QLinkWireless

I didn't even want to give them one star. I was never notified to re-new my enrollment (QLinkWireless had the correct email address, wasn't in my spam, maybe they just didn't send it? I got one last year...) so my service was cut off. I spent a WEEK being told different things by different agents (apparently they don't take notes when you call so you have to explain yourself all over again) uploading documents multiple times and when I finally had enough and asked to speak to a supervisor "Oswaldo" did all he could to prevent it. Saying, I have to try to resolve it myself ma'am, I have to give them a reason for transferring to them". I told him to tell them it was regarding documents and he began to go into this spiel about keeping my phone on and making a call at least once a month. I told him I didn't want to hear it, to transfer me and he said it was Qlink's policy to tell this to their customers. He then started over and talked as SLOWLY as possible. Total smartass! He said bye 3 times with long pauses in-between. The supervisor was no help (surprise!) said he couldn't view my documents because another department had viewed them and they do the approvals. (I was told by an agent that they themselves view the documents and do approvals). RUN AWAY! There are other lifeline companies out there, QLink is private owned and they suck!

Do not deal with Q Link Wireless this company is a joke. I had my new phone for 16 days. Went to install a sd card and the phone screen went white would not work, Removed sd card still did not worked time after time I tried. Called Q Link all I got was a computer. QLinkWireless said aid I had to buy a new phone for $25 so I paid and ordered one. Later the same day the phone started working. Tried to cancel my order for a new phone the same day ordered. Sent 3 emails to do so, 2 that night one this morning. Tried calling 3 times and all I got was a computer. The 3rd phone call I had to use a friends because they turned my phone off, since my new phone was shipped. So they turn off your phone and you need to wait for the new one. I asked to cancel it. I finally got someone who was rude. I told her I tried calling and emailed them several times about my phone not working and that I was unable to get a real person on line. That I had to order a new phone and last night magically it started working. That I wanted to cancel my order. And she said I cannot because I cannot cancel a order once placed. Bull! I told her I disputed the payment with my card holder. And she went off and said if they received a charge back I will never be able to use my card with them again. I said I asked you to cancel it last night and she said they were closed last night, that they shipped this morning. Well do you not think you should of cked first, that I emailed you to cancel the order. And No she said we shipped it this morning a 4:30 AM So you were closed when we shipped it. { Note it is still sitting in their shipping department at this time} I said then just charge me again, since the other charge was only PENDING... This is a temporary authorization to make sure your payment method will cover the payment. Your payment method will be charged when Q LINK WIRELESS LLC, DANIA BEACH, FL, completes your order... So I was not even charged let. Paypal just had the payment funds on hold until Q LINK Charged me. So this Rude $3@3 should of known this. But no should had to tell me I cannot cancel my order and that I would not be able to use my ATM Card with them again because off the charge back. First they were not paid yet so there would be no charge back. They sent me a defective phone so they can sell me a another new one. That is bull $hit. No warranty. They should have a way to cancel orders, and a real person in customer care at all times, Worthless company stay away from them. When you need help there is none. It took me about 45 minutes this last phone call just to get a live person on the phone and it was tech support, Not customer relations. Please do not use these people. Oh yes when they tried to call me me using my old phone number, not the new phone number I received from them. But my old number that they turned off, Dip $#*!s. Why would you call my old number. https://qlinkwireless.com/

