The Jitterbug is a cool little phone. It’s a GREAT idea that targets a very niche market. Now I can’t exactly say that about the company. Trust me, I know because I am a current employee at GreatCall. Through my time here I have been subject to and witness of business practices that would make Enron look good.
I’ll begin with our wonderful leaders. Stephanie C., the director of Billing. On the surface her team runs fluidly, meeting their deadlines, servicing and supporting the company. Now under the surface that’s a different story. The team continues to hate working for her. Her micro management, over intensity and simple arrogance has driven several team members to look for other opportunities and even quit. Yeah, I’d want to come to work every day too! Krijn V., former director of Software Dev. now the VP of Software and IT. Where do I start? He makes claims at being good at implementing system changes but where is the QA? How about the existing programs that his team is supporting? Make it happen and then forget about it. What a great mantra. Vice President material, I think not. Maybe he should focus less on trying to be the big man on campus and more on the quality of work. Patrick A., PM director. What a joke. This guy couldn’t manage a project with a map and a flashlight. Can you say 5Star? Bill Yates, Vice President of marketing. Oh my god, Bill Yates. Let’s fire everyone woman with a valid opinion, Bill Yates. If I have to hear this guy talk about his “feeling” and what he thinks the customer is going to experience one more time I am going to go crazy. What experience does Bill have anyway? I don’t know why they continue to keep him on staff. Censia Reyes, Human Resource manager. She has absolutely no experience and completely unprofessional with her appearance and her attitude. If the CEO could only hear what Vanya and her talk about, I should say talk crap about. She is a true liability to the company. Sorana P., corporate training manger. Nice to your face but will gossip and stab you in the back when you’re not looking. Kurt G., director of training. He is constantly talking about organizational development and our corporate values. Values, right. Let’s sleep with someone for professional gain. Can you say, affair?
And that’s just the corporate office. Now we can talk about the call center. Yes, we hear about all it from here too. Camille P., Human Resource manager. JOKE. She is unorganized, unresponsive, unreliable, and flat out inept. And that is just the feedback I get from agents! Abe B., director of Care. He is a piece of work. He tasks all of his work out. Constantly talks about the corporate values and what is best for the team but continues to fire good people and intimidates his employees with side by side meetings and monitoring. Integrity? What about his marijuana use or his current affair with a married woman Sorana P., how’s that for integrity? Danny G., Technical Support manager. He must be following in Abe’s footsteps he’s having an affair with Stephanie L. and he’s married! Jeannie B., Financial Services manager. Talk about not having a clue! Is she a manager or supervisor because she’s not running that team. Apparently she fired all the people that were. Sue W., Vice President of Care. This woman does absolutely nothing except collect a check, clean the kitchen and walk about the center like she better than everyone. She makes friends with the employees only to gather information and then fires them. She doesn’t lift a finger to help her team and just defers all work and questions to Abe. Why do we continue to waste our money on her. And finally, there is Ray M. Our former fearless leader. The man that comes in and “cleans up.” The ship is sinking and the captain is nowhere to be found. So much for going down with the ship. I will be posting on this site and others regularly.

On January 11, 2010, I bought a Jitterbug phone for my brother who is permanently hospitalized as a near quadriplegic. He is also indigent, with Medicaid taking all but $35 from his Social Security as co-pay for his care. He also has two motherless teenage daughters.

I spent well over an hour with a Jitterbug representative getting the phone activated. I paid for the phone ($90 or so), the activation fee ($60 or so) and a month’s worth of minutes ($30 or so).

Ten days later a careless orderly sent the phone along with the used bed sheets to a laundry in California, and that was that. I called Jitterbug immediately and canceled the service.

A month later I received a bill for a second month’s worth of minutes. Jitterbug’s position is that their billing month begins on the 12th of the month, five hours before I bought the phone and paid for a month’s service. Why, I asked, didn’t their representative inform me of the fact that after 5 hours I was going to have to pay for a second month? Well, the minutes roll over, they say, so it’s not a problem. If I wanted 600 minutes, I say, I would have bought 600 minutes.

My brother had the phone for 10 days and used, maybe, 20 minutes of air time. But $180 isn’t enough for Jitterbug. They’ve gone to a collection agency for their lousy $32. For a year now they have been hounding a quadriplegic whose income for $35 a month. Nice company.

I thought I cancelled my mothers Jitterbug 5 months ago. I 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 disappointed 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.

Jitterbug's billing is deceptive, if not illegal. It's a scheme to bilk elderly customers at an inflated rate. Customers cannot get an accurate tally on how many minutes are left CURRENTLY. You have to wait 3 days after your inquiry to know where you stand with usage!
They say the reason is that Jitterbug is a 3rd party carrier and that is also the reason why there is an average of 20-25 seconds of dead air before you hear a dialed number is ringing. Lastly, the customer service is the worst I've encountered in years.
Yes, the buttons are large, but that's not enough incentive to put up with the billing rip offs and horrible customer service.

I called to cancel my father's Jitterbug service on June 30th. They said they would have to speak with him. He is 89 years old, has had a stroke which makes it difficult for him to speak, and is hard of hearing. I got him on the phone to verify the cancel. Jitterbug rep said they would collect the final payment. July 3rd a payment was collected, then again on Aug 3rd. When I called to request a refund, they had no record of our cancellation and said there was no way the "computer" would allow them to credit us for the service. Major kicker: We found a new phone for my father with AT&T and had that new phone mailed to my sister's house in another state. While we were on vacation there, I was receiving repeated phone calls from Jitterbug until they finally left one voicemail stating they were calling with an offer or a "free phone"...previously they had said a new phone would cost $125.00++ The invoice from Jitterbug that arrived on Aug 3rd came to my house with my sister's name on it rather than mine...How did they get her name? Did they have access to the fact that my dad had moved to AT&T? Very strange. My main complaint is that they would not issue the credit. Lesson learned: Do all cancellations in writing.