I have been with Safelink since it started. Never had a problem till this month 7/2023. I have been deactivated 5 times in as little as 2 weeks. The amount of stress and calls I've made. Here is what I know. I am using my own Tracphone with a Safelink Sim card right. Well When I call they need to verify my enrollment number, the IMEI number of phone. My birth date and social. Yes they find me. First I was told it's a glitch in system that service deactivated. What Tracphone told me was that back in January when I put my Sim in my phone Safelink never paired the IMEI and Sim card. So in the last two weeks I have been deactivated and reactivated5 times. I had enough and transfered my plan and lifeline services over to Qlink. Taking my tracphone and having to get it unlocked which was an issue. I put my Qlink Sim in and had service. But I want to transfer my number. Well I spent 13 hours on phone with Safelink trying to transfer number. Over and over same process. Yet they couldn't send me a text or email. I finally asked what number did I give you. They couldn't recall. So when they are supposed to be taking down your number they are not. There are no recordings of calls, there are no records. I was told that and if they day they will call you back don't hold your breath. To get a 4 digit Pin to transfer a number was like national security. They couldn't tell me over phone even though I was verified. Yet they have my mother's maiden name, last 4 of social and email. They couldn't send a text on a phone that no longer works...does that make sense. Why? They deactivated your account...where do they think they can text you or send an email. Yet Safelink sent me an email saying I've been approved for service and transfer...I didn't do it and if their main system can email me...why am I not getting email from the Transfer dept? They told me they are just a call center and no chiefs. They won't even give you heads of corporate numbers. This company is obsolete and full of idiots. I made a FCC complaint and will call my governors office Monday. It's a phone number to transfer not an adoption process. Yet they can't do it. They can't do a simple process or tell me digits over phone...so yep if something this simple can't be done...don't expect them to send you minutes and keep your information safe. Get away from them as quickly as possible.

I have had this service for a year now. Got it back in 2022. I have the Lifeline ACP Program with unlimited data. Not 25GB. The truly unlimited plan, there was a limited offer to get unlimited high speed data (no cap), call, and text + 5GB Hotspot. Every month...every single month since I've had this service, my service will not auto refill like it should. So I've had to ruin my mental health at the beginning of every month to get someone who will transfer me to corporate since they are the only ones who will fix it and even then, they hit you with the "You have to have an alternate line" nonsense to fix the current line that I have and YOU CAN'T GET ANOTHER LIFELINE PHONE OR THEY SHUT THE CURRENT ONE OFF. It is MORONIC to have a policy saying you have to have an alternate line to have your service fixed. ESPECIALLY since it's a lie. Usually after hours of having to hang up on ignorant individuals who refuse to listen or claim you have to go through the basic troubleshooting steps before transferring or claiming they can't transfer me to corporate without an alternate line or getting transferred...and then the supposed CORPORATE PROFESSIONALS tell you the same thing and hang up on you. It takes hours to find the perfect combination of people to fix your issue. But that's not only it, my # got changed without a word. No reason, just randomly out of the blue. Now I can't make phone calls, only can use text and data on top of having to have them fix my service every month so I don't lose my job. Then it limits my data to a slow connection IMMEDIATELY so I have to call AGAIN and go through the grueling process because the idiots who sent me the sim card forgot to set my account to refresh my data balance every month. It's bugged to the point where at the beginning of every month, it says I've used 1953GB of data right when it refreshes and immediately slows my service down to such a crawl, I can barely load a web page. I have to call them tomorrow again to fix THIS issue. They have the worst customer service on planet Earth. I don't care if it's free at this point, I have NEVER dealt with this in my life. The only reason I haven't dropped this service yet is because when the high speed data IS working when they fix that issue every month, it works great and I can get my tasks done. If you have mental health issues, stay away, they will make you so worried, anxious, and angry by the time it's over that you'll have actual psychological damage. I had to beg one corporate employee to fix it so I didn't lose my job considering I have to have internet for it but I can't afford a phone of my own because of inflation and bills. WORST. DO NOT USE. DEFINITELY DO NOT PAY FOR THEIR SERVICE EITHER. It's one thing if it's free but do NOT pay for this, ANY OTHER COMPANY IS BETTER. You can tell them a thousand times that you've been helped by corporate without having an alternate line and they will argue with you till their face is blue. If like me, this is your only option. Here are some steps to get your service working if it's not:

