Help with lost minutes, texts and data transferring to new phone?

[fidoprincess]

Hello, Long time tracfone user and just had the worst ever experience transferring existing account to a new tracfone. It all seemed great at first until I realized no one could call me. My tracfone app showed all my minutes texts and date was correct including the new buckets that came with my HSN phone. I had a LOT of minutes, etc. after using tracfone for years. Since I could call not call out, I contacted customer service, first one couldn't make it work, finally I went up the chain to "corporate" who finally fixed it so I could receive calls. He said he reset my account, that should have been the clue! Now I've lost all my previous minutes texts and data and they are closed. Any chance of recovering these? If so, what do you think it the best way? Thank you and forgive me for being stupid and not checking before I hung up with tracfone!

[minij]

In my experience, short of having a screenshot or transcript where you verified the amounts in each bucket, it’s exceptionally difficult. Especially if they “reset” the account.

You could try calling corporate again - use the reference number they gave you so they can trace who did what in your account - and ask to talk to a manager since this is something the regular CSRs (even at corporate) don’t typically handle.


Hopefully someone else can chime in with additional information.


Sent from my iPhone using HoFo

[fidoprincess]

Thank you, I do have a screen shot of my account from a few days ago, hope that helps me and I will try calling again. By the time I realized it, they were closed. I did see searching that this is common especially if you have a ton of minutes, texts and data saved up, guess they try to do this on purpose and I happened to open the window for it. Thanks, very disappointed after having tracfone for years and never having such an issue.

[tomseys]

You can call the Tracfone corporate office starting around 8am est. They are usually open from 8am to 11:45pm est every day.

If when you call the message states they are closed during this time, enter the extension when prompted.

When you call they should always identify as from the Tracfone corporate office.


Two numbers to try are:


305 640-2000 x1029

800 626-4883 x3324


I use the 305 number.


They usually answer quickly. Time to reach rep from placing the call is usually a few seconds.

I would just explain to the rep what happened - how the phone had a calling problem after a transfer and was then "fixed" by a corporate office rep who apparently reset the account/phone and now you have lost minutes, text, and data etc as it applies to your line/phone.

You can say that you have account screenshots showing the line's correct balances before the rep reset the account/line but they don't usually physically accept screenshots as proof. I have used them a few times to get bucket units fixed by stating that I have them (and I do) and then I read the information on them to the rep and then the rep confirms the info with the billing department and if it does agree or makes sense or if senior rep just accepts it, rep then has me read the bucket amounts (Minutes, text, data) off of them again and corrects the buckets and service time if applicable.

If you have a chat transcript that includes reference or ticket number from original transfer transaction this would be very good to give the corp office rep.

You may have to call a few times (hang up and call again = HUCA) to get a good rep that can help and is willing to help.

As a last resort you could file a BBB or FCC complaint to see if you can get it resolved that way. The screenshots may come in handy here if they will consider them and investigate them as part of your complaint as you interact with them. Good if they indicate date and time on them.

If things are not going well with the TF corp office you could gently let them know you are considering this option but you would like to avoid it.

If you have lost a lot of minutes, like say 50,000+ minutes, then they may really fight you on this wanting proof of how it came to be.

Anyway, good luck with getting the line's correct bucket balances restored.

[Tracfancier]

If they claim you must have used the missing airtime, remind them that the phone itself keeps a record of your usage and that TF (and Verizon) also keeps a record of your usage.

[fidoprincess]

Thank you so much for all of your help! I have been on the phone all morning, 3 different reps, last one restored "some" of my buckets but shorted me on data and texts. When I checked while he was still on the phone, he said that was the best he could do and he would have someone call me back soon. Well, everyone this morning said they'd call me back and made an "appointment" but no one ever called.

Worst, now I can't receive calls again! This is such a nightmare. I remember the "olden" days when you had to talk to activate and type in a series of numbers over and over and thought that was just about the worst thing ever until today!

[hpham]

Worst, now I can't receive calls again!!

If your balance shows you have minutes left, but you can't make/receive calls then the problem is in the phone's settings which can change if the phone was updated or TF messed with your account. What's the make/model of the phone? Do you know how to check the APN (Access Point Name)?

[betn1]

One time my line stopped working and I checked my account and noticed the units zeroed out. There were few months service available so something was wrong. I think I did it over chat and the agent retified it immediately by putting back the units I had. He couldn't tell me why or what happened but was able to fix it. I didn't need to threaten or tell him how many units there were. He could see what was there, and I checked with my last screenshot and it was the same. So they should have an accounting of your line units, unless there were lots of transfers/combines recently that makes it more difficult to determine the history.

