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Best Frauds -- Hot new Mini-Frauds. This page details how Tracfone has scammed so many. |
| INPUT ON THE TRACFONE ISSUE -- So many people scammed! |
All input is genuine, and from individuals clearly hurt by this scam! It continues to pour in week after week .... |
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HERE IS OUR FINAL TRACFONE READER SUBMISSION -- WE ARE TIRED OF IT. ANY FURTHER COMPLAINTS, PLEASE CALL TRACFONE, AS LISTED BELOW: (P.S. -- After years of posting reader complaints, if you haven't complained to the BBB and Attorney Generals, it's up to you readers now to follow through yourselves. Just look at the effort our last reader went to. Have you done this yourself?) I too was scammed by Tracfone. They refused to help me anymore than the people are talking about on this site. I will tell you what I had to do, and it did result in a refund in full. I filed a complaint with the FCC. I filed a complaint with the Florida Attorney Generals Office. I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I called Action 8 On Your Side news in Tampa. I contacted the Secretary Of State's Office in Florida and got the address and phone number of the Vice President of the company. All of this can be accomplished on line. After my call to the Vice President, and all of the above offices contacted Tracfone, they were falling all over themselves to call me and help me resolve this in any way they could. I received a full refund in less than a week. DON"T GIVE UP. I hope this information will help all of you get your money back too. Good Luck. (A.C.L., Fl.) Here are the people I called, please print them to help other readers: F.J. Pollak-President 8390 NW 25th St. Miami, FL 33122 305-640-2000 BBB lists phone numbers: 305-715-6501 800-867-7183 Fax: 305-640-2070 Vice-President's name is Stephan Ritter Tacfone's Corporate Offices: 1020 NW 163rd Dr. Miami, FL 33169 Head of the refund department: Monica 800-339-9345 ext 3214 or ext 6673 I did have confirmation that the following entities did intervene on my behalf. BBB, Atty General's Office, FCC, News Channel 8 in Tampa. I know this because as they helped me, Tracfone could not call me enough, and could not have wanted more to get this settled. I did receive my refund in full. It took a lot of time, but it was the principal of it more than the money. Be persistent, even rude. Good Luck to everyone, and I hope this does help you too. Final Reader submission on tracfone posted, March 7, 2004. |
THIS SUBMISSION SUMMARIZES THE SCAM SO WELL, AND WE GET TOO MANY OF THESE SUBMISSIONS EACH MONTH TO POST THEM ALL -- Tracfone: Their “deal” is a free phone, and you pay for the minutes. No chance of a refund, since they absolutely do not refund any minutes,
so if you can’t get their phone/service to work for you, your only recourse
is to get another phone (and another phone, and another, etc.) and continue
to call until they get your service resolved. |
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We think this latest submission, July 8, 2003, sums up the issue with Tracfone -- you are dealing with a fraudulent company -- buy and be sorry. I fell for the scam on Tracfone's website in June of 2003. I bought three phones. One worked, 2 did not. They said "let us send you an airborne pick up tab, send them back, and we will send you new phones." I sent 2 phones back, they returned only one, which was stuck on roam and still is!! I called 13 times, and they still don't fix the problem. They said they never got the second phone! But my airborne airbill shows GARCIA accepted the box, weighing 32 ozs. Does one tracfone weigh 32 ozs?? NO! Not even close. I then said I wanted my money back, and they said ok, but call tomorrow between 8-5. Nina the customer service rep even said, "Yes, I see where it looks like 2 phones did come back." I called back, and they said they cannot refund my money! I told them the website said 30 day return, and he said it was for the phone which is free--the phone card--is what I was charged for, and you cannot get that refunded!! What double talk! Criminals!!! So I called again, total 4 hours cumulative time on the phone over 3 weeks. First they refused a supervisor, then eventually a rude supervisor accused me of not sending the phone!! I gave him the tracking number, the case number, but he kept saying I don't know what to tell you. He sat on the phone in silence, that is their tactic to frustrate you more -- another just plain hung up on me! They charged my debit card for 3 phones, and I ended up with 2. I asked the supervisor for his supervisor, and he said "I do not have a supervisor." I called the corporate office 305-715-6500, got only voice mail. I called the direct sales department, they spoke to me for 40 minutes then dumped me back into to the customer service area phone cue!!! They all refuse to help me, they are criminals, nothing less. Pure criminals. BEWARE BEWARE - DO NOT BUY FROM TRACFONE - IT IS A SCAM S.M., Florida S.M. -- why not refuse to pay your credit card bill? The credit card companies need to know. |