1. Connect to an agent
2. Explain you need to be transferred to corporate and you have done the basic troubleshooting many times.
3. If they refuse, hang up and repeat 1 and 2.
4. Once someone with a brain finally connects you, you have to VERY CLEARLY explain your problem or else they won't understand at all. It's amazing how many times I've had to repeat myself to them.
5. If Corporate refuses and says you need to have an alternate line, repeat all 4 steps till you can get to another corporate employee that doesn't require you to have an alternate line.
6. Hope and pray this person knows what they're doing and you don't have to call back or receive a call back. If they don't fix it, you have to repeat every step above.This could take hours or a couple days at max of calling nonstop. Sometimes might even happen on the first call.

95% of the employees are uninterested in actually getting the problem fixed and more concerned with rushing through troubleshooting to get you off the phone just to make you repeat the process all over again. They are also incredibly rude and dismissive. They don't have any listening skills and they don't listen to any customers, they just babble on about fake protocols. If that really was the protocol to have an alternate line, why would you offer a free service that requires you to have ONE line? Because if you apply for another ACP program, it automatically cancels your previous. Do NOT listen when they tell you this because it is a lie and many have fixed my issues without needing an alternate line or having to shut the phone off and turn it back on again.

Overall, stay away unless it's ABSOLUTELY your last choice. I would stay away but no other company offers the ACP program higher than 25GB of High Speed Data and I need the unlimited high speed data for my job. Not worth the suffering otherwise.

This garbage company out of the blue De-Enrolled my ACP and I lost all data services. After days on the phone speaking to clueless idiots, one finally said they had a "glitch" and many accounts were affected.
Since it happened I can no longer sign-in with my proper, original Enrollment number. They said to fix it they had to close my account and make a new one! WTF they did that and now it is even worse, as it WRONGLY states I am not qualified any more. I called ACP and the National Verifier/Calif. Lifeline and they both say my benefits are good until 5/3/2023 recert date! Safelink can call them as I did to verify me (there is a provider number) and PROVE it is a problem on their end. But they do not understand what is being explained to them, 3rd -world Philippine tech support. To make matters even worse the ACP benefit says it is going to someone called SURGEPHONE, I suspect is hijacking benefits of consumers. This company is incompetent beyond belief. I have filed complaints with FTC/FCC fraud division as well as the Verizon Ethics site I filed a case against them, as they now own Tracfone and all sub-brands. I just filed a BBB complaint with multiple screen-shots, showing their screw-ups. AFAIK Safelink and SURGEPHONE are probably in on this together, imagine that! My ACP benefit now shows and address and phone # which are not mine, yet they used the last 4 of the SS# and my name.
The ACP program is as incompetent as they are as they allowed a benefit to be made in my name illegally, using fraudulent information. And to top it all off, Safelink wrongly states on their broken website that I no longer qualify for ACP and Lifeline which is a lie as I called BOTH.
MINUS TEN STARS

After problem free use of my lifeline minutes on my Android Smartphone for years, I was, and without notice, cut off. There was no effective way to discuss this online despite trying every suggestion offered.

So I bought the cheapest Tracfone available in Dollar General, the higher priced flip phone, and a 60 dayTracfone card in order to have a way to talk to support directly.

I quickly learned that when I call Safelink however, I actually get Tracfone and they ultimately try to sell me a Tracfone plan to get my Android phone working again. They said that I needed to RE-ENROLL with Safelink and so I did on 7/13, and because there would be a substantial wait to get my lifeline phone service back, I bought another 1 month Tracfone plan in addition to my back up flip phone in order to get immediate service back on my Android smartphone. My understanding was that the activation of Safelink would be seamless transferring from Tracfone back to my govt minutes. Not so!

On 8/13 I lost my Android phone service again! Turns out that the VA service connected photo ID I had submitted for eligibility verification was not acceptable! But I wasn't told that so my Android Tracfone plan ran out of service time, while my Safelink application remained aging as pending. Apparently USAC ( the document verifying agency) needed a copy of my VA Benefits Award Letter.

