Tracfone is being fishy.

[SoulRaven]

So, today I activated a Tracfone and purchased minutes for it during the online process. The phone activated, but said I had 0 minutes and 0 service days left. This seemed strange because in order to activate it I must actually have minutes and service, which is what I paid for.

I couldn't see any notifications explaining anything, so finally I looked up "payment history" in my account and saw the transaction on record that I had just made a few minutes prior. It said: "Payment status: Declined".


Gosh, that doesn't make sense. Is something wrong with my card? I figured I'd use a different card and sort it out afterward. Except...the website wouldn't allow me to add another form of payment. Or edit the current form of payment. The options were supposedly there, but with all the pertinent boxes greyed out so that you couldn't type in them, even with the blank form for adding another payment option.

I figured I may as well call BECU to see what's up with my card not working, since I'd need to do that anyway. And guess what? No transaction request was made.


The representative I spoke with said that there was no decline on their end, my card works perfectly and there would be no reason to decline the transaction. I inquired as to whether there was perhaps a lag of a few minutes, but she was adamant that if a transaction had been put through to my account, it would be showing up on her screen, but instead the most recent activity on the card was several days ago.


Tracfone is suddenly feeling a lot fishier to me. Are they purposely forcing people to call in to give their credit card numbers to outsourced 3rd world customer service? This seems way too choreographed to be a simple glitch in the system, all the way down to not letting you add another card or edit because if you see that as declined too then you'd know for sure something was wonky.

I'm hesitant to call because I know what they're like and they'd just keep asking for me to give it to them over the phone as a resolution for the problem.

I feel a bit paranoid now. Does this seem weird to anyone else or is it just me?

 

[darude]

tracfone is a rip off unless someones a grandma that never uses the phone and even then it's still a rip off with how many minutes you get and what some of the other MVO's are charging. one more reason i like go phone you can walk into an AT&T company owned store and buy a device and sim cards are always free when siging up for service and you can walk in and go to the self serve kiosk and add money to your pre paid acct it's just like having a post paid acct but with the savings!!

 

[GotSmart]

Restart it.  Sometimes that makes a difference.

 

[SoulRaven]

tracfone is a rip off unless someones a grandma that never uses the phone and even then it's still a rip off with how many minutes you get and what some of the other MVO's are charging. one more reason i like go phone you can walk into an AT&T company owned store and buy a device and sim cards are always free when siging up for service and you can walk in and go to the self serve kiosk and add money to your pre paid acct it's just like having a post paid acct but with the savings!!

Actually my plan is to use it as a backup phone. For an average of $7/month I get 60 minutes per month, or rather 180 minutes for $21 for 90 days (my phone triples the minutes). The phone itself cost me $7 brand new.


I'm one of those people who's always losing her phone, badly--as in, taking a few hours to find--at least once or twice per month. It's always been this way, not for lack of trying. When it happens and I'm alone, I can't call it (particularly without internet access). This has been the source of many a panic attack. Similarly, when one phone is having issues the company tends to require you call from a different phone, which, again, tends to require I borrow someone else's phone, which isn't always convenient. And when my phone breaks or is stolen, I freak out pretty badly without any option to contact anyone to help me if needed. It's happened before and this is my workaround.

I actually tried to go with AT&T, it seemed their gophone plans were pretty reasonable for emergency phone use ($2/day only on days used, or 25 cents/minute). But then I learned that you had to buy airtime cards, minimum of $25 each and only lasting for 30 service days. The difference between $7/month and $25/month PLUS "additional fees" that I never got far enough to witness is pretty significant for my purposes.

Restart it.  Sometimes that makes a difference.

No dice.

 

[ggwoman]

Click the “Activate” button to ask TracFone to activate your number and phone. This process may be instant but it can take up to 24 hours.

Found this info @  http://www.wikihow.com/Activate-TracFone

Funny I just got my tracfone today in the mail. Haven't activated yet.  I'm the proverbial granny who doesn't give a sh*t about this newfangled stuff.   :dodgy:   It's only is an emergency device while on the road.

 

[SoulRaven]

Click the “Activate” button to ask TracFone to activate your number and phone. This process may be instant but it can take up to 24 hours.

Found this info @  http://www.wikihow.com/Activate-TracFone

Funny I just got my tracfone today in the mail. Haven't activated yet.  I'm the proverbial granny who doesn't give a sh*t about this newfangled stuff.   :dodgy:   It's only is an emergency device while on the road.

I already went through their online process to activate the phone. The phone has most definitely been successfully activated. Instead of a message saying it's inactive, it now says that I have 0 minutes and 0 service days left, with service ending today. My online account also specifies that service is active.

It just won't let me purchase airtime online because payments are supposedly declined by the first card I entered, I can't enter in any other cards and my bank is saying the transaction isn't even going through to them so while my card is fine there's nothing they can do.

I'm super curious as to whether it works for you to purchase airtime online along with your activation! Let me know how it goes?

