GettingOut Reviews

I love GettingOut. It does have its problems like it crashes a lot and it’s slow sometimes and it refreshes back to the beginning when I try to login and add money to an account. But with all that being said I am very grateful that an app like this exists. Yes like I said it has a lot of problems but this and the video app are a great way for me to keep up with my friend in jail in another state. I do have some suggestions though. I would love it if you guys would add a feature that would notify us when we have a new message from the person or people we message. Because it could be an urgent message that has a time limit and we miss it because we have to constantly keep checking back on GettingOut to see if we have a new message. Also a feature if you could that shows when they have read our messages that way we know that they are getting them. Not everyone gets messages from the other side. We don’t always get messages from the person on the inside and it would just be nice to know they read the messages. Kind of like you have them pending and approved maybe you can make it to where the inmate can mark the message as read when they read it. The messages are cheap and affordable and other then those few things like I said I love the system. Thank you for creating GettingOut.

GettingOut by far is the worst I’ve ever used. Customer service IF you’re able to ever reach anyone are rude, interrupt and pay no attention to what you hav to say. They do not note the account when I call. I know this to be true given the fact that I call multiple times and they have no information on the details of my prior calls to them. I have sent them my ID and photo verification multiple times to get my last name updated. They change it and then the next time I go online it’s back to the maiden name. GettingOut itself for four days now just loads and loads. I cannot send a message or receive one on GettingOut . When I tried to send messages through their website the funds we’re deducted from my account but did not show on the website. I spent a half of a day on the phone with several people who had no idea what was going on and merely stated possibly service is out in your area. They are contracted to do a service. Provide this service to inmates and their loved ones. It’s quite clear the company and it’s employees have never had to be in a situation like this. Any one of us on the other side of that gate would ensure to the best of their ability that loved ones could communicate utilizing the services that the company claims to offer.

Look I don’t give reviews, I never have, but GettingOut has compelled me to write one! GettingOut allows us to see loved ones faces over the phone while incarcerated, something that used to not be available! You’d think an app as revolutionary as this and as widely used as the Getting Out app would be efficient! Unfortunately there is always an issue with GettingOut - from crashes, to failed video calls, to GettingOut hanging up on your call, not being able to deposit money, or every once in a while when GettingOut randomly loses all of your conversations and contacts! It is so frustrating. Today for instance I tried to video call a friend, the video started and his face came on screen, we talked for 2 minutes, then the call hung up and a message popped up reading “Sorry, there was an issue with your visit. Video failed to start”. GettingOut did this for three more video calls, each time. As much money as I put into GettingOut so I’m able talk to the person I love, it’s really unfortunate how inefficient and problematic GettingOut is. It’s almost like, yeah we’ll accept your money and in exchange you may or may not be able to use our app. 👎🏽

GettingOut is "ok" because it serves its purpose, but there are a few issues that really need to be fixed. One of the most important issues is..... I've been trying to make a deposit for 2 days now so I can message my son, and I keep getting the loading circle or it says an error has occurred. Next, there should be a "delete inmate" option for removing an inmate from your account. Not ONLY a blocking option. The option to put your message in a draft when there aren't enough funds to cover the message for insufficient funds. There should be a "message deposit" icon for depositing funds to the users account. The last couple ideas are merely suggestions to make life easier when dealing with the getting out app, but the first suggestion should be made priority! I am trying to send a very important message to my son and I can't because GettingOut isn't working.... and won't allow me to add funds for writing out!
PLLLEASE fix.... other than Whats stated, I've not had any issues and appreciate GettingOut abs developers!
Thank you

GettingOut is always crashing and it doesn’t save messages so when you write out your message & it crashes, you loose everything and have to rewrite. I’m constantly having to copy before I send just to make sure I don’t loose my writing. I do have to say that I like the new interface, but I don’t like that you can’t see how many characters you have written anymore. Now I don’t know how many words I have left that I can type until it just stops writing...

