Straight Reviews on The Jitterbug Cell Phone

Jitterbug Nightmare Story?

2011-08-11T04:34:00.001-07:00

Do you have a Jitterbug Nightmare Story? Did Jitterbug sell you a cell phone that left your elderly parent in a dangerous situation? Did they bill you for minutes you didn't use and fail to provide detailed billing? We want to hear from you! Email us at jitterbugstory@gmail.com

Please provide a detailed description of what happened to you, contact info, and a picture of you and/or your parent/grandparent with a Jitterbug phone.

If selected, you could be a part of a documentary and tell-all-book on the illegal billing practices and fraud perpetuated by Jitterbug aka Great Call Inc.

Everything you write will remain confidential. If we use your story we will request your authorized consent. Email us at jitterbugstory@gmail.com with any information you have regarding your Jitterbug experience.

Fed up with Jitterbug aka Great Call Inc. ripping off grandma and grandpa? File a complaint with the FTC

2011-02-22T21:43:00.000-08:00

To file a complaint against Jitterbug aka Great Call Inc. with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) go here:

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en

You can also file a complaint with the Consumer Affairs website:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/cell_phones/jitterbug.html

Why is Jitterbug Cell Phones still scamming seniors? Taking advantage of the elderly? More complaints about the Jitterbug Cell Phone Company

2011-02-22T21:39:00.001-08:00

I am absolutely disgusted with Jitterbug company. I was an unhappy customer for two years. Unhappy about missed and delayed calls. Unhappy about charges higher than competitors. Unhappy about bills with no detail. The only draw you have is the ease of use of your phone. My daughter finally transferred my number to a new phone service on March 16 - 2010. The company told us that once the number is transferred, the service would be cancelled with Jitterbug, since there would be no account associated with the number.

However, I received a bill in April. I called on April 26th and talked to an associate to officially cancel the account. In May, I received a bill for two months of service. I called on June 1 and spoke to Amy. She explained the overlap of service from March 17 April 16. I immediately sent the $60.77 payment for that month even though I had already transferred the number to my new account by then. Amy said the additional $60.77 was for service from April 17 26. First of all it is ridiculous to pay for a full month even though it is only for 9 days! Second of all I DID NOT use the phone. I told Amy this and she said she would refer the account to financial services and they would contact me with a decision.

I received NO response from them. Instead, I received another bill. On July 1, I called and spoke to Carlos. He tells me that the bill is actually for Feb March which is a LIE. I tell him I want to speak to a supervisor. Jason Long gets on the line and tells me no, the bill is for the partial April month. I tell him I didnt use the service. He says I did. I cant know this because there is NO detailed information on the bill. He says he will send me the detailed bill. I ask him to read me the numbers over the phone. He says that would be an unproductive use of my time and Im not going to give you the information I can send you and My going over this bill with you is another hoop for me. These statements were condescending and offensive. When I said this to him, he hung up on me!

I find this treatment deplorable. I believe your company takes advantage of elderly people by luring them in with your product and then treating them like imbeciles.

Jeanne of St. Louis, MO July 22, 2010

I called for information on the Jitterbug phone - CSR convinced me to look at the phone and try it for FREE for 30 days and only be charged if I use the phone. I said I didn't want to use the phone just look at it to see the features and how it worked - she said OK and that it would be free shipping too. I got the phone looked at it decided it wasn't any better than the one I had and sent it back the next day - then they refunded everything except for $50.39 which Beth CSR said was the activation fee that they did at their center before shipping it out and the shipping out fee. She refused to refund the balance. Total ripoff for senior citizens.

Laverne of Fargo, ND June 10, 2010

I originally purchased the Jitterbug phone because I didn't want a monthly service fee, which they said I could buy my minutes as I used them. Which was fine until the first year was up and they renewed my plan and started charging me for a monthly service fee. I feel that the phone was misrepresented to me and that Jitterbug charged me fees that I did not incur myself, the whole phone is just a ploy to get money out of older people. Do not get involved with this company. Loss of $400. and no help from Jitterbug to recover.

John of Greenville, PA May 27, 2010

Jitterbug should be shut down. Their billing is deceptive, if not illegal. They cannot provide accurate minute usage because they say it takes 3 days to collect the info from other carriers. They do not provide itemized statements.

Susan of San Jose, CA Feb. 2, 2010

I bought a jitterbug phone and then signed up for service only to be told they had no numbers available in my area code. After several calls and promises and phone numbers over the course of 5 months, including one that belonged to someone else, I gave up. Glad I disconnected my other cell phone service. Be sure to ask if they have a number in the area you want!

Anne of Kennebunkport, ME Jan. 5, 2010

I too purchased two phones. One for my elderly mother and one for my husband. My mothers phone sat on the charger for over two months while I tried in vain to get the number from her old cell phone switched to the Jitterbug. The Customer Service is awful and the people are rude and nasty. They would never let me finish a sentence, they would continually talk over me. When my check did not reach the payment center on the due date they immediately cut off phone service and left my elderly mother without phone service. The bill's that have come are never the 14.99 plan that I signed up for. The last bill was 86.00 and I still can't understand why. I would not recommend this phone company. They have horrible customer service and I believe they are trying to con money from the elderly.

Deana of Midland, MI Dec. 9, 2009

I called about a Jitterbug phone for my elderly father. The first question I asked was about service where he lived. I was told it was the best. I also asked about the return policy and was told if I was unhappy for any reason I could return the phone within the first 30 days for a full refund.

I ordered the phone and had it shipped directly to my father. He was so excited to receive it until he tried to use it. The reception was horrid. He could hear us but be could not hear him it was breaking up so bad. There were several calls made to Jitterbug in an attempt to fix the problem. At one point he was "switched" to another carrier and was totally unusable for 6 days out of the 30 day return period. It still didnt work.
I called to cancel the service and return the phone within our 30 day trial period. Had to return with a RA number on the outside of the box or would not take it. We did that. Received at Jitterbug on November 12th and still have no refund. As a matter of a fact on November 20th they deducted another $49.00 from account. Clearly their mistake. According to them they forgot to stop the automatic withdrawal upon cancellation. So sorry for the inconvience. Called them again today November 30 and still no refund. Refund of the phone takes 21 working days and 5 working days for the additional amount taken after cancellation. The 5 days will start from November 30th not the 25th when I made the first call about the "Mistake".

There are also "rules" about returning the phone. Only 30 minutes could be used, no scratches on phone, and the list goes on. They will adjust the refund accordingly. Here is the best one. When I asked for the number to the financial department I was told from customer service they don't have that number. Their only communication is e-mail or fax. Are you kidding me!

Anyone considering a Jitterbug my advise DONT. I added my father to my Sprint plan of shared minutes for an additional $9.99 per month and it is great! Phone works wonderful and Dad has no problems with it. He is once again happy.

Karen of Roswell, NM Dec. 1, 2009

I recently purchased a Jitterbug phone with a Simply 29 plan (250 anytime minutes, 500 evening/weekend minutes) for my elderly mother. She tried using it for a month but was unhappy with the service for several reasons, so I decided to get her a landline. My mother has difficulty dialing numbers due to the rheumatoid arthritis in her fingers, so she used the Jitterbug operator service to dial her numbers. Little did she know, every time she dialed the Jitterbug operator, she was billed for 5 minutes of Jitterbug service! She though that this was a free service provided by Jitterbug. NOT! Be sure you READ THE FINE PRINT!

