JPay Reviews

by Jpay User 2

I have been using the this app App for a few months now to communicate with my loved one and I find it very invasive. They want to track your location for every little thing. For example, you have to allow JPay to see your location just to view how many stamps you have left. I agree with the person who left the January 5th review stating that visually JPay needs major work. Most of the time I just use the this app website. There are times I have wanted to send just one picture to my loved one but this app requires you to write something in the email also just to get another stamp out of you. I do not like that every single picture cost a stamp so if you have multiples 10 stamps can be gone within just one day including a letter. I absolutely think they need to improve the type of pictures you can upload. Right now there are only 2 photo format types that the site/app accepts and if you don’t know how to convert a picture type then you are out of luck. The fees to send money are RIDICULOUS! I paid $8.00 just to send $50. I avoid using this app as much as possible because JPay needs major work and it is a money guzzler. You are better off sending your loved letters and pictures through the mail. At least when the this app site goes down they can still view their pictures and letters because as the other reviewer stated this app will not send the users ANY kind of communication when JPay has issues. Honestly I probably will be deleting JPay sooner than later.

by Dawgrit

No way I give this a 5 star, but I’m making up. So many people’s complaints are all do to the prison. “It took so long! Or they didn’t get it” The time and discretion is up to the prison staff! Sure this thing has bugs sometimes but so do most apps. And yes, crap on the charges, but they’re nothing compared to phone bills. And seriously, if you don’t like it, use a pen and paper. Run to the post office and buy stamps. Wait weeks...... No? I didn’t think so.

Update: Video visit is outdated. They will need to redo their whole method of video visit because Adobe flash is on the way out; “
ADOBE FLASH SUPPORT IS ENDING!
Google has announced that they will remove Flash completely from Chrome and Chrome OS by the end of 2020. The deprecation of Flash has been in the works for quite some time, and changes are happening now that will affect Flash use on district Chromebooks. For example, several months ago SWF video files stopped working on Chromebooks. Google has stated that this is the first kind of Flash that has been deprecated. Google will slowly deprecate Flash in the coming versions of Chrome OS and Chrome browser so we cannot expect everything to stay the same until December 2020.”

by Thermoblade

Just to quickly echo what a lot of the reviews are saying, JPay and the company that designed it are out to squeeze you for every nickel and dime you’ve got, and they don’t even bother to fix most of the bugs that plague JPay . I use it because unfortunately they have a monopoly on this business model and it’s now a necessary evil for most people who are using it. To add something new to the mix, I want to point out an “intentional” design feature that needs to be removed. When you’re writing an “email” message, and you want to stop while you’re in the middle of writing, the natural instinct, for me at least, was to swipe down from the top of the message window, thinking it would give me the option to save a draft. Unfortunately, no. The “save draft” option only comes up when you tap the “cancel” button at the top left, which is not intuitive at all. So, after writing a very long message that took me over an hour, I accidentally swiped down the message window and poof, >7000 characters gone in a instant with no warning message, and no way to recover it. I’ve never felt the kind of hate for an idiotic design feature as I do right now. In the context of sending important, often difficult messages to loved ones in correctional facility, there should not be a design feature that allows for easy, accidental deletion of your entire message.

by DekaylahJ88

JPay used to be super great until about two months ago I sent pictures and none inappropriate so I’m still wondering why I wasted five stamps and never got refunded for me loosing them or my loved one getting the pictures. So I let that go so just recently send an email and some pictures and yet again my loved one never received either. Then I tried to report the issue thru JPay but could not get the report to continue to report my issues. I just want this app to not have so many mistakes and steady have people spending unnecessary money on buying more stamps. And the fact I was never refunded any of the 8 stamps I lost. Money gone down the drain. Make it great again please this is once the greatest app to communicate w a loved one on. Now it’s like well he may get it or he may not. Can someone contact me about the 8 stamps I lost and how can resolve this issue. Also I can write a letter and attach an picture and it goes thru but thru JPay send pictures icon it used to work now it never sends anything and that’s more stamps sending as an attachment. Someone please help I work too hard for my money not to be spent the way it should. Also I mean I’m truly grateful for the video chats 30 seconds is just insane. How can we push for at least 60 seconds. That would be more reasonable. Please Help

