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Red Pocket Mobile Overview
Red Pocket Mobile is an MVNO that uses every major carrier in the USA to provide service to its customers. That means subscribers can choose between AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon during the signup process.
(Disclosure: I was not paid or asked to do this review. However, when applicable, affiliate links are used within the post).
Red Pocket Mobile was founded in 2006 and the company prides itself on being American owned. Their phone plans have been designed to cater to those who have a need for international calling and for those who would like to save some money on their phone bill.
Red Pocket Mobile's Monthly Phone Plans
All of Red Pocket Mobile's phone plans include international calling to over 70 countries. International calling minute allotments are equivalent to however many minutes the plan comes with. So a plan with unlimited minutes will have unlimited international calling. Similarly, a plan advertised as having 500 minutes will come with a combined 500 minutes that can be used either for domestic or international calls.
Network Used: T-Mobile, Verizon
Network Used: AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon
Network Used: AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon
Network Used: AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon
Multi-Month Discount Plans
Red Pocket sells multi-month discount plans, however, they can only be purchased through Amazon and eBay.
Amazon Plans
Current Amazon multi-month plans being offered are:
Unlimited talk and text with 3GB of hard capped LTE data
- Priced annually at $255 which works out to an average cost of $21.25/month.
- Priced bi-annually at $153 or $25.50/month.
- Priced by the month at $29.75.
Unlimited talk and text with 1GB of hard capped LTE data
- Priced annually at $204 which works out to an average cost of $17/month.
- Priced bi-annually at $127.5 or $21.25/month.
- Priced by the month at $25.50.
eBay Plans
Periodically Red Pocket Mobile puts its eBay plans on sale. Additionally, eBay occasionally offers discounts through the use of coupon codes.
At the moment, the MVNO is offering the following plans through eBay:
Basic Monthly Plan
Includes 100 minutes, 100 texts and 500 MB of LTE data to use each month priced annually at $60 which averages out to just $5/month.
Essentials Monthly Plan
Includes 500 minutes, 500 texts and 500 MB of LTE data to use each month priced annually at $99 or $8.25/month. The same plan is available with service for 90 days priced at $29 or $9.67/month.
Standard Monthly Plan
Includes 1,000 minutes, unlimited texting and 1 GB of LTE data priced annually at $179 or $14.92/month.
Unlimited Monthly Plans
Unlimited monthly plans include unlimited talk and text but come with varying amounts of data as follows:
- 1GB of data priced annually at $205 or $17.08/month. Priced at $69 or $23/month for 90 days of service.
- Pro plan with 4GB of data priced annually at $360 or $30/month. Also available for $109 or $37/month for 90 days of service.
AT&T Network Exclusive Plans
- 90 days of service with unlimited talk, text and data with the first 5GB at LTE speeds for $90 or $30/month.
- 90 days of service with unlimited talk, text and data with the first 10GB at LTE speeds for $135 or $45/month.
- 365 days of service with unlimited talk, text and data with the first 5GB at LTE speeds for $240 or $20/month (also available on Sprint).
My Experience With And Review Of Red Pocket Mobile
I purchased a Red Pocket Mobile SIM card kit and plan from Amazon. I bought the monthly plan that included unlimited talk and text with 3GB of high speed data. I elected to subscribe to the plan on Verizon's network or what the company calls a CDMAV plan. I used an unlocked 64 GB Motorola G4 Plus for the review. My service was maintained for over 60 days and I refilled my plan twice.
Initial Impressions
Red Pocket Mobile's SIM card kit supplied from Amazon was neatly packaged and came with detailed instructions on how to activate the plan on each of the 4 networks that it is compatible with. SIM cards for AT&T (GSMA), T-Mobile (GSMT) and Verizon (CDMAV) were supplied. To my surprise, there was no SIM card for Sprint (CDMAS). The instructions that came with the kit said that you could use the Sprint SIM that came with your phone. I surmise any Sprint SIM would do if you had one laying around. The instructions also said that if you don't have your own Sprint SIM, you could contact Red Pocket Mobile via Amazon messaging and they would rush ship you one.
What the KIT did not contain was a pin number for the plan I purchased. The pin number actually came in a separate email from Amazon and Red Pocket. So if you do order this or any other plan from Amazon, keep this in mind. I actually over looked the email that was sent and wondered where my PIN number was in the kit. D'oh!
Account Registration, Porting My Number In and Line Activation
Red Pocket's online account registration system seemed a little bit odd if not confusing to me. I was able to activate my service and port my number over before I even created an online account. On top of that, when you do create your account, you have manually add your phone number to the account. The whole process seemed a little less intuitive to me than perhaps it should have been. This was a different experience compared to what some of the other providers that I've tested offer.
On the bright side, the number port in was blazing fast. It was done in just 5 minutes! It was the fastest port in that I have experienced to date. I'm sure Ultra Mobile, the provider I ported out from should also be credited for that speed.
