10-25-07
For a long time, I (Tony) never really felt the need to get a cell phone. Cheryl had one because
it is cheaper to use a cell phone to call long distance then pay for the same call on the
regular land line. I had to take an out of state trip and was going to be spending a
little more time going to Roseville CA for work. So 3 or 4 years ago I thought it might be a
good idea to pick up a cell phone. After doing a little research I found that
at the time, the Tracfone pre-paid wireless plan seemed to meet my needs. So I
did a little more research on what phones were available from them, picked one and
bought some minutes to load up the phone.
Overall I have been happy with the service for the last few years. I never had a problem. All I ever needed to do was pick up a new card for more minutes each year and be done with it. I carry it just in case of emergency and for the few times I need to call someone while out. I can not get a signal at my desk at work, so I keep the phone off 99.9% of the time.
At the end of September I received an E-mail telling me that I needed a new phone. Tracfone was making some changes to the cell phone network they use and my current phone "may not" continue work in the future. They never did say when that future date would be. So I gave them our shipping address and waited to get my free "upgraded" phone.
My current phone is a flip phone. It has a display on the outside to show the time and allows me to see who is calling without having to open the phone. It also has a button on the outside of case that lets me push the button, say the name of who I want to call and it will call that person. This is a great feature to have while driving. I can plug in the ear phone/mic cable and be able to dial and talk all hands free. It also has the ability to act as a voice recorder and a metal case to better stand up to being carried around in my pocket. It can be set to vibrate when called.
The "upgraded" phone showed up early in October and was a hunk of junk. It is a flip phone with a cheap plastic case (not metal). No voice command dialing. A feature that will be more useful when California's hand free while driving law goes into effect. No voice recorder feature. Does not have display on the outside of the phone and I can not find anything in the manual to say it can be set to vibrate when called.
I went to the Tracfone web site and placed a service request. I outlined all the features that I had paid for that are on my current phone and were missing on the so called "upgraded" phone. I also pointed out that the reason the phone was being replaced is because of changes THEY were making and I did not request a new phone. I also pointed out that even at free this phone was going to cost me money. I would have to buy a new car charging cord because the new phone has a different power plug on it (same brand of phone). I requested they send me a more appropriate phone more closely matching the features I have on my current phone. I also gave them the option to extend my current minutes for another year free and I would be willing to keep the hunk of junk phone they sent me. That option would cost them virtually nothing to implement. They replied that I would have to call customer service.
What a waste of time calling them was. The first person I talked with was very nice. I did not catch her name she was a little hard to understand. English did not appear to be her native tongue. Still it was better then my Spanish will ever be. Anyway, she was very nice, wanted to try to help. She had to ask another department for help and kept coming back while I was on hold to tell me she was still waiting. Eventually she was told to transfer me to a supervisor in another department.
That is when I got to talk with someone who identified her self as Cheryl. The second she got on the line, I could tell she was pissed about something and appeared annoyed to be bothered. She insisted that the new "upgraded" phone was better then my current phone. She agreed that the new phone they sent was missing many features that I paid for. That I could not do the same things with the new "upgraded" phone that my current phone does, yet continued to insist that I was not loosing anything. She flat out told me that if I wanted to have a phone that had the same features my current phone has, I had to go buy it. When I asked if she could extend my minutes for a year to replace the value of the phone feature set she agreed were missing. I was curtly told that if I want more minutes or more time with my minutes I had to go buy them.
According to "Tracfone Cheryl":
When I got off the phone I went to the Better Business Bureau web site and filed a complaint. I do not think I am out of line asking to maintain features that I already paid for and have used for several years. I also do not think that I am out of line asking for some kind of compensation if a comparable feature set phone is not available. Hard to believe that would be the case since cell phones seem to continue to add features, not take them away. The Tracfone web site list many phones that would have been more appropriate match to my current phone.
My minutes with them will expire toward the end of November, 2007. So I will wait and see what happens with the BBB. It might be time to add a line to Cheryl's cell phone account and tell these people to shove it. The ball is in Tracfhone's court. Do they want to cheat the customer or do the honorable thing?
UPDATED 11/29/07: I never heard back from them. The BBB said to give them two weeks to respond. They had 4 and choose to loose a customer by not responding in any way. so F'em. I added the line to Cheryl's cell phone. I got a much nicer phone with all the features I wanted (and were missing on the new Tracfone) plus some nicer features like bluetooth support, smaller size and it was FREE. I just had to commit for another 2 years of service and pay about $10.00 more a month. Not an issue, we have had trouble free service with this company for many years.
UPDATED 12/19/07: It took over a month but the Tracfone people finally
called about my BBB complaint. They called and left me a message at work (the number I gave them) on the 19'th.
I guess that they either 1) have so many BBB complaints that it takes them a month to get to the new ones. or, 2)
They waited a few weeks for my minutes expired to tell me they could not do anything for me.
I expect that I will never know for sure because I was not going to waste my time calling them back. If they
really wanted to solve the problem they would not have waited so long and would have left a message that
a human could understand. Who ever called must have had a mouth full of rocks.