Just Blowing Off Steam

[Richard in Smithville]

I gotta put this down somewhere otherwise I'm going to start being a jerk at home.

I bought my fourteen year old daughter a cell phone for Christmas. The deal was that she couldn't have one until high school. Also LOML and I decided that a prepaid phone would be best for her to learn to manage her time.

We went with a particular company as they seemed to have the features that we and my daughter were looking at. Then things went wrong. I tried setting things up on line as it was supposed to be easy. Not so easy and their web page was no help except to suggest a phone number. I called the phone number from my home phone as the new cell wouldn't call anywhere. All I got were voice options that never lead to a real person. I even tried hitting zero but was told that wasn't one of the options. To day I went to their store for help but because it is a prepaid phone they have to charge me to help( WTF?). I was told to call the help number on the web site so I told them that I could never get a real person. She said perhaps they were on holidays and I told her that no option would even get me to a real person, that's why I was at the store. Then she told me to use the cell phone to call the other help number. Hello!!!! The stupid cell phone won't call out, that's why I am at the store! Try calling the help number from your phone then. Why? Will the options be different now?.....I doubt it.


This week I will take the phone back to where I bought it and get my money back. Then I will go to a compeditor. One where real people work at the stores and won't charge me just to talk to me.

[thestinker]

My oldest one is only 8, so I have a while before I need to worry about that, but I feel for you. I have visions of huge bills and lots of "sorry daddy.....I didn't know"

Hope it works out for you.

[jbrain]

I can relate. I have a 14 yr. old daughter also.

We first went with Tracfone. Benefits include a cheap phone ($10.00-$30ish) and if she doesn't burn a lot of minutes it can be as low as $7.00 per month($20.00 for 90 days of service which includes 60 minutes for 3 months, but most of their phones are "double minutes" phones so 120 minutes for 90 days).Many other minute cards available at more cost.

The above works GREAT for the wife and myself because we are not heavy talkers. Unfortunately, my daughter is in the texting age and loves to yak on the phone. I fought this, but I am giving in as she is a great kid and getting straight A's in high school.

We went with Straighttalk, which is owned by Tracfone. $30.00 per month with 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts and 30MB of internet. They also have a $45.00 per month unlimited everything.

So after everything, $30.00 for her and $14 for me and the wife so $44/per month for 3 phones. Another thing I really like is that is only $44.00. NO taxes, No hidden fees. The tracfone cards are available at most stores with the gift cards, the Straighttalk is a Walmart item, or online. You CAN have an automatic payment set up.

[JSUPreston]

Richard, may I ask which company it is that you're having trouble with?

[crokett]

Richard, good luck getting this fixed. Whenever my daughters need a phone, we will go with prepaid or figure out some other way to limit their minutes. I think for good behavior we will give more minutes that month or something.

[Uncle Cracker]

Richard, may I ask which company it is that you're having trouble with?

Sounds like the exact trouble that LOML had with TracFone. And their CS people are in India, I think, and are totally useless. Their answer to everything is to call them from the phone you're having trouble with... If LOML could do that, there would be no reason to call... She gave up after two weeks of trying to get them to just send her a new phone, which they refused to do.

[Knottscott]

We also got a prepaid cell for our 14 YO son this year. We went with STI Mobile at 8.9 cents per minute, 8.9 cents per day (~$3 per month)...no expiration. It's the 4th STI Mobile phone we've used successfully in our family...they actually had CS reps on duty Christmas day, and they spoke English. We've also had success with Net10 @ 10 cents/minute, but those minutes expire if not used, so it averages to more like $15/month...still a good deal with excellent sound quality, but in the end is more costly than the STI Mobile.

[Woodshark]

Last Christmas (12/08) my wife switched to Net10. She hardly ever uses her phone so it worked out about $15 a month. Some have had good luck with them but we had nothing but trouble getting her phone set up. It was at least 2 weeks and several hours on the phone with customer service before she was able to receive calls. Customer Service was based overseas and english was not their first language.

I'm thinking of switching her over to T-Mobile's prepaid option. You pay 10 cents a minute, period. I use it and it is good enough for me. If you buy $100 (1000 minutes) at a time they don't expire for 365 days. Last year I was into my 11th month before I had to buy more. Works out to less than $10 per month.

[frumper64]

Another vote for T-Mobile prepaid. I've used it for around the last 5 years and have had no problems at all with either the service or the company. I use my phone very little, so I end up putting $50 into minutes once a year and always have some left (which then carry over).