I tried to do business with Straight Talk twice. The first time I purchased their pre-paid phone service via the Internet. I got through to their customer service after trying for over a week only because another web-poster had listed their corporate number (for Tracphone) in Florida. Whenever something went wrong with my service, there was no one to help me at the Straight Talk listed number. I returned the phone in the 30-day guarantee-period.
Disgruntled at the cost of doing business with Verizon I tried Straight Talk again, but this time through Walmart. It took me over four days to activate the phone following the explicit instructions, but once I'd done so I could neither receive nor send calls despite having added my $45 unlimited card to my account (via scratch-off PIN). Straight Talk's automated system told me I had to add minutes to my account, and this never changed. Worse yet, whenever I tried to contact customer "service, " I was told—I kid you not, "At this time there are no available customer service agents, " only to have the phone system subsequently disconnect me every single time. No way to leave a message. Ever. And the company has no email address; you can contact them, supposedly, only via snail mail. (I won't hold my breathe.)
Now I'll consider the exorbitant fees/taxes (22% monthly bill) associated with my Verizon mobile account as a monthly customer service charge. Whenever I dial *611 to talk to a Verizon agent, they're there, they're polite, and they get the job done. Straight Talk is such a laughable (but frustrating) company I wouldn't go back to them even if they offered me free service. Because I'd know (1) the service likely would fail eventually, if it started at all; and (2) that when the service failed I'd have no one to help me. Stay away from this "company."
0 comments