Then it got even worse, way worse. On a Sunday, what should have taken 2 minutes to download a current VA Benefits Award Letter to send to Safelink via USAC, became a whole afternoon workout until I discovered that it was not my inputs making this impossible, but the VA ebenefits website being down for weekend maintenance. So as a hopeful step, I uploaded my last Award letter on file dated March 21,2021 for eligibility verification. In about ten minutes I got a reply telling me that it was out of date and thus invalid.

So I waited until today Monday 8/15 and after being still rewarded with a bunch of failed attempts I finally got a CURRENT award letter download which I immediately uploaded to USAC for re-evaluation. Ten minutes later I got my USAC reply. This time I was Declined for submitting an INVALID DOCUMENT.

With only a few minutes remaining now on the throwaway flip Tracfone, I finally got to speak to someone at Lifeline.org (USAC) only to be told in broken English that the Award Letter did not qualify because it did not say the word "pension" on it. I was dumbfounded! I told her it was well known throughout the VA and United States government formally as a "disability pension". Mine had resulted from a service connected disability occuring in 1969, and that letter has been the very best proof of veteran's eligibility that there is or ever will be!

She then tried to set me up on the household income eligibility option with that VA money but I told her that along with my Social Security I would be just over the 18+k income limit for a lifeline account by that measure. I told her that I was a veterans related qualifier period!

She did something else vague and told me that I was ok now and sure enough ten minutes later got a third USAC email (photo attached) telling me my application was now approved and to contact a carrier (my carrier being Safelink) for service.

And this is where the frustration only truly begins believe it or not! To get this far and now just need a simple call to Safelink to finish - there is no NO damned way to speak to a Safelink Customer Service rep without being screened first by profit seeking Tracfone!

After patronizing you over and over relentlessly with vague options they finally say that they will transfer you to Safelink, but then disconnect you or totally ignore your "return my call" requests. Since this flip phone was quickly running out of minutes now I could no longer stay on the line waiting, only to STILL be call disconnected mid stream. Texting was even more futile, and the automated guy who screens calls only refers you to websites before wishing you a great day. Once or twice I did fumble my way into a very abrupt conversation speaking to a Safelink rep in stilted English to ask "How long with this approved eligibility now on record will it take to get my lifeline phone service restored?". It was like having an underwater conversation with words like "no current application" and "not eligible" surfacing despite having a newly downloaded Safelink application dated 7/13/2022 presently on my screen with a status of PENDING.

Every single annoying time getting to this stage of inquiry was arduous and prepaid minutes consuming, and every single time required me to be yet again transferred to another department, which of course, every single time resulted in yet another call disconnect.

So Safelink can kiss my 75 year old, disabled veteran, dementia surfacing $#*!! Not once did anyone even think to offer the platitude "Thank you for your service". How many thousands of eligible veterans are doing this two day stressful as hell and expensive techno dance only to get absolutely nowhere with Safelink except for being easily steered into FIRST buying a totally gouging Tracfone card?

And that my dear Veteran readers (Thank you for your service) is what to expect of Safelink for recognition of your eligibility and your inherent dependency on clearly spoken and effective assistance.

My phone never worked correctly with Safelink/Tracfone from Day 1. It really didn't bother me too much, as I rarely used it due to the fact that I am severely disabled and rarely leave the house. When I am home I use a phone which operates through the computer but requires an active phone number, the Safelink/Tracfone in this case. But once I started using the Safelink/Tracfone service I realized most of the phone functions didn't work. I tried to start addressing these issues with Safelink/Tracfone on a Tuesday over the phone. I spent 7 hours on the phone and got absolutely nowhere. I was confronted with an army of indifferent knuckle dragging customer service representatives. On Wednesday I started the process with Safelink/Tracfone again, making the first call at 9:15 am. By 1:30 or so I started having some pretty serious chest pains (I have a heart condition), and decided to see if my doctor could fit me in. He did. He took my blood pressure and it was 200/160. Heart attack and stroke territory. He wanted to hospitalize me, but when I explained the source of the stress he instead prescribed sedatives. I went home and started calling Safelink/Tracfone again, and was on the phone till shortly after midnight. Total phone time on Wednesday was about 13 hours. On Thursday I started the process a little later, at which time I found that my 25 GB data allowance was essentially gone. Strange... my phone said I'd used. 9 GB, not 25GB. And I never use cellular data at home. After going through countless brain dead Safelink/Tracfone customer service representatives who insisted everything was right I finally reached a representative who knew EXACTLY what the problem was. Four and a half hours later the data issue had been corrected, but the phone still wasn't working properly. Total phone time Thursday about 6 and a half hours. Friday I started up about 11... and miraculously by 6 all the problems were solved! The phone worked!

