GreatCall has the worst customer service that I have experienced in many years! Over an error on their part in billing, they are out of the blue trying to collect $51 for a service that has not been active for over 6 months.
A supervisor by the name of David is threatening calls from collection services over $51 that I can verify their service was not even connected...I will make sure that they will pay more than $51 in bad publicity!!!! Plus the other reason I switched to a better medical alert company called LifeStation is that GreatCall does not have an emergency pendant/help button that will hold a battery charge for over 24 hours and LIfeStation easily beats that with a battery that lasts 4 YEARS!!!
When I asked to be transferred to a supervisor, I was disconnected. When I called back to ask for someone with more seniority, David said that would be Kayla but he would not transfer over to her. So I am going to make sure that others are aware of my poor treatment and dissatisfaction with GreatCall.
My mother received a Great call flyer in the mail and decided to try this phone. I had gotten her a track phone and I would keep minutes on the phone which was working out fine except the track phone button are so small. My mother is 80 years old as of March 10th 2018.
She received the first phone the middle of December 2017 and it did not work at all so my son called Greal Call. They attempted to help with no success. They told her that they would send out a pre-paid postage so that she could send the phone back and that they would send her out a replacement phone. She boxed the phone up and took it to the post office and sent the first phone back on 12/19/2017.
In the meantime, they sent her a replacement phone which she brought to my house so that I could set this one up and show her how to use it. There were problems with some of the buttons on this phone operating the way that it shoud. I called Great Call and spoke to a Customer Service representative and told him that she was going to send this phone back also and that she wanted to close her accout. He proceeded to close the account, gave me a confirmation number and an return address in Libertyville, Illinois in which to send the second phone back.
She paid approximately $120 for the phone. He stated that she would receive $94 dollars and some change back after the return postage fee and some taxes. We agreed with that amount. I boxed it up, made a label and off to the post office she went with phone number two. My mother called around the middle of January stating that she has not received her refund so I called Greal Call on January 22nd to find out what the hold up was.
I spoke to Bethany who stated that they had not received the second phone but luckily for me I had the post office receipt on hand with the tracking number. She located it and said that they left the phone with some guy at the front door which I though was a poor way to receive returned item. She even sounded surprised by all of this and no one bothered to note the fact that a return item has been received.
She proceeded to tell me that a refund had been sent up and would take 1 to 3 business days to process and to call back on Friday January 26th to verify. I called back on Friday and a new person andwered the phone. He told me that because it could take up to 1 to 3 business days, the refund may appear on Saturday. He also stated that if it did not show up on her credit card to call back on Saturday January 27th. The money did not show up so I called again. This time I spoke with a Kaitlin who told me that the information that I received on Fridat was incorrect. No refund had been in process. She proceeded to question me about the phone stating that she did not see where second phone had been received. I told her that Bethany verified it and USPS noted that it had been delivered.
She then proceeded to say that she did not see where the original phne was received. I had the tracking number for that phone as well. She stated that there was a delivery exception and USPS wuld notify us when the package was delivered. Keep in mind, I had never tracked it because the first phone was delived with no problem. At this point I decided to go on the USPS website and track it myself. I also requsted notification via email at [email protected].
This packing has been all over the US. Every few seconds I am receiving email about the delivery exception or the package has left out facility and heading to its destination. The package has been in San Diego more times than I can count then it is heading to another city. My mother went to the post office on January 31st 2018 and the post office gave her a 4 page print out showing that the phone reached that location. I asked them why is she not receiving her refund due to USPS. They are the ones that need to be contacted in regards to all of this misleading tracing information.
I called on January 31st again. I was highly upset telling this same story for the 4th time. After telling Sam the Customer Service representative again, I asked to speak to a supervisor at which point she put me on hold, came back and said they were all busy helping others and that someone would call me back. Now I bet you are wondering if they called me back. No, they certainly did not and I dont think that they have any intentions on calling me back.