Then she gets her bill and she was charged for 120 minutes for dialing the Jitterbug voicemail retrieval number!!! After seeing the initial bill from Jitterbug, we decided that Jitterbug is definitely not "elderly friendly" as had been described, so we got a Comcast landline and changed the Jitterbug service to a basic plan (50 minutes per month for $14.99) for emergency use only. We made this change on the last day of the current billing period. Here comes the next bill.....WHOA! We received a bill for $86.00 when we were expecting a bill for $14.99! Ends up they treated all the calls in that billing period (400 minutes) as if we had been on the $14.99 basic plan the entire prior billing period! We were never told that we should wait until the first day of the next billing period to downgrade our plan! UNBELIEVABLE! In my opinion, Jitterbug preys on the elderly population. Many of the elderly will not be savvy enough to read the FINE PRINT and to question what is going on with their bill. Oh, and talking about the bill, did I mention that the bill does not include a call detail list that shows each call made? This information is not available on their internet site either! You have to call the Jitterbug operator (which you WILL BE BILLED FOR!) and ask for a call detail list to be emailed to you; it took them 72 hours to email it to me! I cancelled my mother's Jitterbug service today. BYE BYE JITTERBUG! GOOD RIDDANCE! I'm out $200.00 for a phone and various accwessories that I purchased, plus an additional $71.00 in phone call charges that I should not have had to pay for.

Janis of Arvada, CO Nov. 30, 2009

Here are things I believe greatly need improvement with Great Call's Jitterbug's billing and website:
The monthly bill needs to show ALL calls made to help the customer reconcile the minutes used and be on the same page. Currently it only shows the minutes used and cost, but not itemized as other phone companies do. Isn't it a regulation to do so?? It takes 48 hours for the used minutes to show up on MyJitterbug?? The change to the phonebook can be put in right away, why can't not this technology be applied to the minutes?? The used minutes on the phone show TOTAL usage of the phone, not the recent minutes purchased - it's too confusing to NOT show usage of the CURRENT minutes last purchased only. This would greatly help in keeping track of current minutes used.
I appreciate the phone,it's easy to use for my mother-but the billing combined with the site, isn't, and these need some major improvements to catch up with the times.
I'm only a consumer, and some companies would rather ignore than deal with the issues. I have used the comments area on the site to bring my concerns, but pretty much ignored.

If Jitterbug/Great Call is now promoting a new phone, they had better improve their billing/website as well to accommodate, or folks will surely find other solutions!

Karen of Santa Cruz, CA Sept. 24, 2009

I bought Jitterbugs services for my parents as there phones are eaiser for elderly to use. I purchased 500 minutes for them, not knowing there was an EXPERATION DATE on those minutes of 1 year.

Parents do not use phone much so 190 of those 500 minutes EXPIRED.

In todays mobile phone business I thought those plans were history. Why would minutes EXPIRE? The only reason I can think of is take advantage of seniors?

Kevin of Glendale, AZ Aug. 10, 200

It's 2011 & Great Call Inc aka Jitterbug Cell Phones for the Elderly are still defrauding customers

2011-01-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

Plenty of awful reviews still popping up everywhere on a company that is supposed to be helping the elderly and is just contributing to elder abuse and corporate fraud.

From: http://www.prepaidreviews.com/jitterbug.html

Dana 2010/08/15
This would have negative stars if I could.

I thought I cancelled my mothers Jitterbug 5 months agoI had sent an e-mail to their customer service asking how I can cancel the account and did not receive any reply) and they never sent a final bill (since I paid ahead, and had a credit balance, I never thought anything about it). Now I get a call on my phone saying I need to call them since some mail was returned. Turns out they were sending mail to the wrong address (magically I got mail from them before I tried to cancel the account).

They let the account go for 5 months, presumably sending them to the wrong address. Who does this? Any other company would have cut it off by the second billing cycle that was missed. When I returned the call they tell me that you can't cancel by e-mail and must call customer service to cancel. I asked why their customer service did not reply to my e-mail explaining this I was told that they don't reply to customers who do not have an e-mail address on file. Something that is not disclosed on the site.

I asked why they did not call me before 5 months and he said they tried to call the Jitterbug phone 3 months after I sent the first e-mail. Since that phone was sitting in a drawer not being used, because I thought it had been cancelled, that was a pretty futile thing to do.

I set this up for my 70 year old mother, I paid all the bills, and I was the contact on every other occasion. Yet they called my mother 3 months in and did not bother to call me till they finally cancelled the bill at 5 months past due at which point they somehow remember that I pay the bills and call me for payment.

When I called customer Service the first customer service rep was AWFUL. The First time I asked for his supervisor, instead of giving me to the supervisor, he replied why should he do that since he was answering all my questions (though not to my satisfaction).

When I finally got the supervisor, after explaining everything and being told about the customer service I told him how dissappointed I was at not having at least cut the bill in half (even though I think they should dismiss it all) he said he would not do that because he considered it all legitimate even though there was no usage on the phone, because a lot of people use the phone for emergencies only and have zero usage and I could understand that if I had the minimum coverage, but at one point there was large usage ($250 in the first month and we upped it to more minutes) how is that for emergencies only in this case?

If you are going to use it only for the pre pay it might be good but if you think you may need customer service at any time do not use them.

If you plan on skipping on the bill then use them as they won't cancel you for 5 months.

From: http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=69075

Jitterbug / Great Call Informative
JItterbug Rip Off - Cell phone service
Posted By: krasavka on 12/26/2009

Location: Carlsbad, CA

Jitterbug is ripping off elderly customers by billing them for calls never made and then threatening to turn them in to a collection agency if they don't pay their bill. They treat their employees like crap and then terminate them if one of them attemps to correct the "error" in a customer's bill.

From: http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=89797

Several years back I obtained the Jitterbug Service for my mother. She is now 93 and is not using the phone. I even set up the web site with password etc. Yesterday I called Customer service to cancel her service and was told only she can do that. I went on the web site and could not find any place to cancel the service. It is going to be difficult to get mom to say the right things on the phone. Since this company is dealing with primarily the elderly and, in turn, their caregivers they need to learn to accommodate the situations this will present. There should be the opportunity to cancel service on line if you have the account information or even through customer service if you have the account information, log in etc.

From: http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=86361

Jitterbug charges a $35 activation fee to initiate service in the light that there is a glaring absence of this charge in any of the literature or packaging on the Jitterbug Samsung phone packaging or mention of it prior to its purchase.

Customers should be alerted to the the charge before spending time and money purchasing the phone.

As it is, for those of us who are on a limited budget and fixed income, the glaring omission of any mention of a $35 charge for activating service with the purchase of the Jitterbug phone raises suspicions, and it makes me not want to do business with a company that indicates future business dealings may also be shady in the future.

The company mantra is, "The $35 activation charge is paid to Verizon, and we don't collect this fee, and we hope that the customer will pay the fee anyway despite no verbiage or indication of an up-front charge." Wow, now that's Chutzspa--hoping you'll succumb to their unethical practice anyway! This is indicative of a company that is not up-front and honest with their customers.

I hate hidden charges.