At about 10:45pm I had a call from Safelink/Tracfone from someone who clearly couldn't speak English well (most of them can't). He claimed it was a follow up call I requested. Nothing could be further from the truth, as I had had my fill of primitive broken English from days of dealing with Safelink/Tracfone creatures. I had been sleeping for a couple of hours, and spoke to him the same way I would speak to anyone who called me at 10:45 pm. I was at my most vulgar, crude and insulting... and I'm very good at that. Anyone who calls me with anything other than a real emergency at that time of night would get that exact same treatment, so as to discourage such behavior in the future. Immediately afterwards my Safelink/Tracfone phone stopped working... completely.

Sarurday I started with the call to Safelink/Treacfone at about 10 am. I found out that I had allegedly cancelled the service and also told them I didn't want the number. That is the number I've had for 40 years, something obviously VERY important to me. I just got off the phone at about 9:15pm (11 hours and 15 minutes). I have no working cell phone (therefore the Google phone doesn't work), my number will be recovered on Monday (hopefully) and I have wasted well over 38 hours on the phone. I also found out from a helpful person there that immediately after the late night 10:45 pm call the same person who made the call deleted my phone number and replaced it with another number, guaranteeing that my phone wouldn't work. Hopefully Monday (after hours and hours on the phone) I will be able to get MY phone number back, The one helpful person at Safelink/Tracfone that I did speak to went out of his way to help me in that regard and assured me that I would. I should add that I am severely disabled, and the cell phone is both a backup emergency way for me to contact others and a necessary number for the Google phone to work if I collapse again at home (I live alone and have severe health problems). If I was to fall in my home between now and Monday there's a very good chance I'd be dead from it, as I have no way to reach the outside world.

Monday is here, and after a short 3 1/2 hours the Safelink/Tracfone phone is working again. Total time invested... I'm guessing 43 hours or so.

The fact is that if you call Safelink/Tracfone customer assistance nearly all of the "people" you speak with are absolutely useless. Describing them as humans capable of intelligent thought would be very generous. They have a tendency to switch you to another department and leave you on hold. Dropped calls are the rule rather than the exception, and calling back again to reach one of the monkeys is a very laborious time consuming process. Only by making dozens and dozens of calls you might reach someone with a brain who is helpful. I found there are a few very helpful people, perhaps one out a hundred or so. Calls are routed to the Philippines, and apparently the ability to speak English clearly (or have the dimmest glimmer of intelligence) is not a prerequisite to be hired at Safelink/Tracfone there. They have stated to me that they have sent e-mails to me about a dozen times, but miraculously I've never received an e-mail from them. E-mail must be different in the Philippines.

I have dealt with many businesses over the years. And Safelink/Tracfone is by far one of the sleaziest most unethical businesses I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. The Filipinos who work the Customer Service are for the most part utterly brain dead drones reading off a computer screen. They rarely offer anything in the way of help, and a favorite tactic is to transfer you to another department... something which in most cases results in a dropped call. Then you must repeat the entire hellish process over again, as it usually takes a minimum of a half hour to reach a "human" (but usually a useless monkey). There are a few helpful people at Safelink/Tracfone, but they are like finding a needle in a haystack.

My advice to anyone is to avoid Safelink/Tracfone like the plague. Safelink is owned by Tracfone, and both are dishonest and deceptive to the core. Most of the feral employees there truly seem like they are habitually lazy and/or intellectually challenged, unfit to perform even the most menial tasks delegated to the most inept dregs. They honestly seem to be thinking more about bananas than doing their job.

They will hold your mobile number hostage if you switch to a competitor.

