Net10 Wireless review: terrible customer service! 138

for all the negitive posts in this topic NET10 is the NUMBER ONE Prepaid carrier in America if you dont believe me goto net10.com!

Does anyone really care at net 10 about this crap? I have been on the phone now 4 different times trying to get my phone to work. I won't bore you with the stupid details, but what a mistake this choice in cell companies was.

I have over 4-hours on the phone trying to get my voice mail working, not to mention the 50-minutes I burned up on the net 10 phone. I finally have it working. I trying to retrieve the 50 minutes. They just keep ignoring my e-mails. What do I have to do to solve this problem

Cliff Sabin
Serial #[protected]

Phone # [protected]

Customer service at net10 is an ABOMINATION. Have been on hold now waiting for CS for an hour and a half. Elevator music and repeated statements that 'my call is VERY important to them'. If it's so important, would their net10 CEO wait an hour and a half if he called his office and waited for a line? Original call because we can't get the voicemail to work. Went online, followed the Tech Service instructions exactly (all the time still on hold waiting for a rep to pick-up) and it gave a box that said net10 needed to install an update to the phone (which we just bought a month ago) and when the download was complete, the stinking phone (an LG) does not work AT ALL. Disgusting piece of dog droppings company that will leave customers on hold for hours and without paid services.

You want bad, try this. I'll just do the summary since details will take pages. Net 10 owed me 150 minutes due to a failed airtime transfer on my original phone. Let the nightmare begin. I preface by saying I am speech-impaired, so all of my phone calls to them have to be made over a TTY device with operator assistance. (I use the phone for texting, in case you're curious.)
Between November 28, 2009 and December 7, 2009 I made 7 phone call, each at least an hour long (one clocked in at 2 hrs 25 minutes), with a Net 10 rep who could barely speak English. Foolishly, I had believed them that the issue would be resolved as I upgraded to a phone with keyboard. (I am regretting it.) I estimate total phone time to get it resolved at about seven and a half hours. In the meantime, I am corresponding with an e-mail rep, estimated 8 exchanges there.
I was outright lied to, hung up on, disconnected and just, in general, given a complete run-around.
Oh, yes, in the middle of all this, I am dealing with the new phone, which is supposed to charge only 3 cents per text, but charges 5.
Then I decided to tell them I wanted compensation for my trouble. Yeah, right. Two more phone hours and 5 more e-mail exchanges, and they finally offer me 50 minutes. No airtime. I am accepting that, but not as a final resolution. This is still on-going, and, really, is now a game with me. I will continue to make a nuisance of myself, just for the heck of it, at this point.
The thing is, the service is actually nice, just don't have any problems!

I just got off the phone to Columbia, the day before it was the phillipines, they charged me 14.95 for overnight service but didn't ship the phone for 2 days, I was told they would not refund my money, I would blame myself for not trying to buy American products and deal with American citizins but would not know where to begin on that project! The superviser would not give me his name or anyplace to call to request my 14.95 back. If I could say what I would like to do to the country of Columbia I would be arrested, so I won't! Good Luck America, were screwed1!

Having just got of the phone with net10 for the umteenth time with NO satisfaction whatsoever, I am really, really, pissed off! They have NO clue as to how to resolve issues with their phones, they do not speak English well enough to be understood, and they give the customers more disinformation than useful information. The average "supervisor" is dumber than a turnip, and at best - their job is to run tackle for their superiors. I will never again purchase one of these useless phone items from these lying cheating bast--d's!
Far and away the poorest business practices I have ever dealt with. They run their customer service area like some cheap boilerroom operation...the FCC should shut them down!

PLEASE DO NOT BUY NET10 THEY ARE A RIP OFF!

I was told by a Net Ten customer service rep they had three phones with unlimited plan for $50/ month so I went out an purchased one of these phones ($80.00) to find out after 3 days of trying to contact customers service again to get this plan (over 4hrs hold time) that the phone had to be purchased at Target and I had purchased mine at Walmart so I could not get this plan. NET TEN CUSTOMER SERVICES IS AWEFUL! and they need to inform their employees of these details so people like myself don't spend their hard earned money for nothing. I am now looking in Verizon were yes I may pay alittle more, but they are honest, friendly and so far I have dealt with non-foreigners which I can understand easily. I will never purchase another Net Ten phone and have informed my friends and family of these crap too.