by Latriciao

The last two months this app keeps not working at all I can’t sign in then when I get in it says I have no contacts but I do so because no contacts I can’t write my husband. Can’t read his emails I see 5 of them but can’t open. I’ve been trying for 4 hours to write him because of emergency and luckily he called me. Then I tried to call this app to let them know the problem and it says I can’t call at this time contact them in website but web site won’t load on 3 different devices one being library computer. So no way to tell them this app isn’t working. Then on good days some times it takes weeks to get a email other times a few minutes. When I say sometimes I mean every day at least one to two emails will take weeks to get. Why is it taking so long. And I’ve told this app many many many times about this problem and they say oh it’s not our fault it’s the prison or oh well fix it nope still the same they give you a BS answer to get you off the phone. How hard is it to make a app work. Facebook has millions and never has these problems. This isn’t a complicated app it shouldn’t have these problems. I still can’t use this app and it’s now been 5 hours what is going on?

by Rguytty

this app IS RIDICULOUS! this app was working fine when I first started using it but for the last month or so it haven’t been working! I don’t understand how you can speak to your loved one when JPay does not even work correctly! Messages come back days later after you thought your loved one just was ignoring you or something happen at the facility! Our messages being delivered 3times and taking 3stamps for the same 1 message you already said! I tried resetting my phone thinking it was my device, I tried reinstalling JPay nothing change, I tried to update JPay thats not even a option! I just don’t understand this it feel like it’s a scam because it’s not doing anything but taking customer’s money for stamps and people are barely getting in contact with they loved ones! It’s very upsetting because why you guys taking people money if JPay is not working correctly! I rather write the facility & get in contact that way! It’s cheaper in better least you know your loved one will receive his stuff! Then you guys customer service are very poorly! Never can get in contact with you guys! You have to email josh but never get a email back! This is very inconvenient for a customer!

by Brokeebroke

JPay always crash and have errors. I always have to go online just to see how many stamps I have. I have to keep deleting JPay and down loading it to open incoming mail. Pictures can’t upload. Videos take too many stamps just for a 30 second video. JPay will take all your money. I think I’ll stick to just using your normal postal service. I appreciate the this app sending money portion. When JPay works, sending emails is good but that’s just the thing, JPay always have issues. Maybe it would be nice if the videos could be 1 minute. So we can get our money worth. Since they say this is to reconnect families . Is it really? Or is it to monopolize off of these inmates and their families. Yes they are prisoners and them getting videos are a privilege but now your punishing the family members because you gave them this new shiny toy and they expect their family members to help them be able to use it. So now that’s another expense for us already drained family members. It was better when the prison system used to allow them to have pictures and magazines and newspapers. I always wondered why that stopped. But I guess that’s just one more thing we have to figure out like them visitor bathrooms having no soap, paper towels and sometimes no toilet paper. I’m just saying

by PC2018

When I first started using this app, JPay was awesome! As long as my emails were sent by 9:30 a.m they were received by 4:00 p.m that same day, if not, they were received the next day! Now with all the updates, and updates to the kiosk, i have emails and pictures that were sent on 10/8, 10/11, and 10/15 that have still not been received!!! I’ve contacted this app, who states they sent them, I’ve contacted the Correctional Center who states they have 5 business dates to get them in and out. I contacted Constituent Services because it’s clearly been way longer than that. I again contacted the mail room manager who stated they received stuff from this app that was 2 weeks old, and that they had also gone through and manually released a bunch of photos and letters, because they were marked censored in error, and yet still, they only had one of those 3 pictures. I was told that due to the new system, it ultimately convenient, but ALOT slower, and that if I wished for my fiancé to receive pictures/letters, that I should probably send everything snail mail, because ultimately, it’s cheaper in the long run, because they actually receive their mail, and in a timely fashion. Glad we only have a few months left of this!

