Cricket Wireless review: I will fight this to the end! 237

This company is a rip off. It sounds great to begin with. Unlimited minutes, texting, picture mail, video mail, and so on. Also, unlimited fees! I bought a $200.00 phone from them and after 5 months of use it completely broke in half. I went into the store and they told me they could not help me out. It looked as if I had broken it on purpose or with handling it to hard. I did nothing what-so-ever like that. So, I bought a used phone from the internet. They wanted to charge me $70.00 to reconnect it to my existing number through them. I had just paid my bill for the entire month and they wanted to charge me all that. FOR WHAT? I was never late paying my bill and ALWAYS a good customer. So, I am taking my service elsewhere. I am very mad at what came about from this. Do not use Cricket. They will nickel and dime you to death.

I bought a phone from one of your stores and was told that i could call long distance and toll calls but when i went to my sons graduation i tried to call my sick mother from there and guess what? No service! I was irate that i couldn't find out how my mother was without leaving the graduation ceremony! I called the following day and i was told that i didn't have that service but i could get it for of course more money and if i felt that i was wrongly informed for me to not pay the bill. Well i didn't and i now get in the mail an offer that my past due balance and late fees would be waived for just $25 more money! I really never even used your phone after i had found out that what i had bought it for wasn't in the package that i had bought. Please don't send any more offers to my home and i don't owe your company anything!

Don't get a Cricket phone! They will overbill you and treat you like a criminal when you call to readjust your bill. Then, they will charge you a $15.00 service charge for calling! Then they will send it to collections right away while you are still trying to readjust the bill and they will cut your phone off. Don't bother going to the store to try to get help when the 1-800 number representatives are no help. The store representatives are even worse! They can't think for themselves. They will just read the computer screen. They can't figure out that for 2 months of service, if it shows a person has already paid $155.00, they don't owe again when the service is only supposed to be $50 per month. $50 + $50 + $100, NOT $155! GO BACK TO SCHOOL CRICKET STAFF!

I called customer service and they gave me some b.s that was already in the cricket manual. I've gotten better responses from my baby sister. Cricket is the most bootleg,###ed company I've ever witnessed. I'm not satisfied at all with the service.

I had my phone shut off because i'm a single mom of 3, and don't always get child support on time. But anyways i called in and said that i woould be in on friday to pay my bill, the operator said that's fine, i didn't make it to the store in time to pay it. so i got up there at 10:10 am on sat. to pay it. they said that its shut off, and i need to pay 15 dollars for a reconection. I asked if there was anyway of getting it added on my next bill or have a manager waive it, i'm always on time paying my bill. he said no that there wasn't anyone there to help me. I either want my phone on or i don't. so i got mad and said no and walked out. well 2 weeks later i went in to get my phone on and i paid 83 something and he said that in 2 weeks my next bill will be due. I asked why when i haven't had it on for 2 weeks, why should i pay for service when it wasn't on? at that time i just paid it and got it back on. as i was leaving i saw an adbvertisement th at said if you can't afford your whole bill then you can pay 22 dollars and you'll have an extra week to pay it. and i think it was 17 or 19 dollars would be credited to your account. WHY DIDN'T THAT LADY I SPOKE TO TELL ME THAT WHEN I CALLED HER AND SAID THAT I WOULD PAY IT ON FRIDAY.I COULD OF PAYED THAT... AND EVERYTHING TO THIS DAY WOULD BE FINE. BUT NOW MY BILL IS DUE CAUSE ITS ONLY BEEN 2 WEEKS SINCE I HAVE GOTTEN IT BACK ON AND THEY SAY IT'S BECAUSE THE DUE DATE OF WHEN IT'S DUE NEVER CHANGES... WHY IS THAT? SINCE ALL OF THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON I HAVE BEEN LOOKING INTO OTHER CELL PHONE PLANES AND COMPANIES.

i paid and cricket cashed the checks (online bill paiment)that what my bank told me,cricket cut off my phone for a week and cricket told me they can not see my account on their computer eccept it sais i didnt pay

I cancelled my phone two months ago, and they are still charging my automatic payment. I've been on the phone for hours, mostly on hold, and they are refusing to refund the extra billing.
The coverage has been lousy since I moved, that's why I cancelled, now their service is just as bad!