Line Activation Issues And Interaction With Customer Support
Although the number port in was fast, things were not without issue. I could not get the internet or MMS messaging to work. It was a classic APN issue, or so I had thought. Red Pocket's system told me to download an app to automatically configure my phone for service. I downloaded the app, but it did not work. In fact, the app told me it doesn't work because I don't have a Red Pocket SIM card?
What????
Next up I contacted customer support by chat about the issue (Saturday evening). I was convinced it was due to an APN issue and pleaded a little bit with them to tell me the APN. They insisted it had nothing to do with an APN. The representative tried for over 30 minutes to get it to work, but could not. Support said they would need to escalate the issue, but can only do so Monday thru Friday. I had ported on a Saturday. Before disconnecting from chat, the rep told me that since it was a new port, it could take a while for data to start working.
At this point I did seem to have MMS messaging working but still could not connect to the internet. I then tried to place a phone call. Guess what happened?
I heard a message stating that my account was not yet active! Good grief! The automated system told me to press the number 1 on my phone to activate my account. Once I did that, the call went through, and shortly thereafter I had working data! It seems that you can chalk some of the issue up to user error, and instructions that don't spell out clearly enough what to do to activate your account. I should also mention that Red Pocket's activation confirmation email went straight to my spam folder!
Two days after activation, I began to have trouble with my service again. This time I could not place or receive any phone calls. So back to customer support chat I went. I initiated a chat at about 1 PM, and about 10 minutes later I was connected to someone. Customer support this time seemed to be pretty slow to respond to my questions compared to when I spoke to them over the weekend. Again, support was unable to resolve my issue and I was told it would need to be escalated. Support told me it would take 24h - 48h to fix the issue and that I should contact them again in two days to check on things if they weren't resolved by then. The total chat time including the initial connection waiting period took 25 minutes.
Two days later I was able to get my service working, but it was not because of support. While trying to troubleshoot the issue on my own, I came across the following dialer code on the internet *#*#4636#*#*
By using that dialer code, I gained access to a hidden menu where I could see my "phone information" settings. Here I saw that my "voice service" was emergency calls only, the voice network type was set as "unknown" and my data network type as LTE. After playing around with things here, I discovered that if I set the radio band mode to Automatic, I got voice service. If I set it to United States, I had no service and the issues just described. I also had to set the preferred network type to "LTE/CDMA."
Account Dashboard
Red Pocket Mobile's account dashboard is nothing to write home about and unlike Ultra Mobile's, it won't get any style points. It's dashboard seems a bit dated but it does get the job done.
 Data Speeds And Consumption
For some of you this will be the most important part of the review. You want to be sure data speeds are fast, because no one likes waiting around for things to download and upload. Does Red Pocket Mobile deliver? The answer to that question is...
Yes!
No!
Well....maybe?
That confusion is intentional, because my data speeds were certainly confusing, they were inconsistent and at times throttled.
Traditionally Verizon MVNO's have had their download speeds capped off at a maximum of 5 Mbps and upload capped at 2 Mbps. I am happy to say that at least initially, my speed tests showed download and upload speeds to be uncapped. I had tested them every day for nearly a month and saw quite a bit of variation in the speeds, but they did remain uncapped. I will share the results of the speed test shortly, but first I want to discuss a few things that happened to me during my trial.
After nearly a month of testing, I stopped doing the speed tests. Then one day, a reader asked something along the lines of how my review was going and how the speeds were. I ran a test and got download speeds of 3 Mbps and upload of 1 Mbps. I didn't think much of it though, assuming that perhaps the network was congested when I ran the test. When I repeated it the next day, and the day after, and several days later, my speeds were still stuck at 3 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload! Clearly my speeds were being throttled for some reason. So, I contacted customer support again. (Update: 03/26/2018 - A Red Pocket Mobile representative has informed me that they had a system bug which caused some accounts to have their data speeds reset and throttled to 3 Mbps after plan renewal. This shouldn't be a regular occurrence.)
Upon initiating a chat this time, it was estimated I would have a wait time of 2 minutes. However, 12 minutes later, I finally reached a representative. I explained what was going on to customer support. They told me to hold on for a minute and that they would reset things on their end. When they were done, they said I should soon have faster speeds and to just reboot my phone. I thanked them and left the chat. After rebooting my phone, I did find out I had faster speeds. And can you guess what those faster speeds were?
5 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload!!
(Update: 03/26/2018 - a representative from Red Pocket Mobile has informed me that there no longer are any data speed restrictions on their CDMAV plans. Customers who have this issue should contact customer support to get unthrottled data.)
That certainly wasn't what I was expecting. So back to customer support I went. They insisted they never had faster speeds and the network was restricted to 5 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload. I of course had a lot of evidence to the contrary. I also had talked to them about VoLTE calling. Shortly after I first started service I had access to VoLTE. It seemed to come and go on a few occasions, but I'll get back to that later.
Unfortunately I really couldn't get anywhere with them about faster speeds. I do believe I was told though that they would have to get back to me later about VoLTE through email. My notes on this are a little bit lacking though.