Whatever label they sent my mother to send that first phone back is directly associated with this phone traveling all over the US. They are holding an 80 year old lady's $94 dollor refund hostage knowing that they either received that phone and have not noted it or had something to do with not receiving it. GREAT CALL is a scam and I want the whole world to know it.
Great call Telephone Company and the phones they sell made by jitterbug is one of the worst companies that I have ever dealt with. I started to use this company less than a year ago and have had two phone since that malfunctioned. Great Call has terrible customer service and they're supposedly technical support are totally incompetent. my phone went totally dead on vacation I spoke with the technical support people over 6 times. Each time they told me that the issue was fixed 5 minutes later it was not working again. When I called them from another phone they told me it would take 10 days to replace. To me that did not sound normal. I was stuck on vacation without a phone Camera without text without the internrt the phone would not even take a charge. Chewbacca this is me despite the fact that this phone had not been used in over 2 months. This company targets senior citizens. As well AAA Automobile Magazine. Buyer beware. Don't waste your money on this company this company then had the gall to charge me for three months of service even though the phone I'd been dead for those three months. Remember you get what you pay for. Remember you get what you pay for,; please don't be fooled by this ripoff telephone company or their phones You will waste your money and your
When my old Jitterbug died on me I was glad to upgrade to a Jitterbug Smart Phone because it had email capabilities that the old clunker didn't have. Unfortunately, when I received my brand new Jitterbut Smart Phone, whenever I tried to install my gmail account, it refused the password (which I know is correct because it works on my desktop gmail and in all my Kindle Devises email) saying: username or password is incorrect.
I typed in both the username and the password so many times it wasn't funny.
Finally, I emailed Great Call and they passed the buck saying it was Google's fault and go talk to them.
I shot back a reply that gmail works perfectly on my desktop and all my Kindle mobile devices so it has to be their phone and Great Call has not replied for half a day or six hours.
My last email to them gave me my gmail username and password and I told them that I would make my Great Call Smart Phone go back to factory settings so that they could try out another new smart Phone and see if they could load my gmail account there. If they could, then the one they sent me is obviusly defective and we could exchange.
Incidentally, in my first email to them I asked how I could restore my new smart phone to factory settings so that I could set it up with an easier to remember pin number and Great Call Support totally ignored that question.
I will update this if and when Great Call does the right thing by me. I invited David Inns, Great Call's CEO, to take a vacation to Honoluu and come to my apartment and see if he could set up my gmail on this miserable excuse for a Smart phone.
This company advertises and sells what is probably a great product. However, getting the information into their system is a nightmare.
We have 2 parents who are both 90 years old, so my sister and I tried to set this up for them, since they are falling down frequently. You would think that Great Call would know how to handle this, right? I had to call them so many times due to error messages, the system's need for different email addresses -- the need to set up a new separate account for my father, or, no wait, it could all be under one account, but no, wait, maybe it could be done by them on the phone. Every rep I spoke with (5 in all) had to talk to a supervisor, and even when my mother's profile was finished, it still showed up as my sister's account. The password they made me change turns out to be the old password - apparently it didn't change. At every turn there was some ridiculous glitch - I don't believe the company was ready to release this system and the reps all had a different story about what was going wrong. At one point a supervisor said to tell me the problem was on my end...I have a new computer and a great connection and, of course, this was not true.
All I wanted to do was to make sure my mother's and father's names were in their system and that their drug and medical info would be available to Great Call so that if/when they pushed that button, the person on the other end would know their names and their medical background. I thought I was finally getting it done, but got another error message - the system now didn't like my father's address (same as my mother's). One more call, I thought ---the rep who took my call this time tells me that he can't do anything until we pay the activation fee---which was already paid weeks ago, but he disagreed.
I have a very, very long fuse and I was willing to be patient since the customer service reps obviously have their own learning curve. But today, after this final insult, I am sending back everything and will find a company who has their software polished and tested, and has their customer service reps trained and consistent.