I have been with Cricket for aprox 4yrs now. I have always complained about their billing and getting a hold of a human on their automated line wont happen. I needed to do what they call bridge pay for the first time EVER last month. It's where you pay $20 to keep your phone on for another wk. I called CS went through all push this for that and so on. It says all agents are busy. Most companys put you on hold, not cricket it send you right back through the automated service9 again.

My next complaint is this. I bought a new cell yesterday! It was refurbushed which they told me. I paid $30. She said they ONLY thing wrong was that the picture msging may not work. Well it worked but just a min ago my display screen was all screwed up! I turned off the cell, back on and it was blank. It has WATER DAMAGE! I know, cause I have had water damage before on my other cell. I PISSED! I got the $30 phone cause I was hurting for money and this happens. She told me after I talk on it -for 30 mins its mine. I'm DONE! The same cell is on mycricket.com.. sold as a refurbished phone. How can they get away with this?

I used to work for a Cricket franchise and I do admit, Cricket is a little 'nickel and dimey' but some of the issues I've read here are either scams that we see in the store on a daily basis or simply bad information giving to the customer at the time of purchase.

Purchasing a new phone and finding out it's water damaged? Come on, these phones are NEW out the box, even the refurb'd phones are in good shape. That was one that we would see all the time. Customer would purchase a phone, either they or one of their kids would drop it in some water, they bring the phone back demanding a refund or new phone?!?! Claiming that it was a bogus phone, even though it worked fine when they purchased it.

Or how about the phone that 'mysteriously' broken in half? How in the hell does a phone just suddenly break in half with NO warning at all? Come on ppl, if the phone starts to 'crack' you simply take it back to the store, you don't continue to use it to the point of failure!

These were the sort of customer scams we would see EVERYDAY in da'hood! That's part of the reason we would demo each phone at sale, and show them that it was working as it should, talk about reducing the number of complaints! As for refurb phones, we put stickers on the box denoting that they're refurb'd phones and had the customer sign THREE [3] contracts stating that they know this!

As for all the customer service, billing issues, pay your bill ON time and you won't have to call customer service and wait... That's how you take care of that problem! And if you mail your payment in, put your ACCOUNT number or PHONE number on the check/money order, otherwise they will have problems finding your account. That's standard practice, you don't mail in an empty envelope with nothing but a check inside when you pay your water bill or gas bill or any other bill for that matter!

how about after you cancel your service and don't get charged then a month later they charge you 2 months worth via auto payment. The after you get the whole running around game for a refund on their mistake, they tell you 5-7 business days before returning to your account and it's 10 business later?

Can anyone explain that one?

CRICKET SUCKS. THEIR AUTOMATED SYSTEM SUCKS. THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT BENEFIT FROM BUYING A CRICKET PHONE ARE LOCAL DRUG DEALERS

I HAVE HAD CRICKET SERVICES FOR ABOUT FOUR YEARS OR SO AND I HAVE HAD NO PROBLEMS UNTIL I ADDED ANOTHER PHONE TO MY ACCOUNT IN NOVEMBER 2007 AND FROM THAT POINT ON I HAD NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS. EVERY MONTH I RECEIVED A BILL THAT WAS NOT THE ACCURATE AMOUNT SO I STARTED CALLING THE 800 NUMBER EVERY MONTH TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH I NEEDED TO PAY THAT MONTH, THEN I CAME ACROSSED A PROBLEM BY DOING THAT. I CALLED THE 800 NUMBER IN FEBUARY 2008 AND WAS TOLD TO PAY $120.08 SO I WENT AND PAID THAT ON FEBUARY 11TH AND ON FEBUARY 16TH MY PHONES WERE BOTH DISCONNECTED SO I CALLED AND COULD NOT GET A HOLD OF ANYONE SO I WENT TO THE STORE AND ASKED THEM WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH MY PHONES BEING DISCONNECTED BECAUSE I JUST PAID 120 DOLLARS NOT EVEN A WEEK AGO THEY SAID I HAVE A PAST DUE AMOUNT OF 79 DOLLARS THAT AS BEEN ADDING UP SINCE NOVEMBER AND I ASKED THEM HOW AND WHY THEY HAVE NOT TOLD ME THAT AND I BEEN CALLING EVERY MONTH TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH I OWE AND THEY TOLD ME THEY MAY NEED TO TRAIN THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE REPS BETTER BUT I STILL OWE THAT MONEY AND MY PHONES WILL NOT BE TURNED BACK ON UNTIL I PAY THAT BALANCE SO I TOLD THEM I AM NOT PAYING 79 DOLLARS TO THEM WHEN I DONT FEEL I OWE IT. I DECIDED TO GET CELL PHONE SERVICES ELSEWHERE.

