[Net10_victim]

About 16 months ago, I contracted with Net10 (a U.S. cell phone service provider) for unlimited-minutes voice, text and web cellular service, at a cost of $50 per 30-day billing period, payment of which was to be automatically charged to my credit card.

Because this seemed an odd billing arrangement to me, I was a bit wary of the potential for over-charging by Net10, so in order to minimize my exposure in such an eventuality, I set up a separate checking account expressly for this purpose, in which I kept no more than would be needed for my Net10 payments, and had Net10 charge the debit card associated with that bank account.

That was probably just as well, considering what ensued, to wit:

1. Net10 told me that in order to get the unlimited-service deal, I needed a special unlimited-service cell phone, which was not available in stores and would have to be ordered through the mail. As I had just moved, I asked if the shipping address could be different than the billing address. Net10 assured me that was no problem, so I ordered the phone and made my payment. Sure enough, after my payment was processed, Net10 sent the phone to the billing address. It was only by great good fortune that the current resident at my old address was able to find me to inform me of the error. When I finally got the phone, it turned out to not be an unlimited-service phone, so I had to return the phone to Net10 for a refund (which turned out to not include the cost of shipping the phone back to Net10). I again called Net10 and asked how I could get an unlimited-service phone. Net10 then told me to just buy one at a certain local store, which I then did.

2. Upon receiving the phone and initiating service with Net10, I discovered that the web service didn’t work. I was NEVER able to get Net10 to resolve this problem, no matter how hard I tried.

3. Then, a few months later, all services on my phone abruptly stopped working. I called Net10, and they guided me through a long process of entering many codes into my phone to make it work again. When this process was finally complete, it turned out that I had lost all my personal information that I had entered into the phone (phones numbers, calendar dates, etc.), so I had to re-enter all of that information.

4. Later, 411 directory assistance abruptly stopped working. Again, I was NEVER able to get Net10 to resolve this problem, no matter how hard I tried.

5. Then, my phone's ability to send pictures to other cell phones, and its ability to send pictures or even text messages to email addresses, both abruptly disappeared. Yet again, I was NEVER able to get Net10 to resolve these problems, no matter how hard I tried.

6. After less than a year or service, Net10 started withdrawing payments from my bank account a day or two before payment was due. On three of these occasions, there were insufficient funds in the account to cover Net10’s charges, so Net10 immediately cut off my service. (Thereafter I learned to keep funds in the account well in advance of when Net10's email reminders said I needed to do so.) At least the third time this happened (I don’t recall what happened the first two times), I had to again go through the tedious process of entering a lot of codes into the phone to get it to work again, and I lost all the information stored in my phone and had to again re-enter it.

7. Whenever I would call Net10 customer service for help, they would repeatedly lie to me that the services I complained about not receiving had never been offered in the deal I had signed up for in the first place, even though Net10 continued to advertise on television that they were! When I insisted that these services were to be included, Net10 would put me on hold for long periods of time (UP TO OVER AN HOUR) and then hang up on me! Incidentally, EVERY SINGLE Net10 representative I ever spoke to was in one or another foreign country, and many of them didn’t speak English well enough to be able to give satisfactory service.

8. And now, today, my phone’s caller ID function has abruptly vanished!

Yes, it’s true that Net10’s unlimited voice, text and web service is cheaper than comparable service from Verizon or AT&T. But that is entirely offset by Net10’s smaller geographical range of reception. And with Verizon or AT&T, the customer actually gets the services they pay for (including customer service), unlike with Net10. And unless some kind of class action suit is brought against Net10, no doubt I will NEVER be recompensed for the services that Net10 cheated me out of.

Is there no end to Net10’s incompetence, misconduct and arrogance? Don’t they have ANY respect AT ALL for their customers?!

Do yourself a favor: Avoid Net10 like the plague!! And to others who have been cheated by Net10: perhaps the injured parties should consider bringing a class action suit against Net10, for reneging on customer contracts at least, and possibly even for fraud!

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› See More: Net10: a hellish nightmare

[I Hate Net10]

I have run into issues as I pay it manually and I found out that you don't want to pay even a day early since they start a new 30 day period on that date. This means you lose any of the time you've already paid for. If you paid just 3 days early each month, you would end up paying for an more than a whole extra month over the course of the year. I have also had issues when trying to work with their customer service when we've had problems. Everything the above post said is true. It is very difficult to understand them and often their answers aren't correct. If they get tired of dealing with you, they put you on hold until you either give up or, after about an hour or so, will be dropped automatically. I'm looking for a carrier right now. Unfortunatley, I have to buy a new phone as well as I haven't figured out how to unlock this one for use with another carrier. Net10 is a Tracfone company so you may want to avoid them as well. I wish there was a class action suit to get in on as I'm so tired of being screwed.

[codetera]

Wow, this truly sounds like a horrible experience, and I'm sorry you had to go through it.

I had never seen their ads on TV, so perhaps it is only in certain areas, or perhaps they are no longer on TV, but it really sounds like someone needs to take them to court for this.

Could you not possibly take them to small claims court? If it is under $5,000 (the amount depends on the state), you should be able to do so. Who knows if they would even show up.