I ordered the great call Lively device on October 30th 2016. I had 5 defective units between then and January 7th 2017 when I closed the account. Calling customer service was a bear, waiting in que for 30 minutes or more. When I called for a refund they said they only give refunds for 30days from purchase. I never has a unit to work for 30day
Contacted company Dec 20, 2016 spent over 30 minutes discussing products and policy customer service rep. {CS} was unsure of policy kept leaving me on hold [had to check with supervisor?] promised Text messages could be blocked 10 cents each for incoming and outgoing messages [I dont text] After receiving phone contacted tech support at first they said they could block text then they could not. Original CS rep said for 100 MB I would get about 150 e-mails or check apprx 50 web pages. Checked one email and used 54 of the 100 purchased. You also get charged minutes for incoming calls you do not answer.
When i went to cancel service I had to call on my old cell phone beccause they could not hear me on the so call smart phone. The real kicker is this so call 30 free trial period was to include free return shipping when I called they said they would send me a return label waited a week called back they said we donot provide return shipping. So far the phone cosr 102.49 activation 35.00 shipping 10.00 tax about 12.00 and 14.25 to return the phone and so far no refund. Some free trial huh!! they also sent me a bill for the month of December and i did not get the phone until 12/29/ 2016 when I complained to customer service they said it was because it was a prepaid phone Great call does not have a prepaid plan you pay monthly. stay far away from this company. Also filed with BBB,NC consumer protection and my credit card company.
Please do yourself a favor and avoid this company. Their phone is not as good for seniors as they advertise. The menus are odd and confusing. The phone is slippery, hard to handle because of its high gloss finish rather than grip finish. The phone is not loud enough for the hearing impaired. The ringer is not loud enough. Their website is unreliable and making a payment is often troublesome. I was often double billed and had to spend a lot of time getting that cleared up. They have expensive overage charges and ticky tacky fees that will run your bill up. They employ high pressure sales tactics whenever you have to call them with a problem. Their customer service reps are often condescending. Tried the service for a few months, but so many problems I'm trying to cancel, but they won't let me until next month. I hope I'm able to cancel without further issues. This company scares me.
I was fooled by the slick ads for the Jitterbug phone in the AARP magazine, and by the salesperson when I called the company a couple of months ago to inquire about their plan. The biggest selling point for the phone was it's size (6") and it's supposedly ease of use. It does have big buttons, which is convenient for a senior citizen, but it's also heavy & bulky. And it wasn't any easier to "swipe" to answer a phone call. I missed many calls trying to get it to connect!
This was the 3rd cell phone company I'd been with in 10 years, so I usually am a loyal customer once I choose a provider and their customer service isn't sent to an overseas country to handle. About 25 days after I received the phone and had used it daily (normal calls, texts & Facebook), I looked at my data usage, and it seemed to me high, but there were no numbers (amount of data used), just a chart. I had signed up for a low data plan (as advised by Great Call salesperson) because I (at the time) had wifi at work. I also have it at home, so they said as long as the phone was connected to either wifi, my data usage would remain low, and probably never go over the limit (I think it was 1.5 GB). My monthly charges were to be $37.70, which was less than I had been paying with my last company. The big difference was the notification of my data usage: my old company slowed down my phone when I ran out of data, or got close to running out. Then you knew you had to deal with it like that or purchase additional data. This only happened a time or two, because I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook watching videos, etc. I did let my grandson play a video game on my Jitterbug phone, but only a couple of times, and not for hours on end. I was confident after talking to Great Call that I'd never exhaust my data usage because the phone would always be connected to my wifi - and it was.