They did this to me. When I first signed up for safelink, I was given a phone number for two years. Had Google accounts, Amazon account, and other online accounts tied to this phone number. I switch carriers. They claim that I cannot port out my number because I never purchased anything with safelink using a credit card and then they lie and claim that the zip code is not correct for when I first signed up for the service. That zip code was always the same as where I lived and when I first signed up. They kept refusing to accept my zip code and refused the port transfer. I had to go to the FCC and threaten a lawsuit but Tracfone is still refusing to port out my number. Safelink has committed fraud here and should be investigated by the FCC for fraud registrations. They register a customer with a particular phone number assigned but use a different zip code than the customers. So they are committing fraud to prevent anybody from going to a competitor. Safelink and Tracfone together are engaging in anti-competitive practices, anti-trust, and refuse to port out a number. Because of this I may be locked out from my Amazon account, locked out of my Google accounts, may be locked out from getting rewards from Receipt Hog. I am being locked out because of stupid Safelink/Tracfone. They have both failed and Safelink has engaged in fraud. I have gone to the FCC with the evidence. I have the evidence proving all of my claims. The FCC isn't doing anything about this yet, they may never will. I will never go back to SafeLink, EVER! Don't trust Safelink, they are a shady fraudulent company relying on taking Government money claiming to give you a free service and then lie about you and claim your applying for the service twice to reduce your text, minutes, and DATA. Then they offer you to pay monthly for additional DATA, Minutes, and text. Safelink is committing fraud and having Tracfone to go along with it, all do extort more money from their customers who are supposed to receive entirely free government phones and free service. Safelink is only there to extort the low income families.

I tried to switch to QLink Wireless and Safelink kept giving them trouble and kept refusing to port out the number. I verified the security code over and over again, and they repeatedly just lie and claim that I they cannot transfer the number and act like I am not a legitimate owner of the very phone number I am still having right now. I had this number for two years. I have given all of the evidence including phone call recordings with safelink and tracfone to the FCC. Any Federal Judge would accept this high level of evidence I have. Safelink is a fraud, they only want you trapped into their company. If you get any phone number with safelink, you better forget it and not use it for any online account verification otherwise you will be locked out of Twitter. Microsoft. Google, Amazon. You will be locked out of your online shopping and possibly your bank accounts if any use phone number verification. Safelink is there to extort YOU. They will hold your phone number hostage for months if they have to. They have to make money off of the low income applicants.

Safelink Wireless is owned by Tracfone a company in Mexico and they do not give you good service! Their customer service and technical support do not know what they are doing! It's been going on 3 weeks now and they set me up with ATT which gets a low range service at my address and then when i try to take a BYOD Tmobile SIM card to my own smartphone i have not gotten service in 3 days with it and the phone is unlocked and my service area the signal is nearly perfect 5 bars out of 5 bars signal! So i activate a ATT BYOD SIM card to a known working unlocked GSM ATT bands device and they still can not get me service after 5 days and when you call technical support they know their having a problem because the automated voice says give it a few hours and does a few hours qualify 5 days?

These people at Safelink are just like the other free cellphone Lifeline / EBB providers, they have robbed the government of US with so many contracts and monies, given a free used sometime barely working $15.00 phone or less when the government alotted them to provide a $100.00 device to each qualifying customer! This company again is out of Mexico and they with their sister company Tracfone took $15,000 worth of airtime, 160,000 minutes, 158,000 texts and 160 gb or data from my friends account that he had built up and the United States government let it happen through their FCC complaint website! Tracfone company and Safelink Wireless are crooks!

Yes, if i could give them a million negative star rating, - 1,000,000, here it is, i would do so!

Steer clear of Tracfone Wireless and it's companies of Safelink, Straightalk, Net10, Total Wireless, Simple Mobile Wireless, Page Plus, Telcell and any others not mentioned! Or get the service i said you would, which is nothing, a big 0!

