Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire TRAC FONE Cell Service Terrible!

Anyone here have experience with AT&T Cell Phone Service? I've had a bad experience with Trac Fone!! I'll never go with that company again!

I lost my cell phone (stupid mistake on my part) and bought a new one from Trac Fone (had their service for years) and they can't activate my new phone. (A long story, even though I still have ten months on the last renewal.)

Anyway, any opinions on AT&T Cell service??

Thanks.

L.W.

I've switched to mint mobile so far I've been happy with them. Straight talk has been pretty good

Doesn't seem to matter where we live. Once you get outside town, and sometimes even in it, cell service sucks. And out here, Frontier is the only provider for landline and they don't support them this far from town any longer.

Can't speak for your area, but ATT cell coverage isn't all that great where I am. They originally built to provide service along interstate corridors and major urban areas/cities. I'm sure they've extended past that by now, but if you spend a lot of time in rural areas ATT might be a poor choice.

Just one example - I have Verizon, works fine at my house, even in basement. My sister has ATT, can only get a useable connection in corner of upstairs guest bedroom. There's a ridgeline behind my house between me and closest interstate.

Interesting; I’ve had TracFone for several years and have been satisfied with their service. I am about ready to buy a new phone so I would be interested in knowing why they couldn’t activate your new phone.

I've used Tracfone for some years with good results. They piggyback on other major cell systems. Here, Verizon has the best signal. Tracfone 'sells' sim cards for each major carrier for $1 so you can try each to see what's best in your area. Supposedly you can switch cards on their website but I've always had to call customer service to get it to work. That's never been a problem and they've always been helpful. Of the big 3 carriers, ATT is the worst here with T-Mobile halfway between them and Verizon.

Tracfone is now owned by Verizon. I haven't switched sims since Verizon bought them so maybe something has changed.

Be careful which cell provider you choose. The ads say that they use the same net work as the major suppliers, which is true if your provider pays to use the towers in your area. I had AT&T for several years but switched to Verison when I realized Verison worked much better in the remote areas I travel and hunt. If you have AT&T you don't talk to anyone in most areas of northern Nevada. Same goes for southern Idaho, parts of eastern Oregon, and most of Montana. In north eastern Elko county around Wild Horse reservoir you can stand next to the tower with your Verison phone and have no service. Locals there have all switched to AT&T who either owns the tower in the area or at least pays to use it. A friend has Pure Talk ( think AT&T) it works fine in our local area, but not so much in other areas I let him use my phone. My brother has a Trac Phone, it is terrible even if you across the street.

I gave up depending on a cell phone to save my life. A couple of years ago I broke my femur when I fell Chukar hunting. No one in our party could get cell service. Luckily one guy had a satellite phone and called the sheriff and got a helicopter to medivac me. I have a satellite phone now!

Gentlemen, thank you for your information and advice. I'll do more research given your help.

NY HNTR, they had me on hold, for three hours, three times for an hour each time and NEVER got back to me, when I tried to renew on the Internet. I finally called Trac Fone "support" on my land line, got a supervisor who spoke English with a heavy out-of-country accent, and we went through the usual rigamorow of establishing the old number of the phone I lost plus other verification info.

Then she started asking me for numbers I'd called on the lost phone to "authenticate" I was the actual owner of that phone and number. She needed three numbers I'd called. Hellfire! I could only come up with one to a friend in L.A. Who remembers phone numbers he called some time ago?? So, after a long song and dance, she refused to change the number to transfer to the new phone to activate it. So, it is still not activated and I ain't ever gonna deal with Trac Fone again.

I only keep a cell phone around for an emergency call. Flat tire, dead battery, witnessing a bank robbery or murder, stuff like that.

I think maybe I'll just try to stay out of emergency situations.

Again, thanks for the info, gentlemen.

L.W.

Been out in any rather rural areas with it?

Around here, even with Verizon, I send a text or call my wife and it doesn't even notify her. Calls go straight to voicemail. Not only hers, but many times incoming calls on my phone too.

Good number of folks in town us USCellular and still they have issues too.

For no more than I use my phone , Tracfone is the most economical here as there is very poor service where I live from any provider!

It may be that the new phone is CDMA (or whatever) vs. ATT or T-Mobile etc.

Bottomline... it used to be the Walmart Trac phones had a small piece of typing in the bottom front corner that tied it to the correct Trac phone service... or something like that.

I know from experience of what I speak.

As for Trac phone... Laura and I have had Trac phone service with a Verizon CDMA phones for 10+ years and it is excellent for us.

I am really hoping Elon comes out with his cell service that runs off of starlink. He's been talking a out it for awhile now

Depending where you are in Idaho AT&T may not be a very good choice. They are better in urban areas and not so great in rural. Verizon most likely has better coverage for Idaho. I have a lot of family in Idaho and they all use Verizon.

Thought only negroids possessed Tracfones. lol

“Hey yo dawg wherr u at”

LOL

Oh the Cricket phone. “Yeh baybuh, u’m ons my criggut fones n shît”

Rock Chuck,

I mentioned my Samsung tracfone wouldn't go online you told me of someone you knew researched which phones couldn't be programmed to work. I had one of those phones.
At $17 per month that's ok with me- I sometimes go for days without using or looking at the phone. It lives in the center console of my truck quite often. I'm not a ''people person'' never have been so a phone to me is more of a bother than anything, but only a $17 bother.

Is that like a jitterbug

I think so.

Geno, My son is a forester in the two counties and western Modoc, just west of you...his phone is his job...he tried a few and unbelievably, plain old WalMart Straight Talk is the best of the bunch. ST has made deals with the three big tower operators in the northstate...if you can get any service at all, ST will work. He does run a booster in his pickup though, on the advice of a techie, he bought one called HiBoost. Downloading and sending topo maps is a piece of cake now.

All Depends on location. Up here AT&T works better than Verizon or T-Mobil.
Be advised that all the smaller carriers work off the large carriers. If the network gets busy you will be down graded to the big guys networks work for the regular subscribers.

Verizon works well for me. Have a WeBoost antenna in the truck that also keeps me connected when I'm travelling.