I have a net 10 phone, and for all of last year I had an automatic 150 min. a month added to my phone and was billed on a credit card, worked well until Dec 09 I got billed but to get my minutes and airtime I had to call and wait for a human to give me a long string of numbers to get the minutes, same thing in Jan.. Now in Feb. 2010 I was billed on Feb. 2 and my airtime expired 2/14, but on 2/15 my phone still showed 2/14 due date and no new minutes! So I called the phone number they provided me in the original agreement, the recording said they had a large volume of calls and could not take my call, to call back at another time, same message on the 16th, 17th, so on the 18th I called my credit card company and disputed the charges and blocked them from ever charging my card again. God Bless Chase, the best credit card company in the world. But because I had 697 minutes on my phone I went to Walmart and bought a 200 min, card, but when I tried to use it all I got was invalid code, so I called the number on the card and waited, and waited, 3 people later and a hour later, I was told she could not help me because the original 150 minutes was still pending, she could not ad the minutes from the card I bought, so I gave up with her. When I first called I had asked the first girl for the corporate number and when I called this number I still had to wait on hold, but a human answered and after 50 minutes I had the 200 minutes and 2 months airtime added to my phone. I will not go back to the original plan and as soon as I find another phone company to move to, I will give my phone to a relative and let them use up the minutes.

Sorry I forgot to post that corporate phone number for Net 10, [protected]

I've heard so many complaints regarding prepaid cell companies and did my research before I decided to go with Net 10. I wasn't surprised that the company outsourced their customer service (my major previous carrier did the same thing) so I prepared myself when I had to call over a SIM issues. Luckily, I had a quick and painless experience and when I spoke to a few friends who also have it, they also had a good experience. Sometimes its a bad call center or an inexperienced rep, but a whole company should be judged on the good and the bad. If you are with Net 10 for the prices, savings, and service, then stick with it - even when you end up in India.

Stall far away from this company I had their service for less then a week. This my third time on the phone try to get my voice mail working.

The second time I demand to speak to a supervisor what a joke. I was promised that it would be working within a couple of hours and that I would get 60 minutes credit to my phone .

That was Saturday and now its Monday still no working voice mail and no credit. I called tec support and he transferred me to someone else so 20 minutes on hold for the first person and now its been another 25 minutes and still waiting for someone to answer the transfer.

Steve

You should all move over to Pure Talk USA. They are a Georgia based company that has support in the US. Just like Net10 they are 10 cents a minute or less depending on usage. They are no contract, no roaming, and are on AT & T network just like Net10. The best thing is that their SIM card will work in any unlocked GMS phone, including your NET10 phone if you unlock it. They have a monthly no contract plan [$10/month, 101 minutes] similar to Net10, but you can have a preset number of minutes added if you run out during the month and any unused minutes carry over to the next month. Their support is great! No waiting for ever to talk to someone.

I got a new Net10 phone a few months ago, after being with them for 4 year and about a week ago the internet on this new phone stops working and i need it for work, i was so angry and the lady from net10 cs was of no help until i slammed the phone down, the next day i called and got the same lady who had worked out my problem and everything was sorted. I was very rude and impatient but its nice to know that she understood and still fixed the problem, these are people too and they deserve respect and a little patience. Hard lesson learned but at least phone still works.

This is a copy of the letter I sent to net ten!----------
I have been on the phone for over an hour and you still cannot get my issue resolved! What is wrong with you people? I have been with net ten for five years and I thought you were a good provider until I had this issue. I ordered two phones and when they arrived one could not read the sim card and the other onecould not get on the web. When I called I was basically told that I had to go outside to get on the internet! Does this sound like good customer service to you? I am at the point that I want my money back so I can get another company that wil provide good coverage and service. You people have my money and I have this kind of service and phones. Hang your heads in shame! I am contacting the BBB in my area and some other resources. I can tellyou that this is THE worst service I have ever recieved from ANY company. I expect a solution to this problem or I will be contacting my attorney in regards to out and out fraud and theft since you have my money and I have this kind of equipment and customer service! I hope you people sleep good at night knowing that my wife is a cancer patient and cannot use our net ten phone to call for doctors or for emergency service!
Richard Maloney

The worst ever experience. I talked to a net10 rep on the phone and purchased my phone on 3/6. Was so excited to get my Samsung 401G. I received & activated it on 3/10. To find that it wouldnt work right, on permanent roam and browser wont connect

I wont go into great detail about the long hold times, dropped calls and support people repeating the same things over and over and not being able to identify that the problem was the WRONG phone for my area.. Being told that ticket was escalated and never being escalated ...etc etc...

