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Lively (formerly GreatCall) is the leader in connected health for active aging. With health and safety solutions for older adults and their family caregivers, Lively’s innovative suite of easy-to-use mobile products and dedication to customer care helps aging consumers live more independent lives. Products and services include Jitterbug Flip and Jitterbug Smart phones, the Lively Mobile Plus medical alert device, plus health & safety services Urgent Response, Urgent Care and the caregiver Link app.
Reviews 267
Kathryn Graber
Apr 19,2021The rep was wonderful and promised us all sorts of things they could not deliver on. There were immediately additional charges and when we called in for details as to the charges, they spoke in circles, contradicting themselves. We asked all the right questions given that my father lives remotely, however, Great Call was not able to deliver on any of their promises about their phone being sufficient for someone who lives remotely and their customer service did not explain things in a manner that my father was able to understand, even I had difficulty understanding their excuses. It's all about the money, just like any other phone plan.
Virginia v
Apr 15,2021Excellent phone! I was pleasantly surprised with the ease of set up (and me being a first time smart phone user). It is user friendly, has a personal assistant/concierge service that calls LYFT for you, and will even stay on the line if you need more help. It has a one touch emergency button that gets you to emergency services, and if you purchase a particular plan, this will alert your family (the ones you designate) as well. Very safe for the elderly or those who live alone. I had a good experience with customer service, unlike all the other nightmare customer services where you have to hold for half an hour or more, and then are connected overseas to reps who don't understand, won't help you, are rude, and hang up on you. Thank you GreatCall!
gusandtyke simrica
Apr 10,2021I called GreatCall to order a device for my 90-year-old father. The representative directed me to call back in to activate the device once I received it. My father received a similar device from the VA free of charge, so we did not go with GreatCall's service. Not only did they activate the device before it was shipped without our knowledge, but they have been charging us. Customer service insisted that we called back in to activate, though there is no such call on my phone record.
Deborah McGarvey
Apr 03,2021The experience with GreatCall has been wonderful. My questions are always answered respectfully. Sometimes I have to wait on the line for a considerable amount of time while someone is helping me, but they always apologize for the long wait time.
Sylvia Hawley
Mar 29,2021I have e mailed Great Call Customer Service two times for help with basic operation of the Jitterbug Flip phone. They have not responded or even acknowledge my e mails. Great Call does not back up their phone service.
Diane K
Mar 29,2021I purchased my unit by phone on 8/22/21. I was mailed a replacement one month later when customer service determined that the core unit was not working. When I called a month ago, they said to replace the battery. My question has always been why there is not a visible notice on the phone or text, when the battery is not working. Yet, everyday, the system prompts for Emergency Profile Update. Why? Nothing for me has changed. Instead of the system saying "connected" it could prompt "replace battery" - because when I wear the unit as a pendant, I can't see a red light prompt for the battery. This would eliminate a false feeling of security, so if one did need to call for help, we'd know the system is really working.
K.C. Thompson
Mar 18,2021GreatCall, Jitterbug, Lively Flip. Advertised as senior friendly and easy to set up is false and misleading. Lively Flip will not set up Alexa as advertised. The Lively Flip phone is extremely difficult to set up. Instruction in the manual and actual phone entry instructions do not agree. Very difficult to fill in, customer support is MISERABLE in that all customer support personnel are on Microsoft products and if you (the consumer) are on a Macintosh computer you are just out of luck. They are unable to walk you thru the necessary site to resolve your difficulties. You cannot keep your own phone number as advertised unless you jump thru a zillion hoops SENIORS, DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT !!!
Steve Cooke
Mar 18,2021I had been researching devices for well over a year. I suffered 2 CVAs/strokes; by chance a neighbor found me as he was walking by and my occupational therapist found me because I had an appointment. I made the decision right there to purchase the Lively Mobile Plus because of the previous research and I had just received my new AARP Bulletin and turned down the corner of the page for the ad. I wish I called sooner ... better late than never.
MySisters KKeeper
Mar 06,2021I spoke to a rep back in December to cancel my service and received a bill this morning stating that the service was just cancelled in February. The rep that I spoke to this morning was very RUDE and wouldn't connect me to a supervisor. She kept repeating the amount that was due. I finally hung up.
KRayman
Feb 20,2021Ordered a Lively Flip Phone for a friend in hospital because he was having trouble using his phone. It is advertised as easy to use, but whoever designed the software did not know what they were doing. You have to press OK several times to get the contact and then press 3 more times to make a call. The flip phone he had would answer a call when opened. This phone will not. You have to press OK and sometimes twice. What moron would design a phone for seniors that did not answer calls when opened. Second issue is they are ripping off seniors. His previous carrier charged .38 for Federal USF fee and .21 for Regulatory Recover. Great call adds $2.36 for USF and $3.23 for Fed Regulatory Recovery. They pay the same federal fees as the other carriers. I have never seen a carrier charge more than $1 for both of these fees. Plain and simple, this company is not about helping seniors, it's all about getting as much money from seniors has they can legally. I might add, sometimes illegally also. The BBB site has hundreds of complaints where they misled seniors and charge their credit card hundreds of dollars for services they did not use.
Adnil
Feb 16,2021After thoroughly reading over the GreatCall website, I still had some questions and concerns. So I called their customer service. I was calling for an organization that was looking into buying at least 30 medical alert devices. I was straightforward with the customer service telling him I needed more information before bringing it to our board fro approval. Each question I asked he tried to push me to buy something. After only a few questions he says something like, "I have to go now, I have other people on the line waiting to purchase our devices." REALLY?!!! Is this is how you treat a potential customer who may bring you a lot of sales??? To say the least I am not impressed.