Customer service is terrible. On rare occasion you can get a live online chat with them, but I have yet to find out how to purposely access it. So far it's only randomly popped up when I've been scouring the generic help section on their website (which isn't actually helpful for troubleshooting anything as far as I've seen). When it does activate the online chat session you're given a number of people waiting before you to get help and an estimated wait time. No way to tell if the wait information is fabricated or factual. Every person that answers support calls is either based in India or QLinkWireless only hire people from India to answer calls. The names they give are recycled ( I've talked to several different people that have me the same few very American names). It would be nice not to be lied to. I want to know their actual names so I can show proper respect to the person helping me. Nothing seems honest with this company. The first time I used this company everything was easy and smooth. Had to re-apply and get an upgraded SIM card and this time nothing was easy or smooth. I've had no access to my UNLIMITED DATA for several months. I can't make calls or texts anymore. I can't even call customer support. My emails NEVER receive responses outside of the automated 'we got your message and someone will eventually contact you' response. The "free" tablet included with the new 5G SIM card upgrade is an outright lie and still costs you a co-payment of $10.01 (as listed in the fine print). They offer paid service plans as well as the free ones. I can't imagine paying for this with such terrible customer and technical support. I'm so very disappointed.

QLink are fraudulent crooks. I am disabled and have been around and around with them. My social worker and ARMHS workers have tried numerous times to speak to them. The employees at QLink speak English as a second language and apparently read from a script. I was promised a new phone in April and sent them an email a month later not receiving it. Now QLink is stating that "the free phone was a promotion and is no longer" and I have to purchase a new phone. My social worker and ARMHS worker both read the QLink email promising me a new free phone. One of the QLink supervisors, Grisely, hung the phone up on us after repeatedly giving fraudulent information. My social worker called again on Ssturday 11/20/21 and spoke to a QLink employee who admitted what QLinkWireless were doing was fraudulent. My social worker requested a supervisor to contact us on Monday 11/22/21 and did NOT contact us. A QLink employee, Stanley put us on hold and then disconnected the call. This company is not truthful and continue to make money off vulnerable/disabled adults.

In addition, I am told, by QLink, that my present phone is not compatible and my phone will be disconnected on 12/15/21. This is not okay. Having a cell phone is imperative being a disabled person.

I have been using QLink for years and for the most part, it's always been a meh company for calls and for not allowing me to remove apps & storage. But today will be the worst. All day, I was trying to make calls and the phone would go in & out of service. And over the last 5-6 hours, I would get 2 minutes out of a 10 minute call. This was happening all the time. The signal would go from nothing to 2 bars. I did a million & one things to see what I could work on to fix it. I messaged them on their Facebook page and QLinkWireless transferred me to their website where I could send them an e-mail and I doubt I would hear from them. So an hour ago, I tried to go on the Facebook page and I was blocked. I wasn't able to do anything. And if you need technical help with your phone, you actually have to call from another number and most people don't have another number. There is no support QLink Wireless will provide. I am on disability. I need to make appointments to my doctors & refill my medications. This has to be illegal. Avoid this company at all cost. All I want is to make calls. I don't need the internet for my phone. I just need to make a call.

I applied on 12/12, and was told after calling my ebt card wasn't accepted, as our state doesn't put names on them. Medicaid card would be fine. Call a few days later, card not accepted because it didn't have an issue date. Email them my benefit letter. Call a week later, and QLinkWireless say now my w2 wasn't accepted, even though their website said it was. Brief hold. Oh it is accepted. Waiting on approval of emailed document. Ok. Call a few days later, still waiting on approval of letter, but their system is down and she'll have to manually push it through. Call a few days later, they're still waiting on approval of letter. Call today. Due to new federal regulations, we cannot issue you a phone at this time. Call this 800 number. So I call the number. They say they can't get a hold of Qlink, they've been having problems with them lately, and there are NO New federal regulations that would bar me from having a phone issued. Call them back. Ok... So... I call them back. She apologizes for the confusion, gets my information and says verbatim the same thing the other agent said about federal regulations. I ask to speak to a supervisor. Brief hold. She comes back, and says she's sorry but due to new federal regulations they are unable to issue me a phone. I asked her what the regulations are, and she just repeated herself. I said that they're so scripted I'm having a hard time having an actual conversion, and she again. Sorry, but due to new federal regulations. What is actually going on with them? Is this a scam? Did I send all of my documentation to a fake company? I'm so upset and confused. I called another company that has lifeline service and was told to drive around and look for tests with their logo on them at different places ( including "parking lots"...) what is going on. They are like, here's a free phone! Jump through all these hoopd, now these, but on fire! Now these on fire with alligators and a moat! Ok. Oh. Sorry. Due to new federal regulations...