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| Here is more, still coming in, through 2003 We always put the most recent complaints at the top of the page Latest Reader Tracfone's customer service is horrendous. I have spent literally hours trying to get straighten out a problem with my roaming - they won't honor the map of the "home coverage area" which comes up on their web site. After spending long periods on hold, I have ended up speaking with employees who are working at a call center in Mexico. All they do is read from a script; if the problem isn't on their list, they can't help you. Even the supervisor refuses to give his last name, and I can't even get them to give me a mailing address for the firm! I am filing a complaint with my state's attorney general's office. STAY AWAY FROM TRACFONE. J.C., N.Y. Reader 1 Just found out today that tracfone will not honor any of the 10 minute prepaid phone cards they have sold! M. C., IN Reader 2 About 6 months ago Tracfone was selling analog phones through local retailers. I acquired one used from a coworker -- a Nokia 918P. I purchased a $25/60 and tried to re-activate the phone, and it won't work. Now I find out that they have discontinued support for that model. Trying to get my money back doesn't look promising even here in Oregon -- Tracfone screws their customers in all 50 states. A. C., OR Reader 3 I`m attaching my recent correspondence from TracFone. I found your site when looking up TracFone on a search engine after getting their last correspondence. After reading this, see if you don`t concur that there is scam involved. I`ve removed some of the garbage but none of the text. M.S., OH. [Note -- following his letter is pages of ridiculous double talk from Tracfone reps. All he was trying to do was activate his phone and get the 10 free minutes they promised, but the Tracfone responses were full of deception, such as: "The 10 free units are for first time activations of phones on the web and not reactivations done on the web." We find their customer deception and weaseling double talk absolutely disgusting.] Reader 4 I recently (Feb) mailed in my rebate information with the bar code from the box. I sent a register copy of the receipt. I just called them (July) and they stated they never received it. The bar code was original and cannot be duplicated or resent. "Unless you send us the bar code, we cannot honor the rebate." How easy is it for them to lose my rebate request. I am wondering if other people's rebates have also been lost. P. H., MN Reader 5 I am SO glad I found your website! Now I
know not to waste anymore I also had trouble with the service. More
than once, friends have tried to Their phone service sucks. First you listen
to a commercial - as if I'd give Interestingly, they are now "an affiliate
of America Mavil, Latin America's B. H. MD |
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| Here is June's input -- for the ostriches
who think the scam is "old" This email from a reader, received Jun 1, 2002, is the latest in an endless series of Tracfone scams. Hi, I searched the web and found your site among many others with TracFone scam complaints. August 12. 2001 I bought a TracFone from amazon.com, and sent in all the required receipts, UPC label etc., but never received the $30 rebate. I am from North Carolina, it is June 1. 2002 and I am still waiting for the rebate. Keep up the good work. Me, N.C. received June 1, 2002. --------------------------------------------- To those people writing to us, trying to say the scam and pages are "old" -- give it up! It's been going on for more than 2 YEARS now folks -- in case you haven't paid attention. Get your head out of the sand -- this company scams people every day you walk the malls ...... |
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| The newest Tracfone scam, Fresh for the 2001
Christmas season! How's this for a great Christmas promotion, fresh in today (Dec. 30, 2001)? I just found your tracfone scam page and had to add my story. Many retailers advertised the Tracfone, and all were offering a phone for $19.99 after rebate. I went to CompUSA, who didn't have the $19.99 phone, but offered me instead a pair of phones for $9.88 each. So I purchased the phones, and the next day decided to buy some extra minutes. I purchased 2- $20 cards at Lowes Home Improvement Center. The trouble came when I tried to activated them. I was told that the phones were analog and could not be activated ANYWHERE in Texas. I returned the phones to CompUSA and got a refund, with no problem. The salesman then started trying to sell me a slick new digital Tracfone for $129.99 that could be activated in Texas. I, of course, walked out. No luck with Tracfone trying to get the minute cards refunded. Their intent was obvious, flood the market with $20 phones at Christmas time so people would buy them as gifts and then put those people in the embarrassing position of giving a gift that was unusable, with the only option of spending an extra $100 to make it right. I was lucky I attempted to activate the phones before giving them as a gift. I am presently putting together my official complaint to the Texas Attorney General and urge all others scammed by Tracfone to do the same in their state. Don't be fooled by salesman's claims. This is not an old problem that has been eliminated. This scam took place during Christmas of 2001. D. L. Dallas, Texas GOOD FOR YOU D.L. -- GO FOR IT -- YOU ARE JUST THE KIND OF PERSON NEEDED TO GET THIS ENDLESS TRACFONE SCAM OFF OUR BOOKS FOR GOOD. HIT YOUR STATE HARD, AND MAKE THEM WAKE UP. MAKE THEM CLEAN UP COMPANIES SELLING IN TEXAS! You can only blame slick operators so much, before it becomes obvious that they get away with what they can simply because they know the state governments won't care. It is apathy we are all fighting in these scams -- government apathy -- when you really get to the bottom of it. We hope D.L. is successful in making at least Texas wake up that they have violated one person's trust. Now all they need is about 10,000 similar letters, then the dullard lumbering bureaucrats might just swing into action ... at least we hope. |
