Net10 rated “best bang for the buck” prepaid provider
For once, we’ll let the press release take the opening paragraph:
Based on its recent analysis of the U.S. prepaid wireless market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes NET10 with the 2007 U.S. Frost & Sullivan Award for “Best Bang for the Buck” Pay-by-the-Minute Prepaid Wireless Plan. Net10 earns this distinction for providing superior consumer value in terms of three critical aspects of any wireless solution – affordability, simplicity, and subscriber certainty for voice calling.
Frost & Sullivan is a market research and consulting firm that’s been around since 1961. We’re not sure how weighty their awards actually are, but it’s neat that they’ve handed one of them to Net10, one of our favorite prepaid providers.
The competition for this award: Alltel, AT&T, Boost, Tracfone (parent company of Net10), T-Mobile, Verizon, and Virgin. That’s quite the crowd to beat.
Apparently, though, this was purely based on Net10’s per-minute rate of 10 cents being good all day, every day. Or at least that’s how it’s portrayed in the press release. We definitely think that there are better considerations for that. Then again, this is a “bang for your buck” award, not an overall service award.
This got us to think: what’s the real meaning of this award? They didn’t really do much other than browse each companies’ websites and determine who had the best per-minute rate. Heck, we do that every week. But you don’t see us handing out awards and issuing press releases about it.
Still, though, it’s nice to know where you’re going to get the most for your money.
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The Frost & Sullivan analysis and award to Net 10 are TOTALLY RIDICULOUS. Anyone past the age of 12 knows that “cheap” as a sole criterion for evaluating anything is meaningless. Are these people stupid or is it just that they’re being paid off.
Posted on July 16th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Cheap is not the only thing that is good about NET10. Their customer service is outstanding. Face it your going to have dropped calls with cellular service that is just a fact. I tried to order 2 reconditioned phones from NET10’s web store and it would not accept my credit card. Well I called NET10 and after a few minutes of working through the issue NET10 sent me 2 brand new phone for free because of all the trouble I’d been through. I call that customer service!! I recommend NET10 to anyone who is looking a prepaid cellular service.
Posted on July 17th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Have a Net 10 for 2 years. Loved it. Bought anther today for a family member. On the package there was to be 300 minutes with the phone upon activation, only got 10 minutes. Called customer service, they changes the policy, gotta buy three cards and get your 300 freebee’s 100 at a time per new card. Didn’t care what the package said, even spoke with Rawle Employee # 51108 Customer service supervisor. Wouldn’t honor the advertising. Gonna take it back to Office Depot.
Posted on October 1st, 2007 at 7:35 pm
I’ve found Net10’s customer service to be horrible. I haven’t been able to set up my voice mail at all, and now I cannot call out, I get only a high/low tone. And if I call tech support I get a guy in India or somewhere who cannot understand what I’m trying to tell him, and if I try emailing tech support, they tell me to call in. Thank goodness I can get rid of it.
Posted on October 2nd, 2007 at 8:23 pm
I have had to contact net 10 each time I have had to add minutes purchased. My Net 10 phone will not automatically add purchased minutes when the pin is put in. Today, October 5,2007 I contacted Net 10 because I purchased normal 300 minute card at Walmart and I inputed the pin# from the card. My Net 10 phone informed me that I would receive my airtime minutes shortly. I never received my purchased minutes. I called Net 10 customer service today at 9:15 a.m.. I gave the customer service representative, Sandra, my receipt information. I informed her that I had discarded my Net 10 300 minute card because of the message I had received on the screen display. Sandra, informed me that I would not be receiving my minutes without the pin# which is on the discarded card. She gave me Net 10’s decision after being placed on hold 4 times in order to converse with a supervisor. I requested to speak with a supervisor because I have a receipt from Walmart with the Net 10 card number I purchased and this was debited from my account. She refused to give me the location of the office I was calling, the first initial of her last name, her supervisor’s name, nor her operator number. I realize this was an offshore representative however, there still needs to be an identification number or a record of the calls made regarding a particular cell number. Well, I am still on hold at it is now 11:00 a.m. I have been on hold for a supervisor since 10:00 when I was transferred by Sandra. This is lousy customer service at best. At worst this is poor and shady business practice when a customer has a receipt of purchase and they are refused the item that was purchased.
