Freedom Phone Samsung Galaxy S4

Hi all! So great to be back on Woot with some top smartphones that come with our 100% free phone service. Please see below for the top FAQs (plus with a link to a more expanded set). I’ll also be here to answer any questions in this thread or through PM!

** 1. Is FreedomPop really free?**
Yes, by activating on the 100% free plan, you’ll be able to get 200 minutes, 500 texts, and 500MB of data for free each and every month. Just buy the phone and you’ll never have to pay another phone bill again. Upgrading to unlimited talk & text is only $10.99/month.

** 2. What network does FreedomPop use? **
FreedomPop uses Sprint’s 4G LTE and 3G networks. Calls and texts are made through FreedomPop’s VoIP messaging app, so you must have a data connection in order to send/receive calls and texts. Go to www.freedompop.com/coverage3g4g to view the full coverage. As a way to save your free data allotment, you can also connect to any local WiFi network, such as the one in your home or work.

** 3. Are there any special add-on services that I can get? **
One of our top value-added services is Premium Voice. If Premium Voice is active on your account, then your phone calls will be redirected through Sprint’s Voice Network, rather than going through VoIP. Adding Premium Voice costs $3.99/month.

** 4. What do I do after receiving my phone? **
After you get your FreedomPop phone, please go to www.freedompop.com/activate. Enter in the MEID of your phone, along with your desired email address to be associated with your FreedomPop account. Follow the steps to get fully activated. You will select your FreedomPop phone number during the activation process.

To see an even more expanded FAQs, please check out this page of the FreedomPop Community Forum! Hope everyone has a great day!

I would not recommend these if you need a reliable phone, the calls are laggy and they will cut your service occasionally to give you notifications but the webpage your phone will pull up has a redirect loop so your phone is useless for 2-3 days while customer service sorts it out.

More like FreedomBust!

I had an issue where my payment info got screwed up for the Premium Voice (no longer offered. I needed it because I didn’t have reliable access [old Sprint] to digital service that is needed for VOIP). When the payment failed, ALL service was cut off! It did not fail over to the free service.

I sent an email about the issue. It took 4 days to get an answer (more like an acknowledgement). I didn’t see it come in and, after 24 hours, my issue was closed! That’s just EFF’D up! They get 4 days and I get 1!?

I bagged them for Consumer Cellular. It isn’t free but it is cheap and the customer service is on shore and really good.

I got the service on the Moto G (gen 4) that I got on Amazon for $125 with discounts for ordering early and w/ ads (that are hardly noticeable). The same phone is now $150 but still a decent deal. IMHO.

I also had a lot of trouble porting my number from FreedomBust. When I finally got the voice to work, texts and 4G/3G would not. Finally solved the issue by getting FreedomBust to issue a new number (free) to my old phone.

Thank You for the warning without reliability or customer service it is not a good deal.

Freedom pop ripped me off. There are other companies such as republic that treat customers with respect and good service.

Do not get tricked into trying this! I did back when they had a cheap s3 on woot and it was terrible. First off the phone was a lot more heavily used than i anticipated. Scratched up and cracked case, stopped charging via the cable after 2 weeks. Had to buy an extra battery and charger to charge outside the phone. Service was very spotty, they offered “premium voice service” for an extra fee. Still sucked. Group and media messages are an extra fee. Still didn’t work even paying the fee. It’s super fun to find out everyone else has gone and done something fun without you because your crappy phone service didn’t get the message to you! And then the experience of trying to port my number out of freedom pop was the biggest pain ever. Please don’t make the same mistake I did with freedompop.

I agree. In fact, they’re ripping me off right now. I bought one of those Galaxy SIII’s with a year of unlimited service. Here’s what I found:

1.) I was never going to get a year’s worth of service, because they activate the phone several days before shipping it out. This means that I paid for phone service from that point on, when I didn’t even have the phone yet. Since it took them so long to ship out the phone, this was an issue for me.

2.) My service was supposed to run out on September 3 of this year, but they recently tried to charge me over $200 for a year’s worth of service without consulting me (even though I had checked the setting that disables auto top-up). This was early/before service ran out. Luckily that credit card was no longer valid and they couldn’t charge me, but that was definitely a scummy thing to do.

3.) After all this, I decided f*** it, I’ll just downgrade to the lowest tier of service. I was tired of dealing with FreedomPop. However, when I went through the process of disabling my Premier service (which I may add, relied on a small hyperlink at the bottom of the page in a pale gray font made to be deliberately hard to see) all I got was an error message. That’s right, I couldn’t even opt out of this BS. I just used their customer “service” page and told them to downgrade me to the free tier of service; we’ll see if they get back to me.

