Overview
Total Wireless is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, or MVNO that operates on the Verizon network. MVNO's are typically small companies that don't have their own wireless network, but rather buy minutes, texts and data at wholesale prices from major networks that they then turn and resell to you the consumer.
(Disclosure: I was not paid or asked to do this review, however, when applicable, affiliate links are used within the post).
Total Wireless has been in service for nearly 2 years and it is actually a TracFone owned brand.
Plans
Single Line And Family Plans
All plans include unlimited talk and text. Mobile hotspot is not allowed.
Limited time offer, new customers get 1.5 times more data than what's shown below!
Total Wireless Base 5G Unlimited
Plan Features- 4G LTE and 5G Nationwide network connectivity, no 5G Ultra-Wideband network connectivity
- Unlimited talk and text to Canada and Mexico
- Free talk, text, and data roaming in Canada and Mexico. High-speed data roaming limited to 10GB per billing cycle
- Video streaming limited to a resolution of 480p
- Can only allow one device to connect to your phone’s hotspot at a time
- Get $200 off your next 5G phone after 12 monthly payments when you sign up for Total Rewards. Get $100 off after 6 months
Total Wireless’s terms and conditions now contain the following provision about their unlimited plans:
“If the amount of a single mobile line’s total monthly data use in a Plan cycle exceeds the average amount of data consumed by the top 0.5% of users on the network during the preceding six-month period, we may reduce data speeds to your device to 1.5Mbps for the remainder of the cycle.”
Total Wireless 5G Unlimited
Plan Features- Includes 4G LTE, 5G Nationwide, and 5G Ultra-Wideband network connectivity
- Video streaming tested by me capped at roughly 9Mbps when connected to 5G Ultra Wideband, more than enough for 1080p streams, and roughly 4.5Mbps on LTE, more than enough for 720p streaming and in some cases good enough for 1080p. You may be able to get these speed caps removed by calling customer support
- Includes Disney+ free for 6 months
- Includes priority data, during times of network congestion, your data speeds won’t slow down compared to other customers on the network
- Includes 15GB of mobile hotspot, hotspot limited to 5Mbps, only one device can connect to your phone’s hotspot at a time
- Get $200 off your next phone purchase after 12 monthly plan payments when you are signed up for Total Rewards. Get $100 off after 6 months
- International calling to over 85 destinations, texting to over 200
- Includes roaming in Mexico and Canada. 10GB of data can be used per billing cycle while roaming
- Roaming in 15+ countries
Total Wireless’s terms and conditions now contain the following provision about their unlimited plans:
“If the amount of a single mobile line’s total monthly data use in a Plan cycle exceeds the average amount of data consumed by the top 0.5% of users on the network during the preceding six-month period, we may reduce data speeds to your device to 1.5Mbps for the remainder of the cycle.”
Total Wireless 5G+ Unlimited
Plan Features- Includes 4G LTE, 5G Nationwide, and 5G Ultra-Wideband network connectivity
- Video streaming tested by me capped at roughly 9Mbps when connected to 5G Ultra Wideband, more than enough for 1080p streams, and roughly 4.5Mbps on LTE, more than enough for 720p streaming and in some cases good enough for 1080p. You may be able to get these speed caps removed by calling customer support
- Includes Disney+ subscription for free
- Includes priority data, during times of network congestion, your data speeds won’t slow down compared to other customers on the network
- Includes unlimited mobile hotspot, hotspot data speeds limited to 5Mbps, only one device can connect to your phone’s hotspot at a time
- Get $200 off your next phone purchase after 12 monthly plan payments when you are signed up for Total Rewards. Get $100 off after 6 months
- International calling to over 85 destinations, texting to over 200 and a $10 long distance credit to 120+ destinations
- Includes roaming in Mexico and Canada. 10GB of data can be used per billing cycle while roaming
- Roaming in 15+ countries
Total Wireless’s terms and conditions now contain the following provision about their unlimited plans:
“If the amount of a single mobile line’s total monthly data use in a Plan cycle exceeds the average amount of data consumed by the top 0.5% of users on the network during the preceding six-month period, we may reduce data speeds to your device to 1.5Mbps for the remainder of the cycle.”
Add On Features
A data add on card is available to add to any plan at any time priced at just $10 for 5 GB of data. The nice thing about the data add on card is that any unused data leftover on the card will carryover month to month for as long as you keep your service active.
International calling is only available via the purchase of a $10 add on card. Total Wireless charges different rates depending on where you call. Rates start at 2.5¢ per minute for calls to Mexico. International texting is not supported at this time.
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My Experience With And Review Of Total Wireless
I purchased an unlocked Motorola G 4 Plus that I activated on Total Wireless for a period of 30 days. I purchased a SIM card kit from Walmart (also available from Amazon and Total Wireless), and bought the $35 plan that includes 5 GB of data with unlimited talk and text directly from the Total Wireless website.
Total Wireless gives an autopay discount of $2.80, and I enabled it at signup and to my surprise I was able to purchase the first month of service with the discount. Unfortunately, taxes and fees were not included with the price. In my area taxes and fees amounted to $3.48 making the actual price I paid for service $36.68. At the time of this review, this Total Wireless plan was the cheapest Verizon MVNO to offer unlimited talk and text with at least 5 GB of data.
Data Speeds And Consumption
Verizon MVNO's are known to have their speeds limited to roughly 5 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload. This is essentially what I experienced while testing Total Wireless. (Updated 8/28/17 TracFone owned Verizon MVNO's no longer have LTE speed restrictions. With Total Wireless, in many areas you may now get download and upload speeds that are 10x higher than what was initially tested in this review.)
During my testing period, I ran 20 different internet speed tests at different times of the day and different days of the week. Speeds were pretty consistent regardless of the time of day or day of the week that they were run. I averaged download speeds of 5.17 Mbps, 2.03 Mbps upload and a ping time of 92.9 ms.
With real world use, I did not perceive any difference in website page load times compared to my main wireless plan on the T-Mobile network, where I use a LeEco Le Pro 3 as my main device. I found that I was able to stream YouTube videos at 1080p without any stuttering or issues. Using Netflix I also experienced no issues with the Netflix app set to stream on high, which the app says consumes about 1 GB of data per hour.
I watched about 20-30 minutes of streaming video on each platform with no issues or complaints.
I also listened to several hours of streaming audio via Amazon Prime Music, as well as Tune In radio. I was able to stream audio with no issue using either app and was perfectly satisfied with the service.
Data consumption during the review was 3 GB.
Voice Calls and Text Messaging
Admittedly, I am not big on speaking on the phone so my talk time was rather limited. I logged about 60 minutes of phone calls spread out over a combination of 10 incoming and outgoing calls. I had 0 dropped calls and had a signal everywhere I went, which was a nice change compared to my T-Mobile daily driver where for about 40 minutes a day I'm in a building with no signal. My location still does not have T-Mobile band 12 support, but I digress.
Phone calls were clear but I did hear a small amount of background static. The small amount of static was confirmed to be caused by the phone itself, because I heard the same sound while placing a call over Wi-Fi using Google Hangouts.
During the test period I sent and received roughly 800 text messages and dozens of MMS picture messages. All text messages were sent and received successfully, however, a few MMS picture messages sent to a Cricket Wireless number got lost in space and never delivered. I believe this issue to be due to how Cricket/AT&T and Verizon handle MMS messages but not the fault of Total Wireless. I believe this because the same issue occurred on occasion when MMS picture messages were sent to the Cricket number from a phone on a Verizon post paid plan. The culprit here is likely due to the picture messages being sent are slightly larger in size than what AT&T/Cricket can accept.
Tethering
I was able to successfully tether my phone to my PC and watch YouTube and Netflix as well as browse the internet. The test I conducted lasted about 20 minutes. I did not have any issues or notice things loading slower compared to my main cable network which gets download speeds of roughly 20 Mbps.
Tethering is not officially supported by Total Wireless, so if you are going to try it yourself, you are using at your own risk. Total Wireless may choose to send you a warning not to Tether or to disable your account if they find your are abusing their network.
Customer Support
Some say customer support is the bane of any TracFone owned brands existence. A search on the internet and you'll likely find quite a few loud voices complaining about customer support issues.
During my time with the provider I did not have any need to contact customer support for any issues. I did however contact them several times both through their online chat service and over the phone to test wait times one may have if they do in fact need to contact customer support.
Chat Wait Times
I initiated a chat with Total Wireless on 6 different days using different time points. The average time it took to get my chat answered was just 2 minutes, and this includes initiating a chat just 2 days after the Christmas holiday when one may expect customer support to be more heavily taxed during the holiday season with people activating their brand new devices. On one of the post Christmas chats, the chat service told me that they were "experiencing a high volume of chat at this time and to please try again later." I elected to wait, and reached a customer support representative just 6 minutes later.