I was told that I qualify for a free safelink phone because I am on assistance so I tried to apply online and it said that I already had a account (which I never have) so I called them. The woman ( speaking VERY broken english) told me its not a problem we will fix all of that. She took all of my information and said "a phone will be shipped to you". 3 weeks later still no phone so I call back. 4 or 5 transfers later after either them not knowing what to do or me not understanding a word they say, they tell me oh your all set the phone will be in the mail. 5 weeks later still no phone! (Mind you i gave these people that barely spoke any English, ALL of my personal information MULTIPLE times now. So I call back, again, they transfer me 10 times hang up on me half of those times so I then have to call back and go thru the whole thing again, now they say "oh you need to do a "recording" with us to give us permission to have access to all your info. Stupid me! I did it not even thinking this thru. They then say your phone will now be mailed in 7 to 10 buisness days. 20 days later still no phone! So I call yet again. Speak to 4 different people then after getting nowhere i ask to speak to a manager, the woman then states that "she is the manager" ( how convenient) now i am livid! This woman is saying "you are all set you just use your old device". I so not have a device! She said sorry there is nothing we can do. So now I want to speak to coorprate which she tells me that they do not have a coorprate office. What kind of "state issued" project is this if they don't have a coorprate office. She transfers me to some guy and low and behold now he's all broken up and I can't hear a word he is saying. I hang up and google who I can speak to about this. I got in contact with some number online that I guess was connected with the BBB. That woman then informs me that some companies only send you sim cards. So I explained to her my whole story and said that I couldn't even understand these people at safelink ANY time that I called and that all the phone calls are in fact recorded and that I wanted to file a complaint. She informed me that "oh safelink is based over seas so thats why they have accents". ARE YOU SERIOUS! I just gave all my personal information to some strange people over seas!? I told her how angry that makes me especially these days! So the moral of this story is, SAFELINK IS NOT U.S. BASED! Don't give them your info! I got scammed SHAME ON ME! The woman said "oh i can tell ypu how to file a complaint". I told her "what good is that going to do? They are over seas!" I am just beside myself that I was sucked into this government scam!