So remember kids, DISABLE AUTO TOP-UP for Freedompop and enjoy the free minutes/texts/web they give, because if you give them any money they WILL find a way to rip you off.

I have yet to hear anyone (who has used their service and doesn’t work for them) say anything good about FreedomPoop.

Don’t fall for “free”. If you want a cheap cell phone, buy a used unlocked and get a “TF” BYOP SIM kit. Never a problem with them.

The software they install on the phone also makes OS updates impossible. But I will say, when they say free, they really do mean free. I haven’t paid a single dime after set-up. I live just outside of Philly though and their network is virtually non-existent.

I have had the LG phone for a year.
I only got it for emergencies. I did not use it every month. SUDDENLY I had an emergency, went to use my freedompop phone, and it was DISABLED! I have the free service, and now I also get a warning that I have slow connection, and need to upgrade to premium service to get a better connection. NO tech support, NO phone communication, and NO WAY I ever buy another freedompop phone ever again. I did recommend them at one time, but I do not anymore. NOT EVEN WORTH IT AT ZERO COST!

I would strongly discourage doing business with any America Movil owned MVNO. I deal with many companies for dozens of mobile lines for family, friends and businesses. Among “normal” paid MVNO their CS is in a class of horrid all its own.
Be glad you have not had a problem with them, yet, you will and will be out time/sanity and/or money/service etc. Movil loses hundreds of thousands of customers some quarters and manages to find new suckers lured in by their prices, most flee leaving money on the table, maybe lucky enough to be able to have rescued their phone numbee. So many independent dealers are dropping them that they are building some of their own stores.

There are better MVNO to do business with for similar cost.

For those that like to play with experimental MVNO with little to no CS might want to check out ringplus if Sprint network works for you.

Well at least all your reviews are good… Seriously a Sprint MVNO super pass.

Picked up a Freedompop LG G2 here last May for my wife for Mothers Day. Phone is great and the service is okay, but their customer service is terrible. I tried to get her old number ported over for 3 months, but after being charged $10 (immediately, no refund), 2 support tickets (no response), and countless attempts to contact them, no luck. When the 6 months is up I’m taking this phone to another carrier (assuming I can get a response to unlock the damn thing). My advice is to steer clear.

Well I’ve been using FreedomPop for almost 2 years and I haven’t paid a dime except for the phones. I had a Samsung Galaxy S4 and upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S6 back in March. Great phones, great service, great customer service when I needed it (twice). I use Google Hangouts for all my calls and texting and it works great for me.

Hello,

We apologize for the previous experience that you’ve had with FreedomPop. If there is anything that we can do for you please feel free to send us a private message.

Hello,

We sincerely apologize about the experience that you had with our support team. Sometimes there are issues with porting that may require a longer delay, if you ever need to port out you can always message us for your account and PIN info and we will be happy to provide it. Please feel free to reach us on our Community Forums as well for some assistance from users like yourself and Admins.

Not good, not bad. I bought a Volt last year from FP on woot. For $40 and free after that, I thought what the heck. The ‘speaker’ on the phone did not work. After a bunch of phone calls to get a refund from FP, they said I had to use woot for the refund since I didn’t buy from them. Luckily I kept woot in the loop and they took care of it.

A few month later, woot had on another set of FB phones. I was still intrigued by the free part, so I jumped in again, twice. The LG phone came and worked fine, except it had memory issues. Many phone calls and emails later, it was sent back and replaced. The new one is fine. The second one ordered had battery issues–it doesn’t show the charge level correctly. I had to call and message numerous times, finally they sent a new battery. Still no go. It is for my daughter (10), who in the mean time learned to deal with the battery issue. Plus with all the hassle from the other tow, if she was happy, I was happy… So we still have both.

The service is non-existent where we live, but things do work as advertised. I have tried the VoIP calling and it works, but is delayed a bit. We only use them for playing apps or for GPS, not for the phone or texting. We have it set for the free stuff and rarely ever use it anyway. When looking at your account on the phone, do NOT click on ‘see details’ for the upgraded stuff. They will bill you instantly and it is not prorated. I did this once and that was the end of that mistake!

Other than apps at home, we do use it when we travel for the GPS feature. Again, it doesn’t work around us, but it does in all the bigger cities around us. With google maps, you can preload the route, so you really don’t need data, but it does come in handy when in a bigger city to find things. The internet works well too when you have 3G, but again, need to be in a bigger city. We live in the country and only get Verizon or AT&T service.

My recommendation would be to use it as a toy, like we do, and definitely NOT your primary phone. It does work, but do not expect much/helpful/quick customer support in any form. We thankfully did not port any phone numbers, but you do get to pick a number, which is nice. We bought it to play with for $40, and it works great for that.

anyone have thoughts on a service called TING?