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| TracFone complaints continue to pour in -- Here are
the latest: I got a tracfone from Best Buy. I did not activate it immediately. When I tried to, I found it was not compatible in my area. So I took it back to Best Buy, but they would not take it back, since it had been over 30 days. I called tracfone customer service at 1-800-867-7183 and was told it is only guaranteed for 30 days and they could not do anything. But their "terms and conditions" state that it is guaranteed for 30 days after activation. Since I never could activate it, this should not apply to me. Anyway I was basically told to eat it. Pretty good deal where you can sell something and if you do not use it in 30 days, you're stuck with it. I have tried to get a refund but their web site has no mailing address so I cannot even send the thing back to them. I would file a complaint with the BBB but I need a address in order to do that. I will probably have to eat it, but be warned if you buy a Tracfone, activate it right away no matter what you are told -- that way you can take it back. Too bad they do not tell you that. C.W. [no state given] -- Date December 2001 --------------------------------------------------------- I have been in "TracFone Hell" for 2 weeks. I have logged 16 calls to them, totalling 13 hours. I have been issued 4 different phone numbers. I have been told 9 times that my phone will be active in 2-4 hours. And here I sit with a phone that doesn't work. Like your first writer, I am a single Mom and thought this was the perfect thing for me. I do wilderness camping with my two childern ages 8 and 10 and experienced a few situations last year that made me realize I needed a back up. What if some one came into our campsite in the middle of the night? 10 miles from any person. Screaming won't work. If one of us broke a leg, me in particular, I couldn't send the kids off alone into the woods to get help if we are 20 miles out on a mt. bike trail. But the only thing the tracfone is good for at this point is throw it at someone or something or to use as a spint with a roll of duct tape. TracFone has told me so many different stories that it is getting to be a joke. I have become obsessed with the fact that I want my phone working or reinbursement for the minutes I have bought. I am not even asking for the $40.00 I spent buying the phone. I am on this mission thinking of the people out there that work Monday through Friday and can't call them and be put on hold for 30 minutes at a time. I have E-mailed them 4 times with no response. I have been told 4 times that someone from thier company would call me back and never heard back from them. All of this in 2 weeks for 30 minutes. I do figure I am costing them more money than the 30 minutes and the phone cost me. Will I buy anymore time? NEVER!!! Will I suggest a TracFone? NO!! I just wish I had read some of the reviews I have read since I moved into "TracFone Hell" But be assured they will not forget me for much longer, I can call every 4 hours and I can E-mail them as often as I want and I can respond to anyone out there that wants to hear my opinion of thier product. Thanks for letting me voice my opinion of "TracFone Hell" S. B. [no state given] -- date June, 2001 RESPONDENTS! Please give your state when you write in. Each state needs to know these frauds are going on in their state, so they know they are obligated to fix them. ALL WE CAN SAY IS -- BEWARE -- THERE IS NO END OF STORIES LIKE THESE! New Comments: I am thinking about getting a prepaid cellular phone and plan for my elderly father, who seldom would use a cell phone but who travels alone a lot and would like to have one available for emergencies, etc. I was looking at TracFone at Amazon, but after looking at the information on your site, I know that I will never, never get a TracFone. Thanks for protecting another consumer. SGW, CO. ----------------------------------------------------- Thank you for the Tracfone expose! I was about to purchase three Tracfones for emergency auto use: 1.for my 84 year-old mother 2.for my wife 3.for me Knowing now of Radio Shack's & Tracfone's shameful treatment of others (particularly the elderly who may be more vulnerable), there will be NO purchases, and I will take every opportunity to spread the news. Good work! Your site provides a useful service. S.S., MA ------------------------------------------ I have a different problem with Tracfone. They're cheating me out of my rebate. They say I didn't maintain 90 days of continuous service. I called in several times and the response was either that their records say I don't qualify for the rebate, or the computer was down and they couldn't do anything at all. I sent emails with the