I just got Cricket and it was not a good start...First of all I went into the store in Ingram mall and I have never seen such low-class service, actually the lady working there could not care less if I wanted to become a customer or not . She advised me not to get Cricket service if I was hesitating so much...this advice because I was asking simple questions that she was too lazy too answer. I was disquested with this service. I would just reccomend going to an authorized store only.

servers my bad but get them back up or something dam get it together people yall want a company with high business i can tell yall how to do it hit me up on my email

I too am continuing to be billed for a phone I had removed from my plan. When I wnen to pay my monthly bill I told cs ( who I was on hole for 3'x in one day for over 30 min. each time I no longer wanted the addtional phone, fine, they deleted it from the account and I was given a new amount to pay that month. The phone I discontinued was no longer in service the following day. Now one month later I am being billed for that extra line and becuase I refuse to pay it they have discontinued my regular line even after I had made the payment which was the same amount I was told the month before when I originally discontinued the 2nd phone. Now they say they will not reconnect my phone until the past due balance is paid. It was never used...it was disconnected. I told them to forget it, discontinue my whole account. NOW I can no longer get in touch with anyone ( a human)in customer service, its nothing but automated, there is no way to actually get a human being...once your phone # is removed from the system, there is no way to talk to anyone. I have contacted the bettter business bureau who claims they have Cricket listed as an UNSATISFACTORY business. They have tons of complaints with no resolutions. Absolutely unbelievable. MY advise to anyone STAY AWAY FROM CRICKET WIRELESS..they absolute worst company I have ever dealt with.

My friends and I all bought the same phone and signed up for the same service at the same time, however I am the only person in our group who receives Cricket promotional text messages in SPANISH. My name is Italian but could maybe be mistaken for hispanic. In either case, I'm an English-speaking American and the damn paperwork I filled out was IN ENGLISH! I'm insulted that Cricket would assume that since my name "sounds" hispanic that I can't possibly understand English. (This is all to cater to Illegal Immigrants. Who else needs text messages in spanish. Hispanic Americans all speak English. ) And when I called customer service to have them prevent the text messages, they all told me they would suppress them, but the texts are still being sent! How is it that I'm the one singled out here? Another thing, the dumb-### who processed my paperwork keyed in the wrong birthday for me, and Cricket says it is impossible for them to change it now. They recommended memorizing their typo instead in order to reach them in the future! I thought it was a joke at first, but both the customer rep and supervisor were serious. Incredible. So... anybody want to buy a Cricket phone?

you can never reach customer service when you call and when you finally(after 45 minutes )of listening to please hold do get a person they repeat what your bill is, how much is due, when i try to ask a question the rep talks over you doesn't answer your question and is extremely rude.after dealing with this company and their rude employees i have decide to switch companies.with so many cell phone companies competeing for your business who needs ignorant rude service?

the people on the customer service line terroized me and hurt me so bad i was crying and screamming on my floor they lied to me changed my service and refused to after begging for a manger or supervisor, they are making dishonest changes and causing people to be in harms way my experiance was chilling and not normal of a company that cares about people they are very frightening and should be fined a large amout of money for causing pain and dishonesty to people my experiance was so bad i needed a police but the police said to call the BBB and let them know what happend to me all because i asked then to upgrade my phone plan be very frightened of cricket phone service dont do business with then if you don't have to i am switching my service because they are hiding things from you and they make you cry and guess what they don't care because they think they are untouchable don' t do service with them