L.G.
Feb 03,2021Horrible product that won't hold a charge. Bad customer service and offer no help to get a replacement. Told them to cancel my account and they proceeded to charge me for 8 months saying they would send it to collections if I didn't pay.
Dody Kelley
Jan 27,2021I do not recommend Great Calls. The price and connectivity are ok, but the service people I've dealt with were rushed, impatient, and one even hung up on me. As for the Jitterbug phone, they say it's easier for seniors, but I'm not that old yet and I found it a nightmare. 1. To make a call, you have to a) hit the button to light the screen, b) scroll up, c) hit 'phone,' d) then hit 'contacts,' e) then hit the phone number that pops up, f) then hit 'place phone call'...in other words, YOU HAVE TO PUSH THE BUTTONS/SCREEN 6 TIMES JUST TO MAKE A PHONE CALL. 2. The 'airplane mode' would kick in while I was in the middle of a call, which cut me off. This happened often. 3. My settings often changed without me doing it...volume control, photos, etc. I even found video compilations of my private photos in my 'Photo Album' that I did not make. Freaked me out. 4. If you accidentally bump the screen during a phone call, GOOD LUCK getting back to the call screen...it's almost impossible. 5. If you go over your call limit, you do not get a notification, you just pay more money; other phone services I have used (and now have returned to) notify you before you go over. The phone itself is a nice size and weight, and I realize some of the problems might be unique to me, but I DO NOT recommend the Jitterbug or Great Calls.
G. Gambino
Jan 26,2021Great Call's jitterbug 2 is the only cell phone that I was able to learn and understanding how to operate quite easily. the videos, cards, manuals, etc. all tie in together with little confusion from one product aid to another.
Unknown Not sure
Jan 07,2021Customer Service is professional and courteous. However, they claim they solved your problem and it never gets fix'd. They lie to you about pricing. Fees is absorbent. The plans are set up to where an older person can get into trouble. The lively phone never worked. They replaced with a JitterBug and finally got working after 2 days. Then the bill was extremely high with fees not telling what they were. The speaker on it is terrible!!!! They should be investigated for marketing to older people with their lives in their hand. The crap doesn't work now!!! Years back the jitterbug was a great product!! But it isn't now. Also, they trick you with the activation fee too when buying the package. You can't talk to tech support. They are just terrible and you can tell they don't care about the struggling you are doing trying to help your elderly parent. Mr Walsh should be a shame of supporting this. Also, Best Buy is a fool for buying you! Lively should be called Deadly. Buyer beware!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Norah Mahon
Jan 07,2021The Greatcall products seem good quality. The customer service has been courteous and professional. I originally bought the Jitterbug Smartphone for my 80 yr old father. He found it too complicated ( never had a smartphone prior) so I got him the Lively flip. Unfortunately, I transferred his existing cell number, one he's had for about 15 yrs but once transferred, he started receiving relentless spam calls and texts. I was told by Greatcall that they do not sell their customers info but find that hard to believe when some spam calls coming into his number were addressed to me. I set the account up for him and pay the bill. He became so disgusted with all the spam that he turned his phone off and refused to use it. I just cancelled the service so now he will need to start over with a new cell number and service while I'm stuck with 2 new Greatcall devices! Do better to protect your senior clients!!
Carlotta Girouard
Jan 06,2021This company may offer good emergency services although we never used them. However I gave them one star because my mother had been moved out of the house (into my sisters home) unable to care for herself after my father’s death. Over 16 months we continued making payments because we forgot through the transition it was on automatic bill pay. My mother has been not using that service for over a year and a half. I was notified because our credit card had expired and it didn’t process. I called to explain we had forgotten to terminate the services and I was told even though we haven’t been using them the last year and a half, we still owed $40. I feel that is bad customer service. I would never use this company again.
Margaret Bond
Dec 31,2020My sister is a Great Call customer; she is elderly and lives alone. She lives on a fixed income that puts her below the poverty line. Recently, she got 2 months behind on her phone bill. She is proud and is not comfortable asking for help; she thought she could make up the arrearage once she received her Social Security check at the beginning of January. She tried to explain her situation to Great Call, however, they were having none of it. They cut off her phone service on Christmas Eve. Now she lives in the middle of the country most of her family lives on either coast. We were unable to contact her on Christmas, which, due to Covid, she spent alone. I understand that Great Call is a for profit entity and my sister should have not gotten behind on her phone bill. But cutting off one’s phone service on Christmas Eve certainly lacks compassion and borders on the punitive. As it was, the local police department did a wellness check and were able to convey that i’d deposited adequate funds for her to catch up her payments which she did immediately. Lesson learned: i’ll ensure she always has the money to pay her phone bill.
Vincent M.
Dec 27,2020If I could give Great Call a minus 5 star rating I would. We only had the service for 48 hours. My phone would send texts and the phones were SUPER cheap. We were assured that we would not receive a bill since we had cancelled and didn’t incur any charges. 2 months later I am still fighting with them over the final bill amount. Liars, poor phones and even worse customer service.
10945 Vista Sorrento Pkwy, Suite 120, 92130 , San Diego, US
https://www.lively.com
James Schrum
May 04,2021Phone was easy to hook up. Nice phone for visual impairment.