topic Re: Tracfone horrible in Electronics

Tracfone horrible

MoJoV — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 04:43:20 GMT

All of a sudden I can't buy minutes for my phone. I still have plenty of texts left but when I try to sign into buy talk minutes I can't... says error. Went to sign in to their website put in my phone #...says invalid account. Tried putting my phone serial #... again invalid account. Ridiculous. 5 minutes of talk time left. This is the end of years of using tracfone. I'll go with Consumer Cellular, like my husband. What a rotten way to treat a customer. There is nothing wrong with my method of paying..ever. I suppose I'll have to get a new phone number after all these years.

Thanks for listening to my rant.😕

Re: Tracfone horrible

Mz iMac — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 05:02:10 GMT

@MoJoV Why didn't you call them?

Re: Tracfone horrible

Venezia — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 05:15:09 GMT

DH and I have been with Tracfone for over 25 years and never had a problem we couldn't resolve.

We love our Tracfones; have no intention of switching. I just looked online at the website and I don't see any difficulties. Perhaps use a different browser or clear your cache (cookies, etc.), in case something there is causing a problem?

@MoJoV - If you want to transfer to another carrier, you can take your existing phone number with you.

Re: Tracfone horrible

Tinkrbl44 — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 06:53:51 GMT

@MoJoV

I've been with Tracfone for almost 10 years. Love them, and their CS is very good.

Rotten way to treat a customer? Don't rant. You just need to pick up your phone and talk to a Tracfone human.

JMO, of course.

Re: Tracfone horrible

Desertdi — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 10:24:27 GMT

YESTERDAY...my TracFone bit the dust (it was pretty old). Immediately went to WM and got a new one...called the 800# to set it up, kept my unused minutes, and renewed my subscription for a year.

Including the trip to WM...I was back in business within 2 hours.

Re: Tracfone horrible

Ainhisg — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 11:30:58 GMT

I think you've made a good decision to use a different prepaid company, where someone will take care of things for you. If so inclined, you can chat with TF reps on their website or through Facebook messenger to receive help if you decide to stay with TF. Or you could use another phone to call TF.

Re: Tracfone horrible

kaydee50 — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 12:30:30 GMT

I've had a Tracfone for a couple of years. Got it from HSN for $79?? I'm planning to switch to Jitterbug. Anyone with experience with those phones?

As for Consumer Cellular one month I went over my "plan" limit so without notifying me, they switched me to a more expensive plan. I had to call them to get back to my original plan but decided to drop them. So much for excellent customer service, IMO.

I've also had an AT&T "GoPhone" for $29/every 3 months. That was fine until they cancelled my account without warning.

Obviously, I'm not having any luck with cell phones and only use one very occasionally.

Re: Tracfone horrible

cindyNC — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 14:30:26 GMT

I would use Chat rather than phoning. You can then save the chat message

Re: Tracfone horrible

deeva — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:13:08 GMT

I've been with Tracfone since 2012 and have never had any issues with customer service.

When I bought a new unlocked phone in December, their customer support was excellent.

Re: Tracfone horrible

Pook — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:37:41 GMT

@Tinkrbl44 wrote:

@MoJoV

I've been with Tracfone for almost 10 years. Love them, and their CS is very good.
and
Rotten way to treat a customer? Don't rant. You just need to pick up your phone and talk to a Tracfone human.

JMO, of course.

@Tinkrbl44 @

Not as easy as that now!! Tracfone has changed since being bought by Verizon! You call and you get a BOT and now there is usually at least an hour wait to get a person and their agents are now based overseas somewhere and obviously all trained differently!! The first time I misplaced my phone several years ago and it took a live person only 6 minutes to restore everything from my lost phone BUT last year I did it again and I had to go through a BOT nightmare just getting through to a person and often was disconnected and had to start all over again each time!!!! They could not transfer like last time and only could transfer my number and anything like photos and email from Google I had to do myself or was told to go to Walmart as that is where their service people for that are located (probably were charged a fee but do not know as I opened and transferred google stuff myself!!! I was, however, able to buy time on a call since it was not as easy to do it online any more so after about 55 minutes finally got my call through and got time for a year but it took over an hour!! I spent a total of 25 hours over a week just to get through. Said you could get a call back when in the que to get one but never worked!! That is my experience from last summer!! I have more horror stories about the tracphone phone I bought that was defective. I had to send it back first before a new one could be sent and after nearly 3 weeks I finally got a call through and was told they do not have that particular model or a phone of equal value and could not remiburse the cost of the phone either!!! After many weeks I finally got a manager that did reimburse me - what a nightmare!!!!!! That is the concensed version!!

Re: Tracfone horrible

SeaGal — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 17:19:40 GMT

@MoJoV , This same thing happened to me about 2 years ago, geez what a pain. I have tryed a couple different customer service reps try to help me figure out what the deal is, spent a couple hours between them and nothing, they cant figure it out.

