Community Chat

[Yardlie]

I've had Tracfones for years...never a problem. I purchased my current smart Tracfone over a year ago from a shopping channel. I received somewhere around 1500 minutes with a year of service. I rarely use a cell phone (only for urgent situations when I am out). I had most of my minutes left, but was about to run out of days. I added a year of time and received another 1500 or so in minutes. Usually, your old minutes are added on top of your new minutes.

With Tracfone you need both...minutes and days...and there are many variations. I had the option of buying one year with 1500 minutes or 6 months (or three months), etc. with 1200 minutes. You can even buy one month. If you use the phone a lot, you could run out of minutes before you run out of days. It was just the reverse in my case.

You can always appeal the situation by writing directly to Tracfone.

[lulu2]

Like most others here, I 've never had problems with Tracfone service.

Can't you check your account online to see your purchases?

Something does sound amiss.

[straykatz]

I've not had trouble with mine either.  I have a boatload of minutes because they never get used before my 1 yr time period is up.  

Can you log into your account online to look at your history/minutes/date of service?  

[Hooty]

@wismiss FYI, I have a regular old fashioned flip Tracfone I have had for many years, no bells & whistles, it serves my purpose and I am very happy with it, thank you very much!!!

[Venezia]

Personally, I dislike these threads that issue statements like "DO NOT BUY".

Many people use Tracfone as a provider and are very happy with them.  DH and I have had nothing but Tracfone for the past 16 years and have no plans to ever switch.

We've both had times when we've had to contact them and we've resolved the issues.

So often I read comments and I know that the person has not read the information provided on the Tracfone website about what's available.  For instance, many of the Smartphone cards do not triple minutes, text or data.  It's stated quite clearly.

Also, something that has changed in recent times is that, if you allow your air time to expire, but have minutes/text/data left - IF you add airtime within 60 days of that expiration, those minutes, etc. will be reloaded to your phone.  It used to be that, once they expired, they were gone permanently (and even that was spelled out in black and white).

Something in the OP's post and explanation of the situation just doesn't add up.  If she had air time through March 2020, I can see no way everything would've disappeared and an agent would've deactivated her phone.  (And, if you can't understand the accent, there's always the online chat facility.)

I think Tracfone has made great improvements in the past couple of years.  They continue to get better and better.  Very happy with our Tracfones!

[CatLoverDogsToo]

QVC or HSN Tracfones come with the "triple minutes, text, and data" for the life of the phone. All these plans require the minutes, text and data card must be purchased EVERY YEAR in order for the phone to remain active. You CANNOT purchase anything that remains ACTIVE for THREE years in this plan. It does not matter how many of each thing on the anniversary date of the original activation remain. In order to keep all of that, you MUST buy a card. If you don't buy a card, away it all goes. There is no way around that. The representative makes that VERY clear when they show the phones on TSV days.

For example:  On one of my phones, I had 3,600 minutes, 2, 789 texts and 3,600 data. Tracfone notified me one week before the expiration date of March 31, 2017. I renewed and the phone has 4,800 minutes, 3, 989 texts, and 4,800 data. Had I not renewed by PURCHASING a new card, the phone would have 0 in all three.  The phone now has become my primary phone as I am now using it to replace the landline which I finally got rid of. (It took me a while to feel comforable getting rid of the landline.)

My daughter uses one of the other phones a lot more, so she has to buy a card usually twice a year. She goes through texts and data faster than minutes, so she buys those when there are deals. Right now she added 1000 texts for $5.00 data for $5.00.  Neither of those purchases extended the expiration date. She will need to buy a card prior to expiration date to extend the "triple for life."

Just because you don't seem to understand what you are doing, does not mean everyone should stop buying Tracfone.

'

I have found their customer service to be excellent, but I realize that does not mean everyone has a great experience. If one customer service representative does not help, you always have the option of calling back to get a different person.

[hckynut]

I have had Tracfone for 10-12 years, and just as many new phones. Never had an issue or major problem with them, or the phones I bought, which were not purchased here. My intentions are to stick with them, barring another company offering me a good phone/no disconnects with their servers, and all for less than $6 per month.

For me, over the years! A half hour wait time, with some company's customer service, is just a warmup, before the real wait starts.

hckynut(john)

[makeup addict]

I've used tracfone for several years with no issue. I prefer the LG model. 

I did make make a mistake once thinking the minutes I had was all I needed, but I also needed a service contract. Service contract is for a year and I renew it. The minutes triple for life as long as the phone is renewed before the end of service date.

[Shelbelle]

Had one for 8 years no issues, but quit on it, last year, worst CS I have ever encountered in my entire life!!

[onlyshopsonline]

I used Tracfone for quite a few years, and had several different phones, and only had one issue.  When I transferred to one of my upgraded models, my phone number wouldn't transfer and I got a new number.

However, I always purchased my Tracfone plans from HSN.  They have a dedicated Tracfone customer service team, separate from Tracfone customer service.  When I contacted them, about my issue, they resolved it within a day or two, and I got my old number back.

I now have an iPhone and use Virgin Mobile.  However, I wouldn't hesitate to go back to Tracfone, through HSN.