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Posted in Forum: Electronics
I ordered a phone that had a TracFone service. Dealing with TracFone customer service is a nightmare. First, they activated the phone without even asking me if I wanted my number ported. Then they would not port my number without me buying another subscription. Then when I finally was able to talk to someone who would port the number without losing my subscription, I thought all would be OK. They were to call me back in six hours. When they called back, they tried to transfer me to another department, and I got disconnected. Each time I tried to call back, their robot kept hanging up on me. I tried everything I could think of and could not get through to anyone who could help. Out of frustration, I finally gave up and sent the phone back.
I had an old and a new tracfone, both activated. The new one had the hsn bundle, but I’d hardly used any of it. After several months, I transferred my old tracfone minutes and phone # to the new phone. They had to deactivate the new phone to make the transfer, and I lost the whole bundle in the process. Made numerous phone calls and the fourth one (of five) explained to me that it’s not their policy to combine accounts. If you have two active tracfones with two different numbers, it’s two separate accounts. You can deactivate one and transfer the other into it, but it’s not policy to combine minutes and data from two active tracfones, into one phone. They should tell you this on tv. If you get a new phone from tracfone, don’t activate it separately, if you have an old one you want to transfer into it. Activate it by transferring the old one into it.
I’ve been told that Tracfone SIM cards, at least the ones you buy here with the bundle, will expire if you don’t activate within a year.
I’ve had Tracfones for a long time and didn’t know the SIM cards expire. The only think I’ve heard is that you must activate the new phone from HSN, with the bundle, within a year or it will expire. They make it sound, on tv, that you can activate it whenever you want, in the future, but I called HSN to ask about it and they told me you have a year to activate. Once activated, I never heard of one expiring.
Posted in Forum: ElectronicsHello friends, how you all doing today? Quick question, used to be when you bought a tracfone you had so many days to activate it, like you had to activate ,say for example within 60 days of purchase. I would like to buy a few to put in my storage for future use and it looks like this timeline restriction has been removed and you can wait as long as you want to activate. Which way is it working these days?
Under Features, it says “Promotional minutes are not transferable and are only guaranteed on the handset included in the order” so you would have to activate the galaxy with the promotional minutes. However if you have two active tracfones, they say can add the balances from one phone to the other (I don’t know about airtime). I decided to keep both phones so didn’t go through with that idea. I always use the Chat on tracfone.com and always go to Tech Support. I think you get the most knowledgeable people that way, … and if you’re not happy with what they’re saying, say that you have to go, end the chat, and try again later. It seems some people will make things unnecessarily difficult.
By the way, if you have plenty of minutes/text/data and just need to add airtime, you can add 365 days for only $49.99 on the tracfone website.
Posted in Forum: ElectronicsI’ve noticed in some of the Tracfone reviews that people have lost large number of minute/text/data when they have transferred to their new phone and Tracfone said they couldn’t do anything about it…you can get them back. It happened to me a while back, I lost over 15k on calls and texts and a lot of data and was told the same thing. I contacted the BBB and filed a complaint, it took a little while for them to do what they needed but in the end I got my time back (except most of the data but that was my fault because I lost the exact numbers). Before you transfer to your new phone take a screenshot of your balances so you have evidence to show them. Also, if you have a large balance, go through the Chat and make sure to have them send you a transcript of the conversation…have them bring up your balances so they have proof of what you say then have them activate your new phone.
Hope this helps anyone who has had this problem.
I purchased the phone 1/24/2020 , I have until that date in 2021 to activate it.The promotion is a free year of service which would be until 1/24/2022.I did contact Hsn customer service and got to different answers, called tracfone and the agreed with the my understanding, just wanted someone else’s opinion.
I’m not sure what you mean by activating it “before the date of purchase which is 2021.” You said the date of purchase was 1/24/2020. Do you mean you want to wait until 2021 to activate it?
it used to be that you had a limited amount of time (like 60 days?) to activate the phone. I don’t think they say that any more, but that’s the question you want to ask HSN Customer Service – does the promotional airtime/mins/data/text expire if I don’t activate the phone within a certain time. In any case, in my experience, the promotional 365 days of airtime begin when the phone is activated, or if you already have a tracfone with a balance of airtime, the 365 days will be added on to the end. I usually activate it as soon as I get it.
The Warranty on the phone begins with your date of purchase however. So I wouldn’t let it sit in the box; I’d use it on WiFi just to make sure it’s operating correctly. I had a Motorola tracfone that started having errors a couple of months after I started using it. Since it was still under warranty, tracfone replaced it.
Also if the phone came with vouchers for apps, check the vouchers for expiration dates.
Posted in Forum: ElectronicsI purchased this phone 1/24/2020. Question:When I activate the phone before the date of purchase which is 2021.doesn’t this mean I have free service until 2022?I called Hsn and got two different answers I hope I can get the correct answer.
I have the Moto G6. I got it in Jan 2019 from qvc for about twice the price it’s selling for now. I like the phone’s size, feel, performance. I did have a problem where I was getting errors on startup and sometimes an endless loop of it restarting itself. It happened just after the 30 day return period, so I contacted Motorola who said it should be replaced under warranty. Then I went to Tracfone who had me try a few things and then DID replace it under warranty. They deactivated my old number in the process so I had to live with a new number, but otherwise it all went rather smoothly.
The 32GB is what won me over. My 8GB Samsung was at the point where I could no longer get app updates because there wasn’t enough storage.
Qvc has it under two item numbers, each with lots of reviews and Q&A: E232911 and the one I purchased E232214, so check that out.As is always the case with tracfones, many of the negative reviews have to do with Tracfone service, not the phone. I find that chatting with Technical Support on their website is the best way to get someone who is knowledgeable and helpful.
If you have specific questions I’ll try to answer but I probably use about a third of the phone’s features.
Hope this helps.
Any TracFone I have recently purched from HSN there is no time period to activate.
Moderator- 10.02.19 11:13 AM
@angelout, the info I have says the Tracfone does not need to be activated within 60 days so you’re good!
Posted in Forum: Customer ServiceDo you get to activate these whenever you want or do you have to do it right away?? I just bought two and want to store them away. I dont want to find out in 6 months they are no good because I missed an activation deadline.
Posted in Forum: ElectronicsDo you get to activate these whenever you want or do you have to do it right away?? I just bought two and want to store them away.