Jitterbug / Great Call, Inc. Informative
Jitterbug is an Embarrassment

Posted By: TOKER66 on 4/29/2010

Location:
1950 CAMINO VIDA ROBLE #100
Carlsbad , CA 92008
Phone: 7606026700

As an employee of Jitterbug since 2007 I need to say that Jitterbug is a a lousy company to work for and do business with. The company does NOT care about it's customers or employees. The Customer service Director, Abe Bui, is a real piece of work---this is a guy who had absolutely NO experience in the wireless industry prior to coming to Jitterbug.

he also has NO people skills whatsoever and walks around the call center all day scowling at and intimidating employees. When it comes to customers, Jitterbug really takes the cake. Customers are treated as if they are stupid because they are of a generation that finds electronics challenging.

There have been many instances of Jitterbug printing incorrect billing statements and when the customer calls to inquire, the customer service reps are FORBIDDEN to contact the billing department directly to provide a resolution for a customer--this in turn causes an unnecessary delay, which in turn causes the customers cell phone service to be interrupted...any way the Jitterbug Management team can screw a customer is OK with them...

STAY AWAY FROM JITTERBUG!!!!

(Note from bloggger. Yes, Abe Bui has the ugliest scowl you'll ever find on anybody here in southern California. No People Skills is an understandment). LMAO!!!

From: http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=80787

Jitterbug Complaint
Dishonest Sales People - Cell Phone
Posted By: Mad in NC on 6/21/20

View Company Response To This Review!

I returned the cell phone in April of this year. They are still charging my credit card which I never authorized for a cell phone I do not have. I get a song and dance every time I try to talk to a sales person. This company as per all the other complaints I have read as well from my own experience is stealing money from my account which is factual as I can prove from my credit card company. They should be run out of business and I intend to report them to Attorney General office here in NC.

Editor's note: It looks like the "take advantage of the elderly people by overcharging them and leaving elderly people without service" business model plan is still in action. There is a sucker born every minute.

Jitterbug Cellphone Reviews and Complaints (New! December 2009 from Consumer Affairs)

2009-12-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

Jitterbug

Deana of Midland, MI December 9, 2009

I too purchased two phones. One for my elderly mother and one for my husband. My mothers phone sat on the charger for over two months while I tried in vain to get the number from her old cell phone switched to the Jitterbug. The Customer Service is awful and the people are rude and nasty. They would never let me finish a sentence, they would continually talk over me. When my check did not reach the payment center on the due date they immediately cut off phone service and left my elderly mother without phone service. The bill's that have come are never the 14.99 plan that I signed up for. The last bill was 86.00 and I still can't understand why. I would not recommend this phone company. They have horrible customer service and I believe they are trying to con money from the elderly.

Karen of Roswell, NM December 1, 2009

I called about a Jitterbug phone for my elderly father. The first question I asked was about service where he lived. I was told it was the best. I also asked about the return policy and was told if I was unhappy for any reason I could return the phone within the first 30 days for a full refund.

I ordered the phone and had it shipped directly to my father. He was so excited to receive it until he tried to use it. The reception was horrid. He could hear us but be could not hear him it was breaking up so bad. There were several calls made to Jitterbug in an attempt to fix the problem. At one point he was "switched" to another carrier and was totally unusable for 6 days out of the 30 day return period. It still didnt work.

I called to cancel the service and return the phone within our 30 day trial period. Had to return with a RA number on the outside of the box or would not take it. We did that. Received at Jitterbug on November 12th and still have no refund. As a matter of a fact on November 20th they deducted another 49.00 from account. Clearly their mistake. According to them they forgot to stop the automatic withdrawal upon cancellation. So sorry for the inconvience.

Called them again today November 30 and still no refund. Refund of the phone takes 21 working days and 5 working days for the additional amount taken after cancellation. The 5 days will start from November 30th not the 25th when I made the first call about the "Mistake".

There are also "rules" about returning the phone. Only 30 minutes could be used, no scratches on phone, and the list goes on. They will adjust the refund accordingly. Here is the best one. When I asked for the number to the financial department I was told from customer service they don't have that number. Their only communication is e-mail or fax. Are you kidding me!

Anyone considering a Jitterbug my advise DONT. I added my father to my Sprint plan of shared minutes for an additional 9.99 per month and it is great! Phone works wonderful and Dad has no problems with it. He is once again happy.

Janis of Arvada, CO November 30, 2009

I recently purchased a Jitterbug phone with a Simply 29 plan (250 anytime minutes, 500 evening/weekend minutes) for my elderly mother. She tried using it for a month but was unhappy with the service for several reasons, so I decided to get her a landline. My mother has difficulty dialing numbers due to the rheumatoid arthritis in her fingers, so she used the Jitterbug operator service to dial her numbers. Little did she know, every time she dialed the Jitterbug operator, she was billed for 5 minutes of Jitterbug service! She though that this was a free service provided by Jitterbug. NOT! Be sure you READ THE FINE PRINT!

Then she gets her bill and she was charged for 120 minutes for dialing the Jitterbug voicemail retrieval number!!! After seeing the initial bill from Jitterbug, we decided that Jitterbug is definitely not "elderly friendly" as had been described, so we got a Comcast landline and changed the Jitterbug service to a basic plan (50 minutes per month for 14.99) for emergency use only. We made this change on the last day of the current billing period.

Here comes the next bill.....WHOA! We received a bill for 86.00 when we were expecting a bill for 14.99! Ends up they treated all the calls in that billing period (400 minutes) as if we had been on the 14.99 basic plan the entire prior billing period! We were never told that we should wait until the first day of the next billing period to downgrade our plan! UNBELIEVABLE!

In my opinion, Jitterbug preys on the elderly population. Many of the elderly will not be savvy enough to read the FINE PRINT and to question what is going on with their bill. Oh, and talking about the bill, did I mention that the bill does not include a call detail list that shows each call made? This information is not available on their internet site either! You have to call the Jitterbug operator (which you WILL BE BILLED FOR!) and ask for a call detail list to be emailed to you; it took them 72 hours to email it to me!

I cancelled my mother's Jitterbug service today. BYE BYE JITTERBUG! GOOD RIDDANCE! I'm out 200.00 for a phone and various accwessories that I purchased, plus an additional 71.00 in phone call charges that I should not have had to pay for.

Karen of Santa Cruz, CA September 24, 2009

Here are things I believe greatly need improvement with Great Call's Jitterbug's billing and website: The monthly bill needs to show ALL calls made to help the customer reconcile the minutes used and be on the same page. Currently it only shows the minutes used and cost, but not itemized as other phone companies do. Isn't it a regulation to do so?? It takes 48 hours for the used minutes to show up on MyJitterbug?? The change to the phonebook can be put in right away, why can't not this technology be applied to the minutes?? The used minutes on the phone show TOTAL usage of the phone, not the recent minutes purchased - it's too confusing to NOT show usage of the CURRENT minutes last purchased only. This would greatly help in keeping track of current minutes used.

I appreciate the phone,it's easy to use for my mother-but the billing combined with the site, isn't, and these need some major improvements to catch up with the times. I'm only a consumer, and some companies would rather ignore than deal with the issues. I have used the comments area on the site to bring my concerns, but pretty much ignored. If Jitterbug/Great Call is now promoting a new phone, they had better improve their billing/website as well to accommodate, or folks will surely find other solutions!

Kevin of Glendale, AZ August 10, 2009

I bought Jitterbugs services for my parents as there phones are eaiser for elderly to use. I purchased 500 minutes for them, not knowing there was an EXPERATION DATE on those minutes of 1 year. Parents do not use phone much so 190 of those 500 minutes EXPIRED. In todays mobile phone business I thought those plans were history. Why would minutes EXPIRE? The only reason I can think of is take advantage of seniors?

lynne of Panama City Beach, FL August 5, 2009

We bought a Jitterbug for our 18 year old disabled daughter. She used a handful of times before it died. When it failed to recharge I made the mistake of calling the company instead of taking it back to the retail store. It was so new I could have returned it for a full refund. The service rep that I spoke to told me to send the phone in and against my better judgement I did.