I posted a comment above about my refurbished cell. This is in regards to the comment made by Will L G! My cell was NOT new! I ended up taking that cell back to cricket. I got a really nice lady there to help me. She told me that she bet they had taken back 95% of those phones they sold to me! She agreed that it had water damage. (Not caused by me!) She said the phones were junk, that they were actually VERIZON cell phones that they switched over to cricket. She took the cell back and told me she was not going to give me that same cell again. She gave me another refurb cell but swore to me it was a good phone. She was suppose to charge me $10 to take the cell back! You believe that? But she said they would eat the cost. She didn't feel right charging me for that. That phone worked for 2 days. It started getting really hot to the touch. I took it back they gave me a new battery. Solved that problem. Took back again the next day because it wouldn't hold a charge. They said I needed a new charger and would have to order me one, they were out! I never got it. So, I just want to make it clear... I was not scamming anyone at cricket. They were scamming me!

I had a very similar experience. I was charged for the 8 days when the phone service was disconnected. And then disconnected early the next month.

The customer service reps were horribly rude too when I called to ask them about it,

I talked to the call center manager: "Ray" at Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 4:49 PM.

He would not give his employee ID and was very rude to and disrespectful to me.

He was the manager of the whole call center. I asked him if the call is recorded and he said "yes".

My phone number is: 720.882.8976 if any Cricket managers are reading this, feel free to look up the recorded call and listen to this guys shocking behavior.

Please fire this guy and anyone else at Cricket with the same attitude, or I will find a better wireless company.

P.S. that is my Cricket cell number.

Thanks for all the responses on here! now it confirms to me that cricket is a joke, and I am glad I stuck with my cell phone services. It may be 60 dollars more a month but I think CS is the number one thing!

I had cricket wireless for a year and heres a list of problems i experienced.

I bought a 200$ nokia sliver flip phone. loved it. a few months later it started cracking around the middle and i wasnt rough on it at all. My best friend bought the same phone and it did the same thing in the same spot. she had insurance and i didnt...i figured with Nokia...i wouldnt need insurance. my phone eventually gave way and broke in half. my friend got the same phone as a replacement...again the same problem, hers snapped in the ame place. so then i got a cheaper phone. a few days went by and my old phone that had snapped still had a charge to it and was still on till the battery died. well anyways BOTH phones would get the same text messages. eventually the snapped ones batter died. well guess where its text messages were going? to my new phone. For 8 months i always got DUPLICATE text messages. talk about annoying

sometimes never got my calls, texts, voicemails.

if you were to sit next to me and call my phone...it would ring on your end...sometimes not on mine

if i left an area of service and didnt turn off my phone before leaving service and someone called...it would ring like i was in service. Those calling would think i was ignoring them.

ALWAYS AN ECHO when i would call someone!

Customer service never spoke english so they never understood what you were talking about.

I tried to disconnect my service and they WOULD NOT take no for an answer. Eventually i annoyed the 3rd world country represenative (im not racist or whatever...but come on these people were NO help!) in turning off my phone. I ported my number over to Virgin Mobile. A little prepaid but it was worth it. Guess what...Cricket reused my number and some random person had my number and so did my virgin phone. Didnt have an account with cricket anymore and couldnt contact a real person to fix it.

...Terrible Company...DONT get it!

rude customer service and it is hard to pay your bill on line to complicated and not simple and i don't recive my bill payment on time .

The problem that I have with stupid Cricket, is that my bill gets higher, and higher every month! Every time I call 1-800-cricket, I am fed the same crap over and over, on how they can't access my account, and how I have to go to my local Cricket store. So, twice now, I have gone to my local Cricket store, and they tell me that there is no problem with my account, and that the 1-800 number should be able to help. (YEA RIGHT!) When I complain about my bill, it is as if I am speaking to a brick wall. The guy looked at me stoned faced, and said "that is what you owe. If you want service, you have to pay it." My bill normally is around $50.00 a month. NOTHING has changed on my account, and I haven't made any extra charges on my account. My bill now says that I owe $79.35. This is highway robbery, and I have HAD IT.

I've had a cricket phone for the last, hmm, what 2 years.