 

[Txjaybird]

So, today I activated a Tracfone and purchased minutes for it during the online process. The phone activated, but said I had 0 minutes and 0 service days left. This seemed strange because in order to activate it I must actually have minutes and service, which is what I paid for.

I couldn't see any notifications explaining anything, so finally I looked up "payment history" in my account and saw the transaction on record that I had just made a few minutes prior. It said: "Payment status: Declined".


Gosh, that doesn't make sense. Is something wrong with my card? I figured I'd use a different card and sort it out afterward. Except...the website wouldn't allow me to add another form of payment. Or edit the current form of payment. The options were supposedly there, but with all the pertinent boxes greyed out so that you couldn't type in them, even with the blank form for adding another payment option.

I figured I may as well call BECU to see what's up with my card not working, since I'd need to do that anyway. And guess what? No transaction request was made.


The representative I spoke with said that there was no decline on their end, my card works perfectly and there would be no reason to decline the transaction. I inquired as to whether there was perhaps a lag of a few minutes, but she was adamant that if a transaction had been put through to my account, it would be showing up on her screen, but instead the most recent activity on the card was several days ago.


Tracfone is suddenly feeling a lot fishier to me. Are they purposely forcing people to call in to give their credit card numbers to outsourced 3rd world customer service? This seems way too choreographed to be a simple glitch in the system, all the way down to not letting you add another card or edit because if you see that as declined too then you'd know for sure something was wonky.

I'm hesitant to call because I know what they're like and they'd just keep asking for me to give it to them over the phone as a resolution for the problem.

I feel a bit paranoid now. Does this seem weird to anyone else or is it just me?

It is weird and no it's not just you.  I have been a night owl all my life.  I pay almost everything on the phone with my debit card at night and wee hours of the morning.......these are the companies I know and have done business with for years.  

I have learned to call phone companies and any television provider during day time business hours. It seems that later our calls go around the world.  

 I have learned what I call the Magic Words for these calls........" I'm sorry I cannot understand you"......"Would you speak slower,please"........." I am not deaf, please lower your voice".........After about 3 rounds of this I go to...." Thank you for your help, please get me a supervisor"....After about 3 rounds with out the problem being solved I start speaking Texanspanglish in tounges and hang up!!  

I grew up with many Spanish speaking friends who were 1st and 2nd generation USA citizens and were often in their homes and vice versa.   I seem to understand better folks with Hispanic accents........or  Danish from my time spent in S.D.   Sadly my night time business calls aren't routed thru TX or SD.

It ain't you girl so just hang in there    


I have had 2 trac phones that I just used as secondary contact phones....I now have a cell phone thru Assurance Wireless at no cost for 350 min. a month and I can add min. if I need too.  I think many states have these types of free cell phones/service if you qualify...ie: food stamps....lower income....ssdi,  ss,  ssi,......housing assistence....medicaid....I also think Text and maybe Data is also available....I've heard that some folk put their  "sim card ???" into better phones.  Most tech stuff is beyond my understanding...my son was upset last night because I didn't get Ubunto?.....lenovo?....clouds?   I told him it was like greek to me...don't get p.o.'d when I do not understand a language I've never spoken...at least I didn't have to pull out....'I brought you into this world  etc." on him!        

 I HOPE YOU CAN GET YOUR PROBLEM SOLVED WITHOUT TO MUCH TROUBLE     TJB

 

[ggwoman]

I already went through their online process to activate the phone. The phone has most definitely been successfully activated. Instead of a message saying it's inactive, it now says that I have 0 minutes and 0 service days left, with service ending today. My online account also specifies that service is active.

It just won't let me purchase airtime online because payments are supposedly declined by the first card I entered, I can't enter in any other cards and my bank is saying the transaction isn't even going through to them so while my card is fine there's nothing they can do.

I'm super curious as to whether it works for you to purchase airtime online along with your activation! Let me know how it goes?

I will surely let you know how it goes. Will wait for my friend who I let talk me into this business get off work and help me. I mean I find microwave ovens confusing and dangerous. I really don't like this new stuff. And people want MORE cell phone towers? I just want to get away from it all. LOL

 

[ggwoman]

I already went through their online process to activate the phone. The phone has most definitely been successfully activated. Instead of a message saying it's inactive, it now says that I have 0 minutes and 0 service days left, with service ending today. My online account also specifies that service is active.

It just won't let me purchase airtime online because payments are supposedly declined by the first card I entered, I can't enter in any other cards and my bank is saying the transaction isn't even going through to them so while my card is fine there's nothing they can do.

I'm super curious as to whether it works for you to purchase airtime online along with your activation! Let me know how it goes?

But check this part out: :dodgy: but it can take up to 24 hours. :dodgy:

So even if it thinks it's activated, it's probably not.