After 3 weeks of not hearing anything from Jitterbug, I called them. They told me I would have to pay 150 for a new phone. I explained that it was a new phone. they basically told me tough! Shame on them. I am contacting AARP, the National Down Syndrome society, the national society for the disabled, retailers and advertisers. There are many stories similar to mine all over the internet. This company should not be allowed to cater to elderly and disabled. Shame on them.

Jeanna of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (USA) June 8, 2009

I looked into getting a Jitterbug phone for my Dad. Jitterbug sent me a phone. Once received I called Jitterbug to activate to be told, that they do not offer service in my area, which is in the US Virgin Islands. They apologized and told me they would send me a prepaid enevelope in which to mail the phone back. After waiting for that envelope for about two weeks I took the liberty and sent the phone back using my personal funds for I did not want to be responsible if something happened to the phone. SO I mailed it back.

Dk of Choctaw, OK May 24, 2008

Dk of Choctaw OK (05/24/08)
Ordered a Jitterbug phone for my Mother that did not want a sophisticated phone. She simply wanted a product that would allow her the availability of emergency service, should she need it. I ordered a jitterbug phone for her, since the service that was offered fit her needs.

The equipment that was received was as expected. However, the service was not! It was virtually impossible to contact my mother when testing out the equipment to see how it worked, I ALWAYS received a busy signal. The Jitterbug rep that I spoke with apologized and said that, that does happen sometimes.

Unfortunately, I did not discontinue service at that point. It seems that if you do not cancel within 1 months time (after sign up), you will EAT the cost of the phone. SO, I have since cancelled my service, put my mom on my cell plan, and am stuck with a paper weight that I would even hesitate to try to hold down paper with! If you are contemplating a Jitterbug service for someone that you LOVE and CARE about... do not do it! Find an alternative! I have lost money on a service that I thought would be great for someone that wanted a simple, easy to use product. Thankfully, money is all that was lost! Buyer BEWARE!!

Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/cell_phones/jitterbug.html#ixzz0ZNuPKQtu

Source: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/cell_phones/jitterbug.html

Jitterbug Cellphone Could Fail to Reach Emergency 911 in a No-Service Area

2009-12-11T04:37:00.000-08:00

Office of Information and Public Affairs Washington, DC 20207

May 22, 2009

Alert #09-744

Samsung Recalls to Upgrade Certain Cell Phones; Could Fail to Reach Emergency 911 in a No-Service Area

The following product safety recall was voluntarily conducted by the firm in cooperation with the CPSC.

Name of Product: Samsung “Jitterbug” Cell Phones

Units: About 160,000

Manufacturer: Samsung Telecommunications America, of Richardson, Texas

Distributor: GreatCall d/b/a Jitterbug, of San Diego, Calif.

Hazard: The recalled cell phones that are in a no-service area and display an “out of range, try again later” message could fail to connect to emergency 911.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported.

Description: This recall involves “Jitterbug” cell phones model numbers SPH-a110 and SPH-a120 with standard key pads and version BB14 software. No other Samsung wireless phones or software versions are included in this recall.

Sold through: Directly to consumers through targeted national advertisements and publications, electronics and drug stores nationwide, and on the Web at www.jitterbug.com from March 2008 through May 2009 for about $150.

Manufactured in: Korea

Remedy: Samsung and Jitterbug are directly contacting consumers to schedule a free software upgrade. Consumers should call Samsung if they have not already been contacted.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Samsung toll-free at (866) 304-4980 between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, and on Saturday between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. CT, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.samsung.com

CPSC is still interested in receiving incident or injury reports that are either directly related to this product recall or involve a different hazard with the same product. Please tell us about it by visiting https://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/incident.aspx

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard. The CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals - contributed significantly to the decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, call CPSC's Hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC's teletypewriter at (301) 595-7054. To join a CPSC e-mail subscription list, please go to https://www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.aspx. Consumers can obtain recall and general safety information by logging on to CPSC's Web site at www.cpsc.gov.

Source: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09744.html

Jitterbug Phone Has Made its Way to the RIP-OFF REPORT

2009-07-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

Billed for phone for a month even after my Mother passed away. They did not care. They only want there money.

Molly
Mpls, Minnesota
U.S.A.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/404/RipOff0404480.htm

Nans
Irvine, California
U.S.A.
They lost the payment check for my fathers phone

They cashed the check and applied it somewhere, but never applied it to my dads account. They are now not responding to emails. They will cut off my dads phone service.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/404/RipOff0404480.htm

Poetbroad says she is in trouble with the family now for choosing Jitterbug Cell Phone by Great Call Inc.

2009-07-28T19:35:00.001-07:00

poetbroad (02/11/2009)

I think Jitterbug intentional targets an audience (seniors) that doesn't have much saavy about cellphones, and then proceeds to rip them off. I've reported them to AARP, FTC, and BBB and now here. We got one for my husband's grandmother and I've been in trouble with the family for the choice ever since!

http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=28563

Martha says in Jitterbug Cell Phone Review: "Coverage Poor & Customer Service Was Worst She Has Ever Experienced."

2009-07-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

Martha January 26th, 2009 at 7:25 pm

I cannot recommend Jitterbug. The coverage was poor and the customer service was the worst I have ever experienced. You should google “Jitterbug complaints” to read about many, many people who have been very dissatisfied with this company.

http://www.mohttp://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=8808086014191117410bilewhack.com/senior-friendly-cell-phone-service/

Lady At Airports says Jitterbug Phone Company Lies to Customers and Staff

2009-07-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

Jitterbug Phone
Posted: 2008-05-31 by Sam

Rude Customer Service -- Poor Service

Complaint Rating: 100 % with 9 votes

I ran into a lady at the airport as I was fiddling with my mother's jitterbug. I was frustrated and trying to get a hold of a CSR to dispute the billing. She chuckled as she told me she had a friend that used to work at the company. Her friend would not buy a jitterbug for her mother due to the billing issues and lack of service. She told me that her friend was overworked and under appreciated -- and that she complained about the management that was notorious for lying to staff and customers. We had a delightful conversation and somehow I cannot forget her as I look at my mother's jitterbug. I have read the jitterbug blogs. I only wish I had done so sonner. Everything in these blogs is true! Jitterbug is really a scam. I am researching other handsets for my mother. In doing so, I truly don't believe the company understands their demographics.

From: http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/jitterbug-phone-c70538.html

Letter from Jitterbug Customer

2009-07-28T19:09:00.001-07:00

DF said...

