Complaint Review: Go Smart Mobile

I was actually intending to sign up with T-Mobile but the GoSmart store flies a T-Mobile flag outside and I thought it was the T-Mobile store whcih was in fact one block further up. I wanted a cheap phone and they were offering a decent looking LG phone for almost nothing in exchange for buying 2 months of service. It was only then that I realized I was buying a pre-paid service, but the terms seemed reasonable so I went ahead with it. It was only later I figured out that GoSmart is not actually T-Mobile, it is a distinct company owned by the same group as T-Mobile and they share the same network. That's fine but it was a bit misleading.

Having said that, there are a couple of downsides. First off, you can't receive shortcodes - no idea why that is not supported - but, shortcodes are what are what service providers use to send text messages. For instance, with online bank transactions, the bank uses security code messages - GoSmart will not accept these, so you can't do this online transactions. These messagess are also used to warn of fraudelent activity, so if you are trying to take out money abroad from an ATM and the bank flags it as suspicious, you get a shortcode message that you can simply reply to to free up the transaction. If you don't get this then you don't know why the wothdrawall was rejected and you have to call the bank to release it and it takes a lot more time and effort and you may not be able to connect the call.

The other thing is that international / wifi connectivity seems to have issues. I haven't fully figured this out yet, whether it's just a problem when connected to wifi or an international connectivity issue or both. 

The last thing is that the phone locks up periodically, which is something that I have ocasionally seen on other phones, but with this phone it happens a lot more often. THe phone becomes less and less responsive and in the end you have to pull the battery, which is pretty annoying.

The absolute WORST customer service EVER! I have never had so much difficulty dealing with a company...in all my 33 years. If this is the way T-Mobile (GoSmart's parent company) is now doing business, we are more than willing to pay more money for AT&T.

If you want to keep your number (port your number over to them), GOOD LUCK! They've basically locked our number in limbo-- they can't release/cancel it, nor can they activate it. We have been working on it for WEEKS... absolutely deplorable customer service!

AVOID THIS COMPANY!

I've had this service for 2 months on an iPhone 3GS and I plan on canceling it after this month. The texting is the only thing that works and that's if you can find signal. I'm in central Los Angeles and I have issues here constantly. The data is poor at "3G" speeds and often results in errors while browsing. I don't even bother calling people as it drops calls left and right, and I can't even send out a call when I need it to. I work in entertainment and having a phone that doesn't drop calls and has constant signal is VERY important to me. This service is good for you if you rarely use a phone and don't want to spend more than $35 on a monthly bil....but you're paying for a useless service other than texting.

I hate being stuck with AT&T but I don't want to lose my unlimited data with them either

It's sad how these companies hold us by the balls

After many years and thousands of dollars spent with the Big 3 Contract Cell Phones providers I finally entered the Pre-Paid world with GoSmart Mobile. I can not describe with words the change.

So far it can't be better! Contrary to the original poster I did not go to any dealer (why should I need a 3rd party if I am trying to stay away from rippoffs?) I ordered the SIM cards online and they arrived as promised. After unlocking my smart phones (2) with the contract provider (contracts had run out) and call GoSmart and they answered in less than a minute, set me up for my new accounts and in less than an hour and was sliding in the Gosmart SIM cards on the phones.

The services wroks flawlessly for everything, voice, text and web. The complaint I hear is that web is 2G, well it works as good as 3G or even 4G for regular e-mails and light browsing and at the end I barely use web over the network since there is free WiFi pretty much everywhere I go these days. Why should I pay the big companies an expensive data plan that I seldom use?

For $35 a month ($37.45 after taxes) unlimited everything I take Gosmart over any other provider in the blink of an eye, at the end if one day they let me down I AM NOT TIED NO A CONTRACT so I can walk out at any time.