't be happier. My phone is amazing, I have no trouble adding texts, which I generally do every month or so, and the price can't be beat. I would highly recommend Tracfone to anyone who wants a reliable smartphome that can do the same things the high priced phones do at a fraction of the cost.

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

Venezia — Wed, 18 May 2022 00:20:42 GMT

@SusieQ_2 - We got the Moto Stylus G from QVC and it's probably the best phone we've ever had. The phone alone sells for a lot more elsewhere with no extras and no service.

I gave instructions to a couple of posters on other threads how to add texts or extra minutes and they were able to do that.

It's not that difficult, if you just follow the drop-down menus. I'm glad you refuted some of the OP's other claims. Tracfone remains a great deal, IMO.

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

SusieQ_2 — Wed, 18 May 2022 17:57:50 GMT

@Venezia

I have the same phone and I love it. In fact, I love it so much I bought two! I had one for a few months that I believe was around $179 and was so happy with it that when I saw the thread about it being on sale for $99 I couldn't resist (and I had a coupon). Unlike posters who say they're not attached to their phone, I admit I'm attached to two at all times, lol.

I only activate one for talk and text and the other one is used for everything else. I download audiobooks and when I'm home to use wi-fi it's the one I use for streaming Youtube, cable, Netflix. etc. Doing it that way reserves battery power for both.

Previously I had a Moto Optima (Optimo?) Maxx which I also loved but 32 GB of storage just isn't enough for my use. I saw my percentage creeping up to 90% and above and that made me nervous. The Stylus is the first phone I've had with 128 GB storage and it's so much better for my use. I will say the battery on my old Moto was 5000 mAh compared to 4000 on the Stylus. It does make a difference but not enough to bother me. I do wish we could get 128 GB of storage AND a 5000 mAh battery but that's just me wanting it all, lol.

One thing I don't want to do is to disregard legitimate concerns of people who have issues, especially those who use their phones to buy minutes, texts, etc. I never do that so I have no personal experience to compare to theirs. I also don't have a need to talk to CS although I did a few years ago. I remember having to call more than once but it turned out to be an issue with a defective phone. Once I returned that phone for another one the problem was solved. My experience is with activation and adding on through the website which has always worked for me.

I'm a little hesitant to mention this but looking at the op's posts there seems to be a connection to the old 3x cards that are now unavailable and what he wanted to add to his phone. Between the two threads he started he mentions the 3x phones twice and then goes on to say he added 3 $10/500 minute cards to his phone. I kind of suspect he is a little disgruntled that he couldn't get the 3 cards for the price of one. With three posts to his name, two threads trashing TF and the screen name "junky" it doesn't take MacGyver to come to that conclusion. As a bargain hunter myself I understand his frustration but those days are over and it's not a reason to trash a good company. From my experience TF is still the best bargain around (that I know of) and I hope it continues as it has for years even under new management.

Sorry for making this such a long post. See what happens when you tell me we have the same phone?

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

Black Cat Back — Sun, 22 May 2022 14:42:27 GMT

Their website is down a lot and it made me do "you are not a robot" thing over and over and I couldn't get in. Apparently, I'm a robot.

I had to keep trying and trying to finally get in to check my balance of data and order a 90 day card as my year had gone up and I don't want a new phone right now as most reviews are awful unless you want to pay over $200.

Just like EVERYTHING in the world now, nothing is like it used to be.

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

SusieQ_2 — Sun, 22 May 2022 19:09:38 GMT

That's Interesting @Black Cat Back . When I saw your post I checked the website and it's working fine. I didn't actually need to make a purchase today but added the $10 data card and went as far as checkout just to see how long the transaction would be. It was less than a minute.

I don't know why you're having a problem with the website. All I can tell you is that it's working fine for me. Good luck to you.

eta ~ There's about 4 and 1/2 hours difference in the time of our posts. Maybe the site was down earlier when you posted. The good news is it's up and working perfectly now.

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

ladyfox412 — Sun, 22 May 2022 20:42:45 GMT

I've used Tracfone for a few years with no problems until now. My newest phone is a Samsung Galaxy A02s purchased from HSN. For some reason I cannot use my Mobil Data. I've read others have the same problem. I've watched videos and did as instructed to no avail.

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

SusieQ_2 — Sun, 22 May 2022 20:56:47 GMT

@ladyfox412

I mentioned earlier I once had a problem activating a phone (Samsung) and it turned out the phone was defective. If your Tracfone account is showing you have data available but it can't be utilized it sounds like your phone may have a glitch. Personally, I'd return it as defective and get another phone.

Not trying to tell you how to solve your problem, just telling you how I solved mine. Good luck to you.

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

ladyfox412 — Sun, 22 May 2022 21:53:58 GMT

@SusieQ_2

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately I purchased it in Februay so it's too late to return it.

Is it possible to transfer minutes back to my old MOTO phone?

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

SusieQ_2 — Sun, 22 May 2022 21:52:45 GMT

@ladyfox412 wrote:
@Venezia
Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately I purchased it in Februay so it's too late to return it.

Is it possible to transfer minutes back to my old MOTO phone?

@ladyfox412

Not @Venezia here but I think you may have been posting that question to me. Ugh, I hate that it's too late for you to return! I'll answer as to what I know which, unfortunately, may not be super helpful. Also, if Venezia sees this I hope she will chime in as well as she is very helpful on these threads.

I'm hesitant to say the answer is yes, that you can transfer back to your old number, only because I've never done it myself and I don't like to rely on hearsay. However, I do recall that years ago people said it wasn't possible to buy a new phone for the plan (a year's service, talk, text &data) and add it to your old phone. However, I think that was changed a few years ago and now you can reactivate an older phone and transfer from your current phone to the old one.

My suggestion, since you're talking to me--a self-admitted technoweenie--is that we put out a notification to @gardenman for assistance. I know there are others here who are very knowledgeable as well but I'm most familiar with gardenman.

I don't know Gardenman's schedule for posting but I know he's here regularly and is always willing to lend a helping hand when he can. Maybe others will have some suggestions as well.

Re: Tracfone Website and Service is Useless

ladyfox412 — Sun, 22 May 2022 21:58:16 GMT

@SusieQ_2

Yes, I should have called on you! Thank you for your prompt response. It really isn't that big of a deal that I can't use my mobile data. I'm thinking maybe I'll just wait for a new deal and purchase a new phone. I will steer clear of Samsung as I'm reading a lot of negative responses. I did well with my old MOTO so I'll look for another.