I purchased a phone from Q Link wireless on November 1,2021 after receiving a letter stating my old phone would not work after December. I paid $19.99 for the phone and sims card. Upon receiving the phone, I noticed it wouldn't hold a charge for over 3-4 hours. I emailed them several times as the problem persisted, QLinkWireless never answered any of my emails. I contacted them by phone which is an awful experience in itself. The reps whom I spoke with told me I needed to buy a new battery for my phone. Obviously, every phone that this company sells comes complete with a battery that won't hold a charge. Instead of making this right with their customers and replacing the defective phone they send you or issuing you a refund, they tell you you're going to have to buy another battery for your phone. This company shouldn't even be allowed to be in business, they are taking advantage of people like myself who are on disability and low income. Why would I be responsible for purchasing a new battery for a phone I have had for just a few weeks unless Q Link knew all along the batteries in the phones they sell are defective. I ask for a replacement phone, they said no. I ask for a refund and told them I would send this worthless piece of equipment back, they said no again. Buyer beware……don't do business with this company, they are as crooked as they come. I also reported them to the Better Business Bureau. They know when they sell you these phones, they won't work. 10 weeks later and $19.99 short, I learned the hard way. It doesn't surprise me to learn the Feds raided their offices last summer. I would give them a ZERO rating if I could. They are awful to deal with and customers mean nothing to them.
TimB

I have had Qlink for almost 2 years now and have had nothing but problems. I have had 3 months of service in all this time that I haven't had a problem. Until QLinkWireless illegally shut it off. They made me reapply, said I'd have service restored in 14 hours. Reapplied, called to activate, told I needed a new SIM card. Got it yesterday. Not compatible with my phone and tried to force me to buy a new one from them. I refused and told them to cancel my account so I can switch carriers and they refused to cancel my nonservice service. Their "service reps" are unintelligible and they refuse to allow you to speak with supervisors or tech support. If I could, they would have minus 10 stars. They are committing fraud, bait and switch and attempted extortion. If you REALLY NEED lifeline, stay away from Qlink.
I reported them to the FCC and they flat out lied in their response, so, since I gave the FCC proof that they were lying they have escalated the issue. I have now reported to and received case numbers from the FCC, FTC, BBB, FL AG, my state AG and Florida version of the PUC. Don't just leave reviews that they never look at. Report them to the agencies I listed. It's the only way to stop qlink's fraud.

I had the lifeline phone program through them as well as the ebb. I was told I would have unlimited talk, text and data. On Saturday 12-26-2021 my internet was cut off. Qlink only offers customer support on Mon-Fri, so I had to wait til Monday 12-28-2021 to call and try to resolve the issue. I called them 8 times in total. The first call I was told that I would have to add money to my account to have the internet back on, that I had reached my data limit and the speeds were reduced. My speeds were not reduced I had no internet connection period. I then asked to speak with a supervisor and in turn was hung up on. I called 6 more times after this asking to speak with a supervisor only to be hung up on again all 6 times. At the beginning of each call I was asked for my call back # in case the line was disconnected, I never received a call back any of those 7 times. I know I was hung up on, I had 5 bars of service and could hear them perfectly and if I had not been hung up on and the line truly was disconnected I would have received at least 1 call back out of the 7 calls. I gave them several hours and when no one ever called back I made an 8th call and requested that my service be cancelled. What QLinkWireless are doing is receiving government grant money for the ebb program in which they are not providing the service it claims to be which is fraudulent to say the least. I filed a formal complaint with the BBB. This company has no morals whatsoever.

I have been down the same road as the thousands of others. You will need an expensive attorney and have to go to court. A class action lawsuit is needed but won't happen. My recommendation is to try to find a reputable company and transfer to them.

