Former Employees and Customers Speak Out Against Fraud and Poor Management at Great Call Inc DBA Jitterbug Cell Phones

I found these comments at: http://www.betanews.com/article/Jitterbug_Makes_Cell_Phones_Easy/1165958010

By honest abe edited Nov 17, 2007 - 5:18 PM

BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY!!! Check with the BBB first. This company offers poor service, poor service plans, and a terrible handset. The goal of the company is to be first to market and sell their subscriber base. The goal is to get the customer not keep them. There are a lot off issues ... check them out before you buy.

Score: 0 By JBInsider posted Nov 15, 2007 - 11:08 AM

In response to RJMP's comment about Abe Bui, Abe Bui is your classic sociopath, anti-social manager.

Score: 0 By ebmayes edited Nov 9, 2007 - 6:59 AM

Is there a phone made like this that can be used on an existing AT&T/Cingular plan??
Thanks!

Score: 0 By JBInsider posted Oct 3, 2007 - 4:17 AM

There should be a class action lawsuit against Jitterbug and Great Call Inc. for ripping off seniors. Attorneys should start looking into this.

Score: 0 By mrewood edited Sep 21, 2007 - 3:35 PM

as a former supervisor in this company's customer service department i can vouch for all of the claims made here by others claiming to be former employees. this company and it's team of leaders are doing nothing more than BILKING seniors, they do constantly give erronious billing. I myself had to deal with these poor customers as they called to get their money back, and if you buy a jitterbug don't expect a refund they will falsify information, and anything else to avoid refunding customers who are due. the sales department is an outsourced company that encourages misinformation because if a customer doesn't have the facts then Greatcall has them at a disadvantage. the sales manager for this company Olivier is a despicable thief at heart and he does nothing to hold sales accountable for the unending amount of lies that they tell customers in order to sell the phones. Daily i spoke to customers who had been suspended for no reason or because the inept people in charge of the billing and network departments would just shut off the wrong phone. or even better i can not even recount the far too numerous times that a customer's payment was taken and they were suspended anyway, and then it takes up to 60 days to get the service restored because these people don't care about Seniors at all (except their money). in closing i would caution anyone from buying a jitterbug phone so long as greatcall inc. is affilliated with it at all. honestly you would have better luck with 2 cans and some string.

Score: 0 By JBInsider posted Sep 20, 2007 - 10:48 PM

RJMP, you are a man of truth, honesty, and integrity. I am glad you are not afraid to tell the truth about Jitterbug and Great Call Inc. Great Call Inc. is scandalous. I don't know if you saw what I saw in regards to employees making up fake calls on the detailed billing statements as approved by their supervisor, but it turned my stomach. Jitterbug and Great Call Inc. should be shut down for ripping off seniors.

Score: 0 By Rjmp edited Sep 20, 2007 - 1:19 AM

Fellow consumers, DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE. Im a past employer that worked for this company. It saddens my heart how this company works. Base on ethics, my fellow co-workers worked really hard to explain to the victims of costs of original orders on this Jitterbug. I asked the infamous Mgr Abe Bui, " why dont these senior citizens get receipts upon sale", replies " This is within company default. Breaks my heart to see this work practice and the words of Abe. What amazes me the most is when the customer cancels, theres not a full cancel. Customers still get hit by a monthly bill and accounts gets cancelled motnhs later. Everyday i get calls from seniors and requests for a detailed bill on calls. Frankly this has to be done and approved my the Mgr. Jitterbug phone is great for seniors, but this company has a long way to go when it comes to supporting these phones to work properly. Now since where we let go of the job due to the the company call center moving to Calrsbad CA i can see more deception for this company to future buyers. My warning to every seniors DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE. You will not get a detailed receipt when you order. When you call like First Street or The connection and when you request to have funds be taken off at a specific date dont be surprise your account has been deducted to an amount that was not given to you and which cause your account to go overdraft. Believe me Folks i worked for this company and with the wrong business ethics and wrong guidance from ABE BUI, you'll get ripped off and your phone will be collecting dust till it finally works. Lastly Abe Bui treated everyone like Crap like there was no tomorrow. He gave no respect to others as we past employers got the bad treatment from him. This is no bash its the plain truth.

Score: 0 By JBInsider posted Sep 12, 2007 - 11:48 PM

Under the direction of Customer Support Manager Abe Bui, Jitterbug customer service reps made up calls on the detailed billing statements sent because billing was overcharging minutes to the Jitterbug customers. One of the reps was told by her supervisor, "Great minds think alike" when she asked if this was OK to do. I wonder if the Attorney General or the FTC would be interested in hearing this information. I can't believe that a company like Jitterbug/Great Call would scam seniors like this. Here Great Call says they want to help and simply things for seniors and here they are overcharging them and ripping them off.