Posted on October 5th, 2007 at 10:06 am
I received an email telling me I would get 100 min.free for adding airtime to my phone.Guess what I DIDN’T.(No big surprise) so I called customer service and was told I did not receive that email.This was said by a supervisor.Its bad enough for them to lie but they would not even give me an email add. to foward it to.I am going to trash this phone and cut my loss if you got any brain you will to.
Posted on October 18th, 2007 at 8:00 am
NET10 HAS ANOTHER 100 EXTRA MINUTES WAITING FOR YOU TODAY!
Add an airtime card soon and we’ll add an EXTRA 100 MINUTES! Just BUY AIRTIME online, at a retailer near you or by calling toll 1-877-TEN-CENT (1-877-836-2368). Then, ADD AIRTIME to your NET10 phone and we’ll automatically add 100 EXTRA MINUTES… it’s that simple.
tHIS IS PART OF THE EMAIL i GOT THAT BYRON ID # 52254 THE SO CALL SUPERVISOR SAID I DID NOT RECEIVE
Posted on October 18th, 2007 at 8:14 am
I bought mine and bought a 600 minute card and it told me i would get 100 bonus minutes and guess what? I never did it pisses me off when they lie to get you to buy something.And you can’t download ring tones at all
Posted on October 31st, 2007 at 9:26 pm
I always research consumer items before purchase. Net10 does appear to be to good to be true based and customer reviews. My search continues for a pay as you go. I guess it comes down to you get what you pay for!
Posted on December 15th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Net 10 use to offer 15 dollar cards for 150 min. and I called to recharge the phone .My visa was charged 15 dollars and then a person came on the line to tell me they no longer have that plan .I would have to have the month to month plan to get this 15 dollar card now. I am not happy with that fact and the customer service said to they could not take my call.I called back and spoke to a sales person that was pleasnt. I was told my 15 dollars would be back in my account in 24 hrs .I have yet to see it and I didnt recieve the min.
Posted on December 29th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
works great, got it for xmas. hassle free activation and adding time. easy hook up took approx 5 min online. my sister got one also, same ease of hook up. we are both very happy with the sevice. no lost/dropped calls in so cal area. nice phone with camera. bad ring tones
Posted on December 31st, 2007 at 1:08 pm
I signed up for the Easy Minutes plan for $15.00. They charged my visa but never gave me the 150 minutes. I e-mailed them and told them I wanted my minutes. They said for me to call them and they would discuss it. When you call them, they continually put you on hold. After calling them, you will definitely need more minutes. They are a scam as far as I am concerned. I am still trying to get my money back. I will never purchase a Net10 phone again.
Posted on January 26th, 2008 at 1:02 am
After trying US Cellular, Verizon and Sprint, Net10 is hands down the best provider out there. All cell phones suck for where we live, so you might as well pay the least amount. If you look at Net10’s pricing, it boils down to about $15 per month. No contracts, no hidden fees, no playing around. All the other guys charge some sort of monthly fee to get 10 cents a minute. There cell phone works as good as any other cell phone, or better. Used these guys for 2 years now, and its fine.
The only problem is customer service is always in some far-off third-world country, so you takes your chances getting someone to speak English, but I’ve had the same problem with the “Name Brand” carriers also. Just have patience and try to use the website as much as possible.
Net10 is just reselling minutes from other carriers, so your reception is the same or better.
Also, Net10 = Tracfone, just at half the price. Otherwise its the same company. Tracphone is marketed towards the upscale areas of the country, but just use Net10.
Posted on February 15th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
i have had the worst time getting my phone number to be shown. they said it could take two days to show!!?? so then i called a friend and she had to tell me my phone number. pretty pathetic of a phone service if i add. im going with t mobile in the next month. this net10 sucks. plus i call the lady and she was getting mad cause i needed help. what kind of service is this? out of a home service?
Posted on February 23rd, 2008 at 8:51 pm
I had my phone exactly 1 month when it was disconnected by the Fraud Prevention Department. I called customer service and was connected to a very RUDE representative of Fraud Prevention who accused me of using my phone in offshore waters to make international roaming calls. I told him my phone had not been outside of the Athens, GA area. I also told him I was 250 miles from the neareast coastline. He agreed to turn my phone back on but said if it ever happened again, my phone would be disconnected permanently. I would suggest that HE check with his OWN personnel to determine HOW my phone number was used offshore since the company is located in Miami and most of its customer service personnel are OFFSHORE.