Long story short . After 10 days of daily calls, 20 CS reps, 12 hours on the phone they finally agreed that I have the wrong phone for my area, I need the Samsung R451. Sent me a new phone. On 3/24 receieved tried to activate new phone. Wrong phone again, set up for Smart talk, not Net 10. They said they would send a new phone on 3/24, / 3/30 and now on 4/6. So I have YET to receive the 3rd phone.

I cant get beyond customer the CS supervisor to a higher up department or person to resolve this situation. I feel like I have just went around and around in a circle for the past month, so I am just sitting here wondering what to do now. I have 2 phones that dont work. And I get the same repeat crap everytime I call net 10. I have to explain the entire situation and they are so confused about what they have and have not sent to me...just mind boggling how unorganized they are. Everytime I call they dont have the correct info from the previous conversations...I have to start from square one each time I call. And the fact htat I cannot talk to someone in a higher department to resolve this is just rediculous...

u have a samsung phone thats you problem its not NET10 Samsung and LGs have never worked right to begin with

Mathew55904 i have used a Samsung on net10 for ages now. Never been a problem. I mean it’s understandable people are angry about things that go wrong, but i mean i have used allot of phone carriers and it’s not like they any different. Net10 at least saves you money. And when you fed up just don’t pay any more it’s not like you got a contract. From my experience with net10 i have had a few of these problems but never anything that bad or that couldn’t be resolved if you’re patient and persistent.

In my opinion NET10 has terrible customer service due to many problems aside from their customer service people. Customer service/technical support is a "burn-out" job. Most problems that people encounter involve
data integrity. Net10 apparently does not have adequate data integrity controls in place so it customer find that
they have lost minutes or days due to incompetence of Net10 management and it's lack of integrity dealing with
it's customer (aka clients). So far as simply using their phone services they use the major carriers to provide
the physical connections. It's up to Net10 to manage account minutes and service days. Whenever you contact
customer service you are at risk. If you want to transfer minutes and service days to an upgraded phone you
may find out the hard way you've lost your minutes and/or service days. A common excuse is that these were
"bonus" minutes and service days that were not "paid" for and not subject to reimbursement. I have disrespect
for the phase "Indian Givers" due to the way the United States has convistcated tribal lands and have driven
native americans to less desirable areas. I now realize the term is probably acccurate but has been applied to the wrong ethnic group which should the asian Indians from India. My simple request to change my phone number lead to so much chaos because of NET10's data integrity (database integrity) with data quality so poor that I fesl that you may only want to conider their services if you vacation at a beach (water damage would be minimal),
are a serious debtor who need to frequently change phones, or are a cell phone junkie who needs to limit phone cost over charges. These people stink!
should not consider using their services as using no more than a "junk" services.

Net10 has ripped me off for almost 200 dollars. Their phones do not work. They collect the money from you up front and then do not deliver any phone service. A nightmare working with customer service. Avoid these guys like the plague. Their company is a scam. They have your money and you get nothing.

Some times you have to take the good with the bad, i used a contract phone most of my life. Its the norm right. Untill i had money troubles and had to cut costs and work more, yet the more i worked the more my phone bill cost. When i cancelled my phone and got a prepaid phone due to the fact i could only afford so much and had to limit my minutes i found i got more minutes for less with net10. Yet i agree there CS sucked, so did my contract carrier before that your just paying so much for it they cover it up. Net10 is alright by me. You want raw service that does what it was made to then this is it. Get over the small things and look at the costs at the end of the month because thats what counts.