There are minor positive changes such that you can copy the messages now, and your messaging,deposite, and video buttons are right at hand. But... Getting Out needs to make video calls available for iPhone seeing as it’s one of the largest carriers out there. I have to use a computer anytime I want to video chat and that makes it difficult because I have to be near a computer with internet to do that.

Baby steps, but you still have A LOT to work on GTL. Hoping you will listen to the feedback from your customers. 👍🏼

Been using GettingOut for a few weeks now. And I’m so glad something like this exists. I get to see my loved one whenever I want, so long as GettingOut doesn’t crash. Which it does :/ a lot. Wouldn’t be such a big deal but it’s uber expensive and sometimes charges you for the crash.
I mean for one month (with no crashes hypothetically) you need at least 200 on the inmates end and 300 on your end. That’s not even being lavish with the visits or texts. I actually just started my third job in hopes of keeping it up. I know everyone needs to make money, it just seems awfully excessive. Ya know? The 25 cents per text and minute of vidchat. And then the service charges. Kind of like being punished hardcore for wanting to talk to your loved one 😅 I mean I’m gonna do it and hope for the best. I just hope y’all might come around and make it a little more affordable. Got me quitting soda and stuff to save money. Thank you if you took the time to read haha I dunno 🤷‍♀️

GettingOut doesn’t even support video calls on iPhone. I downloaded GettingOut (both of them) and despite opening up in application form, it constantly says my browser is not supported, then directs me to download Google Chrome. Then I try to download Chrome from the location they are asking and the link does absolutely nothing. So I download Chrome application thinking it’ll somehow detect it on my phone and route it through GettingOut . Still nothing! When I go to test my video connection on the actual Getting Out website (not GettingOut ), it constantly gives me errors and I can’t see myself on video! This application and service is useless and I can’t believe they actually charge money for this! Especially when visits used to be free! If schools, hospitals, and every other service out there can create free video calls with there students, clients, and patients, then these people should be able to do the same! Someone is getting rich off of the prison visitation industry, and to make matters worse, it doesn’t even work!

GettingOut and the company behind it are the worst. As a application developer myself I can tell this was written very poorly. The navigation is poor, you often have to use browser back button to go to a page because GettingOut or website doesn’t have have links to go back to certain places. The server that hosts the website and app crashes all the time throwing 500 errors. Basically, GettingOut was designed poorly, the infrastructure for the website and app cannot handle the load and we have no choice because this is what the prison decided they would partner with. Their customer service is also terrible. They just try and get off the phone with you as soon as possible. I couldn’t change my primary number and had to call in. The website had already marked my number as the primary but I guess it was not really set as my primary. This prevented me from doing anything because the money I had added was tied to my number (marked primary) and not the other number. The company probably does not care to improve anything as we have no choice on providers.

The only problems we had with it. Is when I was first getting my laptop which is new. I could see him he could see me but we could not hear each other. I finally got my laptop audio to work. But they charged us for the full call. When we Close the call within a minute and a half because we knew it wasn't gonna work they did not refund him so he's out at least $12 which is an a lot but it is while you're incarcerated however I do love being able to just text him when I want I haven't had a problem with him not getting my text and I always get mine. Some days it buffers allot. All in all I love the fact that I can see his face every day. I'm sure Telmate will work out the kinks. It's a new program. Not sure why people always have to leave horrible comments. Thank you telmate for making today technology work. Doing time is hard. And this does make it a little easier.

The good: you’re able to communicate via text with your loved ones. It’s nice to be able to do that!! If you can get it to work for you. So much more convenient than sending snail mail, in theory it’s a great service.