 

[SoulRaven]

I have learned what I call the Magic Words for these calls........" I'm sorry I cannot understand you"......"Would you speak slower,please"........." I am not deaf, please lower your voice".........After about 3 rounds of this I go to...." Thank you for your help, please get me a supervisor"....After about 3 rounds with out the problem being solved I start speaking Texanspanglish in tounges and hang up!!  

I grew up with many Spanish speaking friends who were 1st and 2nd generation USA citizens and were often in their homes and vice versa.   I seem to understand better folks with Hispanic accents........or  Danish from my time spent in S.D.   Sadly my night time business calls aren't routed thru TX or SD.

It ain't you girl so just hang in there    


I have had 2 trac phones that I just used as secondary contact phones....I now have a cell phone thru Assurance Wireless at no cost for 350 min. a month and I can add min. if I need too.  I think many states have these types of free cell phones/service if you qualify...ie: food stamps....lower income....ssdi,  ss,  ssi,......housing assistence....medicaid....I also think Text and maybe Data is also available....I've heard that some folk put their  "sim card ???" into better phones. ...

Bwahahaha "Texanspanglish in tongues", I want to learn this!!

I was on Washington state's free phone plan from last December to about a week ago. I had a free phone, I upgraded it to one I liked better, and I felt triumphant that I'd finally found a good solution. 350 minutes/month, unlimited text, data from minutes available and can add more as needed. Unfortunately, I have really complex medical stuff happening which has me using way more minutes than 350/month talking with doctors, insurance companies, pharmacies, and the like. I was needing to buy more nearly every month, some months a LOT more, making it far more reasonable to buy a plan instead. My state does not allow me to have any other service whatsoever alongside the free phone service. So I just now got my main service sorted out (I think) and was really hoping to exercise my newfound freedom to have the backup phone I've been pining after for years! :-/

 

[SoulRaven]

But check this part out:              :dodgy:  but it can take up to 24 hours.  :dodgy:

So even if it thinks it's activated, it's probably not.

Attached is the screen I'm looking at, which pertains to the minutes purchased. It's saying that my attempted purchase of minutes didn't occur because my card was declined.


Usually the activation process only takes a few minutes. They say it can take up to 1-2 days because rarely it does, but I've switched phones 5 times in the past 4 months (phew!), twice with Safelink, which is a dividsion of Tracfone, and the longest it's ever taken in my experience has been half an hour. It's always been pretty obvious once the phone is activated, as is the case here. The only thing in question is not the activation, but rather the ability to purchase minutes.

The phone says its service is active through to today. After midnight, it will no longer be active. Thus waiting 24 hours doesn't really make sense???

 

[ggwoman]

Did you call them (TF) yet hon? And what does it say when you click 'details'? Does it give a transaction time/date stamp and amount?

 

[SoulRaven]

Did you call them (TF) yet hon? And what does it say when you click 'details'? Does it give a transaction time/date stamp and amount?

It just gives a breakdown of how the total adds up. I attached it FYI, but it doesn't seem to add much.

I think the problem is solved now, though I'm still wary. I discovered that logging out of their website and logging back in brings back the option to add another payment option. Yay! So I figured I'd simply add again the same card I tried before, surely it must have been just a typo or something. So I fille din all the little boxes, triple-checking each time. And hit "submit"...

...the Tracfone website calmly refreshed the page, all boxes blank again. I double-checked in my account and nothing had actually gone through, no record even of it this time.


So I finally decided to try another card (had to log out completely of their website and log in again in order to un-grey the form) and when I put in the different card and clicked "submit" it went through with no issue, "thank you for your purchase", etc. Sure enough within a few minutes my phone had minutes. This transaction shows as payment status "approved".

Maybe they just don't take Visa, even though they say they do? I'm kinda dumb-founded.


But it's been a long day, and I just learned 90 day service cards don't triple and my new laptop *just* decided to start giving handy drop down menus for ALL my credit card information with a single click, including full number as well as security codes. :-/ So I'm going to tag the minutes/phone solution as "good enough", go let off some stress and give my laptop a talkin' to sometime tomorrow...

Thanks for the offers of assistance. :heart:

 

[ggwoman]

Yeah, I hear that.  I will wait until tomorrow to handle this, don't want to stress myself out this evening - it's been a good and productive day.  Why ruin it? Have a good one. gg

 

[ilovemyvan]

Over the years I've try AT&T, Verizon and Tracfone. My preference is Tracfone. I really got upset with Verizon, they offer cheap plans but don't support them. I literally spent hours in their stores just to be told that they couldn't figure out what the problem was. AT&T charges a fee per day even if you only make one call, Tracfone does't. One big flaw is their website. It's not intuitive or logical IMHO, however I really like their over the phone customer service. Some are a bit more difficult to understand but all want to help and are polite. Unlike Verizon, Tracfone were always able to take care of my problems. I've been using their service for years and intend to stay with them. I'm sure you will like them too once you get this glitch sorted out. They are not the best cell phone around, but they are the best on their price range.

Good luck.

Nicole

 

[RVTravel]

Love my tracfone. Low usage is my mo