details, but their response was that I have to call in. I bought the phone from Radio Shack and contacted them for help, but they're not interested in helping. Your other Tracfone users have already said how long the phone calls can take. Tracfone makes it so difficult to try to resolve the issue that it's just not worth the time and trouble. They only thing under my control was to not give them any more of my money, which I have done. W.D. Here is an acrid comment from a TracFone salesman: (only excerpts relevant to the theme of the site, and our articles, are listed): Why is it a practice of "consumer rights" organizations to sensationalize the so called facts? I am speaking of the article I read on Tracfone. As a retailer, I have sold Tracfones for a number of companies and, although I will admit to some "horror stories", they are still a viable product for many individuals who are either seeking cost control or who are credit challenged. I am not certain of the date of your diatribe but if you are doing any current research, here are some facts you didn't even include in your "fine print": ... [none of his points are relevant to our articles or Tracfone issue.] ... While you can and will encounter an unethical salesperson at times, there comes a point when the customer has to quit expecting someone to hold their hand and read the book for themselves! Like I said, not everything is perfect with these companies. Delays happen and calls sometimes do not get returned. I am able to say that because I continue to sell phones in a responsible manner and humans, not robots, run our organization. It's time you start investigating more thoroughly your subject matter and report responsibly also. JRS , PA [Feb 2001] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Unfortunately, Mr. JRS missed the point of these articles. NO ONE is trying to say that salesmen for these products are conducting deception -- they are just selling a product to people whom they feel can use it. Our gripe (and so far, every other consumer's) is with the company itself, for flagrantly scamming the public. Mr. JRS's comment is the only negative one we have received. In contrast, other "horror stories" continue to stream in weekly about the "Tracfone" scam, which are more current than his "diatribe". For example, the most recent complaint, listed above his, almost exactly mirrors the original complaint of a year ago -- proof that the scam is still alive! There are numerous other complaints too, like the ones below: Tracfone Contacts: This letter was contributed by a reader. We have not confirmed all contacts -- they are listed here for your convenience, if you wish to contact the company, the Florida BBB, or your state: Just wanted to add some contact info for this "inept" company. Have been in TracFone Hell since right before Xmas 2001. Filed online complaints with: BBB of Southeast Florida @ http://www.bbbsoutheastflorida.org Florida Attorney General Online: http://www.800helpfla.com/~cs/ccform.html The Attorney General of Ohio Online: (my State). Attorney Generals for all States listed online. Use your states online complaint form.. I'm after a refund of $211.98 for airtime purchased on a phone that was NEVER ACTIVATED. Returned phone to Circuit City for a refund but they wouldn't refund the airtime. A Plus 3 airtime code at $99.99, and another 300 minute airtime code @ $99.99 plus tax. Circuit City said take it up with Tracfone. They've lost a customer. My position: One HAS to buy airtime to program/activate the phone. After weeks of runarounds and a work order number, still didn't have service. Bottom line...TracFone failed to deliver service I paid for. That was the gist of my complaint to all of the aforementioned agencies. Other addresses for this company may include: 1839 NW 79th Ave. Miami. FL 33122 8200 NW 27th St. Suite 17, Miami. FL 33122 Takes some time, but worth it to stop their deceptive business practices and runarounds. These agencies need [to be] deluged with complaints about this company if you're dissatisfied. Hope someone reads this BEFORE they invest in worthless items like I did. I am determined to get my money back. J.C. Ohio. |
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Other feedback on our TracFone Article -- which confirms the scam: I met a man coming back from the mail boxes yesterday, and he looked unhappy. He said he had sent his TRACFONE back to the company, because it wasn't working , but the company sent it back to him, saying it was the wrong Box number, even though he used the right one! He said he knows it was right box number, as he double checked it! I told him there was a site I'd found on the internet that talked about scams, and that Tracfone was one of them. I gave him a print out of the article and if he can't get any satisfaction when he calls this afternoon, he is going to call his state senator and ask who he should contact. I met another person in a similar situation with TRACFONE last week. Just think of it. Two people on one street in one small town!! So how many thousands country wide are being scammed by TRACFONE??? He got his phone from WalMart, and they said they will give him a new one -- but he has to re-activate it, and that also probably means he will lose all the time he paid for on the other one. SK, AZ. [Feb, 2001] - - - - - - - - - - - - Horrors! What