This is the WORST company I have ever dealt with. I have also found quite a few blogs with similar messages from people who have also had terrible experiences with this company. I'm a 50 year old woman who purchased a cell phone for my elderly parents last year. The HORRIBLE service began almost immediately. After countless months of unsuccessfully trying to get Jitterbug to provide me with service, I have begun to take other actions. I have many, many friends and hundreds of professional peers in my age range who are also looking to purchase cell phones for their elderly parents. I'm making sure they all know that Jitterbug should be avoided at all costs. I have posted on blogs; I have posted on my Facebook profile; I have sent out emails and talked personally to a lot of people. My sister, who purchased the phone with me for our parents, is a long-time teacher in a large school district and knows literally hundreds of other teachers in her age range who might be thinking about cell phone purchases for their parents. She, like me, is making sure they know about Jitterbug. As if the awful service and management of this company were not bad enough, the phone was purchased for my parents medical emergencies. During the time Jitterbug has held their phone hostage, my father passed away (my mother needed her phone -- which had already been paid for in full -- to contact people concerning this medical emergencies). Despite repeated promises that I would have the phone returned to me by last week (which was about the 10th promise I've had that I would get it back), it wasn't. During this time, my mother -- who is still recovering from the death of her husand, to whom she had been married for 53 years, fell in her yard. She was unable to get up and had no way to call anyone because Jitterbug won't return her phone. She was stranded for 30 minutes and broke several of her fingers. You can bet that story is what I'm telling people in my communications about the worst company ever. DF

New complaint about Jitterbug cell phone, Great Call Inc. Customer

2009-02-06T04:34:00.000-08:00

Nickname: kimmjo

Says; "BE VERY CAREFUL WITH 'great call inc and jitterbug cell phone service of carlsbad, ca,' THEY MAY BE FINE - UNTIL YOU RUN INTO PROBLEMS. Watch them carefully.

Review: I needed a phone for my elderly parents. There isn't a lot out there and I ended up buying a Jitterbug, in spite of some negative comments regarding overcharging seniors and poor response when something went wrong (you can't please everybody). I bought a new phone through Craigslist and sent it into Jitterbug to be programmed. I tried the phone out before sending it in and it worked perfectly. Although the phone was brand new (still in plastic), they told me it had "water damage" and I needed to purchase aother phone. I checked the internet to find this is a regular scam with Jitterbug/GreatCall. People who relate favorably to this company seem to be the ones who haven't had to deal with them on hardware or billing issues. I have still not received the phone back from GreatCall. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS COMPANY, THEY MAY BE FINE - UNTIL YOU RUN INTO PROBLEMS. Watch them carefully.

Date reviewed: Jun 23, 2008 10:17 PM

Source: http://app.businessweek.com/UserComments/get_reviews?productId=480

New Reviews on Jitterbug Cell Phone Service by Great Call Inc.

2008-08-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

124 days ago by Ray Walker

Their return policy sucks. I ordered 2 phones. They billed me 1/2 @ $176.00 I returned the phones due to size. They billed me $52.38 but left the $176 on the credit card instead of remitting the $176 at the same time they added their new charge. Not quite what thei ad on return policy states. I won't quibble about the return fee, but it is a bit high. My conversation with them to return it was neither rude nor friendly.

107 days ago by Heather

I agree totally that Jitterbug is a rip-off! I ended up calling and cancelling my service which I never actually recieved because they never set up my phone for me, but still charged me for it! I called 5 times to complain about not being able to use my phone, and nothing got done about it. Seemed like they just wanted to keep stringing me along. They didn't try very hard either to make me happy when i cancelled, all they did was offer to give me back my set up fee. I said no way, i'm fed up and i'm returning the phone. It's their loss, because I was so excited about getting it and all it turned out to be was a huge dissapointment and an even bigger headache!!!

86 days ago by R.

I ordered a Jitterbug phone for my elderly mother for emergency use. So far it only worked the first day she had it. There is no service and her stored phone numbers no longer come up. I called customer service three times now w/ no success fixing the problem. Finally I was promised that a tech person would call me back to help. Now, two days later, no one has called yet. I already paid a bill for one month of service (although she only
had the phone for 2 weeks when I got the bill).

If I don't get this thing fixed tomorrow I am sending the phone back and I better get a full refund on it plus a refund for the service I paid for (since there has been none). I could not be less satisfied by the service at this point. I will not recommend this phone to anyone.

83 days ago by Heather

I hear you. Here I am, let's see now, 42 days after I returned the phone to Best Buy where i bought it, and I still haven't gotten my set up fee back yet. I've called 5 times already asking them where it is. They just keep stringing me along. Called yesterday, they told me it was credited back to me 3 days ago, Hmmmm, then why isn't it back in my bank account? If it doesn't show up in my account within next few days, I'm calling the attourney general's office, i've had enough of their crap and lies. Buyers Beware, DO NOT BUY A JITTERBUG, SAVE YOURSELF A HUGE HEADACHE.

Comments from this link: http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/jitterbug-phone-c40290.html

New information from JobVent.com

2008-06-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

"Del Mar, CA 03/04/2008: [Jitterbug Cell Phones aka Great Call Inc.] does not know what they are doing. It's an horrible environment to work for. The churn in employees is as high as their subscriber base.

Del Mar, CA 10/19/2007: Management and Leadership [at Jitterbug aka Great Call Inc.] would be an oxymoronic statement on both accounts. The small nepotistic company is barely able to stay afloat. The company is banking on selling to a major carrier in 18-24 months, if they can keep their subscribers happy which has not occurred."

http://www.jobvent.com/companyBrowse.php?CompanyID=4799

Miss Georgia Lynn Harris unable to make 911 calls with Jitterbug Cell Phone

2008-03-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

20 days ago by Miss Georgia Lynn Harris

I know first-hand that Jitterbug is a rip off. I live in North Florida half of the year and Southern California the rest of the time, and my cell reception is just awful when I travel. Not to mention, I've been scammed on my bill for 6 months now with all kinds of extra charges that are not mine. My oldest son has to call and handle it for me because the Jitterbug customer service gets my stomach all in knots. They have some rude youngsters working up at this company who would just as soon spit on you than help you or solve the issue. Also, I have personal health problems and I wish Jitterbug would work so I could have the 911 handy. Jitterbug is a real disappointment and they have let my family and me down.

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/jitterbug-phone-c40290.html

More upset customers adding to Jitterbug's and Great Call Inc.'s bad reputation as a provider of cell phone service seen @
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/greatcall-inc--jitterbug-c37693.html:

"Their return policy sucks. I ordered 2 phones. They billed me 1/2 @ $176.00 I returned the phones due to size. They billed me $52.38 but left the $176 on the credit card instead of remitting the $176 at the same time they added their new charge. Not quite what thei ad on return policy states. I won't quibble about the return fee, but it is a bit high. My conversation with them to return it was neither rude nor friendly." -- Ray Walker

"I agree totally that Jitterbug is a rip-off! I ended up calling and cancelling my service which I never actually recieved because they never set up my phone for me, but still charged me for it! I called 5 times to complain about not being able to use my phone, and nothing got done about it. Seemed like they just wanted to keep stringing me along. They didn't try very hard either to make me happy when i cancelled, all they did was offer to give me back my set up fee. I said no way, i'm fed up and i'm returning the phone. It's their loss, because I was so excited about getting it and all it turned out to be was a huge dissapointment and an even bigger headache!!! " -- Heather

"Yes, I also have had problems with Greatcall. They keep charging bills to my credit card that I think are way too high. They won't send me an itemized bill although I have requested it several times. I will probably cancel soon, but I hate to waste the $175 I spent on the phone." -- Lee

"Good luck trying to cancel [Jitterbug cell phone] account. I have called their customer service line to cancel, and they say they will call back. They don't. I have sent emails to their Customer Service email address. I even had my credit card company block the billing. They just keep sending bills." -- Samuel Smart

FCC committee chair Arlene Harris Oversees Employees That Rip Off Seniors

2008-03-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

On the Jitterbug website it is listed that Arlene Harris "has served on several committees of the FCC." I find it amazing that an FCC officer would oversee a company that deliberately overcharges and rips off senior citizens. Is this how the FCC is run? Are the ethics of the FCC the same as that of Jitterbug DBA Great Call Inc.? Are both entities a strictly "for profit" enterprise? Do both entities exist to squeeze as much money out of the American public as possible? I think Howard Stern would probably say so. However, I don't think most people would rest easy knowing that a member of the FCC has created an organization like Great Call Inc. DBA Jitterbug Cell Phones to deceive and overcharge senior citizens for cell service. I would hope that the FCC would reprimand Arlene Harris and Jitterbug DBA Great Call Inc. for deliberately and knowingly overcharging senior citizens. It is a shame that senior citizens think that when they call Jitterbug Customer Service they are going to be told the truth about their phone bills. Instead, they have unscrupulous managers and employees making up false call records on the spot so they don't have to issue a refund to the senior customer. I would hope the FCC and FTC would take notice of these business practices. I'm sure there would be hundreds of customers and former employees who could testify to Jitterbug DBA Great Call Inc. unethical and fraudulent business practices.