by Micmymia

I am reporting this company to the Better Business Bureau. I never done this, but this company left me no choice. Along with the others complaints, I share the same issues with this app app. It’s going to be a month since my husband sent me a videogram, I have yet to receive. I’ve reached out to the customer service through JPay ,instead of looking into the matter, they provided me with an email and a customer service phone number to resolve my issue. After sending two emails and speaking to customer service my problem has yet to be resolve. What’s more disturbing than this, the employees who were handling my issue were not aware of the features offered through the this app app. The employees I spoke with didn’t know anything about the videogram. This is ridiculous. This company is not holding up to what they advertise. It pains me to be going through such issue, my children and I look forward to communicating with my husband through JPay and with the ongoing issues has it really affected my children. It saddens me to have to tell them no I haven’t received anything from their father. Shame on you for misleading people with your false advertisement and poor customer support, no one should have to go through such thing.

by ARABRABARDEN0822

I am really very unhappy with this application, I uninstalled it more than 3 times and reinstalled and still it asks me to update JPay because it is not working well, and when I enter my App Store it does not ask me for an update, now that I do it now that for me it is urgent to use this application

The worst application I have seen in my whole life and I still use it for my brother but it is very unpleasant to be spending money on an application that steals your money messages arrive when they feel like it sometimes they do not arrive and still charge them Right now the application demands that I have to update for the new version and my phone is an iPhone XR and is not giving me the option to update now I ask the developer of this application How the heck will I be able to update the application then
It is a painful application, one uses it because you need to communicate with the family member, 10 messages arrive 4 so repeat the same words you call them and the operators do not know what explanation to give you, in my case I have been trying to talk with the user for a month supervisor, the man seems to not like his job very much because if he is not in a meeting, he had to leave, it seems to me a robbery and a huge disrespect

by 4Peace:)

This service is down constantly. There are constant service interruptions that they freely admit in emails they send saying they’ve corrected problems. The service is so bad that you can’t tell the difference between when there are problems and when there aren’t. This company has near non-existent customer service, the phone rings into oblivion and no one answers. After approximately 10 minutes of the phone ringing, someone has answered twice. Both times I was told they could not fix my issue. If this company wasn’t serving people society considers to be throw-always, this business would not exist due to their poor infrastructure and technological inability to keep up with the services they offer up to the public. They refuse to put money into the service in order to improve reliability. They know no one is going to hold them accountable due to the population they serve so they provide trash service, just enough to keep lawsuits from being filed for complete lack of service. They were already sued for unfair practices regarding switching out tablets and lost. They will take advantage every single time and every single place they can get away with it. This company is unreliable, unethical, and just plain unscrupulous.

by CodeNiyy

I have been using this app for years now! Although I appreciate being able to stay in touch with my loved ones. I DONT appreciate how many bugs and errors I have ran into! Since this app is the ONLY way we can message and send pictures quickly its very frustrating that there is always a problem. I have been trying to send pictures for at least 2-3 months now and have been getting nothing but error after error. Even most of my messages haven’t been getting through. Then I call customer service only to hear “They are working on it” or “You just have to keep trying until it works”. It’s understandable that things are not perfect but at the same time it seems like nothing is being done to fix the problem. It’s infuriating that JPay basically does not work. Especially after a so called “Update”! With this app being the only app the prisons pair with for communication it is unaccounted to be down for so long. PLEASE DO BETTER!!! Not being able to visit in person because of the Covid situation makes this app all the more of a necessity!

by Half And Half Jpay User

So JPay is very convenient for staying in touch with my loved one who is incarcerated and I’m grateful for that opportunity to easier communicate with them but the recent update seems like it has taken a couple steps back from when I previously had it downloaded on my old phone. My software is updated to the latest Apple 13.0 version and I have gotten a new phone and since downloading half of JPay doesn’t work or display what it use too, I’m wasting stamps trying to send pictures more than once and have yet to be successful with getting them delivered to my loved one via JPay , on top of that the option to add more stamps and a card doesn’t pop up on my application anymore either. I’ve wasted a good amount of stamps sending almost empty emails because the attached files don’t stick when sending even though they pop up when I first am composing the email. It’s just frustrating since I’m on my last stamps and haven’t yet figured out how to get everything to pop back up like it did on my old phone, should I delete JPay and try downloading again? As much as it’s not working I’d hate to get rid of it because the actual email part works well enough to keep in touch with them.