I ended sending an email to a contact I have at the company asking them about my speed issue. The email went unanswered. Fortunately though, after several days passed, I had unthrottled data on the Verizon network once again.
What a strange experience this all was.
I have to assume the reason why I experienced all these different speeds during my trial, is that Red Pocket and or Verizon are testing out the impact of different speed tiers and unthrottled data on the end user. Verizon only started allowing unthrottled data on select Verizon MVNO's just months ago.
Overall I consumed over 6GB of data during the review period.
During the testing period, I ran 30 different internet speed tests at unthrottled LTE data speeds. The tests were run at different times of the day and different days of the week. Speeds were highly variable. When speeds were slower than expected, the results were confirmed by using a different server to run the speed test. In all I averaged download speeds of 16.29 Mbps and 9.72 Mbps upload. Download speeds ranged between a low of 1.63 Mbps and a high of 58.0 Mbps. Upload speeds came in as low as 0.22 Mbps with a high of 20.4 Mbps. Ping times varied a bit going no higher than 80 ms. The average ping time was 49 ms.
During the two different periods of time where my data was for some reason being throttled, I got speeds of 3.15 Mbps download and 1.08 Mbps upload during the slowest throttle period, and 5.27 Mbps download and 2.65 Mbps upload during the faster throttle period. Pings averaged 39 ms.
Tethering/Mobile Hotspot
Red Pocket Mobile's CDMAV plans are not advertised as supporting mobile hotspot, but to my surprise it worked without issue. I connected my Le Eco Le Pro 3 to the Motorola G4 Plus's hotspot with ease. Data speeds came in just as fast as they did on the Motorola. YouTube streamed at 720p without issue. I played Texas Hold 'Em through WSOP without any problems. I was surprised that I never got any warnings about tethering.
It should be noted that I only used tethering during the data periods where my speeds were unthrottled. It may not have worked during a throttling period.
Voice Calls And Text Messaging
During the course of the review I logged 239 minutes worth of calls with 93 minutes incoming. I had no dropped calls and the signal was good everywhere I used the phone. I did however experience one oddity. During my first month of service I actually had VoLTE. Unfortunately, it would work for a week, then disappear, then come back again. I did reach out to Red Pocket after it disappeared for a month, and customer support didn't think it was even available. After a brief chat though, they did confirm to me that it is in fact available and enabled for my account. However, it never lit up again on my phone by the time I finished the review. This could be due to more testing being done between Verizon and Red Pocket, just like they appeared to be doing with data, or some other issue related to the ROM that I was using with my phone.
Over 1,500 text messages were either sent or received during my trial period. I did not have any issues sending or receiving them, or issues with MMS. I did have a problem for a brief while with overly compressed MMS picture messages that came in at about 32 KB size no matter how big they were when they were sent to the line. The problem ended up not being caused by Red Pocket, but rather it was caused by the Android messaging app. When I switched to using the Verizon Messages app, the problem disappeared.
Customer Support Experience
My customer support experience has already been detailed throughout this review. Although the chat support representatives I spoke with didn't necessarily have an immediate answer to my questions, I did feel mostly satisfied with the experience. Getting in touch with someone was relatively quick and easy. Even if it took a little bit of time, they were able to eventually answer my questions. The only real disappointments to me is that they were unaware that their service was including unthrottled data and that the representative did not ask me if I formally activated my line by dialing any phone number which would have quickly resolved the non-working data and MMS issue I had when I first ported in.
I did not contact customer support by phone. However, they actually contacted me once! I got a call from them to tell me that VoLTE was not active on my line, and they just got it as a new feature a few weeks back. I surmise I was contacted due to one of my online chats with support.
I called their customer support number once just to check it out. Customer service is available in English, Spanish, Chinese and Filipino according to their website. Their support number is like many others in that you have to navigate through several menus before you get to a live person. When you finally get to the point of being put in a waiting list for support, Red Pocket does tell you how many people are waiting in front of you and your estimated wait time.
Ratings
Plans work on every major network in the USA
Multi-month plans offer some of the best value around
Data speeds were inconsistent
Recommendation
Those of you that like to jump straight to the ratings and recommendation section of a review, may be better served to read the whole review this time.
I did have a few bumps in the road with my service, some at the beginning, and a few oddities throughout the whole trial with my data speeds. It is the data speeds that may be an issue for some. For my needs, whether data was unthrottled or throttled, I really didn't notice a big difference in my day to day activities. The biggest differences were really only noticed while doing speed tests.
If you are really worried about data speeds on Red Pocket Mobile's CDMAV plans, aka Verizon's network, you may want to hold off until they finish doing whatever kind of testing that they are doing. I'll update this review if I receive word of the tests being completed. Â With that being said, for my needs I would not have any problem using the service as my main line.
(Update: 03/26/2018 - a representative from Red Pocket Mobile has informed me that some time around October of 2017, data speed restrictions were lifted on their CDMAV plans. They are working with their customer support agents to be sure that they know how to handle resetting customer's data speeds if issues like I experienced happen to them.)