Phone Call Wait Times
I placed 5 different calls to customer support and the longest wait time that I experienced was 6 minutes and 45 seconds. Two of my other calls were answered by a customer support representative instantly, while another call took 2 minutes. When my calls weren't being answered instantly I was given the option to either wait or have Total Wireless call me back within 3-5 minutes. Since I did not have any issues to discuss with customer support, I disconnected the call once answered. To my surprise, I found that when I hung up the phone, a real person from customer service called me back instantly and left me a voicemail notifying me that my call was disconnected and that I could call back to discuss my issues. The fact that I got called back right away after a disconnection is appreciated and likely will be appreciated by anyone who has ever had a phone call dropped during a support issue only to find that they have to call support back and start all over as if the call never happened in the first place.
Porting In/Out
Porting in was not tested as this was a new line of service with a new number.
Porting out required me to call Total Wireless to ask them to release my number. The call to the company was answered instantly by a real person, however, since it was a port out, I was transferred to another department which took 30 minutes to be answered at 8 PM in the evening on a week night. I had to call Total Wireless to ask them to release my number because I gave the wrong account number to my new provider.
If you end up needing to port out from Total Wireless or are porting out from any other carrier, I suggest you initiate your port out several days before your plan expires to avoid losing your number. Porting out to another carrier from Total Wireless requires you to give that carrier your phones IMEI number, which is what is used as your Total Wireless account number. Your account pin number for porting out by default is 0000 unless you set it to something different.
Ratings
(Updated 8/29/17 - the rating was updated to reflect the changes in download and upload speeds provided by the network)
Good bang for your buck
Good network coverage
Recommendation
My experience with Total Wireless was a good one, and based on that I would have no problem recommending the service or using the service for myself, although since I use a lot of data, the T-Mobile plan is still a better choice for me.
A majority of those who do choose to signup for service with Total Wireless should find the network and service suitable for their needs, unless of course they are one of the unlucky ones who have a need to contact customer support with a serious issue.
See also: | Total Wireless news and deals, New subscribers get 1.5 times more data!
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My husband had Total Wireless first. Then I got it. They refused to combine the 2 lines into one account for the discount because they claim it was for the reason we had new accounts. So for almost a year the auto pay worked fine. Then our phones stopped being topped up. Went into the accounts and the auto pay was shut off. When I called them they told me the bank had rejected the payment. NO!!!! There was no record of it at my bank that they even tried. I called them out on the lie. They made it sound like we had no money in the bank!!!! This has happened 4 months in a row. I continuously check to see if the auto pay is still on. It seems to shut off the day the payment is due. Every time they tell us the payment was rejected. Every time we tell them the auto pay was shut off. They just don’t seem to get it!!!! We WILL be dumping them ASAP I won’t be treated that way!!!!
I couldn’t get past activation. I paid for a group plan and 3 SIM cards. The cards arrived, and I couldn’t activate without a PIN. I couldn’t get a PIN without an account. I couldn’t log into an account without an activated phone. Live Chat? Useless. First person couldn’t help, so they gave me to technical help. They told me I didn’t have a plan. But I have an email with the order number, and my credit card was already charged for the plan. When I told them I was frustrated and thinking of sticking with my current carrier, they just said “Okay”. And that was that.
In the Memphis TN area. Data service is really slow to non existent, and consistently that way. If data is important and you live in this area, you may want to try another carrier. As for customer service, I do not have trouble reaching them, but getting the issue resolved is a pain. The first tech is going to take you through a preset plan of action which involves resetting network settings, power down the phone for 1 minute, and reboot. So you need to call CS from an alternative phone. When that fails they “escalate” the problem and finally they will tell you that the engineering department will work on it and give it 72 hours. In one case (I have to call them constantly about data not working. I mean we are talking 0.1 Mbps speed tests.) they actually contacted Verizon and after 15-20 minutes had me reboot the phone again. Within a day or 2 I am right back to zero on data. Talk and text are fine. But if you need data as they say in the northeast “forget about it”. I am told that really none of the mvno’s that use verizon ever get LTE speeds. But hey, I can live with 3G. So far with my LG G7 phone, no data at all. Cannot even use the map app.
Beware! If you buy a phone from them, this “no-contract” service turns out to have a contract! I paid $170 for a smart phone from their website and after 7 months use I tried to unlock my phone to use it in a different service. Turns out their fine print locks you into their service for a year if you want to take your phone with you. THIS IS NOT “NO-CONTRACT!” FASLSE ADVERTISING! I do not recommend this company.
Total Wireless = Total frustration. Prepare yourself for letdowns and an extremely frustrating experience if you attempt to contact customer service (customer disservice!!)
I have been with Total Wireless for four years, until now. If you use this company, PRAY nothing ever goes wrong, you want to switch a phone, your phone breaks and needs replacing, etc. etc. etc. ABSOLUTE ABISMAL CUTOMER SUPPORT, BOTH ONLINE AND OVER THE PHONE. The horrible website is an absolute joke; though it makes out like you can do things simply online, IT NEVER WORKS! Then you call, and find yourself talking to an English-as-a-second-language tech support that you can’t understand, who knows only how to read from pre-written queue cards. PATHETIC! This company takes your money and bathes in it, and puts NOTHING back into customer service or any real quality! IF YOU BUY THIS AFTER READING HERE, YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE!
Holy mother of pearl! Just switched 4 phones (3 Galaxy S9s, 1 PixelL from Verizon to Total Wireless which will save $100/month (100gb 4 line familyplan). I am really holding back the invective stream here, but 12 hours dealing with customer support is just insane. Two lines switched fine, 2 were problems.
First, every call took several attempts due to very poor call quality. Second was an endless loop where I’d go through the same process, Online chat would refer me to the customer no-service phone line. Had to go through an automated reset process EVERY TIME, then the CSR would take me through procedures and determine they couldn’t fix it. They would transfer me to the “port forwarding” department. Every. single. transfer. dropped. 100%. of. the. time.
Eventually, one CSR determined he could do a warm transfer (stayed on the line until someone answered) though others told me that was not possible. Regardless, the warm transfer worked. This is how the first two lines were activated.
TW never could fix the last two lines. I was about to give up and go back to VZW when it occurred to me to Google my issues. Plenty of online experts suggested my issues were common issues. The detailed steps they provided worked like a charm. All is good now. We can do everything we could on VZW with the same call quality.
I’m an IT person. This switch is not for the faint of heart. Customer service will give you a lot of very bad guidance. The savings is worth the hassle, but you may not have the patience for it.
I decided to use this because it was handy and available next to the phone I bought at Walmart. The coverage wasn’t bad but wasn’t great either. Sometimes i used to get texts a good two hours after the person had actually sent it. Wifi coverage was spotty. I mostly just needed phone for calling in case of emergencies so I put up with the bad coverage. Within a year they cancelled coverage of my phone without informing me. I had bought my usual monthly top up card which when I tried to use led me to customer service that told me that I wasn’t covered anymore. They only option they gave me was buying a new phone with them.
The worst customer service I have ever come into contact with. The person refused to listen to my issue. I have never been so frustrated speaking to a customer service rep. as I was then. I was so angry I literally cried because they just wouldnt even listen to the issue I was having. They refused to give me a refund considering they suddenly dropped service of my phone model. They stated that my phone number had already been given to someone else. They refused to transfer me to a higher up. After repeated attempts they claimed to hand me to a higher up but the person had the exact same voice so I doubt that that was the case. I would never recommend them to anyone.
Customer service makes me want to pull my hair out. I always manage to get the same person who is extremely nosey asking questions that have nothing to do with my call and seems upset when a can’t understand his accent.
Total Wireless has the worst customer service. They keep you on the phone for hours without a resolution. If you don’t want to waste time and possibly loose your patience just skip this service. I am literally on the phone with them as I type trying to find out why I can’t port to a new company to find they disconnected my line from my account number even though my phone works. Next rep just transferred again.
Total Wirelesss is a great plan for our family,for what we need. I have 2 teenagers and they never complain about the service. When you do have a problem, it stinks bad. The service is horrible. ???????????????????????????????????????? Talking with the agents are just horrific. I can’t believe the supervisor over some of them allow them to even work there. I won’t ever recommend this company to anyone because of the service when you do have a problem. You know what your in for before you even start dialing. This company is reasonably priced but I’m almost ready to go to a company where you can at least talk to someone in person. Every single person I talk to will give you a different answer. And you will talk to more than one when you have issues and for hours too!!
Total Wireless sucks at customer service and their rewards suck too. Too bad their rewards program and customer service isn’t as good as their phone service. I was promised 7000 points for adding 3 more lines , 21,000 in total and I waited the 60 days for them to “Pend” and then they mysteriously disappeared off my account. They gave me a bs story of all I did wrong when the 60 days passed when I tried to use them so now I call them everyday and bug the crap out of them and write bad reviews when ever I can.
Bad customer service. Going back to my original carrier.
Changed to Total Wireless by porting a business cell phone from Verizon to Total Wireless. Process was smooth. One month later, the phone shuts off for no apparent reason. I contact total Wireless and they have no record of the phone at all. They verified that the sim card in my phone was theirs, but that it had never been activated. I had been using the phone for a month already. They also insisted that the phone had never been activated as well. finally, they said that the phone number was not in their system so I should check with Verizon…..even though I had been using the phone with their sim card.
I called Verizon who, predictably, showed that the number had been ported out.