by Maree0208

I started using this app the beginning of this year and everyday there is a new issue, I get error messages saying the snap and sends did not actually send so I send again meanwhile the first one sent and it eats another stamp. Most days lately an email takes 2 hours to show up in my outbox. The kiosk at my husband’s facility is down at least 3-4 times a week. It’s either frozen or logs him out while typing an email which causes him to have to log in again just to type it and he is only allowed 5 log ins a day. I was excited to hear I could communicate with him via JPay and emails but the postal service has been far more reliable. The entire month of March I could not send a videogram I reported it several times and even sent emails with no response because despite the video not sending JPay ate my 4 stamps. Luckily my husband will be home in a few short months but JPay needs some serious work. I really hope JPay and kiosk issues are fixed soon, this is already a stressful time for families and wives of incarcerated individuals and no more added stress is necessary.

by Ivyleas

There have been many times I have started out writing my letter and either a phone call or someone at the door? But when I come back to it to finish, what I had already typed was cleared or erased to leave me to start over! Very frustrating! When I used to attach a picture when the inmate received it, the picture was so small it was hard to tell! A big waste of double stamps. I recently had the problem of my friend received multiple copies of the same letter Snd yes they took my stamps every time they recent the same email. These emails were 3 & 4 stamps every time!
Now I know this app makes good money already from us with the charges they already have set into place! But for them todo this and you know someone somewhere knows when duplicates are sent out to the same person? I seriously question the integrity of their whole business operation! I’m just one that had issues with them . You can bet there are a lot more! Good luck trying to contact for complaint! Very disappointed, I don’t have money to waist like that!

by Niknak523

I am truly grateful for JPay & it makes it easier to keep in touch & send sentiments to my husband that he can always look to until he can come back home. BUUUUUUTTTTTT... There is a flaw in JPay that DRIVES ME MAD!!! I'm sure I'm not the only one who tends to proofread their email before sending... And when doing so, there have been umpteen times when I've been swiping my screen to scroll back to the top & then all of the sudden the WHOLE email swipes completely of the bottom of the screen & DISAPPEARS!!! WWWWWWTTTTTTFFFFFFF!!! Isn't saved to a draft nor is the option given to do so. IT'S JUST GONE GONE GONE!! Which INFURIATES me after I've been writing for 30 minutes or more. Yes, I could stop & copy & save everything every so often... But I really shouldn't have to do that. That shouldn't happen. PLEASE FIX THIS!!! There have been multiple times this has happened & I've had to walk away bc I'm so frustrated. And then I don't send my message. Other than THAT... I don't think it's a bad app. I wouldn't rate it 5 stars bc it's not anywhere near perfect but if you fix this extremely aggravating issue... I could probably bump it to a 4 star.

by Imperfectly Perfect

JPay has great potential being one if not JPay that offers real time communication and media sharing with friends and family that are away. Recently I have experienced on several occasion where I never received an email, and my loved one never received my email or picture. The first time it happened I resent the email. The email and pictures cost a stamp each and so I used 2-4 stamps to resend the same picture and email and so my account was deducted twice and my loved one only received the email and picture once. This is sad because a lot of people rely on this form of communication with those loved ones. JPay is outdated. Doesn’t have a modern feel, I would like the look to be better and more inviting and not like a 3 grader created it. (No offense) The technical issues with the servers crashing should be dealt with in a timely manner and all stamps and emails affected during that crash should be reimbursed to the accounts. When there is a serve crash or overload an courtesy email would be nice so we won’t be wondering what is going on with emails not being received. I do appreciate the availability of JPay and convenience of it but it could be a better more integrated app. I hope the developers can adjust, improve and fix those issues quickly. Sincerely a concerned patron and customer.

by SSM,MI.

