I've been with Tracfone since 2007 with no problems. I haven't had to call customer service in the last 5 years or so, and when I did I got help with my issues no problem. I can manage all my Tracfones on my account on their website.
I have a LG Ultimate 2 Android that I paid $130 for that included 1 year of service and 1200 talk/1200 texts/1200mb data. I'm a very light user of service so I use <100 units of each per month. Through some super 1/2 price sales of Tracfone cards and "glitches" in their systems I have on the phone ~4000 each of the talk/text/data units, and service days out to 2037. I spent about $250 to accumulate all this service. I won't have to feed this phone for the next 3 or 4 years, at the rate I use units. So this phone is FREE for the forseeable future.
I use the heck out of this phone out in the field in my geology mapping job: I have the GPS running all day looking at the custom georeferenced PDF maps I make of my project area, I take geotagged photos. I use a bit of data checking the weather radar sometimes. I also use it a lot for wifi, mp3, apps, etc. The phone is on CDMA Verizon service. I live out on the CO/UT line, not exactly a metropolis, and I have great service almost everywhere out in the middle of nowhere (unless I'm in a canyon). The only place I got no service at all was in Vernal, UT. This phone doesn't roam. But who cares it's Vernal, I wasn't staying there long anyways. Then I went out to the end of Harper's Corner Road in Dinosaur National Monument, a very remote place. I had great 3G service out there and was downloading geology maps from my Dropbox.
The phones aren't top of the line, but is a $600 phone 6x better than my cheapie LG phone? Next year Tracfone will come out with new phones and I may upgrade to another $100 phone. I don't want to carry an expensive phone around. These Tracfones are cheap enough that I have a spare LG smart phone, that I paid $20 for, set aside. If I lose or break my main phone I can go online and switch my service to the spare phone in about 5 minutes and be back up and running.
Tracfone is just now starting to offer service on GSM AT&T smart phones, which I have been following closely. I may jump to an AT&T phone someday. They have also started offering BYOP plans on both Verizon and AT&T.
I keep a cheap Tracfone flip phone going for the AT&T service (also excellent out in these parts, it worked fine in Vernal). I bought the phone for $4.99 and I put a $19.99/90 day/60 minute card on it every 3 months. My bf had this phone out and was calling me from somewhere on the top of the San Rafael Swell. Great service. I got one of these $4.99 flip phones for my 85 yo mother, activated it, and sent it to her in MA. She's very happy with it. I can add a card to it from my computer so she doesn't have to worry about doing that.
If I want to make a long phone call I have Google Voice and and an Obi100 box for free calls over my $21/mo, 3mbps DSL. Cell service is much better than DSL out here on the frontier! I've been using GV/Obi for over 2 years now and it has worked great for us. No complaints, and it's FREE.
I have read the trusty guide on here, and many other forums, learning about all the other phone services out there, but no other service compares to what I can get for essentially $7/mo with Tracfone on Verizon and AT&T. Most of the other discount plans are on Tmoblie or Sprint, which only have decent service here in the city.
My favorite forums for Tracfones:
http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php/330-Tracfone-Net10http://s1.zetaboards.com/Turk/index/