So when I called customer service at Great Call (spoke with Gloria), I was shocked to hear not only had I gone over my data limit (NO NOTICES OR WARNINGS FROM GREAT CALL), but I had gone over to the amount of $387+ !!!! I was panicked - how in the world did this happen? Why didn't they send me notice? How was I going to pay it? I'm a senior citizen on fixed income - that amount of money is a small fortune to me. Gloria assured me she would "take care of it". After holding for awhile, she came back on the line and said they would have to raise my monthly payment to $62.69 to cover the overage, but I would have to pay $82.69 first. She was going to add one GB to my plan as a "one-time only" service for $20. Normally the one GB charge is $40, she said. So I accepted these terms - what choice did I have? After I told her I had let my grandson play a game on the phone, this was her reasoning for all the overage charges - even though in the back of my mind I didn't buy this. He would've had to been playing videos 24 hours a day, every day to rack up this much data use. Sometime after this call, I called again to check on the second month's data use, just so I could keep an eye on it, not ever thinking what I would be told was this: I HAD GONE OVER MY DATA USAGE AGAIN - not as much as the first month, but she (female I spoke with) could "sell" me one GB of data for $40, just for insurance against it happening again. Again, what choice did I have? So I "bought" the one GB for $40 (added to my 2nd month's bill). I JUST FELT THERE HAD TO BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE PHONE - AND ONE EMPLOYEE AT GREAT CALL SAID IT WAS POSSIBLE when I called them to cancel my plan. (See below). She (Penny) said they would test the phone when it was returned & determine if it was a "lemon" or not.
I knew that my 30 days would be up soon (for returning the phone), so I decided I couldn't afford to keep the phone, or the plan, and called Great Call on the 29th or 30th day - spoke with Penny. She (of course) tried to talk me out of cancelling my account & sending the phone back but said since I called within the 30 days to cancel, I could send it back. I got the address from her (a post office box) and she told me I WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SHIPPING COSTS. I thought it would be worth it ($13+) to get rid of the albatross it had become. I packaged the phone with all the original equipment that came with it (including a free cover & car charger) and mailed it back by USPS on 5-23. The company received it on 5-25, according to tracking with USPS. Penny told me once they received it, my refund could take as long as 21 business days to receive. It's been 17 (business) days as of today's date. I called Great Call yesterday just to get a status because last week when I called (6/8, spoke with Lynell), they said they couldn't find where the phone had even been received in the warehouse return center! This time (6/13, spoke with Misty), they "found" that it was received (after I told them I had tracked it) but my refund is still pending and she had no idea when it would be issued. All she wanted to do was argue with me: I was wrong about the company and the phone - there was NO WAY that they could add data usage arbitrarially to anyone's plan. I told her my grandson didn't touch the phone after those 2 times, so how could I possibly have overages the second month, when I don't use the phone that much?? And the reason I know (and can prove this?) is because of my NEW phone - I bought a 5 GB plan. I've used .556 MB's so far this month, and the month is up in 2 days !!
I don't know why this happened to me or if the phone was a "lemon", but I know I paid $205 for the phone and I need my money refunded. I hope no one else will be fooled by this company. I've already told my family & friends about my terrible experience and will tell anyone else. Everything I have stated in this complaint is true.
Great call splash is sold in walmart, target, other stores, on line and by phone contact. I purchased a wrist devise to notify in case of an emergency as i am elderly, living alone. I was promised the monthly fee would be waived for the first month. Not true, this bad faith company took the money out of my account in a nano second. They also took $89.80 for the service devise and handling fees. It did arrive and then would not activate as the great call service is not operating in my area. I had the great call splash devise tech on phone and he said it never works in your area. I was told by sales gal on phone that my area was covered when it was not, map provided on box and web page shows my area covered but the thing was no use to me as it did not work. I immedietly put this thing back in the package and attached the return label, took it to a ups store as instructed and sent it off over 2 weeks ago. All my calls to great call regarding refund of my $89.80 have a rep telling me it was never received. What a way to operate in bad faith, assume if an elderly person purchases this non operating crap that they will fork over $89.80 and not expect it to be returned. Now i have to contact my bank and make sure these scammers do not continue to deduct from me. Great call is great crap, as well as great call scam and then owe me my refund.
After I switched cell phone providers. Great Call charged my account for another month's billing after I cancelled my service with them. Their excuse was that I didn't "port" my old phone number over to the new provider, so they figured they'd just continue to bill me.