I am giving JPay a 3 star only because I am unsure at this time. I downloaded JPay so I am able to email back and forth with very close family friend. Also my oldest son was talking about this app today, that he needed to get it all taken care of to also have communication with our friend. So I downloaded JPay to give my son a heads up and what he would need to do. After downloading, I decided to read all of the reviews. Out of maybe 25 that I read, which were most recent, I only seen 2 maybe that gave a 4 or 5 star saying only a couple words about JPay . All of the others are very disappointing to read. So now I don't know if I actually want to go thru all of the trouble. And am going to let my son know not to bother right now. This was supposed to be this amazing new technology way of communicating with our loved ones and helping with money in a much easier and quicker way. And what is really sad is that our loved ones, reguardless of their reason being there do not have much to look forward to. Day after day is the exact same routine most of the time. What they can look forward to is contact with family and friends. So for now, sadly, I will not open JPay and add a profile.

by Dinkyglo

Iam total good with this app it has always worked for me and when needed work it has always been communicated to me the finish product, now this is the first time I have experienced this type of problem when I try and login to my this app acct. through my icon it’s spends brings up the login in page and vanish , I haven’t been able to work it for several months , I thought it was because I didn’t have any stamps on my acct, which the day I tried to add some it said ERROR AND WOULDNT LET ME PUT ANY ON. I thought it just need to be adjusted by your developers , so I went in through the search and brought the service up and added some stamps, I received a email message saying it had been fixed and I could now use the acct logo , I also changed the password as instructed, and I thought all wa# well , only to be experience the same problem the only fix is it stays on a lil longer than vanish , please help me I am frustrated beyond knowing nothing to do . Thank you in advance, as I know you will take care of what ever the problem is.

by LoyalToYeiYei

At times JPay works great and the. At times it doesn’t. There’s times when Joay including 2 days ago I sent a message and my loved one responded but I haven’t received the message back and I wasn’t notified or anything I don’t understand why do they keep a communication with the state facility especially when a lot of people put a lot of money on the books some messages get send out too last some don’t make sense my communication of my fiancé is something I keep including when he writes his daughter and his daughter waits for days when it says up to 48 hours which is 2 days it’s been 4 for me and I still haven’t received the messages. Come on some of us pay money with y’all to keep things updated like what’s going on this week are y’all working or y’all out due to corona virus the other day I waited 5 hours to see if I would talk to someone it’s ridiculous and right now I been on hold almost a hour really

by MPL78

Update: They just put out another update and now my app won’t work at all!! It says I need to update but I did and now it says JPay is no longer supported. I go to JPay Store and it just says “open”. Ridiculous.

Updated review: So they put out an update and for 2 days I started getting notifications again. But now they’re randomly deleting messages from my inbox and outbox. Msgs takes hours to even show up in my outbox as sent and their site says 15 minutes!! I’m done spending money on JPay!! With all the profit this company makes off of families you would think they would spend some of it on making decent products that work. Even their tablets are garbage, my bf has his for less than a year and it’s useless. Buttons break, won’t sync, etc. this app is a SCAM using predatory business practices to profit from families. Let’s not forget the prisons get a kickback for doing business with them.

After the latest update I can’t even log into JPay anymore “unable to complete the request at this time” ...I’ve deleted and reinstalled multiple times.

by QAElena

I don't really write reviews on any app but JPay is really getting on my nerves because I have been using JPay for almost a year now and I try to communicate with my fiancé every single day outside the 15 minute calls that we are allowed to but for the past 2 month it feels that who ever gets profit from JPay they just money hungry we do not receive our massages or videos that we send each other or we write to each other in the morning and get the massage late at night and lets not talk about the video calls we are not able to make no video call for 6 months because the kiosk is broken so they are not able to hear nothing we say and on this side either and if we write to technical support they do not reply back or they never fix the issues and we just end up loosing stamps and never get the massages is really so inconvenient because we are so apart Im in Texas and his all the way to Georgia and all we doing is spending money on something that is supposed to help our love once to communicate with us and their is issues SMH!!!!😡😡

by JustinsGirl84

I’ve been using JPay for over 2 years now. The last couple of updates has really ruined things such as the length of time we get our emails. It used to be within 20 minutes now it’s up to 12 hours or more. Also since the newest update I quit getting notifications sent to my
Phone. Honestly though, prior to that notifications would be delayed anyway. So in order for me to even see if I have an email I have to go into JPay and check it. As much money I’ve spent just on this app alone in the last 2 years, it would be nice to have an app that works... the emails sent in a timely manner - which was never a problem until about October/November.