I found out you can buy time just by calling their number.

One of the options lets you buy time, just push that choice on your phone. Try that, that is how I have been buying more time for my phone

and my husbands phone since that fiasco. It works, your account is still there.

@Pook, YES it has been since Verizon bought them. What a mess.

Re: Tracfone horrible

kare29 — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 17:36:48 GMT

I was on the phone with them this morning to transfer my existing number and minutes to a new phone I had bought from QVC before Xmas.

I may have been on hold 5 - 10 minutes; I have nothing but nice things to say about the gal that helped me.

This is the number I called 1-800-867-7183. Why don't you give them a call?

Re: Tracfone horrible

stevieb — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 18:04:01 GMT

Their CS is very uneven. I've had good experiences and I've had some real humdingers. I recently got a new phone and the experience in activating was all right, but the transferring from old to new was awful, protracted and still not really done to my satisfaction. When it's time for a new phone, I'll break down and go with a different provider with a brand-dedicated local store, Incidentally, the reason I had to get a new phone was my SIMS card simply stopped working without warning. The rep told me they could send me a new card (for a price, of course) but that it too would not be for the long haul. My phone was older and I knew was due to be replaced, so I said I'd just get a new phone. I bought it from them and it did arrive quickly, but for a new phone it seems like the updates are endless. The rep who activated my new phone and was supposed to efficiently make the transfer knew I was extremely unhappy so I wasn't surprised that the usual 'how did we do' survey at the end of the call never took place. They've met my needs over the years, but I'm less inclined now than I was years ago to 'settle' and it appears that's the name of the game with them these days.

Re: Tracfone horrible

ceekay — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 22:58:03 GMT

@MoJoV - has your service date expired? You can have zillions of minutes/texts/data but if your service has expired that's basically it. I think there is some short grace period. I know once I missed it by a day (my own fault) and they reinstated my stuff. Just a thought.

Re: Tracfone horrible

Venezia — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 18:25:26 GMT

@ceekay - I believe the grace period is 60 days. If you add service within that timeframe, everything will be restored.

Re: Tracfone horrible

Venezia — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 16:48:52 GMT

The comments about transferring information from your old phone to new is interesting.

I bought the Motorola Edge several months ago and had no trouble at all. I activated it, then followed the simple instructions to transfer everything.

Made sure both phones were on, set them next to each other, selected "Transfer All" and left them to it. The previous time I bought a new phone, I used a data transfer cable.

This time I didn't even need that. It took maybe 20 minutes (I have a lot on my phone). A friend who has an iPhone had the staff in the Apple store transfer his information. It took over two hours and he doesn't have a lot on his phone!

Re: Tracfone horrible

Venezia — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 17:08:50 GMT

So, @MoJoV - Did you get your issue resolved?

Re: Tracfone horrible

shoesnbags — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 03:36:46 GMT

@Venezia wrote:
The comments about transferring information from your old phone to new is interesting.

I bought the Motorola Edge several months ago and had no trouble at all. I activated it, then followed the simple instructions to transfer everything.

Made sure both phones were on, set them next to each other, selected "Transfer All" and left them to it. The previous time I bought a new phone, I used a data transfer cable.

This time I didn't even need that. It took maybe 20 minutes (I have a lot on my phone). A friend who has an iPhone had the staff in the Apple store transfer his information. It took over two hours and he doesn't have a lot on his phone!

@Venezia

I was amazed to read this about your friend's experience in the Apple store. When I bought a new iPhone a couple of years ago, it took me only a few minutes at home to switch everything over to the new phone. But I do have my phone set to back up everything to the cloud every day so that makes the transfer quick and easy. (and also protects everything in case the phone is lost or stolen) Maybe your friend doesn't back up his phone to the cloud?

Re: Tracfone horrible

Venezia — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 03:42:50 GMT

@shoesnbags - I have no idea whether he backs up his info. He told me that he bought a new iPhone and had someone in the Apple store transfer everything and that's how long it took.

I told him at the time that I was surprised, as I do my own and it only takes 15 to 20 minutes at the most. I never back anything up to Cloud (or Google's equivalent for android), so it was just straight phone to phone via bluetooth.

And even using the data cable on the previous occasion it didn't take any longer than that.

Re: Tracfone horrible

gadgetgal613 — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 11:26:05 GMT

@Venezia wrote:
@shoesnbags - I have no idea whether he backs up his info. He told me that he bought a new iPhone and had someone in the Apple store transfer everything and that's how long it took.

I told him at the time that I was surprised, as I do my own and it only takes 15 to 20 minutes at the most. I never back anything up to Cloud (or Google's equivalent for android), so it was just straight phone to phone via bluetooth.

And even using the data cable on the previous occasion it didn't take any longer than that.

You better hope your phone is never stolen, lost or fails because your data will be lost.