3.5 hours later, they finally found the number and resolved the issue. My business line had been down for Saturday and Sunday without my knowledge and then remained down for half of Monday meaning that our customers would hear a disconnect notice or out of service notice when they called our main business number. We have no idea how many hundreds of dollars were lost.
they offered to make right my 3.5 hours of awful customer service and my hundreds of dollars of lost revenue. their offer was one whole day of credit service. Since it is a two line plan that equals $2. Wow!!
Awesome amazing service and great attitudes, got me wanting to buy more than I needed.
They are only great at the beginning and overtime you will come to the same conclusion that everyone came to which is they provide a bad service, bad customer service and worst of all worst online services.
I had total wireless for around 4 yrs.. on sept 29 I had total knee surgery … So never got to go bk to Walmart to get my phone refilled… I went in to fill my phone on April24 2019… I went in and then I was told that since it been months they will not reavicated it say that I would have to buy a new phone this isn’t good not everyone can buy a new phone all time and there was nothing with my phone …..
Terms I didn’t know about hurt me! I would have happily joined the people saying they liked this service until it came time to leave. Although they were willing to let me leave without a penalty, they told me they wouldn’t unlock my phone that I had just bought (paid in full) three months ago. They told me they won’t unlock any phone unless it has ben activated for at least a year. I had to abandon the phone I like and buy a new phone at my new provider.
We have three phones on the 20 GB family plan. For the second month in a row they claim we used more data than our phones show. This month they say we used 19.4 GB while our phones show we used 5 GB. Customer Service says they cannot give me up-to-date usage amount. Would be handy if customer service agents could speak better English. I’m tired of renewing the plan early. They may be forcing me to look elsewhere.
The restriction on tethering is a big deal. We travel a lot and need that. Furthermore, if I pay for 5 GB of data, it’s MINE MINE MINE and it is up to ME how to consume the data. Period.
Has anyone with an Iphone had any success getting the Mobile Hotspot to work ?
Mobile hotspot is allowed. I use it frequently when traveling. Galaxy S8.
I’ve been with Total Wireless about 7 months. Initially, my 5G LTE data was about what my LG phone data reflected. For the last 2 months, the data differs by over 2GB from what my phone indicates I have used. Whenever I’ve contacted TW customer service (only by phone call) they promised a phone call back. I NEVER received a call back. I was initially on a different APN than what I am on now. A bunch of runaround BS and I get the same customer service reps using different English names, but East Indian accents.
First don’t believe their web site. Wi-fi calling will not work on Verizon phones on a BYO phone activation. It says it will. Your IMEI will say good to go but it will not work. I spent 3 hours on the phone to get the account setup and 2 phones activated. Got disconnected after an hour on the phone with first rep when I asked to speak with a rep that spoke reasonably fluent English.
After about 5 hours total phone time with customer support that could not get either phones wi-fi calling working I said I wanted a refund. They then lost the connections again. Another 30 min call I got someone and they said “so sorry – you used 300mb of your 22 GB data so we can’t refund your $$. I said the rep told me to go to google to see if data was working. How are you supposed to find out it’s not working if you don’t try it? Their rep told me to do it. I had to go back home and get the order number off the home PC email which is where the order was created. Then another hour on the phone through multiple people to get the address to send the sim cards back to to obtain a refund.
This is the most painful experience I’ve ever had with anyone anywhere. I would not recommend them to anyone.
Hopefully they will actually refund my $$$ when they get the SIM card back.
I have had total wireless for a few months now. The phone service is great, but pray you never have to talk to customer service. I purchased a phone outright that i was having problems with and was told i could exchange it and then later was told no you can’t. Because i paid for the whole thing at once, i am stuck with a phone i don’t want and they will not allow me to return for credit, even though i contacted them within the 30 day period. The bottom line is, Total Wireless does not care about their customers. the representatives sound like robots and just keep saying the same thing over and over until you get so frustrated you just hang up. Which is what they want.
Total Wireless is the best value of all cellular services! I have never had a better wireless service or lower costs — and I have tried as many different services as most professional reviewers. Total Wireless uses Verison towers, which are superior to all other networks — bar none! I get uncompromised signals in areas where all other networks fail. I have even managed to teather my laptop using Total wireless. I prefer to purchase the $35 / 6GB plan through Walmart, even though I keep my data usage low by keeping WiFi turned on whenever possible. With other plans by other vendors, 5GB would always be woefully short for me. Using Total Wireless and performing large data transfers at home, I often use less than 2GB in a given month.
Kindly disregard the biased comments by those who seem to have chips on their shoulders for various reasons. I should mention that you should always avoid ZTE and Huawei phones, regardless of the network on which they may be used. I prefer low-end Samsung and even Motorola (with some reservations since it is owned by the ever so sinister Google) over most other brands of phones.
My second service choice would be Cricket, who uses AT&T towers, although coverage is not quite as good. I used Cricket for years. T-mobile and services who use their towers, are mediocre at best. Boost is a joke, since it uses Sprint towers (also a joke). I hope this narrows the field by those who have not yet made up their minds.
F Total Wireless
They are owned by the same company as tracfone,net 10, straight Talk, safelink, Tercel, Walmart family mobile. They are crooks and have zero customer service, do not use them
I purchased a Refurbished iPhone 6 from total wireless in September of this year. The phone never worked properly. It would drop calls or the person on the other end could not hear me. I used the phone very seldom for calls and at first I thought it was just bad cell service, but after the first month or month in a half of it never working I figured it must be the phone. I called customer service and they did several tests and told me I had a bad sims card and I would have to buy a new one. I told them it never worked since I bought it and didn’t understand why I had to pay for the new card. Finally they agreed to send me a new sims card. I received the new sims card a few days later and it did not Change anything, the phone still did not work. I contacted customer service again but they would not let me return the phone, the switched me to someone at Apple, and was told to send it to them for a replacement. I did that and got the new phone from Apple and thought the matter was closed, but then I received a email from Apple that I would be charged full price for the replacement because the original phone was refurbished with non Apple parts. I once again contacted total wireless and they refused to help me. I canceled my phone service today and sent the replacement phone back to Apple so I will not be charged for it. I was on auto payment for total wireless and they just took a payment on the 28th of November for December. I was also told they would not refund any of that money even though I stopped the service before the month even started. So now I’m out at least two hundred dollars and have a phone that never worked, or will ever work, and your company is refusing to do anything to make thing right. Apparently the owner of the company is one of the richest men in the world by ripping people off.
It doesn’t work with phone from overseas EVEN THO the website says it does! When I called customer service they said I can’t trust their website and should have called instead. Insane.
Absolutely aweful. The worst customer service experience. I tried to get a refund on auto refill because they charged me 3 days after I cancelled it. They were no help, they told me to get my bank too do it.
UNBELIEVABLY HORRIBLE! If you never need to speak to anyone, if you never need to leave or have your phone unlocked, if you speak Spanish (they’re in MEXICO!!!), and if you never need technical assistance of any kind, this is your company. But if this doesn’t describe you – RUN! You should expect to NEVER be able to use their phones anywhere else. Customer service is a complete and total joke, and this is THE WORST CELLULAR EXPERIENCE I HAVE EVER HAD.
I have had total wireless for over 2 years. It was excruciating to get going with them but the price was worth it. I just purchased to reconditioned iPhone 6 es, but now they will not unlock them (paid in full) because I have not had them for 12 months. It would have been nice to know they would control the phones I am buying before I bought them.
ONCE AGAIN, their customer service is completely unhelpful and not customer service at all. Not sure if the money savings is worth suffering through the occasional issues.
This is the absolute worst phone company I have ever experienced!!!!!!! It took a month to get my replacement phone I called about 5 different times to check on the status of my phone and every time there was a issue with my account…..first time the box to return my phone was never sent out. my information wasn’t even in the computer. so I re did everything again with a supervisor. it took about 7 to 9 days to even receive the box. I sent it out waited another 7 or 8 days before I called to check if they got it they had….although they had never sent out my new one ????????their was some kind of hold for what they never said so I set it up again to get my new phone 6 days go by haven’t gotten it so I call yet again transfer ppl 3 times???? then the supervisor over the phone tells me ohh there was some kind of error with your account ok do it all over again!! I get home from work the next day and there is a box what was it? A box to send my phone back to them???????? which of course I had already freaking done…so the prior error was that they had sent me the wrong box???????????? when I said I had been waiting close to a month and a half he just had to correct me and say no mam it has actually only been about 23 days???????????????? well a**hole if you want to get technical about it add 7 to 8 days on to that for the first idiot who never even submitted my claim…..after asking to just get the money back to get a new phone bc I didn’t want to use their phone service anymore I was denied, or how they promised to give me back the month I lost which was about 28 days they only gave me 20 days credit bc according to their computer that’s all they owed me I was told I couldn’t put in a formal complaint to anyone they could just make little notes on my account BEWARE!!!! USING TOTAL WIRELESS TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE AND VERY UNORGANIZED!!!!!