GreatCall Reviews
GreatCall has the worst customer service that I have experienced in many years! Over an error on their part in billing, they are out of the blue trying to collect $51 for a service that has not been active for over 6 months.
A supervisor by the name of David is threatening calls from collection services over $51 that I can verify their service was not even connected...I will make sure that they will pay more than $51 in bad publicity!!!! Plus the other reason I switched to a better medical alert company called LifeStation is that GreatCall does not have an emergency pendant/help button that will hold a battery charge for over 24 hours and LIfeStation easily beats that with a battery that lasts 4 YEARS!!!
When I asked to be transferred to a supervisor, I was disconnected. When I called back to ask for someone with more seniority, David said that would be Kayla but he would not transfer over to her. So I am going to make sure that others are aware of my poor treatment and dissatisfaction with GreatCall.
My mother received a Great call flyer in the mail and decided to try this phone. I had gotten her a track phone and I would keep minutes on the phone which was working out fine except the track phone button are so small. My mother is 80 years old as of March 10th 2018.
She received the first phone the middle of December 2017 and it did not work at all so my son called Greal Call. They attempted to help with no success. They told her that they would send out a pre-paid postage so that she could send the phone back and that they would send her out a replacement phone. She boxed the phone up and took it to the post office and sent the first phone back on 12/19/2017.
In the meantime, they sent her a replacement phone which she brought to my house so that I could set this one up and show her how to use it. There were problems with some of the buttons on this phone operating the way that it shoud. I called Great Call and spoke to a Customer Service representative and told him that she was going to send this phone back also and that she wanted to close her accout. He proceeded to close the account, gave me a confirmation number and an return address in Libertyville, Illinois in which to send the second phone back.
She paid approximately $120 for the phone. He stated that she would receive $94 dollars and some change back after the return postage fee and some taxes. We agreed with that amount. I boxed it up, made a label and off to the post office she went with phone number two. My mother called around the middle of January stating that she has not received her refund so I called Greal Call on January 22nd to find out what the hold up was.
I spoke to Bethany who stated that they had not received the second phone but luckily for me I had the post office receipt on hand with the tracking number. She located it and said that they left the phone with some guy at the front door which I though was a poor way to receive returned item. She even sounded surprised by all of this and no one bothered to note the fact that a return item has been received.
She proceeded to tell me that a refund had been sent up and would take 1 to 3 business days to process and to call back on Friday January 26th to verify. I called back on Friday and a new person andwered the phone. He told me that because it could take up to 1 to 3 business days, the refund may appear on Saturday. He also stated that if it did not show up on her credit card to call back on Saturday January 27th. The money did not show up so I called again. This time I spoke with a Kaitlin who told me that the information that I received on Fridat was incorrect. No refund had been in process. She proceeded to question me about the phone stating that she did not see where second phone had been received. I told her that Bethany verified it and USPS noted that it had been delivered.
She then proceeded to say that she did not see where the original phne was received. I had the tracking number for that phone as well. She stated that there was a delivery exception and USPS wuld notify us when the package was delivered. Keep in mind, I had never tracked it because the first phone was delived with no problem. At this point I decided to go on the USPS website and track it myself. I also requsted notification via email at [email protected].
This packing has been all over the US. Every few seconds I am receiving email about the delivery exception or the package has left out facility and heading to its destination. The package has been in San Diego more times than I can count then it is heading to another city. My mother went to the post office on January 31st 2018 and the post office gave her a 4 page print out showing that the phone reached that location. I asked them why is she not receiving her refund due to USPS. They are the ones that need to be contacted in regards to all of this misleading tracing information.
I called on January 31st again. I was highly upset telling this same story for the 4th time. After telling Sam the Customer Service representative again, I asked to speak to a supervisor at which point she put me on hold, came back and said they were all busy helping others and that someone would call me back. Now I bet you are wondering if they called me back. No, they certainly did not and I dont think that they have any intentions on calling me back.
