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Total Wireless’ Too-Good-to-Be-True Offer

It sounded like such a great deal from Total Wireless: $25 a month for cell service on four lines, taxes and fees included, and four free 5G phones.

Here’s their commercial:

Apparently, that is not the real offer. The free phones part of the offer is for more expensive plans and not the $25 a month plan. Who could tell that? And, it is not in the unreadable fine print either.

But the National Advertising Division (NAD) of Better Business Bureau Programs figured it out and ruled against Total Wireless.

NAD determined that the phrase, “and to top it all off, we’ll give you up to four free 5G phones,” implies the last part of a single offer. NAD determined that the commercial conveys the unsupported message that Total Wireless customers can get both four lines of wireless service for $25 per month and get four free 5G phones regardless of the plan they select, and recommended Total Wireless modify its advertising to avoid conveying such a message.

Total Wireless is part of Tracfone, owned by Verizon. The company said it disagreed with NAD’s decision, but would abide by it in the future.

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11 thoughts on “Total Wireless’ Too-Good-to-Be-True Offer”

  1. They get away with it by adding in the term “up to” with every offer. The entire world is “up to” You can save “up to” 100%. Yes, if you don’t buy it, you save 100%, everything else falls under “up to” It has become standard practice now that most of these company’s lowest prices are only if you have 2 or 4 lines, which is why I switched from Total Wireless to Visible, which has the lower prices for 1 line, and cheaper if you pay for a year in advance.

  2. Even if you do get four FREE 5G phones they are not giving you top of the line phones anyway.

    They do list 5G+ Unlimited plan in the ad.

  3. In my opinion, when it comes to cell phone plans, the best bet is to stay away from anything offered by VAT (Verizon, ATT, T-Mobile) or any of their owned subsidiaries. There are plenty of VNMOs (virtual network mobile operators) with less expensive plans than any of the big three. And generally, they don’t have the nonsense offers that permeate VAT.

  4. Being purchased by Verizon is the kiss-of-death to any carrier falling under its ownership. Was a happy TracFone customer for years until they took my $200 plus for a one-year service plan, were subsequently bought by Verizon, and abruptly ended my coverage 3 months later. No refund and no response–just plain old theft.

  5. We switched to an MNVO a year ago and haven’t looked back. It wasn’t Total it was Visible which is also owned by Verizon.

    I’m not sure how Total Wireless can stand by disagreeing with the NAD here. It’s pretty clear the ad is misleading.

  6. Ive never had any problems with my free obama phones since 2009… we got free flip phones. which were fine at the time, then the Girlfriend upgraded her phone and i got her s7, now she upgraded i have an s20.5g

    Since between home, work and going back to college almost everything has been on wifi so i never maxxed out my minutes or free data…..

    The only problem was when verizon took over they had like 3-4 days of intermittent service due to being overloaded. but strangely the voice mail worked perfectly fine you just couldn’t call back

  7. I have coverage with PagePlus, which is owned by Tracfone & uses Verizon’s network. I have a ‘pay as you go’ plan, I get over 400 minutes for $25.00, I only have to top it off every four months & anything left is carried over. I don’t need a data plan because I very rarely access the internet on my phone (I use wifi if I need to check something), I have internet access at home. I barely use my phone so the really inexpensive plan I have works for me.

    • Gert… I hate to tell you, but you are grossly overpaying for phone service for around 400 minutes a month. If your phone is compatible with T-Mobile, a reseller that I use called Tello (https://tello.com/buy/custom_plans) sells 500 minutes a month with free texting for just $7. And I am sure there are other resellers too at much lower prices.

      • I pay .06 a minute, but like I said I barely use my phone (maybe once a week). When I have to top up I usually have most of it left over.

        I checked the site & of course my phone (Samsung Galaxy J3 Orbit) isn’t compatible? But thanks for the suggestion.

      • Hi Edgar. I’ve used Tello for two years now. When I first started I called customer service 3 or 4 times and never had to wait. And the reps all spoke without a hard to understand accent.
        Thanks for your website. I found you in 1999 or 2000. Mike

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