I've been a Net10 customer for about 3 years and never had a problem with the service and coverage or phone usage for the first 2.5 years, always bought my cards at department stores, entered the airtime pin and in 5 seconds or so the new time was on my phone. Never had to call support for anything. Then in October last year I foolishly decided I was tired of the candy bar phone and decided to upgrade to a new LG 600 flip phone which I ordered from their website. I spent a few hours on the support line with them giving me codes to enter and such and it was finally decided that the SIM card was bad so they sent me another one. Called again and went through the process of getting it working and after asking for a supervisor, this lady, although hard to understand her accent, she got the phone working. A few days later I realized my voice mail didn't work. I tried to follow the steps to set it up, but it never gave me any response but that this voice mail account was invalid. Called them again, several times over three months, hours on the phone, never got it resolved. Each time the last person I spoke with would tell me to give it 2 or 4 or even 24 hours, leaving the phone on and it would be working. Never a change. I gave up on having voice mail. It was starting to seem to me that the 2, 4 or 24 hour statement was their way of getting me off the phone and admitting they had no idea how to help me. This was December 09.

A few weeks ago I crushed the display of my LG and although the phone still works, I can't read anything on the display, so I don't know who's calling me, and I have to call out by entering the number since I can't see my phone book. So, I ordered the exact same phone from them. Figured it was worth the few dollars since it comes with 300 more minutes. Basically cost me $8 after air time to get a new phone. Got it Friday and called to get it activated, minutes transferred from the old phone and phone number etc. Was on the phone long enough that my home wireless phone went dead, right after I had asked to be transferred to a supervisor and was starting to explain to him what I had been through when the phone died. Called back and got a different tech, went through all the same process again, asked for a supervisor and was told none could speak to me and I'd have to wait 24 hours, leaving the phone on while he escalated the issue to a department in Florida. I told him that was unacceptable and wanted to speak to a supervisor. He hung up on me! I called back Sunday evening (of course the phone still didn't work, and the old phone still was sending and receiving calls even though the new phone had the minutes on it and showed my phone number) and spent another 1.5 hours speaking to supervisors. Again they claimed I needed to wait 48 hours this time and someone would call me when it was resolved. I didn't argue this time, just accepted it and decided in the mean time I would research other options. I read the complaints on this page and saw someone recommending Pure Talk USA so I looked at their options. Their info looked good and I couldn't find any complaints about them, and the folks who were talking about them were all happy customers, and some said their tech support and customer service is in the USA and you can actually understand them and they treat you with respect...

I found Net10 customer support page and submitted a request and told them what I had been going through and that I was giving this one more chance to be resolved and was going to give up and go with another provider. I got an auto response that confirmed they had received my request and that someone would be in touch with me...in 24-48 hours! So, I went to the customer support page on Pure Talk USA and sent them an email asking a couple questions. Within 5 minutes I got an email back from one of their customer support persons answering my questions and telling me they would love to have me as a customer. Not an auto response, but a real human. First impressions are golden in this industry...

I called Net10 tech support again last night (Tuesday--48 hours later) and told the first tech that this was my last phone call and that they had this phone call to get my new phone working or I was done. Over three, yes three hours, and 5 support people, (the last 4 were supposed to be level 2 or 3 techs) and several codes entered, turn off and on, remove SIM cards, read numbers etc. no one could get the phone working. Every one of them, before I told them once again that if they couldn't resolve the issue I was done, told me to wait 24-48 hours with the phone on and it would be fixed! Every one! When I would give them the "I'm done" speach, they would transfer me to a higher level supervisor and I'd start all over again with the codes and reading them the SIM number off the card etc. After three hours of this, and the 5th tech telling me to wait 24-48 hours, I calmly told him that I am a patient man, but I have my limits and I was done and would be packaging up the new phone and sending it back for a refund and going with a new provider.

I signed up with Pure Talk USA last night and am waiting for my new phone. I'm not going to be porting the number I've had for 3 years from Net10 because I just don't want to have to deal with them again in any way. I'm ready for a fresh start. I'll report back here in a few months and let everyone know how it's going.

It is sad that a company I had no complaints about for so long has such bad tech support and customer service that a loyal customer of 3 years has been turned away, even hung up on when all I was trying to do was upgrade to a nicer phone and keep the service! Very sad. I guess if all you ever do is buy the package phone from Walmart and it works, you should be good to go, but if you ever have to get involved with tech support, may God be with you!