I never have had a problem with the service, i understood that if i went out side the calling area i wouldent get service. Hell i went online and looked at the coverage map. It works just fine for the price that i pay. i have on my account the following:
unlimited calling
unlimited txt
NO VOCIEMAIL, b/c i dont like to waste my time to see what somebody has to say in my voicemail, i rather just call them back asking what they wanted.

I pay almost $45/mo
i pay in store
not bill pay, thats stupid giving a company access into your account.

i chose the kyocera k132, a little brick phone.

i have treated this phone like a football.

the phones you guys talk about above are all fancy and ###.

and if cricket txts you promotions, all you have to do is txt back "STOP"
and by law they stop.
If its in spanish txt "parar"

sounds like everybody ### is a bunch of idiots and rich yuppies!

If you were crying and screaming you know what you could of done...hang up the phone. It's obvious you don't speak english to well anyways so I bet you didn't understand anything that was told to you. You are a true idiot and one that cricket will leech on. Good job being 4 years old and being "terrorized." you come to the board to find sympathy from others? Just hang up the phone [censored].

ATTN: [censored]...Any changes made to your Cricket account do incurr a 15$ charge. That is stated before you even do make those changes. Any ESN, Phone Number, or price plan changes. All I can do is read a screen not like i'm in college or anything. Don't say one person is the whole company.

Purchased a Cricket broadband wireless modem. Have current AVG protection on my computer and have Windows XP. with the latest Firefox as a browser. The internet disconnects for no apparent reason and takes a long time to restart. I use to re-start the computer and this would help. Now when it boots you off for no reason I can get back on for hrs. No I have to run the installation DISC and follow the set up process again. Have they sold more modems than they can handle?

Cricket cell phones may have cheaper calling plans but they have the WORST customer service. The only way to change or cancel service is by calling 1-800 cricket . But expect to spend anywhere from 1 to 2 hours on hold. It is by far the worst customer service you will EVER receive, And if you think about it when you purchase a phone frome any cricket store they are very expensive so you are better of going with a REAL mobile provider. Cricket REALLY SUCKS!

I was in the hospital and wallet was locked up in hospital safe. Got out, went to pay my bill by phone & they charged me $15 extra dollars late fee. I had lost track of date (in hospital) so I paid it. Looked up date and it was my due date. Called up crickett. After getting disconnected twice finally actually got to talk to a person. I was told that there is nothing they can do. In other words paid a late fee when I was not late. I need a new service

I have had cricket for about 2 years and my only complaints are: Even on the brand new phones, the chargers stop working after a few months. Does not matter if it is Kyocera, Samsung, or Nokia. And the other problem is actually a group of different issues with their billing practices. Bridge pay is a joke, they don't tell you that only $5 goes toward your bill after they tack on a late fee of $15. If you pay in-store, only $2 goes toward your bill. Also, if your phone gets shut off for non-payment, before you can get service again, you have to pay for a month of service you did not use (because your phone was shut off). And, finally, I paid a month ahead on my service after getting it restarted and I get a text about my bill being due two days after that. I was told it was a charge from a late payment months ago that had been carrying over and incurring a late charge every month. How is it that the charge just now showed up? Rep just shrugged her shoulders. Next time I can't pay my bill in full, I will try just letting it go for a month.

I really have not other choice... I do not want a contract for one or 2 years, prepaid costs too much and I absolutely MUST have a cell phone.

i totally agree this company CRICKET is the far most WORST phone company i ever saw. when i first purchased the phone from cricket they stated that i would get i free first month NEVER got it. i purchased the phone only able to access the text messages and receive text messages, well when i got my bill they added the internet, ring back tones and prorated my bill for 10.00, ring back tones 5.00, and internet services 5.00 all from a phone that was not suppose to be internet read nor able to get ring backs. CRICKET IS A FRAUD VERY VERY VERY VERY RUDE CUSTOMER SERVICE REPS AND HORRIBLE SERVICES, EVERYWHERE I GO I WILL MAKE SURE I GET PEOPLE TO UNDESTAND THAT THIS COMPANY(CRICKET) IS THE WORST COMPANY IN PHONE SERVICE I HAVE EVER WITNESS >>>T MOBILE IS WHERE ITS AT.