According to the
Attorney Investigator
Office of Inspector General
Federal Communications Commission
45 L Street NE
Washington, DC 20**************080 (cell)

Your only recourse is file a complaint listed below. The first link takes you to the FCC's Consumer Bureau complaint page. Click on the phone icon and you are taken to a page with information and instructions. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the link "Form." Complete the form and click on submit. The second link takes you directly to the form. You can use either link.

https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us

https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=39744

Your complaint will be acknowledged as having been received and Q Link will have 30 days to respond.

Like others I was misled by their deceptive advertising and was lied to. If it sounds to good to be true then it probably is. It is important for everyone to file complaints here so QLinkWireless can be entered in a government database which is a necessity for them. It would be impossible for them to pursue every complaint from consumers but with the sufficient data they could take action in the future or at least warn consumers.

Ive been a Qlink customer for about 7 or 8 years. And ive loved there service all the way thru. But ever since tmobile took over the service has been nothing but garbage. The customer service use to be awesome, but now there is no customer service. Just a bunch of automated crap that doesnt help at all. The wait time is forever long. 2-4 hours wait time. And when you do decide to wait it thru on someone elses phone, itll start bugging you about doing a call back which i always ignore. I actually choose to wait it thru. For 3 months ive been doing this constantly. Only to always have the automated machine come on abrutly and tell me someone will call back when i never selected it, and it hangs up on me. I purchased a new phone that was $130 and when i tried to install the sim card it said the phone isnt compatible with the provider. Qlink left me a message saying i should buy another phone. Then QLinkWireless sent me a "free tablet" only to have them demand $10.01. Which okay i guess its fair even thought that is not considered free. So i go to meijer, and guess what they dont sell $10.00 gift cards unless you buy the ones you have to activate and pay on every month. The next option is $25. Im on ssi i cant afford to waste money on crap like this. So to anyone reading this. Choose a different provider. Like i said they use to be awesome. I loved the service. Ever since they tried to switch company providers and up our crap to 5G the phones r useless, the service is useless and the customer service is useless. Thank you for your time.

The recent upgrade to 5G required a new SIM. QLinkWireless hounded me three times a day with robocalls with never a warning that if I did not install the SIM by a specific date, they would disconnect my service. As just so happened, on April 2, I discovered the phone no longer worked, asking for a credit card to make a call. I injured my knew the day before and could not call for help. Some lifeline!

I tried to install the SIM the evening I received it. I then set the package aside until they turned off my service. I sent a tech support form request and never heard back. I then spent an hour and half waiting for them to answer my phone support for help, teasing me with "due to a high call volume, your estimated wait is 46 minutes, then near that time, it changed to 43. It went unanswered but during the time, I did successfully install the SIM.

When I was composing my shopping list the morning of April 7, after installing the SIM, the big thing I use the phone for to email my grocery list to it. I have scoured the Internet the format. Again, with no notice, I can no longer email a grocery list to my phone. Two of these worked before the upgrade and the one containing "iwireless" also did not work. I again called Customer Support and was told my estimated wait would be 104 minutes, and thought, I will just wait for the offer to call me back, and maybe they will get me while shopping. It stated someone would contact me in 48 hours. That's not my idea of leaving queue in order to get a call back. I likely will not receive that call.

I was able to use the phone to text my computer via Google Voice. I harvested that email. It is a clunking one: *******@txt.voice.google.com. I can send BRIEF emails this the address. Two of these worked before the 5G upgrade.

Gateway *******@iwirelesshometext.com
Gateway *******@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Gateway *******@pm.sprint.com

Every change with the company leaves you with something much less. After my first phone died, which they provided for free, I bought their replacement for $25. It died in less than year of VERY LIGHT usage. I then bought a refurbed iPhone i6 from Walmart.com for $100 and it is still going strong after two years.