Posted on February 24th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I have been a Tracphone user for 4 years and switched to Net10, with NO problems. The ten cents a minute is the BEST deal in wireless. I use the phone for business, don’t care about texting or web access, so it works for me. I travel throughout the US and find it funny that I have access just about everywhere and often have to “share” my phone with the Verizon and AT&T users, as they have no bars. My experience with customer service has been outstanding. The only comment is to make sure that you keep up on your minutes. The GREAT thing is that you can add minutes at any time and unlike MOST carriers, they NEVER expire.
Posted on March 31st, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Net10 is the best deal out there. Period. Having been trapped in contracts for a few years, I decided to go prepaid and Net10 was my first (and only) choice. You simply can’t beat the price and service.
Posted on April 10th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
You guys do not realize the amount of analysis that goes into each of these awards…To convince the jury is the hardest thing to do ….So dont discount the work of the analysts at Frost
Posted on May 19th, 2008 at 5:43 am
I bought my net10 phone for 39.95 w/300 min. included. LG 400 phone. This was on 29 May. Activation went as advertised. Had to deal w/cust ser. to get the voice mail to work but other than a 30 min inconvenience (reimbursed) I had no problem dealing w/them. Smooth sailing ever since. I find I’m averaging 300 min. a month. The phone is a simple device but does what it’s supossed to. No complaints.
Posted on July 21st, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Which of the net10 phones is recommended for someone with a hearing impairment? thanks, j.
Posted on August 23rd, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Worst customer service ever. I didn’t think such morons existed. I had to go through 3 different people just to talk to someone who wouldn’t repeat the same thing over and over again. No one that i talked to listened to anything i said, instead told me that i needed to buy more minutes. what a joke. I would never suggest net 10 to anyone, ever.
Posted on September 2nd, 2008 at 9:59 am
bought a net 10 lg it was supposed to come with 300 minutes free upon activation… i activated it and got no airtime. I am returning it. I also bought a 300 minute card and it wont even load the airtime on the phone. this is a joke!
Posted on October 22nd, 2008 at 11:12 pm
I have posted a coment in 2007 about my not recieveing the min and was charged 15 dollars.I finially got that resolved.It took time but i am still a customer of net 10 .I have 3 actavated phones and feel you get what you pay for and thats cheap 10c a min calls and 5c a min text .I see other companies have a charge of a dollar a day or what have you and net 10 doesnt.I feel you get your moneys worth with net 10.If their is a problem they do usually fix it .I am recomending them as it stands today. Les Young and family
Posted on November 16th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
i just recently purchased a net 10 lg600g.i am really pleased with the phone bluetooth works good web access works well.i have had a tracfone for approx. 2 years never had a problem getting mins or any problem resolved.i love net 10 because 10 cents a min. is the way to go for me.
Posted on December 17th, 2008 at 12:03 am
I’ve been a Net 10 user for 3 years.
18 months ago, my phone was stolen – right after I put 1000 minutes in at $100.
I called Net 10. They told me to purchase a new phone, which I did, for $19 and it came with 300 free minutes.
Net 10 refunded my 1000 minutes, restored my original phone number and disabled the stolen phone.
Unless they turn evil and do stupid stuff, they’ll have my business for a long, long time.
Posted on February 17th, 2009 at 11:01 am
If considering a regular cell company (Verizon, Cingular, Sprint, etc.), go only to a CORPORATE store. Don’t go to an independent merchant selling for a regular cell company. The CORPORATE store will cause you to be able to contact CORPORATE customer service within the U.S. The independent merchant will cause you to have to contact customer service contractors out of the U.S. The Sprint phone bought from an indenpendent merchant store had constant problems & therefore required having to deal with customer service in the Phillipines (yucko to the max). I almost gave up with Sprint until I unknowingly went to a CORPORATE store & worked out the existing problems. NO PROBLEMS in over 2 & 1/2 years. Plus when I’ve had to ask a question, I always get someone in the U.S. You really do get what you pay for.
Posted on February 26th, 2009 at 9:14 am
I think NET10 really deserved this award. The service I’ve received from them has just gotten better and better. I almost never get my calls dropped, it is still the most affordable service available and the couple of times I had to call customer service, it was a breeze.