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The whiners/trolls below are lying. I have had Red Pocket for many months now and have encountered ZERO problems they mentioned.
None. Zero.
RP technical support isn’t very good, and their customer service is as bad as any company I have ever encountered (including ATT Wireless when they had a class action lawsuit for improperly extending contracts, and the worst telco ever…the defunct MCI). They have my phone number, they are my telco. After having my call dropped three times with no callback, after holding forever on the fourth attempt to have a very basic question answered in regard to their (really bad) referral program I asked to have the response by email. Nothing.
I was trying to refer a friend, but i can’t in good conscience recommend Redpocket so I am going to recommend she switch from Verizon to Mint instead of RP. I wish I could switch myself, but I had recently re-upped with a 12 month plan. When that is done, there is no chance I will be renewing RP service.
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I just applied my codes and i had over 2 months left on current plan, which now I’m told I lost ? This is a complete rip off ! I previously paid for a years service and just bought another years service and now lost several months. I should not lose months that I paid for. Redpocket is secretly ripping off customers.
Besides the $1 extra charge, their website lacks many user-configurable settings that other carriers have. Very slow to respond to any click too. They even require you to contact them to enable the traditional voice mail, ouch!!! Will switch to another carrier for sure when the current plan ends.
Warning, Red pocket charges $1 per month to enable visual voice (tested $1 required on CDMA, their FQA page indicates 3 of the 4 network plans require the $1 additional monthly fee)!!!
Terrible service do not try this company is a scam Rip off . I have paid for 1 month in advance only to get NO service NO network phone unable make receive calls and text messages.
Ask for refund after contacting company 5 days in a row. Who would NOT refund me stating I had “plenty of usage” I had my phone 25 years and never experienced a terrible service like this during a crisis I missed calls regarding family and my calls from work. Total service after I would roam and roam connect to other networks to try to make a call does not even add up to 4 hours of service total.
I will be contacting better business bureau and rip off report then my bank to file a chargeback. I suggest you do the same so this fraud company will Not be allowed to steal peoples money any longer. I paid for a month service ” plenty of usuage” they did not held up there end of the contract. During easter I received zero messages could not call family. This company is not affiliated with any known providers they have zero towers which equals no service. Btw the plenty of usage as the representative told me and manager who I asked to speak to were the ones to send a text to the phone on day 1.
They gave me a phone number that was already taken. Most of my calls and texts went to a stranger, including some sensitive info. That stranger finally got ahold of me and let me know what they were pulling, i.e., doubling up phone numbers. Hey, it’s a way to make money I guess. STAY AWAY from this company, whatever you do, stay away. Sometimes the reason a service is cheap is because it’s not anywhere near worth the discounted price. That’s the case with this company. Their customer service is completely absent as well. There is no way to get out but to dispute on your credit card, which is what I had to do. Luckily I have a good CC company.
Yes, Red Pocket appears to be the cheapest MVNO out there. HOWEVER, their phone service is terrible! Their customer service support is THE WORST I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED IN MY LIFE! You can only evaluate their coverage when you are making or receiving a call. But how do you know you missed a call, when there is NO EVIDENCE OF THE CALL? This is what I have uncovered because I have had phone appointments with people and they said: “We called you, but you didn’t answer.” Or, “my call went straight to voicemail.” I was always waiting for the call and my phone never rang. There was no indication on the phone log that anybody called, and no notification that I received a voice mail. How do you track that kind of shoddy service when there is no evidence?
Every time I would contact customer support on the phone, it would take forever for them to get anything going – and then POUF I would get disconnected after 20 minutes of fruitless time on the phone forcing me to start all over again. Their final solution was always the same – please call us from a different phone, so we can “reset” your SIM card. But of course you have to shut it down and take the SIM card out first.
Seriously? who has multiple mobile phones ? Of course the “reset” never changed anything. I am still not receiving all calls made to me.
It is true: you get what you pay for! So if you want shoddy to non-existent service and miss important client and work calls – go ahead and use Red Pocket.
Having used redpocket’s ATT network for more than 15 months, I wouldn’t recommend this MVNO.
PRO:
1. The plans are very cheap. I got an annual plan with 5G high speed data, unlimited text and minutes. I bought the plan on eBay when there was a discount. So it cost me less than $200 for 12 months.
CONS:
1. CAN’T send photos to android phones. I have an iPhone and can only send photos to iPhones through iMessage.
2. NO HOTSPOT. Can only use the data on my phone. They provide hotspot service for free on other network, but not ATT. Be sure to check this if you need hotspot.
3. CAN’T receive phone calls. I live 25min away from downtown Atlanta. It’s almost impossible to make or take phone calls inside buildings. I got a google voice number to do that job.
4. CAN’T use VoLTE. They offer VoLTE on other network, but not ATT.
5. CAN’T use wifi calling. Wifi calling can be used on an Android device on the Red Pocket GSMT network (T-Mobile), cannot be used on ATT network.