I have drove to cricket 2 times, CLOSED at 3 30 pm and than again the next day closed at 11 00 am for gaddd sakes people I have 2 acounts that i have been paying on 1 for my daughter and 1 for me, she informs me she has been paying on the second account in full her account, I had no Idea so I have paid the last 3 months both accounts in full on my debit card, they gladly took my money, than when i was late shut off my cell, I HAVE CREDIT I have paid 150.00 to much and u have stole my money now I cant get a human to answer nor is there a store around open, NOT HAPPY

This is absolutely the worst company in the world! There are 1-2 hour over the phone waits! Absolutely no department to file complaints with. When you finally get a representative they give you another 800 number to call for your specific complaint, another 1-2 hour wait. The phones are trash and fall apart within days. Try to return them and the stores won't let you change them out EVEN if you are still under warranty. I got 6 phone lines w/this company and 3 of the phones literally fell apart. There is zero attempt on their end to rectify this. I turned my phones off! CRICKET SUCKS!@

This is exactly the same problem i have with them right now.. i cricket service last week Monday, i have on;y had the phone for less then a week and so many issues with the phone.. the phone is bad, gets really hot when am using it, i called them up to complain but no one wants to take responsibility.They passed me to different dept, gave me another 800 number to call. the so called managers are no help either. two of them gave me wrong numbers to call for my problem. in short right now they have disconnected my phone asking me to pay to reactivate it by paying for $15 and also paying for another phone... right now the case is with BBB and PUC... i will fight to the end..

Ever been completely SCREWED by Cricket? Do you call and call but can't get a live person on the phone who knows what they are doing and does what they say they will do? Ever get looped around their automated system and can't get a supervisor or the manager's name?

Well I have done the research for you!

I just got off of the phone with their parent company and here is what you need to solve your problem:

Leap Wireless [protected]. Keep trying if you get voicemail. Don't leave a message. Someone will eventually answer if you keep calling. It is a toll free number. Tell them you want to escalate a complaint against Cricket. The person answering will ask you how you got the number. Cricket's own website advises that Leap is their parent company. I Googled Leap and got the number.

Ask for the Escalations Department and tell them your problem. If you want to send something in writing, the Escalations Department fax number is [protected].

Cricket's Legal Department number is: [protected].
The address of the Legal Department is: 10307 Pacific Center Court, San Diego, CA 92121

Go get 'em!

Cricket Wireless is probably the poorest Broadband on the market. Not only have they done what AOL was taken to court on 10+ years ago and lost. They have oversubscribed for their broadband and it basically dies when there are enough subscribers in the area using it at one time. Also with people doing downloads on large files such as movies, music, the service is overwhelmed. Cricket should have a class action lawsuit taken against them. Their upload/download speeds are nowhere near what they advertise. Sometimes running as low as 36 kps like the old fax machines. Their customer service at corporate stores lack knowledge and the service sucks big time. Poor service isn't worth the low price.

i brought a cricket phone and the phone only lasted two weeks so i went to cricket and they said sorry since you got it from a corner store theres nothing we can do about it but i paid $59.99 for this phone for it to work for two weeks i cant believe this and plus i was paying cricket $3.00 a day for prepay plan i feel they should of been like hey lets see whats wrong with the phone and kept me as a cricket customer than to not care at all. After all this i decided to get a phone on ebay and granted it was a verizon phone but i was going to get it flashed to cricket so when i went in to the cricket store in hinesville they was very rude and saying why would you put a palm treo on a prepaid no matter what its a phone to me and i feel they should just do they job and dont worry about my money im spending rather its stupid or not at the time my credit is not good so i cant afford it so i do prepaid well since this happen i have went to alltel and they have good customer service and i have a phone with them and will never go back to cricket.

The whole Cricket Company should be run out of America! I did an online order which took over a month to process when I was told I would be given a tracking number in 3-5 business days. When after 3 weeks of no tracking number I called and canceled the transaction. I was assured the transaction was canceled and in two days after the cancellation my account was billed and the phones were on the way. I sent the phones back and Cricket has the nerve to try and keep over two hundred dollars of my money. I keep calling and keep getting the same run around. I plan on staying on them until this unscrupulous company either gives me my money back or get the h---- out of America!