Side note: While typing this I received an email from the lady in customer service from Pure Talk USA thanking me for becoming a customer! What a timely email!
Doug Ferguson
Texas

It's not over! Last night Net10 customer service called me to try to talk me into staying with them. I told them I had given them every chance to get things right and had decided already not to continue with Net10, and had already signed up for Pure Talk USA. I told the agent that I planned on using up the time I had already purchased that was originally on my old phone and then not renew my airtime with them, but start to use my new service.

Well, today my old phone no longer works! Neither does the new Net10 phone. So I guess the saga never ends with them. I'm going to have to call and see if I can get them to reactivate my old phone as I don't plan to forfeit the 400+ minutes I had on the old phone before all this started! Their incompetence really wears you down.

I still find CS to be a pain. I have had a net10 phone for about 2 years, not one problem, the phone then gets broken and my wife buys me a new one but its not net10 and we don’t get signal from most other carriers where we stay. Then i buy a new net10 phone and believe it of not i had to fight with CS for an hour, after almost smashing the phone i called back and tried again, well they fixed the problem. I do feel bad about shouting at the rep. It was after all not her fault, they could only help me when i was calm and explaining it properly. CS is just something you have to deal with because most carriers out source now days, and they are people after all, they make mistakes, but they can fix the problems if you work with them.

I think NET10 has sold my cell phone number to third party phone-sales organization. I have used NET10 for 5 months, and so far, it was ok. So I have purchased 1, 000 minutes to use it for long time. However, right after I have purchased the 1, 000 minutes, I am getting so many sales phone calls all the sudden. I blocked the sales calls which shows numbers. But now, they start calling me as "Unknown" numbers which I can not even block.
Simply there isn't any feature to block those "Unknown" numbers. NET10's customer support says that I won't be charged unless I picked up the phone. This is totally stupid.
I strongly believe that NET10 or somebody in NET10 has illigally sold my phone number for stealing our minutes.

I agree with the complaints above! I wasted 150 minutes on their crappy phone system because THEY screwed up my number transfer, and they also sent me the wrong battery with my phone. And they refused to credit my wasted 150 minutes too. And to top it all off I lost my phone number because of them! AVOID NET10, and especially don't try transferring a number through them! I wish I never bought this phone!

i agree that net 10 fones suck really bad i went 2 fetch a message and it wouldent even let me open it. i asked my mom if she would buy me a non crappy fone and she said the fone u have is in perfectly good shape then i said u wouldent no. thats y net 10 fones suck really reall bad

net 10 needs to be out of service forever

It might help if you were a little more specific as to exactly what they did wrong.

Net as a bad attitude to its custmer.No body there speaks english...I FELL THE OWE ME ABOUT 600 MIN TO MY PHONE...NO QUESTION ASK. THE MANGERS THERE LIE LIE LIE...

I never had a problem with net10 in all my years dealing with them. I have been a net10 user for 3 consecutive years. Every time i call the call center i am greeted with excellent service. I feel as though all these complaints might be spam.

My experience seems to be the opposite but people only post with problems, so duh!

I get greatt service with Net10, 10¢ a minute calls and 3¢ for texts.

The two times I needed to call customer service, they took care of my problem quickly. Yeah the English wasn't perfect but is yours perfect either? LOL!

I suggest that you speak slowly, plainly and politely. Save your "choice words" for your pals at the trailer park or laundromat.

If your on Facebook, they have a technical support page too so you can always use that if you need to also.

I save money with net10 so I'm happy!

I like net10 and the customer service was fine. If you curse and act like a butthead, what would you expect? But the 2 times I called them, they were fine. My English isn't perfect either (is yours?) but I spoke slowly and they were very helpful.

Love paying 10¢ a minute and 3¢ fir texts. Great coverage too.

I'm happy!