kind of a company is it that won't even honor their own box number? What next? This is such a sweet little way to defraud the public -- give a box number, then refuse mail coming to it! That way, you never have to accept returns -- which you promised the public, if unsatisfied. Another typical "TracFone" comment: You are right! The TracFone is a joke!. I have had my phone over a year; I have had nothing but trouble. I have been trying to get my last card activated. It has taken me 5 days so for. It has caused me to miss valuable employment calls! I sit on the phone and listen to advertising for over an hour before anyone connects with me. What I want is to notify my local government official and report them. I have yet to find a physical address on these folks! Have you got any suggestions! Regards, E.M. [no state given] -- Date Feb 2001 RESPONDENTS! Please give your state when you write in. Each state needs to know these frauds are going on in their state, so they know they are obligated to fix them. In response to E.M.'s support of our site, we can provide the following contact information: The original person, K.S. from Texas, bought the Tracfone at Radio Shack. However, Tracfones can now be bought from more places than just Radio Shack (as the scam spreads). If you did get it from Radio Shack, here is the contact information for their corporate offices: Radio Shack Corporate Office:You can call them at 1-800-THE-SHACK, and to get to customer service, press 1-4-2-4. The manager of Customer Service is Susan Davis, who refused to return our phone calls! For TracFone, there is no number we could find. The "air minutes" are sold by Topp Telecom, in Florida (the "Grand-Scam" state of recent political fame). Topp can be reached at: TracFoneThe Manager of Customer Service is Tina Sanchez, ext. 6512, who refused to return calls. The main contact number is (800) 867-7183. Good luck getting any satisfaction out of them. Good luck getting the state of Florida to do anything about it. There are more scams and frauds run out of Florida than any other state. If Florida's Secretary of State has the political power to defraud all U.S. voters of their right to chose the president they want, Florida will NEVER clean up the small frauds going on in their state. The answer? Don't do business there. ------------------------------------ Deception by omission: We bought a Tracfone for emergencies, but our son called it "prehistoric", as it showed low battery after one day. The 'Trac' people said the battery should last 48 hours, and to call Radio Shack.. The person at Radio Shack seemed uninformed and told me the battery life was 10 hours on a full charge. Motorola , who made the phone, said the battery would last 24 hours, but, in fact it lasted only 15 minutes on test in 24 hours! Our son was out of touch solely due to the ridiculuosly short battery life. There's no mention anywhere of battery life in any of the accompanying paperwork. If I had known how short the battery life was, I would never have bought it. D. & H. B. CA ----------------------- Deception by omitting to tell the truth about product flaws, is THE GREATEST fraud in most product selling today. How can we MAKE the big companies tell the truth about their products, when even the U.S. Congress supports marketing slick talk, and won't even recognize the need for truth in selling, let alone enforce it ? More Tracfone nightmares: If only I would have found this site before getting involved with the TracFone. I bought a phone at Wal-Mart after coming across some propaganda. When we started to place phone calls with no answer or a busy signal, we were charged for 1 minute's service. Where we could not make calls [no signals], we were still charged for a full minutes worth of service. They told us that they would issue a credit, but when I emailed them all the numbers to credit, they replied that they changed their policy -- any call requring more then 15 seconds to complete will be charged for a minute [ NOTE -- every call takes more than 15 seconds to complete]. [After many emails back and forth], we were told we would not receive any credit. Hopefully I can stop people from making the same mistake we made. We have filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Attorney General's office but don't know what will come of it. I really wish someone would start a class action suit, as I feel it is wrong to charge for a service that they don't even provide. Please check out the tracfone very carefully before you purchase one. B & D ------------------------- NOTE -- B & D above filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Attorney General's office. Good for them! Now if EVERYONE would do the same, how long do you think this type of outright consumer fraud would be allowed to go on? Why is it so difficult for people to write a letter to their state Attorney General's office? This is why those offices exist, to help protect the rights of consumers! |
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READ MORE ABOUT THE TRACFONE SCAM HERE. |
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| NEXT ONE? If you've been taken by Tracfone, send us a complaint -- we'll share it here with everyone! DO IT to help your fellow consumers! Latest update March 7, 2004 |
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