Jitterbug Management

2008-03-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

Martin Cooper Founder and Member of the Board of Directors

Arlene Harris Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors,
Chief Strategy Officer

David L. Inns Chief Executive Officer and Member of
the Board of Directors

Bill Kuncz Vice President, Finance and CFO

Ray Morris Vice President, Operations, COO

John Garrison Vice President, Business Development

Bill Yates Vice President, Marketing

Olivier Morin Vice President, Sales

Martin Cooper - Founder and Member of the Board of Directors
Marty is widely recognized as a pioneer and inventor in the personal and wireless telecommunications industry. He introduced the first portable cellular radiotelephone in 1973 - a device that billions of people use globally today.
While a co-founder and Chairman of GreatCall, he continues to work full-time as Executive Chairman of ArrayComm, the world leader in Smart Antenna technology, which he founded in 1992.

Prior to Arraycomm, he co-founded Cellular Business Systems, Inc. and led it to dominate the cellular billing industry before selling it to Cincinnati Bell (now Convergys).

During a 29 year career at Motorola he did his most prominent work. He was a Division Manager and Corporate Director of Research and Development where he created a number of major businesses including cellular systems and devices, high-capacity paging, trunked mobile radio systems (known as SMRS - the technology used by Nextel), quartz crystals, liquid crystal displays, and various mobile and portable two-way radio product lines. Portable cell phones alone have had cumulative sales for Motorola of billions of dollars. In addition to his leadership in technology, he helped guide the strategic and regulatory policy at Motorola that disrupted AT&T's plans to monopolize the emerging cellular industry.

Marty holds nine patents in the communications field. He has received numerous awards and now serves on the U.S. Department of Commerce Spectrum Advisory Committee, which advises the Executive Branch and the President on Radio Spectrum Policy.

Arlene Harris - Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Strategy Officer
Arlene Harris has over 35 years as an entrepreneur starting and building and helping as board member and investor in a number of successful companies in wireless related businesses.

Arlene founded GreatCall and launched Jitterbug in 2006 in partnership with Samsung with the mission of providing simplicity in the cellular phone experience. Earlier she founded SOS Wireless Communication to commercialize low usage safety focused cellular phone service. Test marketing proved the need but supply side difficulties halted the growth of the company. 4000+ SOS customers are now customers of GreatCall.

In 1986, she started Subscriber Computing (SCI), a California based billing/customer services software company. SCI built the first cellular switch provisioning and mediation systems that lead to the first communications prepaid system in history. SCI was sold to Corsair in 1997; then became part of Lightbridge (LTBG). In the interim, she invented a cellular pay phone system - the world's first program controlled cellular end to end system management systems were built by SCI. This was the first niche cellular reseller (nka MVNO) in history - the business opportunity was licensed to GTE, now Verizon in 1988.

In 1983, she joined cellular technology pioneer Marty Cooper to found Cellular Business Systems, Inc which became the largest independent billing company in the emerging cellular industry. CBSI was sold to Cincinnati Bell (NKA Convergys) in 1986.

Ms. Harris was first exposed to wireless when she helped operators connect telephone calls on a mobile telephone switchboard at the age of 5 at ICS (aka Metrocall), her family's business in LA. With her guidance, primarily in systems, ICS became the largest paging company in a single area in the world and was sold to Metromedia in 1983.

Besides service on several boards and as advisor to many companies over the years, Ms. Harris holds several issued and has several current patent filings relating to wireless communications. She has served on several committees of the FCC and TIA, and PCIA. She received the PCIA Foundationís Year 2000 distinguished Chairman's award and is a Fellow in the Radio Club of America.

David L. Inns - Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors
David joined GreatCall in August 2006 as President and Chief Operating Officer. He has 20 years of experience in telecom services including General Management, Systems Development, Sales, Marketing and Distribution. Most recently he served as Vice President of Consumer Markets at Bell Mobility, one of the largest wireless carriers in Canada, where he managed the $1.7 billion P&L for the consumer portion of the business. Prior to that, David ran the $4 billion P&L for the Wireline business at Bell Canada. Mr. Inns also held other senior positions at Bell Canada including running the channel and distribution strategy for all of Bell Canada's Internet, TV, telephone, and cellular products. Prior to joining Bell Canada, David was a partner at DiamondCluster International, an elite global consulting firm that specialized in understanding and improving the economics of wireless carriers around the world. David was also the CEO and co-founder of RentalRiver, an internet business that was focused on rolling up the $8 billion rental equipment industry. David holds an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Engineering, Electrical Field, from the University of Western Ontario. David is a licensed professional engineer.

Bill Kuncz - Vice President Finance, CFO
Bill joined GreatCall in December 2006 as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance and Administration. Bill has over 20 years of financial management experience across multiple technologies and business models. Most recently he served as CFO, Vice President and Secretary of Vertical Circuits, Inc, a global supplier of semiconductor and electronic products and services to worldwide commercial, aerospace and military customers, where he managed all aspects of the company's financial, legal and administrative functions. Prior to that, he co-founded Serra Park Dental, Inc, a network of 11 Dental practices, serving as its CFO, and as a Director, until selling the Dental Practice Consolidator to a publicly traded management firm. Mr. Kuncz also held senior positions in financial and operations management at Sierra Semiconductor Corporation, a publicly traded semiconductor manufacturer. Prior to joining Sierra Semiconductor, he held investment management positions at Paine Webber and Merrill Lynch. Mr. Kuncz holds an MBA from Santa Clara University, and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Michigan.

Ray Morris - Vice President, Operations, COO
Ray Morris has been involved in the wireless industry for 20 years, and brings to GreatCall his expertise in strategic technology planning and optimization, very large program implementations, enterprise operations optimization and call center technologies. Over the last 17 years, Ray has consulted for the world's leading wireless companies including AT&T, Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint, Nextel, Verizon, Orange PLC, Saudi Telecom, HK Telecom, Telus, NTT Communications and others. Previously, Ray served as CIO for the 3rd largest B2B internet services provider in the world where he was responsible for 16 data centers, the product development and system development teams, and Customer Care centers for both domestic and international operations. His accomplishments included a 45% reduction in operating costs while measured productivity rose over 60%. Prior to that, Ray worked as VP of Product Management for an international provider of wireless traffic mediation and network optimization solutions, during which time the company became the number 1 provider of mediation software in the world.