6. CAN’T use Visual Voicemail services on iPhones with ATT network.
7. INCONVENIENT to check your balance. Redpocket doesn’t have an app. I have to login my account on their website every time.
8. INTERNATIONAL CALLS suck. Blurry even if I make the calls outdoor.
After all the plan is very cheap. You get what you pay for so I don’t wanna complain more about the service. Have changed to Verizon Prepaid.
We have a mobile sharing plan with ATT for 8 family members. We each want to pay for our own plans and I’d like to use a prepaid service. I know absolutely nothing about prepaid plans or how they work, however, these are our requirements/constraints:
1. We want 5GB or more of data and unlimited talk and text (international would be nice, but not a requirement)
2. We all have ATT phones (do they all have to be unlocked by ATT?)
3. We use mobile hotspot frequently. I’d like to have this feature (is there an app we can download on our phone that allows that?)
4. We want visual voicemail
5. We use family group texts for sending messages and group photos
I’ve read several reviews and frankly am really confused at which service to choose. We live in Texas, and ATT and Verizon works best in this area, but we all have ATT phones. Do we have to stick with ATT sim cards? I’m clueless about that.
Plus, I don’t want some of the younger members of our family having customer support issues and difficulty porting phone numbers, etc.
I’m also hoping that some of the issues stated on this site have been resolved by now, but who knows.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
I had the worst Ebay and cellphone experience ever in 20 years of owning one with Red Pocket this month. I ordered an annual 500/500/500 plan on their pink, Tmobile compatible plan though their Ebay link on 4/3/19. On 4/5/19, what I received was an UNCUT sim card that would not fit into a Samsung phone (it was giant card-it wouldn’t have fit into any phone I’ve ever owned). On 4/8/19, I contacted Red Pocket customer service and was told they would resend it as a Nano size card (over a 90 minute phone call). After waiting 7 days, I called Red Pocket again and was told the customer service agent didn’t put through the request right and it was never sent. They reordered it on 4/15/19 and I was told it would arrive in 1-3 days. After waiting 5 more days, I called today 4/20/19. I was told no, it was shipped 4/18 and it would take 5-7 business days shipping to arrive and that it will be here on 4/22-4/23. If it doesn’t arrive, call them again (each call required being on hold and talking for OVER AN HOUR). I had to activate the card on 4/8/19 otherwise I would lose my phone number since I bought this service to replace my expiring one (who pays for double service?). I have been paying for a service that I have not received, feel like I have received misleading information by the incompetent customer service department, and have been left without a phone for several weeks. They need to put in theirr ads that the sim card only ships in one size, big, and if it doesn’t work in the customer’s style of phone (most phones on the market today) then expect to wait 2 more weeks and spend at least 3-4 hours on hold on your customer service line. Horrid.
Joe,
So we were with AT&T for a long time and about a year ago we went and bought our Iphone 7 outright. We have been on Cricket for some time now and always have issues with text messages not going through and the service in our neighborhood has been terrible with both Att&t and Cricket. Everyone in our development says Verizon works great. Of course I don’t want to go back to paying crazy prices again. Iv’e been reading your reviews and answers to the questions you replied on and thought I would ask a couple of questions.
Will our iphone 7’s work with the likes of Red Pocket? or someone like Total Wireless? Or will we have to purchase new phones? I do not mind buying a new device and would probably buy one that is refurbed from Gazelle or something like that. If I do go that route should I select an unlocked iphone or one that says verizon ready?
Primarily my wife and I use our phone at home for texting and are mostly on wifi. On occasion we will be out and about and use data. I looked at our current plan usage and my wife hasn’t come closer to 1Gb over the last 3 months. I sometimes hit about 1.5/2.0 GB. We are not looking for anything fancy but want to make sure we purchase the correct phones and go with the correct vendor. From what I can tell right now, we are looking at Total Wireless, Red Pocket and Boom Mobile. What is your recommendation based on the criteria?
Thank you so much!
I m very satisfied with Red pocket service on cdma network. I m with them since 9 months. I have ported another 2 numbers with them. When i ported my number to cdma 9 months back i had some problem connecting to verizon network and it took 1 day to resolve the issue. But when i ported another number to cdma 2 weeks back everything went fine and i had red pocket service within 5 minutes of porting. So they must have fixed the glitches. I would definitely recommend Red pocket.
Do you have the correct and working APN settings for Verizon on RedPocket? Same issues, only works when I had them turn on VoLTE. If I turn it off on my phone, or by having them do it, I cannot make / receive calls. Please post the complete, correct and working APN settings. Thanks!
Can we send mms android red pocket at&t? For some reason, I only received a micro sim card for gsmt but I got nano for at&t, what gives? My phone only supports nano, potential red flag but I don’t have a choice at this point. I’m going to try out gsma and hopefully it works out in my area.