Horrible customer service. Responses provided were all templates answers that were not helpful at all. Spent half an hour speaking to an agent through the online chat service to port in my number. After providing all the details and waiting for the agent to key the information in, was just given a default “We’re sorry, your request cannot be processed at this time. To better assist you, a customer service representative can be reached at 1-866-663-3633. For your convenience, our representatives are available Monday-Sunday from 8:00 AM to 11:45 PM EST.”, without any further information on why. Now I’ve to get on the phone again to repeat all that same information. Agent was just in a hurry to use the “1-minute threshold” for lack of response from me to get off the chat.
Total wireless is HORRIBLE! We had this service for several months. It started off great. Then a couple months in our service slowed to a crawl on all phones. Customer service is absolutely worthless and offered no help other than to say that it was my phone. When I asked them why it’s happening on all our phones they couldn’t give a good response and still insisted it was my individual phone slowing all the phones. I have a newer iPhone. Then I received a text stating respond with “STOP” to cancel the auto charge. I did. They still charged me. I called customer service again and they said it was my fault and they wouldn’t give me my money back. I talked to several different managers who seemed to think that even though I did what they asked in responding to the text that it was my fault and they would not be refunding my money. No problem. My cc company placed a fraudulent charge on them and refunded my money. You get what you pay for. I hate spending money but it’s not worth the cheaper rate for horrible service and worse than non existent customer support. Don’t do it. I hope your experience is better than mine but you’ve been warned.
Seriously. WORST CUSTOMER SUPPORT EVER.
got a text message showing my service end date is 8-25-13. on the 23rd my service was suspended, my fiancee called and was put on hold 3 times, getting cut off each time. I went to internet chat and was told that my service end date was not the 25th as my text message states but they cannot give me the correct end date. Ummm ok…so my text message is wrong but you can’t give me the correct date?
Me and my brother have been on the TW 2 line plan and it’s been working great but recently our dad got a phone with TW and mown we are trying to change to a 3 line plan but when we try to add the device to our plan to make it a 3 line it won’t allow us and we have talk to a representative at Total Wireless and can’t figure it out. Does any one have any advice on how to get this all figured out? Please
I have been a HUGE advocate of Total Wireless for the past few years- until today. Even after viewing all the negative comments left all over the internet by others, I gave them a chance. Have been very pleased – THAT ENDS TODAY!! I have been summoned to court and was told to bring my cell phone records for the months of May and June. I went online to my account (NOTE: Where TOTAL WIRELESS has not only my personal information but my banking information since they bill me monthly) to find where/how to print out the two months the judge requested. THERE ISN’T A PLACE to see your call history!! I contacted customer no-service (had a hard time understanding the reps- all FOUR of them.) and was told I needed a subpoena from a judge or a letter from me / copy of my phone’s number (my phone doesn’t open) and a statement stating I am who I say I am!! Though a pain, I could do what they’re requiring. HOWEVER— IT WILL TAKE 30 DAYS TO SEND ME MY (MY, yes, MY) PHONE RECORDS FOR THOSE MONTHS! Total Wireless, you’ve let down a loyal customer! NOT GOOD!
I went with Total Wireless about 2 years ago. I am not a big phone person, mostly texting, definitely not a data hog. I went with the talk/text only plan for 20. a month, signed up for auto refill; total cost for me after taxes is about 27.55. Perfect plan for me. I buy a 5G data card that is SUPPOSED to roll over for about 10. and that one card will last me 5-12 months. I have had almost zero issues with this phone and company for the past 2 years, until last month (July 2018). Only thing I did differently, I bought that 5G data card online rather than in the store.
My plan renews at the end of July, wiped out all my data-I should’ve had about 4 G’s left. Called customer service around 9am central time, took about an hour, but got it resolved, put the data back on my phone soon after. Lo and behold, my plan just renewed again for August, and no data. I only used about 500 mb of data this past month, so should have about 3.5 G’s on there. Called CS yesterday, kept getting disconnected (I do believe this was a Verizon issue though). Called again today, spent about 45 mins on phone-you have to explain to the 1st person the problem, they tell you you’re out of data, no I’m not…give me a supervisor. They transfer, and this one spent 20 mins typing my problem in, says he’s gonna transfer me, and I get a 2 min recording about how to retrieve an official call history and disconnected.
Call back, on the phone another half hour to be told I miraculously burned through 4 G’s of data in a month. Said no, look again, 15 mins later, he has told me I will have my data put back on within 2 hours, restart phone, and problem will be resolved for good. I’m not holding my breath. I’m not holding my breath it will be resolved for good either.
I was very happy with this company/plan/phone until this point. It’s affordable, no dropped calls, no issues at all till this. Very disappointed now, and I’m going to have to look at one of the big companies to get more reliable phone service. Oh, and it seems if you call late afternoon (3-5pm) during the week, Central time, they seem to speak better English and are a bit more understandable compared to 9am. But, I did have better luck getting my issue resolved last month at 9am. Ehh it’s a coin toss…..stay away though. This issue here is a deal breaker. I shouldn’t have to be calling every month spending an hour + on the phone for something I prepaid for.
Currently on the phone once again with a TW supervisor in regards to the 5GB of add on data that disappeard from a FLIP phone! Horrible service, they obviously do not understand anything other than what their computer screen shows in front of them. I am trying to explain that a flip phone could not possibly consume 5GB of data by only sending and receiving occasional picture messages…they say they are “checking into it” while I am on hold. It just is amazing how poor the situation is. I can see how they can make their money up by having “everyone” lose their data balance, forcing them to purchase more. I will not purchase more, I will leave this shoddy business in a heart beat! Amazing how they could only look up the consumption of data for July and it was a WHOPPING 2MB….yes, MB NOT GB! And they will only say that the computer screen in front of them shows all of the data has been consumed. Transferred to the supervisor’s supervisor (yeah, I’m sure that happened)…let’s see what she comes up with….oh, wait…another transfer to another department that can help me….HA! OK, wait a minute…41 1/2 minutes on the phone…transferred to someone who says that the data will be restored….will give it 24 hours to update…hope she is real, as I do not want to spend my tomorrow with the same results! I am also working on a BBB complaint, regardless…..
We decided to switch to TW last Nov (2017) because of the great rates and the Verizon coverage. We set the plan up to be the talk and text only and then we purchased 5GB of add on data for each phone, knowing that one phone is a flip phone, and 5 GB would last a lifetime (need data to send and receive picture messages) and the other smart phone is always connected to wifi. Everything was going smoothly with TW. At the end of June the smart phone had 2+GB of data remaing, thought it would be a good idea to add another 5GB for a road trip that was coming up. As of 6/26 had 7+ GB of data remaining, three weeks later TW sends a text message saying that all data had been used. IMPOSSIBLE! Even the data usage on my phone showed it was impossible. Spent two days on the phone/and online chat with TW. Absolutely the worst customer service I have ever experience. You are not dealing with American help when dealing with customer service. Had to explain my situation time and time again. Every single rep would state, “oh, yes, I see, you are only on the talk and text plan” And “yes, you used all your data” Nope, I didn’t. What a rip. Eventually, they did reinstate the data. BUT, it took two days of my time doing it. Then, mysteriously, the FLIP PHONE, which basically does not use data, has now run out of data. Can’t wait to call TW again! TW seems to be a fair deal IF you don’t have any problems. However, looking into this, it appears that they “lose” data frequently. I am definitely considering changing out of TW , basically for the sake of their horrific customer service department. I see that consumers cellular has 100% American customer service reps, and great reviews for it, I think I will take my business there. TW price is not worth the headache when you have to deal with CS.
My wife and I switched to Total Wireless on Verizon because Cricket on AT&T did not have a good signal in an area we needed service. Since I use about a gig of data a month and my wife seldom uses any data we got the $25 plan with no data and then purchased add-on data that should have lasted us 6-8 months.
I put two $10 add on data cards on my line and one on hers. Every thing was fine until a couple of days ago I got a text saying I needed to buy more data. I go to 611611 and it says I have 8.29GB data. Since we were out of town I decided to wait until we got home to call.
The next day we stopped in Atlanta for my wife to do some shopping and I asked to use her phone to get on the internet. It would not connect but the app said there was 4.7GB data. About ten minutes later a text says data balance is 0. I spent two hours in chat after getting home to no avail.
The next day I spend three hours on the phone with Tracfone corporate representatives. They say the data was used. Transferred to multiple supervisory personnel with the same story. I asked when it was used and was told that they can only see I used 1GB on my line in July.
One to 1.5GB a month is our normal usage. They can not provide any info for June, when we switched to them. I looked on the internet and saw this was an issue and asked them to prorate the monthly fee and switch us to the $60 2-line plan with 15GB data although we never need that much. They will not prorate the fee!
They take $26-27 of data and refuse to prorate the service. After looking on the internet I see why Carlos Slim is the world’s richest man, data theft! We will put up with the gap in service and switch back to Cricket.
We were fine on their $30 2GB plan and on a couple of occasions I wanted more data I switched to the 5GB plan and when I switched back to the 2GB plan all charges were prorated, all done from the app on the phone. With Cricket and AT&T your money stays in the US and doesn’t go to Mexico.
Reason of review: Poor customer service.
Monetary Loss: $27.
Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution.
I liked: Coverage.
