GettingOut 17+

It is Mother’s Day and I somehow ran out of money to respond in full to my son. I tried to put money on my text account (it is 0.25 per text) but I kept getting error after error and was unable to finish texting my son. I then noticed there is another inmate’s name under MY contacts. It is a name I had never heard of and it absolutely should NOT be under MY contacts. The good news is that person is “Released”, but did they help me get my funds down so low? How did they get on my account? Then, desperate to finish texts with my son, I call the phone number from the app. WHAT A FREAKING NIGHTMARE!!! “Enter the amount” Me: 10 That will be $4 something on your card. If incorrect, press 1. I did this multiple times. Twice the phone cut me off mid transaction. I don’t know why 10 kept registering as 1 dollar so I entered 1000 and that was read as “one thousand” so I said no to that. I finally got it to do my last amount as a last resort, and just before I could enter my card, the call dropped. Half the calls had terrible reception with nearly impossible to hear or decipher speech. Some had crackling paper sound. The app AND the phone support really let me down when I needed it on this holiday.

UPDATE: An hour later and still having issues. Phone tree asks if I want to use last amount deposited of $20, if so, press 1. I press 1. It then tells me I chose 1 dollar. I hate this app

The process went pretty smoothly for me. Bugs must have been fixed since that May review. At least for messaging. There was one hiccup during set up when an error occurred and it said they would send me an email to confirm my email. It took awhile to get the email. It said there were duplicate accounts. I think because my brother without realizing it had created an account for me. Anyway got cleared up in about 30 minutes. I love that there is an app. I started out on the website. I love being able to message my brother as if I was texting him. For us and maybe others it was not instant of course messages have to be approved. At one point I stepped away for about 30 minutes and when I came back my messages were approved. My brother was able to let me know an issue he was having with iheart radio and I got to fix it that night! Normally he’d be trying to reach me by phone for days! At least for me I cannot send pictures electronically. I guess you could in the past or maybe other prisons can. I went to the app and the app said they would print my pictures and mail them and it was about $8 for two pictures. For messaging also there is a limit on length but it’s pretty long. But my first time I went one character over and it was deleted. But again overall I am very happy with this!!

I would give 0 stars, but if I didn’t have this, I would have nothing. The only portion of this I have any success with is the messaging. Calls are a nightmare. If they are in a facility with Covid lockdown, there is no video and they need earbuds to hear at all. I guess there is no funding so they share the headphones. He never seems to get them, even if I ask ahead of the call. Making the calls are super sketchy and take forever to load, if they load at all. I constantly have to refresh to get the call to re-up. I have been charged for multiple calls where he and I tried to connect and he could not hear me. If the time is ticking you get charged no matter the ability or lack of talking to them. Putting funds on the system is a whole other thing. The app crashes constantly and putting money on accounts takes just as much work as everything else. My first day with this, I spent a total of twelve hours between struggling with the app, calling the getting out help center twice, calling the jail multiple times, and trying to get connected on a call. I thought I would have a stroke by the time the day was over. I know it is not just me, because my daughter has yet to get her account activated with money accepted, and she is pretty tech savvy. It has left me even more depressed than I was to begin with, to think this is all I have. Get it together! This should be a class action law suit for the amount of money you get and don’t refund for NOTHING!