John Garrison - Vice President, Business Development
John joined GreatCall in January 2007 as Vice President of Business Development. He has an extensive human network built over the past 25 years from his executive management roles within the wireless, consumer electronics, and internet retail industries. Most recently he was Executive Vice President of Samsung's multi-billion dollar Digital Consumer Electronics Division, where he led the company to top U.S. market positions in several digital television categories. In this capacity, John developed relationships with the leadership teams of major US retailers and service providers. Prior to Samsung, John was a founding member of Amazon.comís Wireless Store development team, negotiating partnership agreements with the major U.S. wireless carriers for distribution of their services. Mr. Garrison also served as AT&T Wireless Senior Vice President for National Retail Operations, responsible for retail, handset acquisition, and distribution. Before AT&T Wireless, John was a VP/General Manager for Sony Corporation, and held various national sales and marketing positions with the firm. He holds a BS in Financial Management from the University of Delaware.

Bill Yates - Vice President, Marketing
Bill joined GreatCall in August, 2007 as Vice President, Marketing. Bill has extensive experience in telecom services including Marketing, Operations and Mergers and Acquisitions. Most recently, he served as Director of Marketing for Bell Mobility - one of Canada's largest wireless carriers - where he managed the national acquisition marketing efforts for all of the Bell Mobility brands (Bell Mobility, Solo Mobile and President's Choice Mobile) in both the Consumer and Business markets. Prior to that, Bill served as the Managing Director, Solo Mobile, in its startup stage where he led and developed the brand to become a successful competitor in the Canadian market. Bill also led the development and startup of President's Choice Mobile, Canada's first white-labeled wireless carrier. Prior to these successes in the startup environment, Mr. Yates served as Director of Channel Marketing, Bell Canada, where he was responsible for developing and implementing the channel and distribution strategies for Bell Canada's Internet, TV, and cellular products. Prior to joining Bell Canada, Mr. Yates held various management positions within the Vehicle Operations department of the Ford Motor Company. Bill holds an MBA from Wilfred Laurier University

Olivier Morin - Vice President, Sales
Olivier joined Great Call in December 2006 as Vice President of Sales. Olivier has been a Sales and Service leader for over 15 years, bringing to GreatCall his telecom expertise in call center, retail, vendor management, large scale CRM solution implementation, winback strategy and sales training development. Previously, Olivier was a Senior Channel Marketing Director for Bell Canada responsible for driving $300M new revenue in the consumer portion of the business for all of the Internet, TV, telephone, and cellular products. Prior to that Olivier was an international director at SBC assigned to the Canadian $6B investment with BCE where his expertise yielded a $100M increased revenue over a spend of 2 years implementing world class call flows and introducing global selling strategies. Prior to that, he led the top consumer sales and service call centers for SBC Pacific Bell. He holds a BS in Business Management from the University of Redlands, and he is a certified StrengthsFinder coach from the University of Gallup.

More complaints about Jitterbug DBA Great Call Inc.

2008-03-29T19:02:00.001-07:00

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/greatcall-inc-jitterbug-c37693.html

30 days ago by Lee
Yes, I also have had problems with Greatcall {DBA Jitterbug Cell Phones]. [Great Call Inc. DBA Jitterbug Cell Phones] keep charging bills to my credit card that I think are way too high. [Jitterbug DBA Great Call Inc.] won't send me an itemized bill although I have requested it several times. I will probably cancel [my Jitterbug Cell Phone] soon, but I hate to waste the $175 I spent on the [Jitterbug Cell Phone].

5 days ago by Samuel Stuart
Good luck trying to cancel your account [with Jitterbug Cell Phones DBA Great Call Inc.] I have called [the Great Call Inc. DBA Jitterbug Cell Phone] customer service line to cancel, and they say they will call back. They don't. I have sent emails to [Jitterbug] Customer Service email address. I even had my credit card company block [Jitterbug/Great Call Inc.] billing. [Jitterbug/Great Call Inc.] just keep sending bills.

Great Call Inc. is a Scam Operation says Alan Green

2008-02-16T01:10:00.000-08:00

"Disagree with you Todd -- and besides you may want to verify the name of the VP you spoke with, seems like everyone is a VP at that company. I wonder who truly does the work. I have made a New Year's resolution to discontinue my service with GreatCall. I generally like to give businesses a chance to perform exceptional customer service but after speaking with several of their reps; it's hopeless. The company is a scam and just wants to make a buck; they don't care about their demographics. I would check out the competition and check out the blogs before making decision to purchase this phone/service."

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/jitterbug-phone-c40290.html

Yet another complaint and dissatisfied Jitterbug customer

2008-01-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

"Are you kidding me? The Jitterbug Cell Phone is a rip-off. 30 minutes a month costs $15. 60 minutes cost $20/month. 150 minutes cost $30/month. 300 minutes cost $40/month. 800 minutes cost $80/month. This company is a scam operation. They are notorious for charging customers for calls they never made and generating consumer complaints. The advantage Jitterbug aka Great Call Inc. has is that senior citizens often don't have the energy to fight back after being ripped off. The sons and daughters of Jitterbug's customers should really be looking out for their parents and filing complaints with the FTC to get their parent's money back and shut down Jitterbug and Great Call Inc." -- PR 12/17/2007

"I totally agree. I just cancelled my father's service. The first bill came in at well over $150.00 for 20 days. It claimed my father made almost 100 phone calls during that time. My father hasn't made that many phone calls in over a year. This is a scam. Beware all seniors." -- Yodie 12/27/2007

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/87100/top_ten_gift_ideas_for_senior_citizens.html

More Complaints About Jitterbug

2008-01-04T13:24:00.003-08:00

Posted by Henry Ford on 12-31-07 on Complaints Board

Jitterbug is not an honest company. I was hired in september 2007 as a customer service agent. it was at the time they switched to a new system. those that had used their credit cards for the initial sale ONLY, got put back on the system...billing never notified any of the customers. and jitterbug started making charges on their card without notifying any of them. we dealt with more complaints and cancellations than actual service for a solid month. old folks were told they paid for a full year up front, $99 - then 5 months later they get slammed with a bill. no warning of any kind. apparently the $99 was to pay for the switch/conversion, from the original SOS service to jitterbug. so if they wanted to keep the service they had to pay an additional $99, on top of the last 5 months of service. billing denied it. on top of that, they said if the customer wanted to dispute it/try and prove it, to send in the sales receipt by fax. (how many old folks have access to a fax?) which everyone knows at jitterbug, there is NO first sales receipt. the first sales pricing, is spread across 1-3 different billing statements. the sales department is commission ONLY. they lie about the activation charges, they lie about the area code procedures, they cant even get the right addresses, they spell street addresses wrong, spell the names of the customer wrong, they lie about the so called '2-3 day shipping'. that never happens. abe is rude, arrogant and very shallow. thinks he is gods gift. supervisors are always gone. no one is ever around to help. and if they are, they wont or cant get the information to help the customer. i had 2 supervisors walk away when i asked for help. they sent out over a 1,000 phones in a period of 2-3 weeks. none of them were activated. they are suppose to be activated and ready to go. it took WEEKS to activate these phones. WEEKS. we had some old folks call in after having the phone for 2-3 months, finding out that their phones were never ON. they never had to use it. so when this one 93 yr old lady got locked out of her house, she had NO way to call for help. her jitterbug was NOT activated. she had to WALK around her neighborhood until someone answered their door to let her use their phone. they never refunded her for those months of NO service. jitterbug charges people mysterious fees all the time-and on credit cards. customer NEVER authorized the credit card to be used after the initial sale. it got to the point i had to quit. the stress of having to try to explain to the customers their bill, trying to find an order that was promisd 2 weeks prior, finding it under someone elses name, and knowing their were right, finally got to me. i felt like i was seriously screwing old folks over. i didnt last more than 2 months. i hated hearing little old ladies crying about their bills. getting over drafts because jitterbug charged them twice for a service that was paid for, months ago. one 72 yr old lady got 4 over drafts because of the sales dept lying to her about when the money would come out of her account. those over drafts and charges took her food money and rent. 98% of these customers are on FIXED income. did she get a refund? not right away. takes up to 30 plus days to get a refund. some customers are still fighting for their refund and it had been over 3 months. this is the first company that i have worked for that has deliberately lied to these people they said they would help. lied about the costs, the charges, the services...dishonest, filthy company. it has not kept its promises, it has not helped these people. service is horrible. the price is horrible. the dishonesty is disgusting. jitterbug is a negative environment. those people are only in it for the money. go with verizon, or at&t. companies that have been around and know what they are doing. with real trained supervisors. and a real billing department.