I didn’t like: Data theft.
i was a TW customer. I switched to another provider because I wanted more options for phones. I canceled my phone and the next day my card was charged by TW. I called and tried to dispute the charge. I was told that i needed the serial # of the phone b/c the phone number no longer existed. I called back and got someone to transfer me to get a refund. The women in billing told me that i was not permitted a refund even though i was charged after i changed plans. it was just their policy. Its a “benefit” of having a low cost service plan. I reminded her that i was being charged for services not rendered and that this was fine, i would discuss this with the FCC. I was transferred again where i wait and wait and wait. The FCC will know about this. Its not about the $$ anymore.. ….
Joe – Please help.
I just ported 3 lines to TotalWireless from VZW postpaid. Signal is fine, speedtest is as good as when I was on VZW. Download speed ranges from the low of 6 mbps to the high of 32 mbps (depend on the time of day and where I am at). The best part is $87/month for 3 lines with unlimited talk/text and 20 GB of data.
The bad part (may be dealkiller): Both my GS6’s and Note5 with Android 7.0 have the SAME problems:
1- After restarting the phones you cannot receive calls/text. Phone calls will go straight to your voicemail and you will not see text messages. You can use data just fine. Solution: You MUST call or text someone before you can receive calls/text. It seems like the phones need to wake up first.
2- The phones will NOT show if you have voicemails (can lead to job termination if you don’t reply to your boss). Solution – You will have to manually call your mailbox to retrieve messages. This has something to do with Visual Voicemail.
3- Technical Service reps are clueless and also rush to finish the call.
worthless, can’t even set up my phone, absolutely worthless.
I am a Total Wireless customer. I can receive texts from a AT&T customer but can’t send texts. I called customer service but got no solution. I can receive texts and send texts to everyone else, I think.
Total Wireless’ customer service is DEPLORABLE! I purchased a refurbished iPhone SE along with a $60 Shared Data Family Plan. I’ve been able to sign up but it’s taking my husband two days and so far, nothing has happened. Their customer service people don’t know what they are doing. They don’t follow up. They read from a script. So sorry we’ve made this horrible mistake! UGH!!!
We are fed up with the increasing prices for our current plan so I have spent the last month looking for alternative s.
We want 2 Fiesta 2 (LG) with the $60.00 2 line plan. I ordered the plan card and one phone and wanted to order the 2nd phone. The online chat guy NEVER told me that I couldn’t order two phones when I asked him. Every time I would add another phone it would require me to get another plan.
Today I get the first order and so I called the 800 number to order another phone for the plan. I was told by multiple people that you can’t buy a phone without buying another plan.
I’m ready to pack everything up and send it back to them.
I recently purchased a new phone thru total wireless because they advertised it was a no contract plan with verizon and at almost half the cost of my verizon plan. I live in the Dayton ohio area and verizon is the only carrier that I can get a signal with at my location. They advertise 4g network but after activating and downloading a months worth of min, I find the the best it can do is 3g network. I have 5 gig wifi in my home and found that I can’t get wifi on the phone because it is only compatible with 2 gig wifi. BUT wait, it gets even beter; I tried to make a call and was told that the number I was calling was on the verizon network and could not be completed without paying for the call wit a credit card. I called customer service and was told that this is correct, that it is a trak phone and not on the verizon network. Told them about the box stating the largest 4g network. They told me that wasn’t true that trak phone doesn’t use verizon and that after 1 year I can apply for an upgrade to full service. So here I have a new phone and min. loaded in it and it can’t be used. Thinking I need to make a complaint with the FCC and the FTC for the false advertising. Just a warning; do not, I repeat, do not buy a total wireless phone!!!!!!!!!
Their support is pretty terrible. My wife an I both have factory unlocked LG V20’s (US-996). These phones are not verizon phones but are verizon compatible. The IMEI checker on Total Wireless says they are not compatible. No big deal I though. I just activated an old verizon phone I had and then transferred the SIM card to my V20 and everything worked fine. However, the problem came when I tried to do it again for my wife’s phone. I tried to activate the old verizon phone again but they said it was still active on my previous line. Support was completely unhelpful and assured me the V20 phone would not work at all (even though I was calling them from it). There was also no way I could untie the old verizon phones IMEI from my phone number without disabling my line. Eventually I had to buy a cheap Total Wireless phone from walmart for $40 and take the sim card out so that I could activate it!
Customer service is unacceptable !!! I have made two on line orders with Total Wireless and both orders were missing items or defective phones. Working with customer service was a bad experience. The representatives were working from a prepared script and could not work with any issue outside of their script. When they failed to grasp the problem I was disconnected. This disconnect issue happened five times. If you use Total Wireless and do not ever have the need to contact it is a good plan. The minute you need customer service it make you want to go back to over priced Verizon !
How much did total pay you for your review? This company sucks. Horrible customer service. No one speaks English clearly. A ton of ads and nonsense. They cut my service off because someone there didn’t load my card information information in when I was told that they would set it up to pre-pay. I purchased the payment card and called them about adding the months payment. I was told that they would take the information and put it on hold and it would “drop” when the month was over. At the end of the month my service stopped. I called them and they told me that I didn’t have the credit from the card I had already given them. They didn’t believe me when I told them that I had given the card information already and that I had tossed the card in the trash. They claimed it wasn’t their problem and that i had to buy another card. Luckily, I was able to find the used card by digging through the trash (that was fun), but didn’t even get an I’m sorry even though it was their screw up. So I decided to prepay through a credit card so I wouldn’t have to go through the garbage again. Guess what, they just screwed up again! My wife’s phone has been shut off, although mine is working. I tried to call and got run around by their automated system. It took an act of god to talk to a human (who spoke almost unintelligible) English after holding for over 25 minutes, only to be told that they are having computer problems and to call back in two hours (even though while on hold the automated system said that if I wanted to use their “call back system” that they would call me back when my place in line came up. So I asked the person “why do I have to call you back when your automated system that it would call me back”? After telling me his supervisor is working to “get it working” and for me to CALL BACK in two hours, disregarded my question , talked over me while I asked my question and then hung up on me. I waited two hours later and got the same run around. So now I have to call them back AGAIN and hope that they have gotten their computer problem fixed. So, I disagree with your review about their customer service. I’ve gotten better service from those crappy call centers in India, even though this call center is based in Miami, FL. They are the cheapest company using a Verizon signal, but are all but useless when you have a problem. Pay a little more and go to a company who cares about taking care of you. I’m on my way to Wal-mart to buy a sim card for stright talk as soon as I wade into the crap-hole with total again.
RUNNNNNNN!!!! Horrible service, calls wouldn’t come through at certain times of the day, depending on how much traffic Verizon towers were handling. At 3pm in a major city this was horrible. This is coming from someone who was an actual Verizon customer and switched to see if I could save a few bucks! You save some money, but the cell phone service quality is not the same. When I spoke to the total wireless rep about it, he informed me directly that Verizon wireless customers get first dibs on tower coverage, which explains the lag in calls and internet. After my 30 days, I thought I switched back to Verizon and couldn’t be happier!!! I then called Total wireless back to get a refund on the talk time I purchased for the upcoming month and they said they would not refund it because I ported (switched companies) my number. I then told them that I know they could still access the account and issue a refund if they want to and he said no. So they are keeping the money for talk time I never used. RUNNNN!!!!
I have my son-in-law standing next to me with Verizon coverage, and he hooks up to the Internet very fast. This is the worst internet coverage I’ve ever experienced. I’ve been with them for several years. And it has never gotten any better. They are lying to you about the coverage capabilities of this network. They suck, to put it in words, they suck
WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER. WORST. EVER. Now, let me qualify. As long as you don’t have any problems or issues the customer service is fine. They are friendly and helpful. However, if you have any tech support issues they get sketchy fast. Initially we had issues with data on my Moto G4 (brought my own phone). Every month, when the service renewed, I could not connect to data. They were able to fix it each time, but had no long term solution. Instead they said I would need to call them every month to get it fixed. Really? So I did a little research and fixed it, permanently, myself. Then when we tried to activate my daughter’s Moto G4 Plus they were unable to do so. No explanation. Endless Tech support tickets, endless attempts, endless hours on the phone, endless passing from one rep to another, with no resolution. When I finally demanded a refund for the SIM card that they could not activate, they told me that I would need to mail the SIM to them and then wait 30 days from the time they receive the SIM for a check in the mail. I do not think they have a Tech Support department–they all tried the same steps, never offered any ideas as to the origin of the issue, all seemed very confused, and finally unhelpful. When I asked to speak to supervisors, or anyone who could help, I got passed to another rep, who, though politely sticking to the scripted customer service procedures, would often begin to have an edgy tone.
One very negative thing we experienced was in Kayenta Az when we had a flat tire. Our phone would not connect to any network even right in town with good bars. I kept getting a “you are roaming enter a credit card number” message. Also happened in Gateway Co. It doesnt give you service at all Verizon covered locations.
If you buy prepaid cards at Target and load them on to your Total wireless you dont pay all the taxes just the card value. Sometimes Target has them on sale. I loaded 6 mos on to my account. I still get annoying reminder texts to renew even though I have the reserves and it auto loads the reserved cards. Cheaper than using the auto pay system.