The problem I've been having with these companies is that the Android devices that I have been receiving are refurbished through a the recovery department, often defective from the beginning or become defective within less than a year. I quit using SafeLink after a couple years I was not eligible for any more replacements for damaged/lost/stolen phones or whatever. When I had problems with the phone it was usually because it was defective and they would make me send it back unless it was lost or stolen. But sometimes even though the phone was defective- the technical department did not use it long enough to actually see the problem. In the technical department they may look at these phones when people claim that they are defective but they only handle them for a couple minutes before they decide if it's defective or not. There's too many levels of issues to identify within a couple of minutes. I see hundreds of reviews by customers saying that they've had problems with refurbished recovered devices yet the response from SafeLink is very disturbing and that again and again customers are not being validated by their "phone recovery and technical department." On top of that if they see any physical damage then the customer is blamed altogether, any device glitches is blamed on physical damage, instead of the pre-existing integrity of the phone. So when I first get a phone and it's defective I wait too long because I really need a phone to use! No money no other option, so I waste my time trying to make it work but then once any physical damage appears then the glitches that I already had will be blamed on physical damage. Although a hassle try to replace the defective device as soon as possible, you do not want the device to look worn for your credibility. Usually it takes about 5 or 10 minutes before I have to restart my phone or before it starts glitching & freezing. Often with a SafeLink tracfone I can't even answer the call on time, it will freeze while someone's calling, the screen does not respond to your touch properly! Often I'm trying to talk to somebody and it goes on mute or the call drops all-together. I could be trying to type text and I'll push T but the letter below it it is being entered, then I'll push backspace but instead the enter paragraph spacer is entered instead of backspacing, unlimited texting but can't even send a message, it's a mess. When I'm trying to type in a prescription refill, I'll push 1 but the number below it will be submitted instead. Then I have to re-enter, I push 0 but the number right above it is put in. There's sometimes where I'm on automated call, and it's telling me to punch in information on the keypad and then push #, then what I'm entering in is not even being submitted, phone keeps telling me to re-enter but not responding to what I'm entering! It's just an unbelievable guessing game, doing anything is a task. Aot of people that need these Lifeline Services are disabled like myself. Even to check emails you try to open one and you accidentally delete it instead of opening it, or you can't even write messages or type in numbers without the keys around it being penetrated somehow. Its problems with the feedback on the touch screen, cleaning it is no use. I mean a customer is not going to lie that their phone is defective, because already it's a huge process to get another phone. Often we must buy a replacement. I live on less than $800 a month and have bills to pay so I really don't want to buy another replacement when the phones are constantly defective. Repeatedly I have device issues where it would overheat turn itself, die when the battery was only at 60%, and just non-stop issues but then the technical department is not validating what I'm telling them and their responses are constantly superficial. Every time, they apologize for what they call is an "inconvenience," no an inconvenience is something occasional, like the grocery store not having an item in stock. What these cell phone providers are doing to customers frequently is way beyond inconvenience! To not be able to rely on a working phone for transportation, medical needs or for social support anything at all, it's constant disruptions. When you're supposed to meet up with somebody somewhere but then your phone stops working again. Then the next customer service representative has no idea what this customer is talking about. These responses like on the Better Business Bureau, from the phone providers claim to have resolved the issue but then I see that the customer de-enrolled from the program, so customers discontinuing your service is a resolution? I keep seeing the customers coming back to correct the phone providers responses like "no actualIy, I paid for it, or no actually I never even received the device, or you guys told me this. One customer said the charger the company sent did not even work but they already paid for it, but could not get a replacement charger." Most of the time the phone providers responses are useless but are meant to look helpful. The one that gets me the most is that the phone provider says they've attempted to contact somebody -through their defective device... if people are having problems with their device then would it not be smarter to mail them a letter? You have their current address if you shipped a phone to them in the first place, not to mention other confidential information. That's a big problem I've been having is when things have been shut off for not reverifying or when I never received my phone before, I never was notified by the mail! I had no idea why I was not getting a phone or that I was not eligible for any more phones even though I was told online that one would be shipped. So they're not trying hard enough to contact their customers if they're trying to use an email address that someone's not checking because their cell phone is defective. These phone companies are outrageous. I was looking at the responses from SafeLink and Qlink wireless where they basically saying "sorry for the constant inconveniences we reviewed your issue and we are not at fault, because our customer representative was operating at the bare minimum." That's what they're saying, they want to blame the customer as much as possible and pretend like devices are 100% functional and not hold me credible. If I have to send back my phone then I want the phone recovery department to be on it long enough to validate what I'm saying before they wipe it clean to use it for phone recovery. Great then they're going to mail it to somebody else. When a defective device is sent back, these phone companies are not validating the issues or sending a replacement. Last replacement I bought was actually defective from the start with no damage from me and they would not replace it, they had me go through the process of sending it back in a pre-sent package and I wrote a letter explaining that the phone is bad, has not has not went through any trauma, the keyboard doesn't come up when it's time to type, things don't open, it freezes so I went through the process of sending it back in hopes that they would just give me another phone of the same value. Weeks went by I was hopeful they would but they never even returned the defective device or replaced it I should have never wasted my time mailing it back to them if I would have known that there would have been no outcome. In the end switch to Q Link with even more problems. It's just very disappointing. Sending refurbished recovered phones that are constantly defective, they're not even tested before being sent out to a customer, then the responses are not validating the customer's actual issue. According to our technical department this device is not defective, excuse me that's a lie. Outright blasphemy, if SafeLinThe problem I've been having with these companies is that the Android devices that I have been