Get comfy, you're gonna be busy for a while.
Written: May 27 '07 (Updated Jun 11 '07)
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The concept of prepaid wireless is, in theory, wonderful. This particular company, however, is a case study in poor communication and mismanagement. Here are some points you may wish to consider before making your prepaid wireless decision:
Tracfone is currently settling a class action law suit for misleading customers as to their home areas and roaming policies. The settlement awards a whopping 20 free minutes to each affected customer, and, presumably, a little something to the lawyers as well.
Tracfone is yet another soul-less American company (based in Tampa, Florida) that has taken advantage of our treasonous leaders' ill-advised economic policy of allowing businesses in the United States to outsource their workforces to countries like Bolivia (where my last Tracfone operator was located) in order to cash in on the disparity between two vastly different economic and social environments, to the detriment of our own economy here at home.
Tracfone's website, which can make activation and renewal a tolerable task, is riddled with problems and errors often requiring a phone call to customer service. Be prepared to listen to announcements extolling the virtues of using the same, buggy website that is the very reason you are having to call. You will have to talk to that robot guy from Bank of America, who understands voice commands pretty well, but had surprising difficulty recognizing the numbers that I entered via the telephone keypad. In the unfortunate event that you end up having to talk to an actual human being at customer service, you will find about what you'd expect from a large and thoroughly unremarkable company these days - thick foreign accents with a thin veneer of scripted concern overlaying a basic attitude of indifference. Activation or renewal will require you to enter dozens of numbers and follow detailed instructions from someone with only a rudimentary grasp of your language.
Tracfones require two things to work: Activation and airtime. You can activate for up to a year, and add minutes at any time. If you miss your activation deadline, you can still re-activate for a period of time without losing your minutes, but you lose your phone number. So it's critical to keep your phone activated. Tracfone sends you a reactivation notice via text message about a week prior to deactivation. One week. Now for someone like me that doesn't use the phone all the time, that just isn't enough notice. This is such a no-brainer that you have to consider motive - what does Tracfone stand to gain from my frustration. Ah, yes, now it is becoming clearer. They have a service that will automatically renew your phone and keep it full of minutes if you just sign up and enter your credit card information. No hidden fees, no contracts, no gimmicks... unless you consider tying a prepaid phone to a credit card a gimmick. I mean, this essentially removes the very independence and control you sought when you decided to use this type of wireless service in the first place! Believe it or not, I'd still rather put up with all of this than sign a contract with ANY provider.
If you detect a whiff of frustration in the tone of my review, then props to your proboscis. I am currently waiting 30 minutes, as instructed, for my Tracfone to recognize itself on the network, or something like that. When it does, I have to call customer service back and start over with the activation circus. No, I'm not a new customer, I've been using Tracfone for several years now. But I had to send in my dad's phone for replacement due to 'technology changes' which rendered the old phone and number obsolete. It has taken me some vigilance to show my dad how to use his old phone and its various features. Now we must start over with a new phone and number... a whiff of frustration, indeed.
UPDATE 2007-06-11
To their credit, the new phone arrived very quickly, along with a pre-paid return package for the old one. Activation of the new phone was relatively painless, and went according to plan. I was even given 50 bonus minutes just for complaining. As for teaching my dad how to use it, let's just say we are back at square one - it's a very different phone with even smaller number keys! It would really be nice to see all the phone companies offer some sort of simple, high contrast, large-button, loud-volume wireless phone, similar to what I've seen advertised in Reader's Digest, targeted toward seniors who don't need and are confused by all the extra buttons & features.
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DISCLAIMER: I realize that my review is off-topic, and I respect the vigilance of those who point this out. But in my opinion, barring users from adding new products and services to epinions is very frustrating, inefficient, and unnecessary. Many times I have searched for a product to research or write a review on and it just isn't here. It would be a much better community if people could just start new threads for new items that they have bought. This is a perfect example - why on earth is there a thread for Tracfone online service but not for Tracfone prepaid wireless? It's kind of like having a thread for a car's engine, but not the car itself.
Recommended:
No
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About the Author
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