"Avoid SMARTY - Abysmal Customer Service, Hidden Fees, and Delayed Refunds\r\n\r\nMy experience with SMARTY has been nothing short of a nightmare. Attempting to acquire a second SIM card for my existing plan turned into a frustrating ordeal due to their abysmal customer service and hidden fees.\r\n\r\nFirstly, SMARTY lacks a customer service contact number, leaving customers with no option but to use their Live Chat feature, which proved to be more of a hindrance than a help. After engaging with three different representatives via Live Chat, my issue remained unresolved.\r\n\r\nThe first representative lured me in with a plan advertised at \u00a315 a month with unlimited features. However, upon proceeding to payment, the price suddenly inflated to \u00a320. Despite this obvious bait-and-switch tactic, the representative encouraged me to make the payment, promising a refund of the extra \u00a35.\r\n\r\nNot only did SMARTY happily accept my \u00a320 payment, but they also informed me that the promised refund could only be processed once I received and activated the SIM card. To add insult to injury, they stated that the refund process would take an additional 5-7 days. This lack of transparency and delay in refunding customers' money is completely unacceptable.\r\n\r\nFrustrated by SMARTY's incompetence, I had no choice but to escalate the matter with my bank and initiate a chargeback.\r\n\r\nIn conclusion, I urge anyone considering SMARTY to steer clear unless they enjoy dealing with hidden fees, misleading advertising, delayed refunds, and atrocious customer service. Save yourself the headache and choose a provider that values honesty and customer satisfaction."

"6 days (so far) of no inbound calls or texts. There seems to have been an issue with the porting of my old number.\r\nThings go wrong sometimes (we are all human). Unfortunately, Smarty appears to have a completely disjointed customer service web chat that has no ability to escalate, obtain information updates from the business departments that are solving problems or provide any updates as what has actually gone wrong and how long to fix.\r\nI have spent hours on both their web chat and their community forum with no resolution in sight.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/community.smarty.co.uk\/t5\/chats-hacks\/porting-only-occured-for-outbound-no-inbound-calls\/m-p\/18730\r\n\r\nI can make calls and send texts from my number but inbound calls simply state \"The number dialed has not been recognised, please redial\".\r\nIt took 2 days for the Web Chat team to actually come to the conclusion it was a porting issue rather than the usual array of reset your phone, clear cache etc.\r\n\r\nFrom my opinion and ongoing experience, Smarty have cleverly setup as an online only solution with only webchat and email to reduce costs for customers. Unfortunately, they seemed to have not bothered to make this only customer communication channel entwined within the business or trained their staff very well to answer problems. The advisor in web chat admitted that they can only escallate a problem by typing into a notes field!\r\nThe web chat team seem to be doing their best with no access to business information or training to answer certain problems.\r\nSearching their own forum shows Porting seems to be their weak point.\r\n\r\nFingers crossed I dont have to live with no calls or texts for too much longer, the biggest problem for me is texts are often used for MFA\/2FA"

"Bought and pre paid for sim popped in phone when it arrived 24 hours later still no service no text no email nothing. Spoke to someone on line which is really annoying and long winded told me to turn off and on blah blah like I'm an idiot \ud83d\ude44 this is my 4th attempt with smarty in 2 years because giffgaff slow down speeds between 7am until 10.30 am and then from 5pm until 7am every single day. But I'll never used smarty again they don't know what they are doing response time is ridiculous so I told him to cancel and refund to original payment sorce. Fancy selling pre paid sims taking your money but not having it ready to activate. At least with giffgaff if you run out of data they still allow you to get onto the Website to top up. Smarty don't so while cutting you off how are you suppose to register the sims for use and if like me you suffer severe anxiety and don't like to leave your home and you can't get onto smarty Website they'll tell you to go shop and buy a voucher. They are one of the worst companies. Not sure how trust shows 5 star's I really don't."

"Your onboarding process is extremely disappointing. \r\n\r\nMy customer experience to date is:\r\n\r\n- I ordered my sim on 21st of May\r\n- I provided my PAC code on my order to enable my number transfer\r\n- I received my sim on the 30th of May. \r\n- I immediately actioned the transfer process\r\n- My phone number was disconnected today 10.30\r\n- I received an email notification today at 14.15 advising that my number had been transferred\r\n- I followed the process to the letter, made sure my settings were correct and still no connection\r\n- I contacted your message centre today and this was the response that I received\u2026\r\n\r\nI had read reviews on the poor customer experience through the onboarding experience, and I can now vouch for this. This part of the new customer experience is the most important and in my opinion - SMARTY have failed. \r\n\r\nI did a lot of research, I took the risk of knowing this was going to be poor and it was confirmed. \r\n\r\nUsing my personal phone for work and now the potential of having 10 days without being contactable - absolutely unacceptable."

"I had not topped up for months as I experienced a bit of poverty. Now I'm back on my feet, I went to try top up and my PAC code expired. They refuse to re-issue another PAC code and tell me I need a new number. I'm so angry, I've had that number for my whole life. Any other provider keeps your account and ensures a new PAC code even after expiration. Absolute disgusting. Spoke to 2 representatives, neither would help me. Worst provider I ever experienced."

"When it breaks you\u2019re stuffed.\r\n\r\nI bought a smarty SIM card and USB drive to give me internet access in a new build until I received broadband connection.\r\n\r\nIt worked perfectly out the box, plugged straight into the TV and allowed me to stream TV no issues, I could also connect my other devices.\r\n\r\nAfter approx 3 weeks it suddenly didn\u2019t work. I tried all the usual things to fix it and the troubleshooting hints on the website. They didn\u2019t work. \r\n\r\nYou get directed to a webchat - I\u2019m on there now, 30 mins after sending my question I got a reply, asking mainly for information I had already provided, after I sent a reply, the customer service person went \u201coffline\u201d.\r\n\r\nIt keeps happening, I send a reply and the agent goes offline for 10 \/ 20 mins at a time before coming back on and sending another pointless question and disappearing again. \r\n\r\nStill waiting, hugely frustrating. I can\u2019t find an alternative way to report the issue to them. \r\n\r\nAs per some other reviews, when it works it\u2019s great and well priced, when it breaks you\u2019re stuffed. Nightmare to get any help."

"Just don\u2019t listen. Keep emailing me and despite 13 emails asking them to stop they keep emailing me,\r\nThey just don\u2019t listen! \r\nYou have to log in to open an official complaint to which I haven\u2019t even got an account!?"