About two months ago, I was looking at reducing my monthly cell phone bill while still using Verizon towers. I had no prior experience with prepaid cell phones and came across Total Wireless during my search. My family has three iPhone 7’s and an iPhone SE. I was able to determine right away that two of the iPhone 7’s and the SE were compatible with TW. For whatever unknown reason, the remaining iPhone 7 wasn’t compatible. This didn’t make any sense since this was a Verizon iPhone 7 which was currently active on Verizon. Verizon customer service told me there were no issues on their end and didn’t know why it wouldn’t be compatible. Total Wireless reps couldn’t give me any explanation other than to repeat that it wasn’t compatible.
I went through the website process of activating three of the phones and porting the numbers over. I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly the process went and the three phones were all successfully ported within an hour. During the past two months, I have been pleased with the phone service that my family has received based on our needs and enjoyed saving about $65 a month. The one remaining iPhone 7 belongs to my wife and she uses very little data (about 700mb). I transferred her service from Verizon to Xfinity Mobile ($12 a month for 1 gb plus tax) and had no compatibility issues. After having read horror stories about Xfinity Mobile customer service, I was pleased how smooth that process went.
About a week ago, I went to TW website and checked compatibility again for my wife’s iPhone 7. It now shows that it is compatible. I did the numbers and found that I could get an additional 5 gbs of data for the family by bringing my wife over to TW for about the same cost. I was up to renew my 30 day plan and I bought the four line plan instead of the three. I picked up the sim card at Best Buy for $1 and I thought everything was good to go. I went to TW website and started entering all the information to port over my wife’s number. When I got to the drop down list to select my current provider, I had to select “other” since Xfinity Mobile wasn’t listed. When I entered the account number for Xfinity Mobile, I kept getting a message that it was an invalid account number. I tried entering all the information a few times, but could not proceed any further. I contacted customer service both on chat and on the phone. I had them try to port over the number and they kept telling me that I provided an incorrect account number. My account number is six digits long and is based on the number of customers they have (currently about 577,000). TW told me that their system only accepts 9-20 digit account numbers. They instructed me to contact Xfinity Mobile to confirm my account number. I contacted Xfinity Mobile and they confirmed that my account number was correct. I recontacted TW and once again, they told me that my account number was invalid because it was too short.
At this point, I am not sure if I will have any success with them. The customer service reps I have been dealing with apparently only know what the system in front of them allows them to do and have no explanations when issues come up. I doubt I will be passed on to any higher level of support if they even have one. I have read numerous comments from others who are generally pleased with the cell phone coverage/prices at TW, but are very frustrated with the limitations of customer service.
**** total wireless in every possible way. This mom and pop organization is a nightmare, the website has nonfunctional buttons to nowhere, and its relationship with other companies is nonexistent making it hell to switch over. I haven’t had to transfer information between two disgruntled providers since my parents divorce and honestly I do not know which was easier. **** you total wireless, I hope your piece of **** company goes bankrupt.
I’m currently getting about 8-12 mps on my Total Wireless phone. I don’t think this is reasonable because it is advertised as have 4G LTE, not 1/4 4G LTE. Sometimes, if I’m not outside, I can’t stream video. Most of the time I can stream low quality video, but not video from COMCAST.
In my quest to find a better phone service, I was initially going to switch to Verizon. Speed, clarity, and reliability is what I was searching out, and let’s not forget affordable. So I was with ATT for like 5yrs then after reviewing my plan, I notice a strange thing, my data usage was always at 30,40, 59GB monthly forcing me into a unlimited throttle plan which cost me 189.00 (family 3 line plan) monthly. I always questioned them as to my usage being accurate and how is that possible (somethings quite not right with the data counter -I told the ATT rep which said it’s accurate????), and phone service quality has become poor low bars and granny sound) So I research and cross compared the wide range of carriers, and found that it’s a- a la cart menu of unlimited providers all upselling different parts of data i.e capping, throttling, 480-720p streaming, hotspot and no hotspot. So I came to the conclusion to switch to TW last month 3/5/18 with best bang for the buck. But none of my phone’s were compatible except one, and I was due for upgrade- so I went shopping EbAY yesss. Found 2- new NOTE 8 (VZ) and one 7 plus (VZ) all at 55-60% off retail. Now I’m really techie understanding Bands, phones and carrier spectrums which allows me to easily transition from one carrier to another. Activation was a breeze through the website interface that TW offers- I follow them exactly as to avoid human error from CS reps TW employees that doesn’t always get porting right. Now my service is up and running and it’s fantastic to say the least. I’m reaching speeds 70-115mbs down and 45-70mbs up (no throttle at all) 1080hd YouTube???????????? streaming on both note 8 and iPhone 7plus. Also my data usage for 4-line plan 30 days was 25.7gb and my bill 102.70 . The only complaint I have is I wish they would stop running ads because the more customers they get (congestion will occur) and quality and speeds will drop for current user’s. Please note I drove to Verizon, TMO, Sprint, ATT and compared speeds and HD voice quality along with coverage areas by swapping SIM cards in-store. Verizon won this and has the edge in comparison battle. And TMO is a fraud (need to remove there TV speed ads what a joke) there speed test was terrible, and the rep got mad when I pointed that out to him. To go with streaming at 480 I’ll pass- on a flagship phone. Sprint is not even close there speeds are slow and coverage area spotty (and any carrier that offers free service for a year to switch is a warning flag). ATT was speeds have dropped and voice clarity has diminish since adding millions of customers over 5yrs with campaigns. So my experience has been great with TW and I was not paid one cent to comment on this. Hope this helps happy mobile shopping.
Hi Joe. I am in the process of trying to port my wife’s phone over to Total Wireless from Verizon, and it has been a total nightmare. I called and successfully ported the number (so I thought), and everything was working fine for 3 weeks. Then suddenly, she stopped being able to receive calls. We called about it and it appears that when Verizon released the number, they released it to Verizon Wholesale and not to Total Wireless. The Verizon Wholesale department seems to be some sort of black hole, because nobody had a number for them, and issues could only be escalated to them via email. I was, however, assured that numbers that go there are held for 30 days, so we would not lose the number. Fast forward through several mistakes on the Total Wireless end, and that 30 day mark is tomorrow and the issue is still not resolved. My question is, do you know of any way to contact the Verizon Wholesale department to make sure my wife’s number doesn’t get released before the issues with Total Wireless get resolved?
Hi Joe. I’m having a compatibility issue with my wife’s iPhone 6s. First I was told that I had to pay the balance owed on the phone so Verizon would release it, which I did. Then I was told the phone is still incompatible and then referred to the “Direct Response” team. Direct Response informed me that some iPhones are developed exclusively for use with Verizon in their network. If Total is just a Verizon wholesaler then it doesn’t make sense to me that a Verizon compatible phone wouldn’t work with Total. Can I “unlock” the iPhone or do something else to make it compatible?
First problem: Wanted the 2 lines for 60, but could only add 1 sim to cart. Only way to get second sim was to sign up for extra service. Online chat told me buy 2nd sim at Walmart — it cost $10 instead of $1. Second problem: got a door tag from FedEx for the sim and activation code letter– says signature required. (I’ve ordered sim cards from Mintsim, H20, Page Plus, etc., never had to SIGN for them, they just came in the regular mail.) Called FedEx and explained I work and won’t be there to sign, so assume I can pick up at FedEx? No. Must be delivered to my address and I must sign in person. (I’ve never had this on even really expensive items. For a sim card? Really?) Called Total Wireless and explained that I can’t take off work to wait for a sim card. Was put on hold for about 30 minutes, well, not actual hold because I could hear what was going on in the background. People were laughing and having a grand old time speaking Spanish — I speak a small amount of Spanish, but not enough to actually understand the jokes, so I was not entertained in the slightest. They finally transferred me to the place where I could cancel the order, since I wouldn’t be able to receive it. Went through similar rigmarole with new guy, though there wasn’t as much laughing in the background. He finally told me that he couldn’t cancel it — Fedex would have to try two more times, then it would be sent back and they would cancel the order. Not real hopeful on all this. So I can’t even comment on the actual service, just the poor customer service and strange business practice.
I switched from Verizon to Total Wireless about 3 months ago. I am saving about $55.00/month on a 4 phone family plan (I had purchased all previously on EBAY). I had no problems porting over to the new service. All four phones were on the new network within an hour of switching over. Overall I have had no issues with their service, however with their cut rate prices come a lot of “quirks”. The biggest down side is losing my Galaxy S6 hotspot. In addition, I lost the ability to change the caller ID label to whatever I want it to show. Total wireless phone calls only show up as “Wireless Caller”. The next issue I have with them is that you get a lot of texts telling you that your month to month service is about to expire. I signed up for autopay so I can do without the constant nagging. Also, this message goes to all the phones on the service, and it cannot be turned off. I even talked to their customer service (which answered relatively quickly) and they confirmed it cannot be turned off. Overall, I am happy with saving the money that I am saving, so I will keep the service.