Whatever label they sent my mother to send that first phone back is directly associated with this phone traveling all over the US. They are holding an 80 year old lady's $94 dollor refund hostage knowing that they either received that phone and have not noted it or had something to do with not receiving it. GREAT CALL is a scam and I want the whole world to know it.
WILL NOT REBATE MONEY FOR CELL SERVICE AND PHONE
Great call Telephone Company and the phones they sell made by jitterbug is one of the worst companies that I have ever dealt with. I started to use this company less than a year ago and have had two phone since that malfunctioned. Great Call has terrible customer service and they're supposedly technical support are totally incompetent. my phone went totally dead on vacation I spoke with the technical support people over 6 times. Each time they told me that the issue was fixed 5 minutes later it was not working again. When I called them from another phone they told me it would take 10 days to replace. To me that did not sound normal. I was stuck on vacation without a phone Camera without text without the internrt the phone would not even take a charge. Chewbacca this is me despite the fact that this phone had not been used in over 2 months. This company targets senior citizens. As well AAA Automobile Magazine. Buyer beware. Don't waste your money on this company this company then had the gall to charge me for three months of service even though the phone I'd been dead for those three months. Remember you get what you pay for. Remember you get what you pay for,; please don't be fooled by this ripoff telephone company or their phones You will waste your money and your
When my old Jitterbug died on me I was glad to upgrade to a Jitterbug Smart Phone because it had email capabilities that the old clunker didn't have. Unfortunately, when I received my brand new Jitterbut Smart Phone, whenever I tried to install my gmail account, it refused the password (which I know is correct because it works on my desktop gmail and in all my Kindle Devises email) saying: username or password is incorrect.
I typed in both the username and the password so many times it wasn't funny.
Finally, I emailed Great Call and they passed the buck saying it was Google's fault and go talk to them.
I shot back a reply that gmail works perfectly on my desktop and all my Kindle mobile devices so it has to be their phone and Great Call has not replied for half a day or six hours.
My last email to them gave me my gmail username and password and I told them that I would make my Great Call Smart Phone go back to factory settings so that they could try out another new smart Phone and see if they could load my gmail account there. If they could, then the one they sent me is obviusly defective and we could exchange.
Incidentally, in my first email to them I asked how I could restore my new smart phone to factory settings so that I could set it up with an easier to remember pin number and Great Call Support totally ignored that question.
I will update this if and when Great Call does the right thing by me. I invited David Inns, Great Call's CEO, to take a vacation to Honoluu and come to my apartment and see if he could set up my gmail on this miserable excuse for a Smart phone.
This company advertises and sells what is probably a great product. However, getting the information into their system is a nightmare.
We have 2 parents who are both 90 years old, so my sister and I tried to set this up for them, since they are falling down frequently. You would think that Great Call would know how to handle this, right? I had to call them so many times due to error messages, the system's need for different email addresses -- the need to set up a new separate account for my father, or, no wait, it could all be under one account, but no, wait, maybe it could be done by them on the phone. Every rep I spoke with (5 in all) had to talk to a supervisor, and even when my mother's profile was finished, it still showed up as my sister's account. The password they made me change turns out to be the old password - apparently it didn't change. At every turn there was some ridiculous glitch - I don't believe the company was ready to release this system and the reps all had a different story about what was going wrong. At one point a supervisor said to tell me the problem was on my end...I have a new computer and a great connection and, of course, this was not true.
All I wanted to do was to make sure my mother's and father's names were in their system and that their drug and medical info would be available to Great Call so that if/when they pushed that button, the person on the other end would know their names and their medical background. I thought I was finally getting it done, but got another error message - the system now didn't like my father's address (same as my mother's). One more call, I thought ---the rep who took my call this time tells me that he can't do anything until we pay the activation fee---which was already paid weeks ago, but he disagreed.
I have a very, very long fuse and I was willing to be patient since the customer service reps obviously have their own learning curve. But today, after this final insult, I am sending back everything and will find a company who has their software polished and tested, and has their customer service reps trained and consistent.