I switched to Qlink about 2 months ago and get lousy reception, I have to go outside and find a signal. My daughter in law was using the phone I bought since Qlink does not give free phones like every other lifeline company, she gave me the phone because it quit working in the middle of her call and the screen was white, you can't see nothing except a white screen, I took the back off and found out the phone is 3 years old. The battery is dated 9/4/2019. If the battery is that old then so is the phone. I paid for a new phone not a junk 3 year old phone that didn't last 2 months I guess the age has a lot to do with why it's a useless piece of garbage now. Do not even think about switching to this company. When you have a problem and try to speak with a person you get a message that QLinkWireless will contact you back in 48 hours. If it takes them that long to answer customers I can just imagine how long replacement phones take and they will most likely expect me to pay for another junk 3 year old phone. I'm done with qlink and am switching to Assurance. Stay away from Qlink unless you like throwing your money away and can do without a phone for a month or two.

I used to have T Mobiles $15/month plan and it worked flawlessly. I was eligible for Lifeline so decided to switch to QLink. Apparently QLink uses T-Mobiles towers so I thought service would be the same. Not even close. I'm using the same phone I did on T-Mobile (Samsung Galaxy 20 FE).

On T-Mobile my data was consistent and I had a signal everywhere I went. Now on QLink it's a nightmare. My phone signal drops ALL THE TIME. Yesterday I was at the dentist and I had no data or phone service--even when I got back home where I'm %100 sure I should have service. I had to reboot my phone and then it showed service again.

I just don't understand why if both companies use T-Mobile towers why my experience is so horrible with Q-Link. I appreciate the Lifeline program but the service is simply too unreliable. Can someone explain to me why when using the exact same phone on the exact same network results in such different outcomes?

UPDATE: So it seems like QLink automatically enrolls customers in the Broadband Benefit which offers $50 off your broadband bill. So Q-Link offered 'unlimited data' which I can never use anyway and QLinkWireless get 50 bucks from the government. Just so you know you can switch that benefit to your computer broadband supplier. I switched the benefit to my home internet and now get $50 off my bill. Much better than useless phone data that never works!

I am going through the same problem with Qlink wireless My phone has been sitting in the fulfillment dept. longer than a month. 2 weeks ago, I was told that a shipping label has been printed and the phone still has not been shipped out. I guess the label has accumulated so much dust on a shelf somewhere. I spoke this morning with customer service which was totally useless and a waste of my time. My phone that has been sitting in the fulfillment dept. for over a month is still going to be sitting there with no shipment date foreseen in the near future. This company has my social security and other personal information on me. I am very concerned if this company does provide free phones and service for those if us who qualify through a government program. I am wondering if this company is a legitimate phone provider that says QLinkWireless are contracted with the federal government. I am calling the government to see if Qlink wireless is legit. And if so, I am going to file a complaint. There is no excuse for Qlink wireless to be treating people like us poorly who are low income and unable to afford a phone services. If I was a paying customer, I would of had a phone through Qlink wireless within a few days along with supportive customer service.
I read a review from someone who is placing the blame on the government for Qlink free phone program. Qlink wireless is the one to blame for not being able to provide phones as promise to customers in their e-mail. The emails for the past 4 weeks that I have been receiving from Qlink wireless is as follows: (please note as of 1/15/2020, I still have not received a phone).

This is the most recent email response that I received from Qlink. They were extremely not helpful and unwilling to help resolve the problem with shipping out the phone. The answer I received was that they did not know when my phone will be shipped out to me.

Recent email response from customer service Qlink wireless.

Please Call us!
We received your recent request, and unfortunately, we're unable to resolve this matter via email. We definitely want to help you. Just give us a call, so we can assist you.

How to Reach Us:

*

Questions? Visit our online Help Center for more information about Q Link Wireless.

Below is a repeated emails that I have received: (5 weeks and STILL waiting for a phone as 1/15/20) This email and other emails stating that my phone is in the fulfillment dept to be shipped out. These email stating that the phone is being processed for shipping is misrepresentation and under false pretense.

