Kajeet or Virgin Mobile

[Pigeon]

I've got a 13 yo who has had a Tracfone for the last few years. I'd like to upgrade a bit for her. She mostly texts, but I want her to call me occasionally.

I've been looking at Kajeet and the $25/month Beyond Talk plan from Virgin Mobile. They both sound good, but the reviews I've found are pretty awful for both. I realize that most of the customer reviews left places are from the disgruntled, so I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has them in real life.

 

[micknme94]

We have both in my family. My daughter(14) has kajeet and my son (15) has virgin mobile. No complaints with either one. They both use the texting the most but have minutes for talking as well. I like kajeet because of the parental controls. Good luck!

 

[cglaura]

I don't know of Kajeet, but have used Virgin Mobile for about 8 years now. I just upgraded DD to the new Beyond Talk $25 plan...300 talk minutes, and unlimited everything else. She rarely talks, so I figure that would be good. She picked the Kyocera Loft, but they do have fancy phones like Droids. The Loft is on sale (online only) at Radio Shack until Nov. 9th for $49 (save $20). It arrived yesterday, and looks very similar to a Blackberry, of course not near the functions of one, but it has all the usuals..txt, facebook, maps, etc.

I personally use the pay as you go, and spend about $6 per month.

I have never had any issues with their service, no dropped calls, rarely static (usually if static it was b/c we were in a very remote place).

They use the Sprint network if I remember correctly.

 

[MCazer]

My son and daughter both have Kajeet, ($14.99 plans) unlimted text and and 60 minutes of talk (which they have never used all of it one month, cause they just TEXT) LOL

I have the $25 Virgin Mobile plan.

I like the control I have over their phones. I can turn them off during school, and list numbers they call to during those times. I can block numbers I don't want them getting texts or calls from. I have even added GPS locator for $7 a month to both lines! I like having a WALLET for them, and adding money to it when they have been good!

They get a cool phone, they get to text, and none of their peers knows anything different.

If you decide to go with Kajeet, before ordering their phones, check out prices online at say, Target, Amazon etc... THEN CALL THEM, and tell them that "you'd rather purchase from them directly, but so and so has your phone cheaper and with free shipping". I have gotten both of my kids PHONES from Kajeet with almost 30% off their prices (These were their most expensive phones). I got the LG Rumour 2 for $139 (it is $199 on their site) and the Sanyo 2700 for $129 (when it first came out it was $169).

So it is worth it to call them directly. Also, their customer service is excellent. You are actually talking to a real person, who on numerouse occasions was a nice women who sounded like she was a Mom just like me from the USA and not India. They set up my account, set up my time preferences on when they can use the phone (which you can do yourself online) but I was new to it, and she did it right over the phone.

I would go with Kajeet, if I were you!

 

[Mrs D]

I had Virgin Mobile for about 3 years before I got the iPhone. I loved the cheap phones (didn't cry when my 2 yr old threw one away in the garbage-and didn't realize until after garbage day), had good signal, and I loved my plan. I never had to call until switching my # to the iPhone, and then it took several phone calls and lots of wait until to get to a real person. I never needed to talk to them before then.

 

[Pigeon]

MCazer, can I ask, how long ago was it that you needed to contact Kajeet customer service?

I'm asking because some of the reviews I've read indicate that customer service has gone down in quality big time. I got the feeling from reading the company's response that maybe they now do the dreaded overseas call center thing, which is my big complaint about Tracfone. They are fine until you need to contact customer service, at which point I'm ready to set fire to my own hair.

Also for Kajeet, I'm confused about the GPS tracker. You have the option to add the GPS phone locator for an extra $7.99/month, but then under "additional service options" it indicates GPS locator is $.99 per locate. So you have to pay the extra $7.99, plus an additional dollar every time you actually go online to locate the phone? Or can you just not pay the monthly fee and pay a dollar for each time you want to locate it?

 

[njcarita]

you could not pay me to attempt to try kajeet ever again.... there customer service is a nightmare...
here is a link to my nightmare experience

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2542928

 

[njcarita]

for tracfone and net 10 u can call the corporate customer service .... and never have to deal with the oversees customer service ...

 

[Gina]

I have nothing but good to say about Virgin Mobile. My DS was with Tracfone for a couple years, then I switched him to VM as he got older. (Been with them about 5 years now.) Now he's on the $25 plan, and definitely makes use of the unlimited texting! He has lost phones twice, and both times VM customer service has been SO nice and helpful. Even when I've just called with plan questions or whatever, they have been awesome. Love them!

 

[angwill]

We have a teen with Kajeet and have not had much problem. The few issues we've had sadly seem typical nowadays of big companies. Our first order took a month and a half to 2 months to get the phone but when that one broke about a month later they replaced it no problem with one that took a week or two to get to us. Then there was one month that they started charging minutes despite being on a package but they fixed it right away and gave me a free month. They are good about giving a free month if they mess up.

Kajeet works well for us because DS can text all his friends and has 60 minutes to use if he needs to call home. I also like that if he gets in trouble I can go online and in minutes set it so he can only text and call me and DH but nobody else. When he was harrassed by a couple girls I also blocked their numbers from the phone. Also if the phone gets lost there is GPS locator available so you can find out who has the phone and go get it.

There was someone here who had an awful time with them recently though.

 

[angwill]

I just called Kajeet on the GPS locator question and the woman did not sound like sound like she was overseas and I asked her and she said CS is not located over seas. I did not ask where though. They never sounded foreign to me in all my past calls and all reps have been pleasant. She was very pleasant and told me that the locator is $7.99 a month unlimited or 99 cents per locate if not on the unlimited plan.

PS. We have had tracphone and they were definitely overseas and 100% worse than any contact I have ever had with Kajeet.

HTH

I forgot to add that you can google kajeet coupon code and get like 15% off the phone too.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Our DD has had Kajeet for over a year and we've been very happy with the service/phone, BUT we haven't had any reason to contact customer service.

 

[njcarita]

There was someone here who had an awful time with them recently though.

that was me....
after dealing with them for over 45 days..... still not having a working phone..being charged the monthly fee while not having a phone........numerous calls....hrs of my life wasted.... was never issued a refund........ had to call my credit card to issue a charge back than the credit card company had to cancel my card and reissue new ones to prevent Kajeet from keeping on charging me the monthly service fee...

 

[MCazer]

My daughter has had it for over a year, and when my son was going into 7th grade in September, we used my daughter'd Sanyo 2700 and set it up over the phone. So it has only been a few months since I spoke with customer service. I really have not had a problem with them at all.

The GPS locator is use as much as you want for $7.99 or .99 if you want to use it once in a while.

I actually have it set up to send me an email every night at 7pm to tell me where the phones are.. This way, I figure, if they lost it, I will have a record of where it was before the battery died! LOL