Also, reading at past reviews I noticed that a lot of people had issues with their loved ones players not working properly after an update. The same thing happened to my boyfriend and this app refused to fix the issue so we ended up buying another one. It’s just a money game. As much money people spend on this app related things it would be great to utilize that money on making sure your crap works properly.

by Marmielady

I agree with those who have already conveyed their annoyance with the keyboard/counter blocking what you’ve typed, etc. That is SOOO FRUSTRATING to have to jump through all these hoops. And I spent an entire afternoon simply trying to update my credit card expiration date so I could purchase more stamps.
Once I was FINALLY able to accomplish both, (but only after being forced to “update” (change) my email address. It’s a good thing I already had a backup email account). Eventually everything appeared to be in order and my account on both my iphone and ipad were synced with the correct information. However, later that evening I attempted to go back to using the mobile app, I get a message on both devices say “Unable to complete the request at this time.”.
I checked my device settings; tried closing the apps and turning my devices off and back on, etc.
And since someone already said they tried to delete and re-download JPay , I guess I won’t even bother. I don’t know what to do at this point, but I would be happy to give a higher rating once these issues are resolved.

by Bigbootygraaaas

I used to really love JPay because of how convenient it is, being able to just write my loved ones on my phone, send pics, videos and send money..but now? I have no idea what happened. It’s like it’s been updated to be dysfunctional! I no longer get notifications when I get emails, I used to get emails sent to my personal email to let me know I have an email and I don’t get those either. I have to physically go to JPay just to know if I have an email. I’ve had emails sent to my personal email saying my photos were rejected, so I sent different photos only for my loved one to tell me that he in fact did receive the ones that were said to be rejected! It takes way longer to receive their emails than it used to and also vice versa. The word count is stupid, the least it can do is tell you how much you have to write before it means that you’re going to need another stamp! Who ever is in charge clearly doesn’t know what it feels like to be close to someone that’s incarcerated.

by EJ's Boy

I have experienced the same issues most people write about. I recognize that prison staff are frequently responsible for delaying email delivery. But the functionality of JPay is a different matter. All apps need occasional updates. However JPay is full of small bugs. Nevertheless it is functional and it’s our only choice. I have just had to delete JPay and download it again. This makes the third time in as many months. It freezes and cannot connect. After the re-install it will work fine for awhile. When my phone goes to “dark mode “ JPay does not adjust like other apps and I am unable to see the reply I send so I have to go to settings and manually go back to “light mode “ temporarily. I have brought this to this app’s attention already but as many of you know, this app doesn’t respond to such complaints and instead just promises to look into them. But other than these irritations, it seems to work fairly well. Too bad our prisons don’t also.

by Geno2go

Just recently, to view the balance of stamps I have, I am now required to turn on my location service. I do not understand why this request is necessary. Also before the above new process I use to see the balance of stamps before I confirmed sending an email. Not anymore. Another family member has JPay and is not required to turn on location service before viewing a stamp balance.
I no longer receive a notification of a jay-pay email in a timely manner. As example, my nephew sent an email at 11:20pm last night. My notification was received at 6:00 am this morning.
I deleted my app to reset maybe, re- added the app and lost data in my old app such as all emails and my stamp balance since I was not able to enter my same password. I had to create a new password. Most other apps I have deleted and re-added still had my information.
Before deleting JPay I tried to change to another email since I suspected the untimely email notifications were due to them. I received the message that jay pay had my second email.
I’m not sure when this happened. I need to know how to correct this.
Before my credit card expired and I forgot to change the new expiration date I had no problems with JPay and would have rated it 5 stars. I was not able to change my new expiration date until I made another purchase. That was the start of my problems and now I will rate JPay a 3.

by Ashleydapineapple

i want to give JPay more stars because when it comes down to it, it’s great. i get messages for through preview and all before going to the inmate so it may take awhile and that’s not where my headache comes. my headache comes from this is an amazing way to keep in contact. it’s cheap and fast. BUT i seem to run into issues a lot with not being able to login for a day or so. this time is different, i’ll admit my heart stops a little when i see myself logged off, but usually i’ll just go to the website and read/send my email. i’m not sure what’s going on right now but it’s been days without me being able to login, the website itself seems to be down. yet i keep getting notifications for having unread emails. so what’s going on? is this problem going to be fixed? this could easily be a 4/5 star review but i feel there shouldn’t be constant issues of crashing.