After almost three months of dealing with RED POCKET Mobile i have come to some conclusions 1: RED POCKET CDMA sim cards (VERIZON) will NOT work on Samsung phones because of some kind of issue that RP has with VERIZON and i know this to be a fact because i have tested other MVNO sim cards That are on the VERIZON network and they work perfectly on the Samsung phones ( i did not test them on other brands) . 2: RED POCKET will try to “STEER” you to the GSMA (AT&T) sim card for reasons that are unknown at this time even though they Advertise that you can choose any one of the networks >
AT&T, T-MOBILE,SPRINT or VERIZON. I’m Happy to finally have service even though it was not my first choice which was Verizon at least it works much better than AT&T which is terrible in our area a fact that i was aware of due to my prior research and testing .
Terrible, you are not allowed to send group messages and photos via text. Wtf
DONT USE RED POCKET MOBILE!!!
I dont know what kind of experience bestmvno had to give them such a glowing review, but mine was anything but positive.
I took a gamble with them since they had a great price, but when I actually tried to change my phone over, it would only do talk and basic text, not data or MMS messages. I spent ages with customer service trying to sort it out, but time and again it would end with them telling me to go take it up with the phone’s manufacturer. Really passing the buck.
Worst of all, when I ended service and asked Red Pocket Mobile for a refund, they flat out refused.
Red pocket mobile
-they’ll take your money
-they’ll waste your time
-they WONT give you working service.
I decided to try Red Pocket after being a customer of Verizon for over 15 years. I did a little bit of research before choosing Red Pocket and I liked the idea of staying on the same network. My plan was to transfer 1 phone over to test the plan, and transfer over 3 more phones if successful. I ordered a CDMA sim card on 11/6 directly from their website after verifying it had good coverage in my area and my phone was compatible with the SIM card. I received a SIM card about 5 days later I and attempted to activate it via the website. The site stated that it could not be activated. I called them about 815pm ish PST. I waited my turn for about 40min, and after explaining my situation the call was disconnected, almost as if their phone system shut off as I heard something in the background noise. I attempted to call back around 9pm PST, however the voice prompt stated their offices were closed. I was very perturbed that they took the call knowing that the phone system would turn off, and or at least warn me that the call may be disconnected due to the closure. Why would they not call me back knowing I could not add their service? I called back the next morning. RedPocket informed me that because of a contract that they could not port my # and activate a CDMA card from Verizon (which is not stated on their website), therefore I had 2 choices, 1) Switch to GSMA, or 2) Switch to GSMA, then after a month switch to CDMA. I decided to try GSMA for a while, and requested a GSMA card, 2nd card.
After waiting a week, I received a card, but it was the wrong one, so I had to call back to request a new one. Coincidently I experienced more phone problems. I waited my turn in line for 45 minutes and my call was disconnected. I called back and waited an additional 35-40 minutes for my turn, and it was disconnected again. I finally got a hold of someone by calling in the morning and requested the right card be mailed to me.
After receiving and activating the 3rd card I realized that I had no service in 90% of my residence. I double checked the coverage with the map provided on RedPocket, and it showed excellent coverage with no dead zones where I lived. I contacted RedPocket and requested a CDMA card as I knew this was more a reliable network. I was met with confusion from customer service as they insisted I purchased the card from Amazon, and they needed to charge me $10 to receive a card from them. After giving them my order #, they realized I was correct and mailed me out a free card.
After waiting another week I received my 4rd card. Upon receiving the CDMA card I contacted RedPocket, and told them I was ready to switch cards. I was informed that by switching networks it would nullify my current plan and I would have to pay for a new plan despite being on the plan for only a week (a policy that was not explained to me when ordering the CDMA card). I pointed out that I entered into a service agreement with them that I would have service according to the coverage they advertised. The agent got approval from their support team, and agreed to activate the card at no additional cost. About halfway through the process I was hung up on. I mentioned the phone issue with previous agents, but none of the agents acknowledged a problem. Since being disconnected and hung up on was so frequent I called back and complained, as well as to re-start the activation process. I was told that their agents do not have the ability to call customers back if the call is disconnected. I was told my phone was activated and needed to be rebooted in an hour in order for it to work.
My phone did not work after an hour and several reboots, so I called back. After waiting for my turn for 20min from a landline I was disconnected. At this point I was frustrated and fed up. I contacted Verizon and requested my number be ported back to them.
Verizon asked for an account # and pin #, which was never given to me from RedPocket so I had to contact RedPocket again. RedPocket informed me that they would release my number at 12am the following day. Of course that did not occur, so I had to call RedPocket. RedPocket acknowledged that it should have happened and released the # back to Verizon on 12/5/18.
Throughout my experience, I contacted RedPocket about 20x in a span of 30 days. At every encounter my attempt to activate and continue service was mismanaged. The agents were cooperative and pleasant, however the ones I spoke to did not appear to have the tools necessary to do a job and mismanaged my service, in addition wasted my time. I found that they could use more training with basic customer service, by putting themselves in the shoes of the customer. Their phone system caused frequent disconnections from reliable landlines and mobile numbers. They did not acknowledge the phone problem or attempted to rectify the problem. About the 10th phone call I requested that they not put me hold because of the frequent disconnections. Hold times are very long. Anytime after 9am PST one should expect a 30-45 min hold time, with a warning that you may be disconnected waiting in line or on hold. On one of the last calls I made I requested a refund for my troubles, the agent spoke with a supervisor and I was denied.