The bad: don’t try to send pictures because it will take your money but the majority of photos get denied. Innocent neck up selfie? Denied. Child’s cute smiling face? Denied. Picture of a rock? MAYBE approved if you’re lucky.
It’s extremely costly. Sure, 25 cents a message doesn’t sound like it will break the bank but when you’re depositing on your end and their end it adds up fast! Not to mention the fees they take just for making a deposit, you can eat through 50 bucks a week easily. I feel terrible for inmates and family’s that have minimal funds, this is a very unsustainable way to communicate. GettingOut lets you type 1500 characters but realistically you can only type about 700 because the “send” button moves up with the message and if it goes out of view, you are not able to scroll up to click it. This is an easy problem to fix on their end and I believe they deliberately don’t fix the issue because it makes them more money if people have to break their message into two parts.

Bottom line: download and use as a last resort, don’t rely on GettingOut for communication. I know it sounds great but it’s costly and buggy.

Just as the title says, when it works, it’s fine. Unfortunately there’s always something not working. I haven’t been able to view or send messages for over a week now if i use GettingOut . I have to log into the website in order to send messages because GettingOut won’t let me. Also, I haven’t been able to add money to the contacts account forever. No clue what happened. I only have the option to put funds on my side to be able to send messages, but they need funds on their side to be able to reply. The money issue doesn’t bother me as much as the messaging issue. I’m not the only one who can’t send messages because I’ve check with others who use GettingOut .

this app is a wonderful way to stay in contact with your friends and loved ones while they are serving time. Both myself and those I care about on the other side are very grateful that this is an option.

That being said, GettingOut is horrible. It is very glitchy and difficult when trying to view the balance that you have - and you cannot see the balance of the inmates you are talking to from GettingOut , however it is coincidentally very easy to add money to both.

A message can not be more than 500 characters, however roughly 1/3rd of your messages will have the majority of the content deleted, leaving half of the first sentence and the last sentence to be sent.

I would also love it if you could easily access photo albums and other services offered by this app online. Their mobile website is plagued by very similar problems as their app, meaning that it is virtually unusable - but if you want to contact an inmate you don't have any other option.

It is hard not to look at this company as anything other than predatory. They will take your money with ease, and then refuse to fix their service because they know that we have no other option!

Overall I'm grateful for this service - but it appears that this app takes advantage of the fact that people desperate for communication will continue to pour money into their bank accounts regardless of the quality of their service.

Only giving this place a 1 rating because I can’t give them a 0! Setting up an account online was a hassle and was not able to log into them from the website or GettingOut , I could only log in from an email from them. Funds were deposited and I had a few messages that were sent back and forth without all of the content and pictures were also not sent. I also tried to get a refund of my finds when the inmate was released as they will only refund you on a calling card if your balance is under $50 AND you can’t get YOUR money refunded from an inmates account unless you have their booking number or pin which makes no sense as they can find the inmates not problem on the site or even when I was on multiple calls that exceeded the time they told you you would be on hold and also being hung up on after being on hold 15 min another time. This is a complete waste of time and money and it’s sad when all people want to do it talk to their loved ones.

In the last week I spent over $200 in order to talk to my significant other. The majority of the time I cannot see what he is texting me because it says that it is having issues and to try again later. During video chat it ends and says that it was having trouble starting the video chat while I was visiting my significant other. I’ve called customer service and tech-support and they just say it’s a glitch. I’m sick and tired of you guys blaming it on a glitch when you have a lot that needs to be done with these apps. I spend lots of money in order to talk to my other half and you guys are making it extremely difficult in order to do so. I highly suggest you take care of the issue before you lose me as a customer. I am quite frankly really tired of tech-support blaming it it was a glitch when we all know it’s not. Do your job and fix GettingOut before you lose me as a customer

First off my loved one was not found on GettingOut but was found when I called. I have been charged and yet the deposit has not gone through and when I call customer service there is no way of speaking to a human, only automated messages. I have emailed twice and heard nothing back!
Updated:
I called the number on this app’s website which clearly states “to make a complaint call” I called and the customer service rep was beyond aggressive and rude. He immediately told me to call the number I had already tried that led to an endless loop of automated prompts that have no option to speak with someone. His yelling was honestly the worst I’ve ever experienced with customer service, obviously Telmate and Touchpay know we who use these services are in a desperate situation to speak with our loved one and they don’t care if it works for us. At this point I have paid and the money has still not reached my loved ones account.

