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.
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.
1 comment:
Oh how ANNOYING!! That craziness! Good luck and let us know what the number is, if you ever get one!
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