My father purchased a card with the intent of expanding the number of days, but confusion over the terms led to an incorrect purchase. Both the store clerk and my father made the same error trying to understand the terms. The store clerk had already attempted to activate the purchased service before the error was discovered, so he could not obtain a refund.

TracFone support offered to exchange the erroneous purchase for 180 extra days of service and 180 minutes of time. This is roughly the equivalent of purchasing 2 of their $19.99 options with a few extra days thrown in to cover the price difference. We accepted and a happy resolution was at hand, but then our call was mysteriously disconnected.

We immediately re-contacted customer service, but suddenly everything had changed. They would not offer the 180/180 option again and refused reconnect us to the support rep who had offered it. They wouldn't even tell us her name. Instead they changed the offer to 250 minutes and 90 days, which was not acceptable.

We tried to escalate to management but the offer of 250/90 remained unchanged with each "manager" we spoke to. What good is having an escalation procedure if the only thing they can do is echo the same options that led to the escalation? We asked for a refund, but the unused service had been "activated" and could not be refunded. But they would have to deactivate that same service in order to process the 250/90 option, so we knew this was false obstacle.

All our calls to TracFone support are hampered by the horrific quality of the headset microphones the reps use. They sound as if they are speaking while gargling and what words can be made out are electronically distorted. If you check around the web, you'll see this is a well-documented issue. You'd think a company selling communications products would be more aware of the amateurish image this conveys, but TracFone may have a good reason for allowing it to persist. My father abandoned efforts to activate a $60 card because he simply couldn't understand the support rep. I think TracFone hides behind the lousy quality of their support lines because they can embarrass customers into accepting poor solutions to their problems. The caller feels self conscious constantly having to ask the rep to repeat what he/she said until they take whatever deal they can get just to get out of the call.

I will defend most of the support reps, though. Although most reps did have thick accents and spoke through the cheap-o headsets that garbled their voices, almost everyone we spoke with treated us politely and professionally, even though their hands seemed tightly bound by policies designed to make consumers regret the day they ever thought of using this rip-off mill.

The big exception is a "manager" named Sherry Davis. She spoke with a condescending sing-song tone that immediately angered us. She also refused to honour the 180/180 terms the other rep had offered. The call became angry and contentious. Ms Davis said we could not escalate higher than her. Her disrespectful attitude and confrontational tone are prime examples of why so many complaints about this company are on the web. If she is the highest level of management available in their support department, you'd probably be better off taking your complaint to a block of wood. At least a block of wood has the potential of serving a useful purpose and is less bound by bone-headed "policy."

If you haven't bought a TracFone yet, then don't.

Right now, two cans and some string are a more attractive option than anything TracFone can offer.

I used TracFone for over three years and I highly WOULD NOT RECOMMEND IT to anybody. You have to keep all your receipts and scratched off cards that you use to add minutes. If the cards don't work, and most of the time THE CARDS DO NOT WORK, they will put you through days of wasted time digging through your records to "PROVE" you bought the cards before granting you the services and minutes you purchased. Then you will spend days typing in long codes and repeating them back and waiting 24-48 hours to "see if it will work". It doesn't work.

I bought double minutes for the life of my phone. After one year the double minutes no longer work at all and the company will not help me, at all. I've called, written, and complained. I still get e-mails from them advertising that I can buy minutes which will be doubled. Doubling minutes is the only way to get a 10 cent per minute rate that is on par with other pre-paid cell phone services like AT&T, which I highly recommend.

I tried to make a call on my Nokia cell phone and was told I no longer had service in my area. I was given a number to call for a replacement phone. I called and gave the customer service rep all the information on my phone but never received a phone or heard anything from them. I still had 108 minutes left if I called before 1/20/08 to be rolled over. I called before this date with serial #03703291140 so I could at least get my minutes rolled over to another phone, but no response. I am very upset with tracfone for not responding to my call.

Are you retired? Do you have time on your hands? If so, buy a TracFone pre-paid cellphone and spend hours of your time talking to incoherent blithering with a Service Representative south of the border. Nothing could be more rewarding than buying a Christmas Gift to help a destitute friend, but to find you really have no gift at all; just a little piece of junk that has been marketed as a great idea. Think of the fun, when you return this item to Walmart (who always has nothing but the best), on Christmas eve knowing the owner of TracFone is probably sitting on a beach somewhere, counting his millions and using a quality cellphone to check his bank account balances, while your friend is in need of an ambulance and can't call anyone... this is what makes America great!

Through Tracfone I bought a Nokia Md#1100 phone in 2004. Service was great other than the fact that it boiled down to an expensive .50 cents a minute. For the last several months I have not been able to add airtime directly into the phone. I would have to call the service reps and go through the multiple code entries to get the airtime added. Each time they would tell me the phone had to be "Reprogrammed". And when I got low on airtime and tried to add directly through the phone the same issue came up each time. I became so frustrated I emailed several complaints. Each time I was issued a case number and each time this issue was never resolved. The last email I sent I told them I wanted to speak to a bonified person about this, not a form mail. I never got a response from them and I ended up going with "iwirelesshome" a division of T-Mobile. It is digital service and not analog like Tracfone. There is a special offered at the Kroger grocery stores here in Memphis. You buy the phone with a 500 minute card inside the box. They give you aa very nice LG color screen phone with voice dial feature and you are actually buying the 500 minute card and getting the phone for free. Service and coverage is pretty good and only .10 cents a minute all day until April 1st 2008. After that it goes to .25 cents a minute between 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM and .10 cents a minute all other time. Still less costly than Tracfone and a nicer phone to top it all off. I wish someone would sue the pants off Tracfone and put them out of business for good.