Get Ready to receive Your Free-Cell Phone

Dear $Order. BillToFirstName $Order. BillToLastName,

Your application has been approved and is currently processing in our shipping department. Q Link cell phones are shipped by the United States Postal Service with service through UPS. Once your phone is shipped, you will receive an email with your Q Link phone number and your tracking number.

Please look out for this email as it contains important information.

Thank you for choosing Q Link Wireless as your Lifeline provider.

UPDATE 1/15/2020 I DID SOME RESEARCH AND FOUND ANOTHER PHONE PROVIDER THAT PROVIDES THE GOVERNMENT FREE PHONE PROGRAM. THIS PROVIDER IS VERY REPUTABLE. GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE ALSO. BELOW IS THE INFORMATION to Safelink:

SAFELINK WIRELESS® is a program provided by TracFone Wireless, Inc. serving eligible households. To participate in the SAFELINK WIRELESS® service, certain eligibility requirements must be met, which are set by each State where the service is provided. These requirements are based on a person's participation in state, Federal support programs, or by meeting the Income Poverty Guidelines as defined by the U.S. Government. SAFELINK WIRELESS® service is limited to

This company and the cellphones QLinkWireless sent you are a joke to modern technology. The moment you turn your phone on it tells you that you are running out of memory so the daily task of clearing the cache and stopping as many unwanted apps begins. You cannot remove the majority of these apps so you have to force them to stop running, something you will have to do ever day. And forget about customer service, with this company there is no such thing. The telephone they give out will never allow you to speak to a fellow human and try writing an email. You will get the response of "we received your email and will contact you within 3-5 business days. Good luck with that. I have never received an actual answer to my questions. All you get is a canned answer that does not answer your actual question. This has been nothing but a nightmare. When I upgraded to a better phone they cut off my service because the new phone was in the mail so I went about a week with no phone. Again this new and improved phone was useless so I bought an iPhone and again because they sent me a SIM card, they cut if my service so again I was left with no phone. Why they cannot wait until you actually have the new phone in hand is a mystery as I have done this before with other companies and they did wait for me to have a phone. Run, don't walk away from this company.

UPDATE 2 (4/1): My sim card kit did arrive without any further action on my part, 5 days after the phone itself. There were a few things that could have been handled better:
* It could have been more clear that the sim card and phone were being shipped separately (from two different locations). When the phone arrived, QLink emailed me to say it had been delivered and i should get started setting it up, and the qlink site said only that the phone had been delivered, without any mention of the sim card. Still, had i been more observant of the tracking info from the third-party shipper, i probably would have figured out what was happening.
* More significantly, Qlink disabled my old phone without warning as soon as the new phone shipped, leaving me without phone service for close to a week. This turned out to be only a minor inconvenience for me personally, but that was only due to fortunate circumstances. I suppose there could have been a technical reason why it was necessary, but i suspect there would be a way to only switch service from one phone to the other once the recipient actually has the new phone in hand. At the very least, the user ought to be notified beforehand that the old phone will be deactivated, and why.

UPDATE 1 (3/25 6PM CST): While on hold i checked my tracking info and realized there were two packages shipped. My current guess is that the other package is the sim card kit.

ORIGINAL REVIEW (3/25): Reliable for years but, similar to the review below, QLinkWireless offered via email (i did not ask) to send a new phone. But unlike my old phone (which was slow but functional), this phone requires a sim card, which was not provided (despite the automated tech support claiming a sim card was sent).

Also as soon as they sent the new phone, my old phone number was deactivated.

Now on hold to talk to a customer service rep. Will update when/if resolved for higher/lower rating.