Thanks for your awesome review and your individual responses. After reading your review and chatting with Total I’m on the verge of switching from Verizon to Total. Hotspot appears to be the only item I’d be giving up to save 41%! This appears to be a no-brainer. Is there ANYTHING else I’m missing? Also, notwithstanding a major obstacle, which link do I use to make sure you get the affiliate credit you so richly deserve?
Total Wireless has the worst customer service and service coverage of any phone company I’ve ever used. The website and mobile sites are worthless. the 800 customer service doesn’t answer most of the time. when they do, they don’t have any power or ability to help. the website sends you to 800 service. the 800 service sends you to the website. It’s a customer nightmare.
No firmware update from Total Wireless
I’ve never heard of anything like this!!!!. Total Wireless does not support upgrades for all their phones. You can buy a phone and a new Android Version comes out YOU WON’T GET THE UPDATE. Your apps won’t work and within 18 months you’ll have to toss the phone and get a new one just so your apps will run.
I purchased a brand new Galaxy S6 from Total Wireless 18 months ago. Andriod 7.0 is out and my phone is still stuck on 5.0.2. Samsung assures me the phone is capable of running 7.0 but Total Wireless insists that it can only run 5.0.2. Samsung also explained that Google creates the updates and each carrier is responsible for pushing the update to the phones on their network – i.e. Total Wireless (Tracfone) JUST WON’T PUSH THE UPDATE.
I have some apps I’m trying to run for my business that won’t run properly on such an old Android version. Also, the last security patch was 13 months ago and it’s been a BUSY year from a security perspective.
Let EVERYONE you know they are throwing their money away if they buy a phone from Total Wireless/Tracfone.
I purchased a Total Wireless phone & 30 days service contract on Jan 21,2017. I was told that my current phone number would be transferred in 1-2 business days. It is now Jan 29, and it has not happened despite numerous promises of dates and times as to when it would happen. it was promised for Jan 24. It didn’t happen. I called… 1200 Jan 25…no go I was “guaranteed” by a supervisor that it would be activated in 14 hours. Still didn’t happen. They called me at 830 on Friday night and put me on hold for “3 minutes”, which became over 20 minutes. I told them to call me back when they got it fixed. I had a message on Jan 27 to call my provider and have them release any pending orders. i did that.Still no service. I went through this with Straight Talk. After 25 DAYS and no service, I returned their equipment and purchased the Total Wireless phone, only to find out they are the same company (Trac phone), so I am on the same Merry-go -round. Plus, Straight Talk refused to refund the money I spent on the 30 day service contract, even though they never activated the phone!!
Total wireless is very BAD!!! i got from Target. was told after one month will be able to unlock and be free switch to other wireless providers. Its NOT! We called Total Wireless request to unlock my phone many times. They refused to. then we call back nobody answer my calls or just hang up my phone. Total Wireless is doing business by chatting and fraud! I guest it’s a very small company with very unethical cultures.
THIS SERVICE AND PHONES SUCK!!!!!!! I HAVE HAD IT 4 MONTHS EVERY MONTH I GET THIS : INVALID SIMS CARD” AND THEY SAY ALL WE CAN DO IS SEND A NEW SIMS CARD IN THE MAIL IT WILL TAKE 5-7 DAYS TO GET …..NOW THE SAME THING AGAIN AND THEY REFUSE TO REFUND ANY KIND OF MONEY AT ALL !!!!!! THIS SERVICE AND PEOPLE SUCK, STICK WITH STRAIGHT TALK OR ATT, WORKS SOOOOO MUCH BETTER…..
Separate rant!
I’m on my 4th total wireless phone in 2 years. The first (free) one eventually died after being sickly from birth. Numerous attempts to get it fixed were rebuffed by TW until it died completely. They then wanted it back for a post mortem before replacing it. 5 business days to send me a return label (no, you can’t skip that at your own cost), 5 business days for it to get back to them, 5 business days for the new one to reach me. Adding it up, three weeks to replace a free phone. It actually only took a mere fortnight! So I bought a Motorola at Walmart while waiting for TW to send me what would become a spare. Unfortunately, I lost the warranty receipt for the Motorola so when that one died after a year I transferred my account to the spare I happened to have. That one got flaky after 9 months, so I order a new freebie. I now have a sorta working spare.
Don’t buy a nice phone, they will do everything they can to avoid fixing it if it gets flaky. Total death is the only thing they seem to warranty. Then you get to wait up to three weeks for a replacement. If you can milk their free phone system to get a spare, do so.
Three hours on the phone to Total Wireless support today. I don’t recommend it. It’s painful when nothing goes very wrong, like refilling an account. I’ve had that take an hour.
After three troubleshooting attempts, they agree that my hotspot is no longer a sickly child, but a dead one. I can confirm that the tales of being passed from person to person to go be taken through the same script ad nauseum are quite true.
They are unable to replace the hotspot.
They have told me that I can’t buy a hotspot or modem etc from a third party and use it with Total Wireless.
They are unwilling to refund one lines worth of the two line plan plan I just bought. Although the second line is unused because the hotspot is dead and cannot be replaced. They refused to troubleshoot the hotspot before I refilled the plan, my initial idea.
They agree that I since I am somewhat unhappy with paying for two lines merely to confirm that one is dead and cannot be revived, I can discontinue my remaining line in 30 days and never, ever use a Tracfone company again.
OMG, people. Warning!! This is the absolute worst customer service I have EVER had to deal with. Most of them are bad and they talk like they have a mouth full of cotton — however, these people at Total Wireless WIN THE PRIZE. I have been on the phone with them for 2 hours and five reps trying to set up my online account with no luck. UNBELIEVABLE. We have to think about how we as consumers are being treated in this country. We really have to rethink how things are being done. I don’t care where they ship their call centers, but I do care about quality and there is NONE with this carrier’s customer service. I’m in total disbelief at how bad it is. I just switched over to them, and will be looking into switching again because I will not go through this kind of crap when I’m trying to set up an account online TO PAY THEM! Ridiculous.
I need to stress this, Customer Service S**k A**. I had to f***ing talk for 5 hours to just get a number transferred from another carrier. They keep on transferring and transferring over to another department because they don’t want to handle this type of stuff.
Good network for the price but CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS. It took me 3 days and 99 times calling them to finally activate the phone. And when I bought a new phone they were not able to transfer my number. Both cases I had unlocked iphones and both were total wireless compatible. Customer care keeps telling me to call back in an hour. I am ready to switch at the end of this month.
I renewed my service yesterday and signed up for a monthly draft. There was a mux up I suppose, two payments were deducted, I really need one of those back here at Christmas. Please reply.
I would not recommend this carrier. The savings does NOT off set the poor, below grade service of cell phones most basic features.- Texting Moore than 50% Of the time. A message is stuck at ”SENDING”. 4 minutes will elapse followed by a ”message ” that reads ”message failed” .I could go how complaints have been ignored unanswered. Suffice to say 12-13 months after my purchase time to move on.
I have been a Total Wireless customer for over a year, but at the end of August my download speeds went from ~5 Mbps to 0.2Mbps. In the early morning it works fine, but by the 7 AM until the end of the day (when I need it!) the service slows to a crawl. Not sure what happened, but I’m now looking for a new carrier that runs on Verizon’s network.
Total wireless has ripped me off for over $150.00. I tried to return a cell phone that I had ordered along with a calling plan card. The package was unopened and was definitely delivered back to them. I followed their instructions to the letter. I have called back at least 6 times and have been given a different excuse about why I did not see my refund every time. I have written them a letter. IN all cases, once they have your money you can kiss it goodbye. I believe that this company is grossly dishonest and I would not recommend doing business with them. Go buy a Verizon prepaid phone instead.
Just got off with customer support………
I can’t remember if this is SOP, but the CSR wanted to know my primary Zip Code because they do not have roaming capabilities and could not guarantee service, or quality of service, if I go to another “(e)state”!!
REALLY??
I thought they were on “AMERICA’S LARGEST AND MOST RELIABLE 4G LTE NETWORK”
Wouldn’t that mean that as long as I was in that network’s coverage I would get the same service (reception)?
Apparently not!
Without that guarantee I’ll stick with what I have. GGGRRRRR
2nd month with Total W and mostly pleased with the service including the recent increase in data allowance (4 line family plan now shares 25 GB). Sometimes a text message is momentarily delayed in sending but other than that no issues that would have me consider returning to the big “V” at more than double the rate.
My Total Wireless roams 50% of the time and I can see the cell tower. I’m tired of rebooting my phone! My Verizon tablet works just fine. For sure you don’t get Verizon bars with this extended service!
I’ve been using Total Wireless for 1.5 years because of the price. I use the $35/month 5GB data card. That’s plenty for me. I’m thinking about spending more funds for Verizon however. Everything works just fine on my Nexus6 phone except I’m roaming 50% of the time and I’m 3/4 to 2 miles from the cell tower most of my days. I can normally reboot my phone and I have 4G service but I’m really getting tired of that 3-4 minute reboot several times a week. If not for trees….I could see the tower with ease…..I can go 200 yards down the road and see it…….I reboot there too. I have Verizon on my tablet and it works all the time. Neighbors have many different services and they don’t ROAM. My aunt owns the land the cell tower is on. I like everything else just fine but I’m tired if ROAMING!!!!!