I ordered the great call Lively device on October 30th 2016. I had 5 defective units between then and January 7th 2017 when I closed the account. Calling customer service was a bear, waiting in que for 30 minutes or more. When I called for a refund they said they only give refunds for 30days from purchase. I never has a unit to work for 30day
Contacted company Dec 20, 2016 spent over 30 minutes discussing products and policy customer service rep. {CS} was unsure of policy kept leaving me on hold [had to check with supervisor?] promised Text messages could be blocked 10 cents each for incoming and outgoing messages [I dont text] After receiving phone contacted tech support at first they said they could block text then they could not. Original CS rep said for 100 MB I would get about 150 e-mails or check apprx 50 web pages. Checked one email and used 54 of the 100 purchased. You also get charged minutes for incoming calls you do not answer.
When i went to cancel service I had to call on my old cell phone beccause they could not hear me on the so call smart phone. The real kicker is this so call 30 free trial period was to include free return shipping when I called they said they would send me a return label waited a week called back they said we donot provide return shipping. So far the phone cosr 102.49 activation 35.00 shipping 10.00 tax about 12.00 and 14.25 to return the phone and so far no refund. Some free trial huh!! they also sent me a bill for the month of December and i did not get the phone until 12/29/ 2016 when I complained to customer service they said it was because it was a prepaid phone Great call does not have a prepaid plan you pay monthly. stay far away from this company. Also filed with BBB,NC consumer protection and my credit card company.
Please do yourself a favor and avoid this company. Their phone is not as good for seniors as they advertise. The menus are odd and confusing. The phone is slippery, hard to handle because of its high gloss finish rather than grip finish. The phone is not loud enough for the hearing impaired. The ringer is not loud enough. Their website is unreliable and making a payment is often troublesome. I was often double billed and had to spend a lot of time getting that cleared up. They have expensive overage charges and ticky tacky fees that will run your bill up. They employ high pressure sales tactics whenever you have to call them with a problem. Their customer service reps are often condescending. Tried the service for a few months, but so many problems I'm trying to cancel, but they won't let me until next month. I hope I'm able to cancel without further issues. This company scares me.
I was fooled by the slick ads for the Jitterbug phone in the AARP magazine, and by the salesperson when I called the company a couple of months ago to inquire about their plan. The biggest selling point for the phone was it's size (6") and it's supposedly ease of use. It does have big buttons, which is convenient for a senior citizen, but it's also heavy & bulky. And it wasn't any easier to "swipe" to answer a phone call. I missed many calls trying to get it to connect!
This was the 3rd cell phone company I'd been with in 10 years, so I usually am a loyal customer once I choose a provider and their customer service isn't sent to an overseas country to handle. About 25 days after I received the phone and had used it daily (normal calls, texts & Facebook), I looked at my data usage, and it seemed to me high, but there were no numbers (amount of data used), just a chart. I had signed up for a low data plan (as advised by Great Call salesperson) because I (at the time) had wifi at work. I also have it at home, so they said as long as the phone was connected to either wifi, my data usage would remain low, and probably never go over the limit (I think it was 1.5 GB). My monthly charges were to be $37.70, which was less than I had been paying with my last company. The big difference was the notification of my data usage: my old company slowed down my phone when I ran out of data, or got close to running out. Then you knew you had to deal with it like that or purchase additional data. This only happened a time or two, because I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook watching videos, etc. I did let my grandson play a video game on my Jitterbug phone, but only a couple of times, and not for hours on end. I was confident after talking to Great Call that I'd never exhaust my data usage because the phone would always be connected to my wifi - and it was.