As someone mentioned, the phone QLinkWireless give you should be immediately replaced. It barely was used. I truly believe they are just trying to get government money because they are shady and shoddy. I ordered a phone a few months ago and am making payments through Qlink.
Last night my service was disconnected. Calls went directly to a message saying I was out of minutes and to make a payment. The gag is I HAVE UNLIMITED service. After holding for over an hour, I hung up. I called again this morning and was advised that my service was disconnected because a NEW PHONE was being sent because my phone would no longer work on the network.
I told them I never got a notification and I am still paying on the new phone. This is unacceptable considering it's supposed to be a LIFELINE. It's my primary phone. In any case, I asked to speak with a supervisor and was told there were no supervisors and to call back.
I called back, and immediately asked to escalate the call. I spoke with a "supervisor" who insulted my intelligence by repeating what the other person said. I advised that I wish to have my phone restored. She said she was sorry they weren't telling me what I wanted to hear, but if I could verify my address, they could create a shipping label.
SOOOO that means my phone hasn't been sent and they just turned my service off and forwarded all calls to QLink. I made an FCC complaint, and sent and email to the CEO.
They are trying to poorly treat their low income customers because the service is "free". How is this a lifeline?

So I got this phone a few months ago, and I have very mixed feelings. The storage was crap putting apps on a SD card made them unusable. The space fills up very quickly and it makes the phone slow and overheated. The calling service is somewhat decent and clear, but putting to your cheek causes you to push different buttons. I've been all over the phone and there's no fixing it. The texting/messaging program is an app, which means if the storage is full, you can't send messages and have to clear the cache or clear data for everything, so Google, and the "programmed" browser don't work. The data? Forget it. I somehow blew through 1G in less than a week, with data saver on and I barely used it. Fast forward to 1-23-19 and oh a whim I checked my data and it said I only used 250mb, which sounded more reasonable. I thought maybe Qlink saw the mistake and fixed it, but I go to get on data, and it's telling me I have to log into the network and gave me an error code. Yeah, apparently it only happens when you try to use your data after it hit the max cap. I will hopefully be able to buy a new phone, even if it means I have to skimp on bills. I don't recommend this phone because even if it's a free service, the amount of crap you have to deal with isn't worth it. Find another company to use.

ALSO: QLinkWireless reuse numbers as I've never put this number for anything and I get spam calls and people looking for other people, once even got threatened because apparently someone who owned the number owed someone money, so don't apply for anything using your number.

QLink's cellular connectivity is as good (or bad) as any of the other Lifeline providers but customers should bag the free ZTE phone right out of the box. It hardly ever works and will drive you crazy. Replace it with a 2nd hand iPhone (from eBay, for instance.)

Don't bother calling customer service for any reason. It's a waste of time.

[[Edit: April, 2021 - QLink upgraded its connectivity to 5G (Hooray!) but didn't increase the number of telephone customer service operators (mostly in India) to mitigate the inevitable screw-up. (Surprise!) Some phones (like mine) required the replacement of the SIM card, after which, in my case, I had no cellular data connectivity. When I called customer service, I was regularly greeted (after climbing through the branches of a telephone tree like a Redwood) with a cordial annnouncement that my wait-time would be 345 minutes (or some other stupendous figure. [There were actually TWO of these. The first wait of some hours was for a "general" consultant who, after determining that she couldn't be any help, would put me on a wait-list for a "tech" some further hours down the road.]) I did this often and spent double-digit hours on the phone, largely on hold, and was disconnected regularly because my cordless handset's battery would die before anyone answerered. After half-a-day's effort with multiple techs on different calls, the verdict was that my b-y-o cellphone (an iPhone 7) was defective and would have to be replaced. I was shopping for a new one when someone from India called back and did some more troubleshooting (which really appeared to be the "same" troubleshooting in different sequence), and got it to work by having me remove and replace the SIM card and swap back and forth between the LTE, 3g, and 2g networks until the LTE (the 5g[?]) came to life. It has since died again but I have found that I can resuscitate it by removing the SIM card again and performing the same network minuet. (This should be fun outside in a wind when I'm trying to call an Uber and have to handle something as substantial as a fleck of paint.)

So QLink has come through as expected.

(An interesting affect of its telephone system, reflecting the millions of calls it has received, is that the woman on the outgoing message has apparently had a stroke to judge by the way her voice is slurred.)]]