The price and the flexibility attracted me to RedPocket. My hope was to save a few bucks and bring the rest of my family over, however I was very disappointed. I wasted several hours attempting to switch carriers, which should be a relatively easy process. I would strongly advise anyone considering. RedPocket to not use them.
I can just tell you about my experience with RED POCKET , I decided to switch to their service on the 20th of the month figuring that any bugs could be worked out by the 1st of the month which was the end of my last carriers end date and wanted to port my number without loosing it. well the porting went smoothly but that’s the only thing that went smoothly. I had purchased a brand new (Unlocked) phone wanting to have the option to switch to any network without contracts, well after doing a lot of research i decided to use the CDMA sim card for Verizon which worked flawlessly for a few hours i turned off the phone turned it back on the next day and that’s when the problems started i kept getting a message on the phone (SIM CARD REFRESHING) i could make calls but no internet access at all and no media messages !!!!
well i got a hold of CS @ red pocket and after half an hour the CS agent said it’s probably a bad sim card and they will send me another one and whatever he did after that conversation and all the resetting of the phone i had no phone either but as long as they were to send me another sim card no problem right? well i got a sim card but it was a GSMT which i already had ?! so i called them again they said ok we’ll expedite another for you great right ? another few days and i get another sim card this time it’s a GSMA ? so i called again and also used the online chat to explain everything clearly giving them ALL the details i also sent them a few emails with all the pertinent information but never received anything back from them. It’s now going on three weeks and more than a dozen CS agents that i have been in contact with but to this date i do NOT have a working phone and am frustrated because i do not want to loose my number if i try to go with another company.
I hadn’t texted or called at all using Red Pocket and they kept saying that the balance was out, so I kept refilling the balance only to find out that I was never able to text and they were eating up all my moolah.
I switched from another mvno to RedPocket this week. I loved my previous mvno for years, no problems, and excellent customer service. But about a year ago, their gsm network started dropping me almost daily, and I would be unaware I was not receiving texts or phone calls, until others alerted me, and a few times they were important misses. YIkes! About 8 mos ago I got a brand new unlocked phone, and expected the problems to stop, but the same thing continued. That convinced me it was their network or settings problem, and monthly calls to their help line did not find a solution. I decided to try a different mvno that uses AT&T towers, and that is how I ended up at RPM. I ordered the $15/mo service with free SIM on their website, and it arrived in 3 days. Porting and set up went smoothly. I did have to contact RPM customer service (via chat) to complete the port, but that was my mistake, I entered an incorrect PIN for porting away from previous mvno. Anyway, they fixed it and I was up and running within 30 min of contacting them. Text and phone are working fine. My other 4 family members are still with previous mvno since they have never had the problems I did. I will see how it goes with RPM, then decide whether to move everyone over. With teens, I do like RPM’s “unlimited texts” plan, we didn’t have that before. I like using the mvno’s!! Like I said, our previous mvno has been great, $60-70/mo for 5 lines (we are low data users), excellent customer service, can’t beat it! So far, [knock on wood] RPM appears to work just as smoothly. I would ditch my cell before paying the major carriers’ prices, it’s ridiculous. With a little patience and research, mvno’s have worked great for us.
I wasted an entire day trying to switch to Red Pocket. I couldn’t activate online and received an error message telling me that my number could not be activated (ported) due to my current carrier’s rules. I spoke to 3 different support staff at RP, one of whom told me I had to buy a GSMA sim for my CDMA phone before they could port my number and then they’d transfer it from GSMA to CDMA. I went to 4 different stores (based on his recommendation) and couldn’t find any Red Pocket Mobile products. I came home and decided to call Verizon, speaking to 4 different reps until I got someone in the porting department. She said there was nothing preventing the porting of my number and Verizon had no such rule. Back to Red Pocket. I waited 30 minutes for phone support before resorting to online chat. From there, the rep was able to activate my sim and port my number without any problem. It was almost immediate. I’m having doubts about leaving Verizon wondering what lies in store based on this experience and wish I’d seen this review sooner.
Don’t buy Red Pocket, I bought a 12 months services after activation, I found it’s not enough and wanted to change the plan, I called the customer services to ask, they said if I change the plan, the remaining balances in my account will be gone. That means I will lost money if I change the plan.
Second, the activation process is long. my past experience to port the number is fast, within 15 mins it’s done. But with Red Pocket, it took almost one day. I have to call them many times to check the progress.
In conclusion, I can’t wait to cancel Red Pocket once the 12 months period is over.
Looking to save some money but this and comments sound bad so I’m staying with ATT, A+ customer service, coverage, and service at just under $100/month for 2 lines. I’ll pay the extra $40 to avoid these issues!