@Doug Ferguson i have no complaints with net10 i have never had trouble with tech support they always resolved my issues and answered all my questions they consider me a loyal customer having to wait for the phone upgrade does get annoying ive upgraded 3 times since ive had NET10 i love net10 wouldnt goto any other company never even heard of the Pure Talk USA if it was a great service people would know about it

I have been a Net 10 customer for several years and have just recently had a major problem with them. My phone got wet and I ordered a new phone from them. The new phone came in three days but when I called to activate it I was told that I was only receiving 200 minutes from my old phone. I had almost 1600 minutes on my old phone but Net 10 didn't seem to have any record of it. When I went into my Net 10 account online I found that there is no way to access airtime minutes info on either my wife's or my phone. This is a problem that Net 10 needs to address. I think that if my sim card had not been damaged I probably would have been alright by using the old sim card in the new phone. Net 10 is definitely not state of the art when it comes to restoring your minutes from your old phone if the old phone won't work.

I have had nothing but problems with the phones and the customer service. I will never use Net10 or Tracfone ever again!

SIM Error Message

[Tue Oct 05 2010 08:07:45 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)] My number
was ported on Sep 14th and I have received a total of 4 different sims &
my phone still says unregistered sim on the main screen. I have spent
hours on the phone with customer service to no avail. Last Tuesday,
9-28, and the rep said you were sending a 5th sim. Last night I called
customer service and was told that the 5th sim had been canceled. Why
couldn't someone have let me know that & why. Then that rep's computer
crashed and she said I'd have to call back. I called back and was on the
phone for approx. an hour and the rep picked up the phone (I could hear
the boiler room noise) then hung up and disconnected the call. I have
had enough of your poor service, please refund the cost of my Net10 phone.
*ESN o IMEI:*
[protected]

I have a Net 10 phone. The minutes ran out so i bought a card. Everything was fine until it said Max calls reached, something like that. With 296 minutes left. So i bought another phone and ASSumed i could transfer minutes from the old phone to the new. So i called to activate the new one. Telling my story to the customer service rep she said "Well what was the zip code you bought the old phone in"? This was after all the serial codes had been spouted off! So i say i dont know and what does that have to do with anything anyways. Then there phone started to break up------perfect. Disconnect. Well the new one started to work, i thought id call back at a later time. CALL #2 Called the customer service number told the Philapino my problem and it starts like this. ME-I have minutes on my other phone id like them transfered to my new phone. Philapino-Hold on for 3 minutes to conferm the minutes on the old phone. ME -ok. Philapino- you still there sir. ME yes. Im showing you have 0 minutes on your old phone. ME- WHAT!?! Philapino- Yep no minutes. ME- thats imposible Philapino -sorry sir IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I CAN DO FOR YOU. After arguing with him he hung up on me. So i called back. This time i got a hold of a women. So i tell her the same thing. She wants me to start entering codes on the new phone for some reason. Im thinking this will get my old minutes back. At the end of the conversation she says WOULD YOU LIKE TO PUT YOUR OLD MINUTES ON YOU NEW PHONE. I about blew a head gasket. THATS WHAT IVE BEEN SAYING THE WHOLE TIME! I demanded to talk to somebody i charge. I get a man named Joel. He says i have no minutes on my old phone. But he'll give me 50 minutes "free". I say you owe me 296 minutes. He says what date did you by the card for the old phone? I scream YOU ALREADY KNOW WHEN. I tell him i have the reciept AND the card...silence. He asks what date did you by the card.. I tell him the date of the reciept...finally after 1.5 hours on the phone i say give me 200 minutes will call it even...He jumps at it. They do this on purpose to rip you off...I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER NET 10 PHONE AGAIN! ABSOLUTLY THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERENCE IN MY LIFE! NET 10 IS A SCAM...CUTOMER SERVICE IS PAID TO LIE.

Net10 has atrocious customer service. Their phone center personnel are stupid, lazy, unresponsive, untrained and totally incompetent. Generally they do not speak or understand standard United States English at all well. They are very dificult to understand and they do not appear to comprehend at all well. They will very often tell you things they are just not true. They wil ask you for the same information over and over and over again. they will repeatedly put you on hold. It will often taken many repeated calls and hours of your time to resolve any problem. They are not honest or ethical you cannot take them at their word.

They are the worst company I have ever dealt with. The only viable solution is to not do business with them. they are not worthy of your business. the government should intervene and shut them down.