Pinwheel Kids PhonesReviews of pinwheel.com

I absolutely love this idea…however, for those of us who chose to live in the countryside with limited cell phone coverage this may not be for you. I purchased this phone for my daughter (who I swore I’d never buy a phone until she started driving), after a sleepover went awry and she couldn’t contact us. Now for me, I received the phone quickly and was easy to set up. I added the apps and permissions and decided on Tracfone for my carrier. Now I did have to use the AT&T bring your own SIM and it works. I added the minutes and data, but the cellular will not work at my house; it shows no signal. I can use the data while connected to Wifi, but the only phone that has access to Wifi calling is the Verizon option, which is sold out until around Christmas. Even if I had the Verizon option I’m unsure if it will work as my personal Verizon phone really only holds a call if it’s in airplane mode, which Pinwheel disables; otherwise the phone keeps looking fit service and drops calls. Now I did call support and was disappointed in the help. I couldn’t understand him all that well and he was unable to answer any of my questions. I was hoping for good things as everyone’s reviews on support were so positive, but I ended up troubleshooting myself. I wasn’t sure if my lack of service had anything to do with it being Tracfone AT&T or just bad service with a weaker phone, so I took the phone into town and made a call….it worked. Now based on my map I should be able to use Extended Range 4G LTE, but this requires a 600MHz 4G LTE device…Blue G50’s are not. So basically my daughter gets a phone she can use when she’s in town and let’s hope that she has enough service to be able to reach me and vice versa. Also, no waiting list or hard date on when the Verizon model will be in, so I’m hoping to be able to get one so she can use it all the time. I will add that I’m able to trade in the slim for some sort of credit for the Verizon model. Now I am going to update the APN settings manually to see if that helps. If not, I bought additional SIMs and time for Straight Talk, Consumer Cellular and may add others. I’m very determined, but I’d like to see a solution from Pinwheel. Maybe charge me $150 to take my old iPhone 8 and put your program in. Just a suggestion….

I wanted to really like this product, but I am returning the phone for a refund. The good - 1. Shipped Fast 2. Very polite and responsive Customer Service The not so good- 1. Incomplete disclosure about the service required (phone is locked to new service only) - Some of this is on me for assuming that "Verizon" meant using the Verizon CDMA network. This phone is locked for new service only on Verizon. You can forget using your existing SIM card from a Verizon MVNO. 2. Incomplete disclosure about the phone - the slim is a Samsung Galaxy A01. I assume that I could have figured this out from the pictures, but it is always nice to know what equipment you are buying. Understand that you are getting a subsidized and locked basic phone, and that the price you are paying is essentially for the work done by Pinwheel, not really for the hardware itself. 3. OS was jerky and laggy - This may have been because the phone was not connected to a wireless carrier, only wifi. The operation of the phone did not seem as smooth or a seamless as a standard android, but almost like it had to think about what to do next. In summary, perhaps I ordered this phone and service too quickly without asking probing questions to Pinwheel, but their product will not work for my needs. I am thankful that their CS seems very responsive and they are willing to refund my $.

Update: Pinwheel staff has been very responsive to our concerns. We gave our children the phones on December 17th and as of this morning, January 11th, I was able to do all of the things I needed to do on the parent portal. I originally gave 1* review, but given the communication and help from the company staff and their effort and hard work to resolve the issues, I have increased the rating to 3*. Original Post: We purchased phones for all of our children. Pinwheel over-promised and under-delivered. They were not prepared for the influx on their server (for all of the phones they sold). They are I.T. people, wouldn't that have been resolved BEFORE selling all of those phones at Christmas? The caregiver app only works part of the time and sporadically. It's always a guess at whether or not you can go into the app to make changes. It's pointless NEED a portal to make mode adjustments, approve phone numbers and apps, when in reality, you CAN'T do it from the portal because it is only partially working. Do busy parents really have time to keep logging into the portal over and over again only to be disappointed that changes cannot be made over and over again. I keep hearing back from Pinwheel that they are working on the fixes. They have offered credit for a month of Pinwheel service (for partially operable phones) BUT I am still paying T-Mobile for monthly service for essentially nothing. I am so very frustrated with Pinwheel.

I feel like I'm being generous with 3 stars at the moment, but I'm hopeful for some quick changes. Pinwheel is sitting on a great idea. We chose them over Gabb and others because they allowed helpful apps instead of simply talk/text and had a great looking Portal providing extensive control over schedules, contacts, texting, and apps. If this all worked, it would be great! It's been 2 weeks since we activated and started using the phone. For most of those 2 weeks, the portal has not worked. I can deal with a few bugs here and there on the phone's software, but the Caregiver Portal is a majority of the reason we went with Pinwheel. For weeks now we haven't been able to view and approve Contacts, view text message history, or manage the routines and schedule of the phone. The website simply "spins" when you click on these menu items. The phone software has largely been good. There are certainly some bugs that are being worked out regarding access to unwanted applications and such. Honestly, I can deal with these. I know it's incredibly hard to create software that closes ALL loopholes; it's a process. They continue to roll out updates for these bugs and new features, which is fantastic. One big oversight is the lack of a Parent App. Everything has to be done through the website. If Pinwheel had a companion app for parents, they would be WAY ahead of the competition. It feels like Pinwheel launched a bit early. They missed quite a bit of stuff and they are reeling to get control after unexpected growth. It's a great platform and I hope to stick with them, but they need to get things buttoned up pretty quickly.