I wanted to share with you the worst experience I have ever had with Tracfone.
It all started when I bought a new Tracfone on Friday afternoon at Walmart. I went home and activated it online. Seeing that the service provider was Verizon Wireless, I assumed that the phone would begin working almost immediately. It didn't. What followed from there was a nightmare.
By Saturday afternoon, the phone still wasn't able to make or receive calls. I called Tracfone and after going through all the usual nonsense, the foreign woman, that of course speaks little english, tells me I have to wait 24 hours. Well, it was like an hour away from being the 24 hours and she gives me a case number. Here we go. Now I know and she knows that the phone is not going to be working within that hour. It's programmed wrong. I don't argue with her because first she isn't going to understand what I am telling her and second I KNOW I am am gonna have an argument coming up later because I know the phone isn't going to work even after I call back.
Instead of calling right back in an hour, I wait a couple hours extra. I call back. It took me several tries to make another foreigner understand why I was calling. She reads her script "Ok, sir, the reason you are calling is "because you want to deactivate a phone and change your email address". WHAT THE HELL IS SHE TALKING ABOUT? I never said I wanted to deactivate a phone and change my email address! I never said anything like that.
So I explain it AGAIN and for the 4th time and very slowly. This time she gets it, or so I thought. She tells me that the computer shows my phone is active. I tell her it is NOT active. The phone was already activated, It just didn't work. We reprogram the phone. I am thinking maybe it will work when we get done. We finish. She tells me that my phone is now activated and my expiration date is March 17. Huh? I hung up. This is ridiculous!
Now I wait until Sunday afternoon and call Tracfone back again. Now THIS woman was the biggest idiot I EVER heard at Tracfone. I patiently explained the problem 6 times. 6 TIMES! I am standing at a pay phone and my hands were freezing but still I was patient. This woman tells me to write down a case number. I figure it is a new one. She reads the case number back and it's the same case number I just gave her. Oh my God.
Then she tells me that the Customer Service person changed the zip code yesterday and the phone is working. I tell her THE PHONE IS NOT WORKING! I asked what zip code the phone is programmed for. She tells me a zip code that doesn't even exist in this state. Oh my freakin god! She then tells asks me if I entered the case number she gave me into the Tracfone. Enter a case number into the tracfone? Must be something new. I say no and I'm thinking how weird this is. So she goes on reading the notes aloud and then tells me to forget entering the case number into the phone, she made a mistake. I already knew that.
Then out of nowhere she says "Ok, sir, is there anything else I can assist you with?". HUH? She's ready to hang up. I said "YEs, we still need to re-program the phone to make it work!". She says, Ok, sir then the reason you are calling is.." SLAM! I hang up the phone. Now I was so pissed off I turned and headed back to my car and nearly got hit by another car when I started to cross the street. I was so angry I wasn't even paying attention to the traffic. I was having chest pains by then and sat in the car and took a nitro pill.
About a half hour later, after calming down, I decided to give it one final try. If it failed this time, I was going to return the phone to the Store or go to Florida and stick this phone up Tracfones collective ass:-)
I call Tracfone back AGAIN. This woman, although a foreigner, seems to speak english quite well. This is a first. I explain the problem to her. This one starts asking for my mailing address so they can send me a replacement. Huh? Replacement for what? I tell her we just need to re-program the phone. I didn't ask for a replacement. She agrees to re-program the phone. After nearly another 15 minutes of useless jibberish from her and after she finally got around to the reprogramming, the phone worked immediately after we get done.
This was unbelievable. The amount of time I spent standing at pay phones this weekend, the aggravation and nonsense with people that speak very little english and have no idea what is even going on, almost being hit by a car and nearly having a heart attack, was not even worth it.
I can't understand why Tracfone keeps hiring these idiots that don't speak english. This is America. We speak English here. Why should I have to speak slowly, using baby words, repeat myself over and over and go through all this crap to patronize a Company that hires people that can't speak english?
John
Burlington, Vermont
U.S.A.
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