Great phone 2010-02-27

Reviewer: tech dude

Great! I bought this phone for one of my friends. So far no problem.

Good for the price if you know what to expect. 2010-02-25

Reviewer: Gregory A. Henry

The W376 is an excellent low cost phone for those who do not literally LIVE on cell phones (yes, those people still exist), but who want a reliable device that does the very basic thing a cell phone should do - make calls.

Let's not compare this phone to major carrier contract phones - you can't. This phone and most all others from Tracfone, Net10, Straight Talk (etc) are built to a price and sold for cheap prices. In this case, $20.00. You can't compare their build quality and features to phones that cost $150 to $300 from the carriers. But they are surprisingly good for the cheap prices they're sold for. I will refrain from the controversy of radiation these things may shoot off though. There's a lot of debate as to how dangerous excessive use can be with these, and let's face it, the W376 and those like it are all cheap plastic - most likely cranking out enough stuff to boil an egg given enough time. If you like to use cells for hours on end - get something with better shielding "just in case". That being said, for what I use this for (very light use), I don't consider it a concern.

Call quality and the ear speaker are very good. I live 25 miles outside of Atlanta not near an Interstate Highway, and I get 3-5 bars at all points within my house. Sound is clear. Battery life is good. There is a lag between pushing the keys and hearing the confirmation "beep" and seeing the digits/texts appearing on the screen though, so this takes some getting used to (again, cheap phone). The camera - let's be honest, it stinks. A very low 640 x 480 pixel resolution is the max size, and even at "fine" quality the photos are horrible, resembling a watercolor painting more than a photograph (think of cell phones of 8 years ago for reference). So if the camera is important - look elsewhere.

Keywords here - "for the price", the W376 is an excellent phone. If I were comparing it to a smart phone or touch screen phone from the carriers I'd give it 2 stars, but we're again talking about a cheap phone with cheap call prices, so for this price, it's highly rated by me. Get the double minutes for life, use the coupon codes included in the package, and for lighter users, this could be a perfect solution to give yourself cell service while at the same time giving the financial finger to the big greedy carriers who charge way too much in fees.

Now, with all of this being said, I HAVE to add, that the Tracfone/Net10 customer service is among the WORST I've ever experienced. You will on 100% of your calls be dealing with reps in India. Reps who speak little English, and those who do, do so poorly and with heavy accents. Many are under-trained and reading from scripts, and will give you inconstant information. If you are switching or "porting" a phone number from an old phone of theirs or another phone via a different service, expect a long call with a series of codes and number to be given to the rep, then what can amount to an extremely long wait for it to be transferred, if, it works at all (prompting another call to try to get it fixed, etc etc etc). If there is one thing that is almost worth the high price of contract carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile), it's that the customer service for them as much as we complain, is actually WORLDS better than from Tracfone/Net10. So to sum up, these phones are great for certain uses as very basic and sometimes very reliable phones. But if customer service is as important to you as the phone service price, avoid this service.

Phone is okay, tracfone service awful 2010-02-22

Reviewer: L. Reeves

We bought this phone for our 11 year old so she would have a phone on hand for emergencies. From the start, we had trouble with tracfone service. I purchased minutes online twice, and both times was given a code that was invalid. Finally I called tracfone to get it fixed. After several hours on the phone in several different sessions, I finally got a valid code -- however, I was still charged for the first two purchases of minutes which, due to the invalid codes, I was never able to download or use. After calling again and spending agonizing time on the phone with multiple service reps, tracfone finally agreed to refund my money for the minutes I had purchased but not received. Thank goodness. Unfortunately, they only refunded the money for the first purchase, and never refunded my money for the second purchase. They said they would, but I never received the credit and when I called about it again, they couldn't find any records. At this point I had already decided, "enough of tracfone!" -- when the minutes are gone, we're getting a different phone. Then last week my daughter's phone was stolen at school. I called tracfone to deactivate the phone and transfer the minutes, but whoever stole the phone had already used the minutes, and tracfone refused to give us credit for them. They certainly were not obligated to give us credit for those minutes, but I know they sometimes do it as a courtesy. For whatever reason, they chose not to. It just reconfirmed my earlier feelings about their customer service.

Problems with phone already 2010-02-09

Reviewer: BigT

The double minutes for life plan that comes with the phone is great. But I have noticed problems with the phone already. First, it a real pain just to get it powered on, having to constantly press the button for long periods of time. And the no-ring just vibrate function does not work. If I could return this phone I would. It's the only product I have purchased from Amazon, that I could not return.

Doesn't send pictures well 2010-01-29

Reviewer: Josh Squires

I normally use my Tracfone for texting, and it costs 0.3 minutes per text! It isn't too bad, but not that good either, and inputting the text takes forever.

The main problem, though, is that when you try to send pictures, it only works a portion of the time, most of the time making you have to resend it. Not reliable at all. And not only are you charged a minute for sending a picture, you're charged for how long it takes to send. And then again if you're resending it. And even if it does send, it's glacially slow.

I've never had a problem calling someone, that's the one thing that's consistent. But I'm paranoid about my minutes and I don't really like talking, so what am I supposed to do?