I think you should be able to send messages with pictures for #1 and for #2 it should go back to how it used to be instead of when the inmates call per minute now it should be per phone call like before. It was so much cheaper when they used to call it was only $2.00 to $5.00 per phone call for 20 minutes now it’s insane for what you charge us to talk to our loved ones!! On top of the fact they don’t get 1 free message a day but 2 min free of kiosk time. Which means they can’t even see the pictures we post for them to see. Which is even more speedy for us. An we have to pay to post pics an sometimes even when they’re appropriate they get denied!! Messages each way are speedy! Shoot something has to give especially with the covid right now an so many people out of work. Free reply’s for inmates? Free phone calls on certain days home besides a 1 minute phone call?

GettingOut has worked pretty well in helping me and my loved one stay connected. There are a couple things that could really use some improvement though, mainly focused on notifications. There is NO notification tone or missed notification badge to go with GettingOut so unless I am literally staring at my phone or open GettingOut every time I pick up my phone I wouldn’t be aware if I have received a message. Also the time stamps for messages sent and received are way off...not sure if it has something to do with how the messages are sent through the system but there should be a way to adjust these to the time zone you are in. I think once those important are made this would be a 5 star app for me.

My daughters father is in a facility that switched over to using this while he was there they refuse to transfer credits so all the money on the original account was wasted. In addition GettingOut is not at all user friendly and I’ve gotten at least 5 errors since setting it up yesterday. It won’t let you send pics most of the time it’ll just come up with an error. The only thing worse than GettingOut is the customer service. I spoke to 2 people the first had a thick accent and kept telling me I didn’t understand that I had deposited money in the wrong place but he didn’t understand me. The “supervisor” spoke much better English but was just as dim god help you if you have a problem on here Bc you’ll waste your money trying to figure out GettingOut and then you’re gonna waste even more time trying to talk to customer service.

I was so excited to find out GettingOut was available. I downloaded and have had so many problems already. I can deposit money to my fiancé only half of the time and to deposit money into a separate friends and family account to be able to message him, was impossible until I called customer service and did it over the phone. Plus, twenty five cents per message? Are you serious? At least lower the price for the messages or something. I cannot even imagine what it will cost to try and do a video visit (if it will even work.) It is so exciting to be able to talk to your loved one and it is ridiculous to have to go through all of the stress to use this, especially considering you are going through enough stress as it is if you are using GettingOut to talk to someone.

The time is inaccurate on GettingOut . I don’t know what time zone it’s going by. GettingOut crashes and tells me there is a problem with my location, forces me to lose my message I’m in the middle of typing, log back in and then start over constantly. It also doesn’t notify me unless my screen isn’t on and GettingOut isn’t open. Simple fixes can improve GettingOut tremendously. Also the not being able to add the same amount from your card within the same day will block your card or account is ridiculous. I wish I could rate GettingOut even lower. Sending and receiving is the only plus for me.

I love GettingOut because it allows me to communicate with my loved one but the charges are RIDICULOUS! It would be nice if I could add money to his commesary AND add money to my account at the same time for a lower cost! I get charged to add to his AND then I get charged to add to mine and it's killing me! I spend close to 200 a MONTH just to communicate and put money on his commesary. It's like being raped by a company who knows you have no other options, kind of like medication and food... Gotta have it so they charge out the you know what for it and if he tries to answer my video call but we have no video I'M STILL CHARGED to hang up and call back... Taking advantage of people is sick and that's exactly what I feel like is happening... It's basically a legal scam

First, dealing with a loved one in prison is hard enough. Let’s add to that a shred of hope you can text them, something shown to help both family and inmates during rehabilitation, and put in a glitch system that keeps logging you out, charges a quarter per text while charging the in mate .03 a min, and messages that come in randomly because you are being kicked off after each text. Oh!! And notifications don’t work.
GettingOut is the worst I have ever used.
I know someone in government made it cuz a 4 year old could have built something better.
This was a real heartbreaker for Me and my family. Whats worse is Get Out has a monopoly on the whole thing so if you want to tell a loved one “yes, you did bad, but I love you and I’m here to help you find better”, be ready to pay through the nose and with crappy service.