It is a shame that people tend to post negative remarks when unhappy but seldom take the time to post positive remarks.
Posted on February 26th, 2009 at 10:09 am
NET 10 will not transfer promo minutes from a destroyed fone to a new fone. Therefore their terms and conditions are unacceptable. If their per minute price was lower than everyone else’s maybe I would not be upset about this fact and could post something positive.
Posted on May 1st, 2009 at 9:35 am
I’ve had Net10 for over a year now and I dare say it is the best cell phone I’ve ever had. I’ve tried Sprint, Nextel, T-Mobile and even Verizon and their coverage all suck in the Northeast. With Net10 I have never had a dropped call and never any problem with coverage. And I do alot of traveling. Net10 gets a big thumbs up from me and I highly recommend it if you live in New England. I will agree about the criticism of their customer service people not speaking good English. Damn this is America, hire people who speak proper english.
Posted on May 28th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Net10 is great. I have it for 3 years now. Yes, customer service sucks but eventually you will get set up and you will have no problems with it in the end. Just have some patient in setting it up. Remember, Net10 hired foreign people so that they can cute down the cost for their consumers. Well, that’s what I hope. LOL
Posted on July 24th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
A family member and I were moving south on the east coast. We needed a prepaid cell phone for travels so I was eyeing up Net10 among others. I had to research them and found that they are from Tracfone. I though, “Ewww…Tracfone?”. We gave Net10 a chance though. I do remember having to do the funky airtime card purchase to get the free minutes. About the service, we drove through an underwater tunnel, over bridges, through valley and forests. We never lost signal, not once! In the tunnel, we got down to 2 bars of service but we still had service. Net10 gets service where others can’t.
Posted on July 27th, 2009 at 11:57 am
The trip mentioned in my previous post was a little over a year ago. They do now give 300 minutes and 60 days of service right off the bat though. The only thing I do not like at all, is the fact that Net10 has discontinued their $15.00 airtime cards.
Posted on July 27th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
**Update on previous post**:
Stayed on the phone with customer
svc for 2 hours this date; Was told they
would not be able to transfer my
remaining 500 minutes from my old phone
to my new phone, because they couldnt
locate the original serial number from
the old phone; Asked to speak to supervisor who advised they still
couldt transfer my original 500 minutes
to my new phone;Argued with her for
30 minutes and was finally credited
with the 500 minutes after threatning
to go to another cell phone carrier
…..long story short: Stay away from
Net10: customer svc is extremely poor,
phones are often defective (This is my
third one), minutes often wont transfer,
replacement sim cards often dont work;
etc, etc. I wont renew through net10
after I have used my 500 minutes; its
not worth the hassle you have to go
through.
Posted on September 4th, 2009 at 10:14 am
I need a cell phone only for emergencies, the problem with Net10 is that I can not purchase only 10 dollars in minutes, if I spend 30 dollars I will have to get more minutes afer 60 days, by then I will have lots of minutes that I never use, so the best option is T-Mobil, I can get 10 dollars and last for 90 days.
Posted on October 7th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I have been a Net 10 client for over a year. I purchased the phone for my 9th grader to use.
Recently, I purchased a new LG flip phone that came with 300 minutes. I called tech support (India) to have my existing phone number transfered to my new phone and the remaining minutes transfered too. That in itself was a cluster…. took three days and was totally without phone service for two days.
So, I notice that the new phone sounds like I talking in a barrel of water…. so I call tech support again. I got the run around for two days before I was told by a manager in India that “no replacement will be sent, your phone is fine,”.
I am DONE with Net10. I called my credit card company and disputed the charge for the new phone. If they aren’t going to make it right… I’m not going to pay for it.
I am now on a mission to spread the word of lousy customer service. Maybe if Net 10 used people that could SPEAK ENGLISH, they would not have so many problems.
Posted on October 13th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Worst company ever! Total scam. I bought one phone, defective, called them for hours and they sent a new phone, defective again!! I asked for a refund and they didnt want to. DONT BUY anything from NET10!
Posted on October 16th, 2009 at 1:32 am
I agree with Lex, Net 10 it a total scam. I bought a phone it was defective also, can’t get anyone to give me refund. DON”T buy from them, they are a scam.
Posted on November 19th, 2009 at 6:05 pm