So when I called customer service at Great Call (spoke with Gloria), I was shocked to hear not only had I gone over my data limit (NO NOTICES OR WARNINGS FROM GREAT CALL), but I had gone over to the amount of $387+ !!!! I was panicked - how in the world did this happen? Why didn't they send me notice? How was I going to pay it? I'm a senior citizen on fixed income - that amount of money is a small fortune to me. Gloria assured me she would "take care of it". After holding for awhile, she came back on the line and said they would have to raise my monthly payment to $62.69 to cover the overage, but I would have to pay $82.69 first. She was going to add one GB to my plan as a "one-time only" service for $20. Normally the one GB charge is $40, she said. So I accepted these terms - what choice did I have? After I told her I had let my grandson play a game on the phone, this was her reasoning for all the overage charges - even though in the back of my mind I didn't buy this. He would've had to been playing videos 24 hours a day, every day to rack up this much data use. Sometime after this call, I called again to check on the second month's data use, just so I could keep an eye on it, not ever thinking what I would be told was this: I HAD GONE OVER MY DATA USAGE AGAIN - not as much as the first month, but she (female I spoke with) could "sell" me one GB of data for $40, just for insurance against it happening again. Again, what choice did I have? So I "bought" the one GB for $40 (added to my 2nd month's bill). I JUST FELT THERE HAD TO BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE PHONE - AND ONE EMPLOYEE AT GREAT CALL SAID IT WAS POSSIBLE when I called them to cancel my plan. (See below). She (Penny) said they would test the phone when it was returned & determine if it was a "lemon" or not.
I knew that my 30 days would be up soon (for returning the phone), so I decided I couldn't afford to keep the phone, or the plan, and called Great Call on the 29th or 30th day - spoke with Penny. She (of course) tried to talk me out of cancelling my account & sending the phone back but said since I called within the 30 days to cancel, I could send it back. I got the address from her (a post office box) and she told me I WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SHIPPING COSTS. I thought it would be worth it ($13+) to get rid of the albatross it had become. I packaged the phone with all the original equipment that came with it (including a free cover & car charger) and mailed it back by USPS on 5-23. The company received it on 5-25, according to tracking with USPS. Penny told me once they received it, my refund could take as long as 21 business days to receive. It's been 17 (business) days as of today's date. I called Great Call yesterday just to get a status because last week when I called (6/8, spoke with Lynell), they said they couldn't find where the phone had even been received in the warehouse return center! This time (6/13, spoke with Misty), they "found" that it was received (after I told them I had tracked it) but my refund is still pending and she had no idea when it would be issued. All she wanted to do was argue with me: I was wrong about the company and the phone - there was NO WAY that they could add data usage arbitrarially to anyone's plan. I told her my grandson didn't touch the phone after those 2 times, so how could I possibly have overages the second month, when I don't use the phone that much?? And the reason I know (and can prove this?) is because of my NEW phone - I bought a 5 GB plan. I've used .556 MB's so far this month, and the month is up in 2 days !!
I don't know why this happened to me or if the phone was a "lemon", but I know I paid $205 for the phone and I need my money refunded. I hope no one else will be fooled by this company. I've already told my family & friends about my terrible experience and will tell anyone else. Everything I have stated in this complaint is true.
Great call splash is sold in walmart, target, other stores, on line and by phone contact. I purchased a wrist devise to notify in case of an emergency as i am elderly, living alone. I was promised the monthly fee would be waived for the first month. Not true, this bad faith company took the money out of my account in a nano second. They also took $89.80 for the service devise and handling fees. It did arrive and then would not activate as the great call service is not operating in my area. I had the great call splash devise tech on phone and he said it never works in your area. I was told by sales gal on phone that my area was covered when it was not, map provided on box and web page shows my area covered but the thing was no use to me as it did not work. I immedietly put this thing back in the package and attached the return label, took it to a ups store as instructed and sent it off over 2 weeks ago. All my calls to great call regarding refund of my $89.80 have a rep telling me it was never received. What a way to operate in bad faith, assume if an elderly person purchases this non operating crap that they will fork over $89.80 and not expect it to be returned. Now i have to contact my bank and make sure these scammers do not continue to deduct from me. Great call is great crap, as well as great call scam and then owe me my refund.
After I switched cell phone providers. Great Call charged my account for another month's billing after I cancelled my service with them. Their excuse was that I didn't "port" my old phone number over to the new provider, so they figured they'd just continue to bill me.