receiving are refurbished through a the recovery department, often defective from the beginning or become defective within less than a year. I quit using SafeLink after a couple years I was not eligible for any more replacements for damaged/lost/stolen phones or whatever. When I had problems with the phone it was usually because it was defective and they would make me send it back unless it was lost or stolen. But sometimes even though the phone was defective- the technical department did not use it long enough to actually see the problem. In the technical department they may look at these phones when people claim that they are defective but they only handle them for a couple minutes before they decide if it's defective or not. There's too many levels of issues to identify within a couple of minutes. I see hundreds of reviews by customers saying that they've had problems with refurbished recovered devices yet the response from SafeLink is very disturbing and that again and again customers are not being validated by their "phone recovery and technical department." On top of that if they see any physical damage then the customer is blamed altogether, any device glitches is blamed on physical damage, instead of the pre-existing integrity of the phone. So when I first get a phone and it's defective I wait too long because I really need a phone to use! No money no other option, so I waste my time trying to make it work but then once any physical damage appears then the glitches that I already had will be blamed on physical damage. Although a hassle try to replace the defective device as soon as possible, you do not want the device to look worn for your credibility. Usually it takes about 5 or 10 minutes before I have to restart my phone or before it starts glitching & freezing. Often with a SafeLink tracfone I can't even answer the call on time, it will freeze while someone's calling, the screen does not respond to your touch properly! Often I'm trying to talk to somebody and it goes on mute or the call drops all-together. I could be trying to type text and I'll push T but the letter below it it is being entered, then I'll push backspace but instead the enter paragraph spacer is entered instead of backspacing, unlimited texting but can't even send a message, it's a mess. When I'm trying to type in a prescription refill, I'll push 1 but the number below it will be submitted instead. Then I have to re-enter, I push 0 but the number right above it is put in. There's sometimes where I'm on automated call, and it's telling me to punch in information on the keypad and then push #, then what I'm entering in is not even being submitted, phone keeps telling me to re-enter but not responding to what I'm entering! It's just an unbelievable guessing game, doing anything is a task. Aot of people that need these Lifeline Services are disabled like myself. Even to check emails you try to open one and you accidentally delete it instead of opening it, or you can't even write messages or type in numbers without the keys around it being penetrated somehow. Its problems with the feedback on the touch screen, cleaning it is no use. I mean a customer is not going to lie that their phone is defective, because already it's a huge process to get another phone. Often we must buy a replacement. I live on less than $800 a month and have bills to pay so I really don't want to buy another replacement when the phones are constantly defective. Repeatedly I have device issues where it would overheat turn itself, die when the battery was only at 60%, and just non-stop issues but then the technical department is not validating what I'm telling them and their responses are constantly superficial. Every time, they apologize for what they call is an "inconvenience," no an inconvenience is something occasional, like the grocery store not having an item in stock. What these cell phone providers are doing to customers frequently is way beyond inconvenience! To not be able to rely on a working phone for transportation, medical needs or for social support anything at all, it's constant disruptions. When you're supposed to meet up with somebody somewhere but then your phone stops working again. Then the next customer service representative has no idea what this customer is talking about. These responses like on the Better Business Bureau, from the phone providers claim to have resolved the issue but then I see that the customer de-enrolled from the program, so customers discontinuing your service is a resolution? I keep seeing the customers coming back to correct the phone providers responses like "no actualIy, I paid for it, or no actually I never even received the device, or you guys told me this. One customer said the charger the company sent did not even work but they already paid for it, but could not get a replacement charger." Most of the time the phone providers responses are useless but are meant to look helpful. The one that gets me the most is that the phone provider says they've attempted to contact somebody -through their defective device... if people are having problems with their device then would it not be smarter to mail them a letter? You have their current address if you shipped a phone to them in the first place, not to mention other confidential information. That's a big problem I've been having is when things have been shut off for not reverifying or when I never received my phone before, I never was notified by the mail! I had no idea why I was not getting a phone or that I was not eligible for any more phones even though I was told online that one would be shipped. So they're not trying hard enough to contact their customers if they're trying to use an email address that someone's not checking because their cell phone is defective. These phone companies are outrageous. I was looking at the responses from SafeLink and Qlink wireless where they basically saying "sorry for the constant inconveniences we reviewed your issue and we are not at fault, because our customer representative was operating at the bare minimum." That's what they're saying, they want to blame the customer as much as possible and pretend like devices are 100% functional and not hold me credible. If I have to send back my phone then I want the phone recovery department to be on it long enough to validate what I'm saying before they wipe it clean to use it for phone recovery. Great then they're going to mail it to somebody else. When a defective device is sent back, these phone companies are not validating the issues or sending a replacement. Last replacement I bought was actually defective from the start with no damage from me and they would not replace it, they had me go through the process of sending it back in a pre-sent package and I wrote a letter explaining that the phone is bad, has not has not went through any trauma, the keyboard doesn't come up when it's time to type, things don't open, it freezes so I went through the process of sending it back in hopes that they would just give me another phone of the same value. Weeks went by I was hopeful they would but they never even returned the defective device or replaced it I should have never wasted my time mailing it back to them if I would have known that there would have been no outcome. In the end switch to Q Link with even more problems. It's just very disappointing. Sending refurbished recovered phones that are constantly defective, they're not even tested before being sent out to a customer, then the responses are not validating the customer's actual issue. We need this to stop happening. Let's only send out good phones to customers okay? Why is that so difficult? If SafeLink TracFone or Qlink was a person, I would punch them in their face for all their lies. We need this to stop happening. Let's only send out good phones to customers okay? Why is that so difficult?