Terrible. Stay away! CS lies to you, then does nothing to fix their mistake. I lost a year service prepaid purchase plan after only using it for two months. I contacted customer service who advised me during a phone swap that I could change service plan. I swapped my phone and gave my old phone away, but then they told me I had to have the original phone to make the changes, admitted mistake and contradicted their previous advice. I had no way to get my original phone, so they wouldn’t fix it, and I was out 10 months of service that I had already paid for! If you are Red Pocket, please reach out to me, but no one from CS was willing to help me.
I just confirmed with RP live chat CS that Wifi Calling is NOT available. Confirmed it for all 4 major carriers.
I,m on my first month with rp with an iphone se . I tried to send a picture but would not get delivered I was told by cs you cannot send pictures with an iphone unless you jailbreak your phone or the receiver also has an iphone.
I have been using red pocket for 6 months. 95% of the time the calls that ppl make to you will not go through. Majority or all of them get dropped after three rings. And you wont even hear a ring. Worse is the caller gets feeling that you are disconnecting the phone deliberately. I paid for a 1 year service and now i am repenting. RED POCKET sucks big time and their customer care sucks big time. this is pure cheating that they lock you into a one year rate and not help you. Very very disappointing.
My suggestion to everyone, please stay away from this service
I am currently on Verizon postpaid service and have just paid off the phone payment plans on my Samsung S8 and my wife’s S8+. Now that they are paid off, will they work on the Red Pocket network if I were to take my service over to them?
Also, how does voicemail work with Red Pocket?
Thanks!
I have never had a problem with my RP Verizon service. I ported from pageplus and subscribe to the $15/mo. plan.
Avoid this company. Missing calls randomly and no voicemail notification.
Customer service is terrible and tech support asks “wait 24 hrs” dozens of times. Then finally no fix.
Redpocket advertises that Hotspot and tethering is allowed, but they just disabled mine…and now telling me that it is not available on GSMA networks.
Stay away or make sure you verify with them before buying/switching.
Thanks for your helpful review! I recently switched from Verizon postpaid to prepaid and have noticed a huge difference in latency due to prepaid customers receiving lower priority on the network. Would using an MVNO like Red Pocket be a similar experience to being a Verizon prepaid customer?
Hi Joe,
I am having a similar issue with my Unlocked Galaxy S8 (purchased from Samsung). They sent me a CDMAV (verizon) sim, i am using a new line. Everything was fine initially, it activated fine, i was able to make calls, texts even LTE was working.
The agent said he reset the line for something and i had to reboot after than. After rebooting i dont get service at all.
If i make a call, it says “not registered on network”. No
When i go to network mode, i dont see “LTE / CDMA” option. I just see “LTE/3G/2G”, “3G/2G”, “2G only” and “3G only”.
Cant access *#*#4636#*#* menu (due to no service at all?).
I am not sure what to do now. Agent said they are escalating the issue (hopeless people, they dont have a clue) and it would take 48 hours something. They are just saying they had issues with S8 for other customers too.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Atif
bought their 2 +1 free month service plan back in 10/17. lost ALL data, text, and voice balances at the end of each 30 day period for a couple of hours or more. they re-set plans 12:01 eastern time, 9:01pm west coast time, then another two or more hours without any service, waiting for the system to reboot. so, prime time 9 – 11 can’t call (or receive), text, and use data. after i experienced the above going from month2 to month3, i went looking for another mvno; signed up with mint sim.
customer service is slow, ime. it seems like reps are dealing with multiple customers at a time. a request to review one’s questions results in at least a 3 min. hold, and on many occasions they attempt to paraphrase the question, but not the issue i asked about!
i had essentials plan, 500mb of data, too little to do speed testing. in fact, used it all on volte (was default setting on my phone) the first month. then was disgusted by their re-setting issues and from then on, only used wifi.
I have used Red Pocket ( Verizon ) service for five months, primarily due to the $ 15 plan. Many technical and billing issues, though most were resolved after contacting CS. I purchased a 90 day plan directly from RP but had service stopped after each 30 day period, requiring a call to CS. Data speeds were atrocious 0.2Mbps, called service, and they sent an email saying my speed was upgraded to 3/2 Mbps up/down after powering down the iphone, removing sim card and restarting–I thought I was supposed to get a minimum of 5/2 speeds ! If it weren’t for the 1000 minute/text and 1 GB plan for great price of $ 15, I would go elsewhere, though want to avoid Carlos Slim plans with horrible CS departments.
I used Red Pocket on Verizon a few years ago and recently went back strictly for a second line on AT@T/Cricket as the Ebay was too hard to pass up. For domestic US service they’re fine.
I have both Red Pocket and Total, both using Verizon towers. Also, both on Verizon Moto E that was being sold at Walmart for $39.99. Consistently, Total was faster than RP. I have not test once when RP was even close to being as fast. No idea why…Calling RP customer service I find that they might as well be calling Burger King, they know almost nothing about there product. I haven’t had to call Total, thus, I can’t comment on there service.