Total has increased the data on their shared plans from 8 to 15 for the up to 2 line $60 plan, from 12 to 20 for the up to 3 line $85 plan, and for 15 to 25 for the up to 4 line $100 plan.
My wife was with PagePlus on her iPhone 4S, but we switched to Total when we could get a NEW iPhone 5S for $150. She has generally been pleased with Total. We had an issue recently where she was not getting LTE service and inability to send and receive text messages, while had no issues on my Verizon iPhone 6S. I have no understanding why our experiences would be different (we were out of town in a more rural area at the time).
I had a pretty terrible experience with Total Wireless. We had previous been with Verizon, and since they use the Verizon network, thought it would be fine. But they don’t reliably use the Verizon network– about 50% of the time at our home, my phone would tell me I was roaming and not place the call. Tech support for this issue was terrible, tried 3-4 times to get someone to really look into it. Ended up switching back to Verizon, and that experience was also terrible- they didn’t port my number when requested, and then my service period ended 2 days later which meant my number could not be ported, and they made me sign up for another month of service to activate it (even though the error seemed to be on their side) for porting. highly NOT recommended.
Recently signed up with Total. Liked it and decided to add my wife”s phone to it so I needed to change to a different plan. I don’t like the fact that if ;you decide to change to a different plan before your present plan ends, you lose the money paid for the original plan. A prorated refund should be issued.
I have had Total Wireless for over a year. These are some of my issues: Chronic voicemail box issues, telling callers my voicemail is not setup…Voicemail telling callers my number is not receiving calls even though my account is current….Unable to connect with numbers once I have left and returned to the same geographic area…..Text messages being delivered late (anywhere from 2 hours to 7 days late)….Unable to receive delivery reports on texts sent outside of Network….Calls failing to ring into the person I am calling even after a dozen attempts…..Calls failing to ring into my phone until several attempts……On occasion, calls connecting into a three way call with strangers, who can’t hear me,but I hear them…..MMS messages usually never send and arrive to destination.
I tried ’em and think they SUK SUK SUK! It took me two days to get my phone unscrewed enough to actually work with the correct phone number. Service was CRAP! Not worth whatever money you might save.
I down loaded 2 apps my 8g phone was full, my phone was sooo slow I called support they were pleasantly rude and unwilling to help….. I dont recommend this company if you do more with your phone then talk and text.
Hey, thanks for that great review. I checked their compatibility engine, to see if an unblocked S6 could be used on Total Wireless and it gave me a negative. But it used to be a Sprint phone, that was unblocked (I bought it for use in Nicaragua). I suppose that if it was unblocked, then it would be fine. I’m planning on returning to the US for a month and would like to know if the unblocked S6 will work on Total Wireless’s plans.
I had no trouble coming from Project Fi with a Nexus 5X. I used the website and it was pretty seamless. I was able to take calls, send texts and use data within minutes. A rep from Total Wireless also called me a few minute after my phone activated. I’ve only been using it a few days not but so far so good. I haven’t experienced any of the issues that others have had.
Beware! They have the worst customer service you will ever encounter, hands down!
I’ve purchased TWO service plan cards and they, for whatever reason, cannot activate them.
They seem to have no idea what’s going on.
Ive been put on hold and transferred and simply hung up on so many times its ridiculous.
Broken English and complete lack of any knowledge or explanation is all you will get.
Unbelievable incompetence. I’m out $70 and all they can say is “I’m sorry.”
One of the worst administrative support dept of all companies i have had to deal with in the last 23 years with any internet business. On Total wireless i activated two phones last week . first of all they work great and are on Verizon network. not the first glitch. I first called support last week because i could not sign in my account. I have gone thru hell for a week with them. after fourteen hundred different trials at fixing this and about seven hours just today, Now i’m told i half to wait for my account to expire so they can delete my account and create a new one. How is that for support. My phones will go dead and i don’t know i will be, but i must call Total and create a new account. Wonder how i’m supposed to do that? Great price and system if you never half to call support. Good luck when you do.
Absolute fiasco from day one. Avoid at any cost. They could not seem to find a way to port my iPhone from Verizon. Any effort to use their website resulted only in “call tech support” error messages. When support was called their outsourced tech support was barely understandable and worked to do anything but what I was requesting — even in the end, a simple cancellation. No refund offered. And I continue to get e-mail surveys from them.
3 people in my family have TW. It has been fine. My husband has an Iphone and it has worked fine for that. Mine is an inexpensive LG, but i really like my phone. We haven’t had much experience with CS, the numbers ported and set up just fine. My biggest complaint is that in the evening i seem to get NO internet service. all day is fine, but not after 6 or so. Not sure what’s up with that. During that time i have to use wifi instead of the phone data. aside from that it’s been good. you can’t beat it for the price. The only thing i would warn anyone about is that you cannot change your number from one tracfone service to another, like from ST to TW. will not let you do that. tried to do that with my previous ST phone.
I have had TW for almost a year now. After Big Red sent me ludicrous $3,500 bill, and as 14 year customer with multiple high-price lines, I said peace out, and good luck on getting that bill paid.
MVNO’s are providing the network access on the gold standard of mobile infrastructure at a no-frills price and incompetent customer support is a trade-off I’m willing to tolerate. Life is about trade-offs, and the pros outweigh the cons, in my experience.
OMG, Total Wireless is the WORST!! I contacted them from Walmart to make sure that my phone was compatible before I purchase the plan because Walmart informed me that the items were non-refundable. We thought it would be an easy transfer because we currently have Verizon and Total Wireless uses the Verizon network. I have been on the phone with these people over a four-day period trying to get my phone changed over with the same phone number. My husband’s Verizon phone transferred fine, however I was told that my Samsung Galaxy S7 was locked. I called Verizon and they informed me that my phone wasn’t locked. After going back and forth with Total Wireless over a 4 day period (CSR’s not knowing what they are doing – asking for a serial number instead of the IMEI number , etc.), I decided to give up and go back to my Verizon plan because it’s not worth the hassle. Got one CSR on the phone who did not know what he was doing and deactivated my husband’s service. Had to request a supervisor who was arrogant, telling me that my phone was not compatible with the Total Wireless service and again telling me it was locked – could not get it through her thick head that Verizon had informed me to have Total Wireless contact them and request a “port out” so I could keep my current phone number – Total Wireless refused to contact Verizon using all kind of excuses; continued telling me that my phone was locked. I’m now out $80.00 bucks messing with a bunch of idiots who don’t have a clue.
Don’t buy total wireless they count your WiFi dl into your 5 gig and when u ask them to unlock a phone that you bought outright they will not do it
I bought a total wireless plan to try out the service.I bought the SIM card to use in my iPhone se.I was talking to CS while activating online.I got to the part where it asks if your phone is activated on another carrier or not.I didn’t want to port out my Verizon number.When I clicked activated on another carrier, it went to a page that stated I had to port my number.If I didn’t want to port,I had to contact my carrier to deactivate the phone.The CS stated the same thing.I backed up, clicked not activated on another carrier and activated the sim.I really wanted to use the sim in a hotspot.The total wireless hotspot is 3g only.I bought a Verizon MIFI 7730L.I changed the apn in router settings and inserted the sim.Everything is good to go.I have not had any unexplained data usage.4G is throttled at about 5MBPS.I have no buffering when watching videos.Facetime works great.When I was verifying if my iPhone was compatible,the MEID did not work as being compatible.The IMEI worked.So far,I am satisfied with the service.I will only be using the jetpack when traveling for work, to supplement my Verizon prepaid phone plan data.Price wise,it works out being cheaper using total wireless for data,instead of just using more Verizon add on data.It’s the best priced plan out at the moment.
I have used total wireless service for 2 years. Recently, there have been a lot of dropped calls, a lot. Don’t know what is going on, overall I have been satisfied, however, am considering a change because of conversation delay and dropped calls.
I have owned a lot of cell phones with my first provider being LA Cellular in 1986. I have since worked with ATT, Verizon, and T-Moble.
Total Wireless is the worse customer service I have ever had.
As of this writing I have been told that Over Night Delivery of phones are not free, even though it is clearly on their web site.
I was told that my Verizon Samsung S3 Phone was not compatible, so I had to talk to a Supervisor who told me it was. ( I don’t think they were a Supervisor, just someone who spoke English)
I was not allowed to buy a sim card for another Verizon S5 phone until I had the phone, so I lost a few days from that.
I was charged for 2- $85.00 plans for the same phone number, on the same day within a few minutes of each other. But they say I did it, because they would not make a mistake like that.
When you call there and ask for a supervisor, they will tell you “they are a supervisor” Every time! Every person that answers the phone is a supervisor.
Walmart should not be involved with Total Wireless.
What are the other choices if I just need 1GB of data/month?
I would never recommend this company for an IPhone! They are a total rip off! They say you use 5 gb of data within a week! The customer service representatives are very rude and hard to understand!
I too tried Total wireless for a month. I had to leave as they don’t support VoLTE (No data usage while on a phone call, unless you are connected to wi-fi)
Great unbiased review! I know a lot of us were wondering how they were. How is the the Customer service billing portal? Can you easily navigate it and recharge there?