When GettingOut wants to work properly it is great! Being able to message him and talk to him pretty much all day is amazing. But there are times it takes HOURS for me to reply because it logs me out or just won’t load the messages. Get the bugs worked out and fixed it would be even better. The website on my laptop does the same thing and when i post pictures for him to see, it double posts and I get double charged. Thankfully they have refunded me when this happens but it happens everytime i post pictures. Again get the bugs fixed and worked out and this really is a great thing. I love my inmate and being able
To talk off and on all day helps us both to get through this time.

Sending messages is brutal, each time I send one it costs me a quarter which adds up fast when GettingOut deletes over half of what I wrote each time I send one. I’ve had to send each message in little pieces over and over again rather than one big message because it doesn’t send my full message the first time. Also, the conversation won’t show the right times so that’s another annoying detail. Not only that, my pictures won’t go through so I’ve spent money on pictures that my contact cannot see. I’ve tried to use GettingOut to communicate and it just makes it frustrating while spending all my money. We’re in a tough situation already, why does this system have to make it worse. Please fix these glitches.

There’s no other option for me to message and talk to my loved one so I’m stuck using this either way but when a 500 character message is $.25 and a 30 minute call is $5 you’ve got to think someone is making enough money to hire one programmer to spend a few hours to work out the kinks. The time/date stamp on the messages are NEVER right, so I have no idea when messages are actually sent. Half the time I type a message and it just disappears. Notifications don’t work. These are simple things which is why it’s so annoying, it wouldn’t take much to fix them but they couldn’t care less because they are getting our money either way. That’s how it is when you have no competition.

I never get any notification that my loved one sends me a message and the notifications are turned on for GettingOut in my IPhone settings. When I go to the settings within GettingOut , the notifications are always switched off. Why??? Even when I flick them “ON” they always turn back off. In addition, the time is never right. My loved one and I are on the same time zone and yet it shows the messages being sent 7 hours in the future. Could it be any harder to communicate with your loved one doing their time?!

Update 1.8 to “fix bugs” still has bugs.

I really only use GettingOut to text a loved one who is serving time. But I only get alerted to a new message about 20% of the time. I always have my phone with me but without some sort of alert I don’t realize he has replied. And then I feel bad for not replying to him.

*******UPDATE******

So after 4 months of using GettingOut I actually bumped it down from 2 stars to 1. Frequently there is a “temporary error” where the system is down for hours. The website and GettingOut are linked so when one goes down the other goes down. Very frustrating when it’s time to do a video chat and you can’t because the whole system is down. And when it come to video chats the audio and video generally are NOT in sync.

Over the past month their as been so many issues within GettingOut. Starting with myself typing a message then a pop of location service isn’t found and I’ll lose my entire message!! Which gets frustrating after awhile. When my money is low on GettingOut I try to add money but it keeps declining my card. I had to call the company and wait over ten minutes to have the call dropped twice and then pay more to have it done over the phone. Then I don’t receive any notifications when I get a message which is frustrating because I will not know when the inmate messages me until I manually check GettingOut . I hope all these issues are fixed ASAP.

App is ok for sending messages and making a deposit to phone account. However when sending and receiving messages from someone the date and time are off by a lot. I can never tell when the message was received and sometimes it’s not in order. Wish the time was correct for our time zone since we both are in the PST zone and wish it was more like a text message screen.