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/jitterbug-c41377.html

Great Call Inc. Receives 42 complaints to BBB in just 12 months

2007-12-26T05:25:00.000-08:00

Great Call aka Jitterbug receives 42 complaints in just 12 months to the BBB.

http://sandiego.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=26&bbb=1186&firm=8004087

Contrast that to the much larger Cingular Wireless in San Diego which had just 19 complaints in 36 months, 3 times the period that Jitterbug received 42 complaints. That is just the people that complained to the BBB; it does not include complaints to Jitterbug's customer service department or the Attorney General.

http://sandiego.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=26&bbb=1186&firm=8001304

Who are you going to choose? Jitterbug or Cingular? I think the choice is clear.

Customer Complaints Against Jitterbug at My3Cents.com

2007-12-26T04:55:00.000-08:00

Mad TC from Fort Myers Florida said this:

I called customer service to replace my Jitterbug cellphone which stopped working. I FedX'd it to them the next day. I've now been without a cellphone for 3 weeks. I've been told three times by three different CSR's that my replacement cellphone will go out in one or two days.

To make matters insulting, one of the CSR's didn't put me on hold and I could hear the conversation between I believe three people about my account.

One person told the other - "I don't know what to tell this guy (me)", someone else said "I hate it when the bosses in charge don't give you a system that works so we can do our job".

And the icing on the cake was when I was put on hold for 15 minutes, a rep came back on the line and said, can I help you. I told her I've been on hold for 15 minutes, I keep getting promises and no action, so I want to talk to the President of the company. The CSR gave out a big belly laugh and said "I'll transfer the call right away and good luck getting him to answer". Sure enough after another 5 or 10 minutes on hold the line went DEAD.

These folks hate there jobs, hate there boss, and treat there customers like crap.

I leave it to you to decide if you want to sign a contract with a company like that.

http://www.my3cents.com/search.cgi?criteria=Jitterbug

File a complaint against Jitterbug aka Great Call Inc. with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission)

2007-12-19T14:45:00.001-08:00

To file a complaint against Jitterbug aka Great Call Inc. with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) go here:

https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01

You can also file a complaint with the Consumer Affairs website:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/cell_phones/jitterbug.html

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

2007-12-19T14:41:00.000-08:00

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?

File a Complaint Against Great Call Inc. with the Government FTC

2007-12-19T14:28:00.000-08:00

More Complaints About Jitterbug Cell Phone Service

2007-12-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

Jitterbug review at: http://www.measuredup.com/jitterbug-customer-service-reviews-2196

Jitterbug offers a great product, a Samsung phone, and a wellthought out service for older people. Unfortuneately when something goes wrong, it really goes wrong. My wife has spent more than twenty hours on the phone trying to sort out a replacement unit for her father. She finally gave up and cancelled the service. In addition to the hours she spent, two other family members spent time trying to get the "jitters" out of the system. In addition to first recommending that the phone that didn't work be sent to Samsung! they then lost the phone when they finally agreed to replace it. Found it two weeks later and then spent another two weeks getting the replacement unit in the mail. After it arrived we spent four days trying to activate the service, to no avail. If this company cannot sort out how to fix service and equipment problems quickly and conveniently it would be better to stick with Verizon and let Jitterbug implode on its own incompetence.

Reader comments:

I have never been so disappointed in my life. The phone is as heavy as a brick and I don't receive any phone calls on my number. I have called the Customer Support center but they are not able to he...
I have never been so disappointed in my life. The phone is as heavy as a brick and I don't receive any phone calls on my number. I have called the Customer Support center but they are not able to help. All I receive is "we are sorry..." - well, that does not help my current situation. The commercials are cool but the service and support SUCK!
Posted by Carol Weakly on Dec 13 2007 02:00 AM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

trying to get ahold of customer service is almost impossible.
trying to get ahold of customer service is almost impossible.
Posted by Susan on Dec 14 2007 04:25 PM

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Jitterbug phone a lemon. Phone arrives with no service. Many phone calls later the phone still has no service. The Jitterbug customer service is a nightmare. Jitterbug is taking peoples money for ...
Jitterbug phone a lemon. Phone arrives with no service. Many phone calls later the phone still has no service. The Jitterbug customer service is a nightmare. Jitterbug is taking peoples money for phones with no service.
Posted by Mike Schoenecker on Oct 21 2007 03:32 PM

More complaints found at:

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/greatcall-inc-jitterbug-c37693.html

GreatCall, Inc. - Jitterbug
Posted: 2007-12-06 by IM Mad [send email]
Service
Complaint Rating:
Company information:
Jitterbug Phone
Maine
United States
Phone: (720) 531-8800

I purchased this phone over three months ago and have spent more time talking to the worthless Customer Service Department since the the billing has been incorrect month after month. The reps keep giving me a different excuse. The service coverage is terrible! My phone works down the street but does not work at my house. I thought the phone would be great for my mother -- but the company seems to be more of a scam then anything else. My vote: go with ANYONE ELSE.

File a Complaint Against Jitterbug Cell Phones (Great Call Inc.) with the FTC

2007-12-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

Jitterbug Cell Phone Scams Seniors... Complaints... Fraud

2007-12-17T09:51:00.001-08:00

Here are links to sites outlining what the Jitterbug Cell Phone aka Great Call Inc. has done to rip off unsuspecting seniors (some of them have taken down the negative reviews due to Jitterbug trying to conceal and hide all the bad press on their unethical and illegal business practices). Charging customers for minutes they did NOT use is called "STEALING." Great Call Inc. & Jitterbug are "STEALING" from the elderly. This is a company with "NO ETHICS" which should be examined in Business Schools and Business Ethics courses.

http://app.businessweek.com/UserComments/combo_review;jsessionid=509F060FF8DA71A2454ED5CECBFE6342?action=all&style=wide&productId=18283&productCode=spec

http://lonestarconsumer.statesmanblogs.com/entry.aspx?q=18feb784-6a91-4de5-ac8d-999e0074facf

http://www.betanews.com/article/Jitterbug_Makes_Cell_Phones_Easy/1165958010"

Here's what a former supervsor of the company had to say:

"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 Great Call 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 Great Call Inc. is affilliated with it at all. Honestly you would have better luck with 2 cans and some string."

Another employee said this:

"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."