Pinwheel Kids PhonesReviews of pinwheel.com

I purchased the spark home phone for my kids. It is supposed to work off my home WiFi. I spent two days trying to get the phone to connect and work. I called, sent texts and emailed customer service and was never able to get ahold of anyone. After two days of trying to get it working I decided to try and get a refund. I have called and emailed and have still been unable to get ahold of their customer service. The phone doesn’t work and the customer service is useless and doesn’t answer. I wouldn’t waste your money

This phone is trash you can't use airplane mode unless your parents unlock it you can't edit the accessibilities it kicks you out you can't get an AI they give you "pinwheel gpt" but a complete rip half the questions you ask it doesn't answer and there are limited responses with a premium option I ask a greenlight ai and a pinwheel AI the same question and the greenlight AI did better and answered it right and it isn't even made for it, they also have to accept every contact and track everything.

I researched the pinwheel with the hopes of providing my son with his first phone in a way that it could grow with him. Despite checking multiple times (and being led to believe) that it would work with his school apps. We purchased the phone, and discovered in the first week it would not work with the apps he needed for school. I started the return process immediately - literally with 7 days of receiving it. Never Never have I had such a poor and frustrating experience. I submitted no fewer than 33 different photos of the phone to 'prove' it was new. My son never even got to use the phone as the necessary apps would not work. After multiples of emails, I finally asked if they were just stalling so that the 30 days expired??!! They responded promptly then, and said no, of course not, and could i please send another series of pictures to prove it was in mint condition!!!?! After 3 weeks of this, they finally sent the return label. I packaged everything up per their extremely specific instructions. It has been 5 weeks now, no communication, NO REFUND, and they disabled my account so I can't connect directly to them any longer. I am out over $600 for something we never even got to use. This was THE poorest experience and I would discourage others from bothering with them. Go to Bark. At least they have integrity and back up their products.

Phone stopped working on our network a few months after purchase. Going through the returns/refund process was a nightmare. 20+ emails and hours on the phone to finally come to a resolution. The phones are low quality and the software is unreliable. Don’t count on the GPS tracking. It’s slow to load if it even loads at all.

pinwheel.com Jun 7, 2026 I like the concept of the Pinwheel phone, but in practice is it a buggy, glitchy, inconsistent mess. My Pinwheel phone has not been able to receive calls from approved contacts since the day I bought it, only I as the Caregiver can call this phone. Customer service will leave you on read for over a week with no support to critical system failures, and have openly admitted that they have no other technical means to help support you than the Categiver portal you're already using. Stay far away.

UK customer. Dreadful service. Ordered phone for our daughters 11th birthday after lots of research. Ordered on 21st May and paid £38 express shipping. Got an email confirmation but then heard nothing for days. Husband phoned on 26th to follow up. They confirmed they had the order and refunded express shipping. Pinwheel they would phone us the following day (27th May) with an update and they did not. Its now 2nd June and no sign of phone. Unimpressed.

I absolutely hate this phone it is a piece of garbage and the parents that give their kids these phones should be ashamed of themselves. Like honestly, how much more controlling can you be over your kid's life?? This is such a joke like God forbid you text anyone in privacy and then your mom knows your business. This phone sucks!

I rarely write reviews, but I feel a responsibility to share this given the seriousness of the issue. We bought a Pinwheel phone for our 11-year-old son in December specifically because it is marketed as a safe, locked-down device for children. Unfortunately, our experience has been the complete opposite. On two separate occasions, my son has managed to bypass the restrictions and access the open internet. Most concerningly, he was able to access YouTube and view inappropriate adult content while the phone was set to “Nothing mode”, which is supposed to be fully restricted. This was not a simple case of accessing something through an approved app. He found a back-end route using a school email account, which allowed him to get into settings and from there reach the wider internet. He has demonstrated the full process, and we have it recorded. The fact that an 11-year-old can do this, more than once, raises serious concerns about how secure this system actually is. A device designed to protect children should not have loopholes that lead directly to unrestricted internet access, particularly in its most locked-down mode. This is the second time I have had to contact Pinwheel about this, and as a result I have completely lost confidence in the product. We will no longer be using it and have requested a full refund. I would strongly urge other parents to be cautious and not assume that this device guarantees a safe, closed environment. In our experience, it does not.