Score: 0 By JBInsider edited Sep 11, 2007 - 4:09 AM

Verizon and AT & T are coming out with the same style of phones with more minutes and for half the cost. Save your money and go with Verizon or AT & T. Jitterbug are notorious for leaving seniors without cell service for weeks. Meaning, if your grandmother or grandfather need help in an emergency, the Jitterbug cell phone is useless. Either the Jitterbug networks are down or their order department is delayed in shipping back repairs of defective phones. There are so many complaints that can be made against Jitterbug and its customer service. Even worse, if you return the product to be serviced for a hardware issue, most of the time the company will say it is your fault due to water damage or some other ridiculous claim. A lot of the times you can't even get your own area code. They will ship you an 866 area code # that 800 numbers and most people will block. They even bill you for minutes you don't use. They do all their billing by hand. Their systems are extremely out of date. Don't take a chance with this rouge organization. Stay away from Jitterbug and its parent company Great Call. Stick to the big companies who know what they are doing. Jitterbug is bad for seniors.

Score: 0 By Lproctor1 edited Sep 4, 2007 - 7:58 AM

I bought the phone for my mother. I see that everyone seems to be having problems, but I didn't. The manual says to charge the phone once a week. It also tells you the website to go to so you can add more telephone numbers. If the numbers have not been downloaded to the telephone, all you have to do is contact the operator, and they will reset the phone. My mother loves the phone. I paid a one year plan also, and I also paid $25 so my mother would have some minutes on the phone just in case she wanted to use it. This phone is for her to have with her in case of an emergency. I feel safer with her having it while she is out and about going to the doctors, church and bible study. My mother is 80 years old and a little hard of hearing. This phone she can hear better in than the regular cell phones. It has a rubber cushion around the ear piece so the sound goes directly to the ear. This telephone has big numbers which make it easier for her to dial the phone. It has a button that says off and on, so she doesn't have to guess how to turn it off while she is in church. Do you know how hard it is to teach an 80 year old lady how to use a cell phone? My mother would not carry the other cell phones with her. She would leave them at home. Now she actually takes the phone with her. You want to know what she loves the most? That the phone is voice activated. She can say, Call Leona, and the phone will call me.

Score: 0 By pokereve edited Jun 23, 2007 - 12:09 AM

I would like to know what you mean by no evening minutes. I go play bingo in the evening and call my husband to check if he's okay. He is 82 years old. Also call to let him know I'm on the way home.... Do you allow any free calls .like for long distance. When you say 20.00 for 60 minutes is that only day time calls.. I love the phone but don't know if the program will fit my needs... thanks..Eve

Score: 0 By barbara garlow posted Mar 21, 2007 - 9:40 AM

This is nearly April and still the service that I thought I was getting is not working !
I paid for a whole year in advance before I got the phone.
There were no choices on it other than have the operator call,I could not program my own list of numbers to call, so I called the operator and gave her a list of all the numbers that I call, she said I should leave the phone on for 5 days because they were a little backed up, so I left the phone on for 5 days and when I tried to access all of the features that were supposed to be there,they were not there,also I have the same battery problem,after complete charging it says battery 75%!!! I think I'm going to send this phone back after calling the company and telling them I don't appreciate all of these problems, and I don't want to pay for the operator to make calls for me !

Score: 0 By winfieldjb edited Dec 26, 2006 - 11:46 PM

Guess what! I ordered my phone, opened it up, charged it, read the manual and went to the web site to set up a phone list. NO CAN DO! That service is not available. So I call the operator, give her my numbers and find out SHE has to make the calls for me, that I can't dial them myself because the company "is working on getting all the arrangements made with the carriers." It doesn't matter to me that there is no charge for the operator. It is outrageous that this company is selling phones on which you can't even make your own calls because they do not have the "arrangements" with the carriers worked out yet. They are telling the it will be the middle of January before this problem is resolved. Meanwhile all the calls have to go through the operators! What do you think of that??? Should I believe them, or immediately cancel my service and send my phone back?

Score: 0 By babyboomer64 edited Dec 27, 2006 - 3:47 PM

In theory, this is a great idea. I have been looking for a product for my Mother to use in case of an emergency. I bought one for my Mother at Christmas. I charged the battery on the phone to "charging complete",turned it off, wrapped it up and gave it to her 5 days later. Christmas day, she opens it and turns it on...to a low battery signal. 6 phone numbers were pre programed into the phone prior to shipment. 2 of the 6 numbers (including AAA and my sisters number) were incorrect. I charged the battery overnight to "charging complete" and the battery level was at 25% less that 2 hours later. No calls were made during this time. I spent a very long time on the phone on hold...waiting for an operator to correct the entered telephone numbers. Many attempted calls failed with a strong signal reading. The on and off button is too small. When the tweaks get worked out, and the price lowers, it will be a great product. Voice dial should be a requested option rather than being the first thing that pops of on the screen. That option confused us both...and it didn't work.

Score: 0 By BIL edited Dec 14, 2006 - 8:56 AM

This sounds like a great idea. The one point that might very well make it not feasible is the cost. Many seniors are on fixed incomes and $40 a month for only 300 minutes is quite expensive. Most companies advertise 1000 minutes for the same price and if you work it right you can do even better than that.

Score: 0 By djhayman edited Dec 12, 2006 - 10:16 PM

Seems like a good idea to help seniors make more use of cell phones, but I can't help but wonder what happens in say ten years time...

By then, everyone considered a "senior" will already be used to a normal phone.

Does this mean that this product is only supposed to have a limited lifespan?