Problem solved

I went with T-mobile pay-as-you-go.
I looked at monthly stuff. I looked at the new concept where they charge you $1 a day for the days you use it PLUS the minutes used.
I went to Target. They had the Samsung Impact on sale for 1/2 price. I paid $30 for the phone and $94 for a $100 reload card.
I got an 847 area code with no hassle at all.
I have 1,000 minutes and one year of service. So that's about $11 a month. I'm OK with that.
It's tough to tell how many minutes you have left and they always round up to the next minute which is different than Tracfone/Net10. But I can live with that.
I hope T-mobile doesn't disappoint. So far, so good.

No more Net10

Well, you won, Net10. After three hours on the phone with you over three days I was never able to receive a call on my brand new Net10 phone. I could make calls, but not receive them.

ELEVEN TIMES I explained my plight, each time repeating the same info over again. I punched in numbers and read back codes to them. I turned it off. I turned it on. I took out the battery.

On at least four occasions they assured me that the problem had been fixed if I would just wait an hour (or 24 hours) while they corrected it. I wasn't even picky about the number they gave me, as long as it was in the 847 or 224 area code.

But that was too much for them.

I was worried that Walmart would hassle me about the return because the phone had been "activated" but they didn't.

I got a full refund. No problem.

In hindsight I should have taken it back the moment the Net1o agent chastised me for raising my voice and warned me that she would hang up if I didn't behave myself.

Is there another pre-paid phone company out there that isn't Tracfone or Net10? I'm ready to try again, but not with that company.

Can you hear me now?

The headaches of prepaid cell phones.
Why even bother, you ask? Well, I hate monthly payments, and now is not the time to add more to the list.
Besides, when you pay as you go you are less likely to use the cell phone for chit-chat. "I'm just leaving the grocery store. I'll be home in two minutes." "What RU doing SAT?" "My dad is so lame." Well, you get the idea.

So, after months of using a TracFone that was owned by a deadbeat before I got it, I was ready to make a change. ALL the inbound calls were from collection agencies. And who could blame them? The caller ID still read "Mal Darvin." And TracFone somehow couldn't remove the caller ID tag. All I really wanted was for it to read "Cell Phone" like most prepaid phones. I was done with TracFone...or so I thought.

Did you know that Net10 and TracFone are the SAME COMPANY? Well, they are. And they must hire the same clowns for their call centers.

On Wednesday I bought a Net10 phone off the shelf. I activated it on-line. So far, so good.

But the number they assigned was area code 630, south and east of here. I wasn't going to settle for abad area code. That's not fair to land line callers. So, I called and explained that the zip code I entered corresponds to 847 or the overlay 224.

The CSR explained that 630 is a correct area code for my town. When I raised my voice to explain to her that after 22 years at this address I know the area code.

She stopped right there and said I had one strike against me for raising my voice. I had two more strikes and then the call would be terminated. NICE! But I played along.

I have since then had eight more phone calls with Net10, eating up 117 minutes on my land line, and I have not had another strike against me.

In the total of nine phone calls over two days I have entered codes and checked parameters. I have been instructed (twice) to take the battery out of the phone while it was still turned on.

I have been able to MAKE two test calls but have not been able to receive any of them.

So, I called today and asked right away to speak to a supervisor. I gave her my name, my home phone and my case file number. I told her I would wait for them to fix the problem and CALL ME for a change.

I sent a follow-up e-mail but I worry because the form required me to enter the phone number assigned to the phone. That's hard to do when you don't know what it is.

We'll see what happens.

Birthday pens

Here is the Personalize It Yourself (PIY) pen from my dear relatives in Seattle.


And this is the Pierre Cardin magnolia scented pen in orange. One must wonder why such an item would be in the close-out bin.

The collection now totals 1,655 pens. Most are repeats of Holiday Inn stick pens and other corporate litter, but that's the total.