So if you have an agent who tells you they can't see it or you used it etc try again. There are different levels of agents with different skills/expertise. Not only do they need to have access to the proper tools (seems like not all do) they need to know which tools to use, and sometimes with manual override.

One time I had a really good agent for a combine from 2 different accounts and he did it with ease. I was waiting for his next question, and was shocked it was already done. So I complemented him and told him he was my 3rd attempt and he was extremely appreciative. He explained that the task needed to be done manually because their tools are automated and don't allow this. So he had to do it manually step by step (basically deleting from one account then adding to another, then a manual combine), and some agents don't know how as the automated tools will give an error.

[tomseys]

Thank you so much for all of your help! I have been on the phone all morning, 3 different reps, last one restored "some" of my buckets but shorted me on data and texts. When I checked while he was still on the phone, he said that was the best he could do and he would have someone call me back soon. Well, everyone this morning said they'd call me back and made an "appointment" but no one ever called.

Worst, now I can't receive calls again! This is such a nightmare. I remember the "olden" days when you had to talk to activate and type in a series of numbers over and over and thought that was just about the worst thing ever until today!

What model phone is it?

Can you make calls on it?

You can check the APN and make sure it is set to VZWINTERNET. Lately it seems phones set to wrong APN can still make/receive calls though.

Also check to see that voLTE is on. See this thread:

https://www.howardforums.com/showthr...l-Moto-G-Power

[fidoprincess]

They actually called me back and fixed the not getting calls but now they are going to do a call back for trying to fix my lost minutes text and data. The APN was all wrong, you were correct, hpham, so I had to reset that with the reps guidance. It involved putting in all new infor, taking out the sim card, putting it back in and a lot of restarting. It works now, I can get calls again but for how long, I don't have a lot of faith considering it worked last night and then not this morning. I should probably write it all down again but I'm not sure that I could do it myself anyway considering he had to work things on his end.

Sad to say, they all say they can't "See" my previous buckets but I do have the text and chat that shows it. No way to send it to them they say but I asked the last rep if he couldn't just scroll up the text and see it. He said he was doing that but then wasn't successful in adding the missing buckets back. Odd that they did a "partial" filling though.

I'm really crossing my fingers that I get it all back. I was saving up my data most importantly for a planned trip and they've shorted me so much! Texts are cheap to add, shorted over 2K so only little more than $10 but the data is where they really cheated me, shorted almost 10gb! I think it's $10 per 1 Gb to buy more so that's $100 shortage! That's around how much this new phone cost that came with prefilled buckets.

So sad but maybe they will call me back again, if not, I will keep trying. I feel like I shouldn't have to fight so hard especially since I have the info in black and white. Thank you again for everyone's help. The numbers provided by tomseys were so helpful in avoiding that awful wait when calling the regular support number on their site. Thanks!

[hpham]

If you need to enter the APN again, let us know and we can post screenshots of the APN parameters for you to key in.

[tomseys]

You may want to check that mobile data works for sure at some point.

You can do that by turning off Wi-Fi and then turning on Mobile data and then try to browse google.
Also note if there is an 4G LTE symbol showing.

Then you can turn wifi back on and data off if you want.

The reason for this is usually the correct APN for Tracfone devices is VZWINTERNET.

Sometimes though it is incorrectly set to TRACFONE.VZWENTP APN which doesn't work right. This APN is usually used with Straight talk and Safelink phones. In the past, this APN would cause a Tracfone/Verizon phone to lose voLTE and LTE - Voice and Mobile data.

Lately though it seems Voice/VoLTE/HD Voice still works with this APN though LTE/5G mobile data is lost.

So, if rep set it to this wrong APN, calls may work fine. But mobile data doesn't work.

If the right APN was set but not selected, even this can cause problems.

So just trying to get a feel for how it was corrected. Usually a simple entry change saved instantly fixes things and lots of restarts and sim removals are not needed. But then again maybe in your case it was required for some reason.

Also, if problems continue it would be helpful if you provided the HSN bought phone brand and model.

[fidoprincess]

Still trying to fix it through corporate numbers above. Each time I talk to someone, I lose more! Right now, I have no texts!

[fidoprincess]

This is so hard! Now this rep is saying I have no texts!

[tomseys]

This is so hard! Now this rep is saying I have no texts!

It can be tough. As you gain bucket units, take new screenshots.

Sometimes when I lost a lot and regained it, I would do a quick chat soley to have the rep confirm current balances (sometimes you may have to read it to them) and get a reference or ticket number and then copy/paste the chat text into a text file and save it to obtain a new current level of proof. This is in case it goes poof again or something happens to it.

Are you still missing a lot of data and voice minutes?

You can also take a break and come back to it. It can be stressful.