Tracfone need help

[Angelina]

OK, I was asking about "pay as you go" cell phones recently.

Almost everybody advised Tracfone, so I've got 2 today at Wal-Mart (Motorola 139 or so, on sale for 20 dollars each) and 2 extra cards.

The cashier had some troubles ringing the phones, but got some help and now I have them. OK. I tried to activate and register them thru the site and phone, and it's still displaying "Unregistered SIM"

How long should I wait? It's been 2 hours or more since I activated and called all the numbers. The site says I should wait up to 4 hours and if it's still isn't working, dial their customer service. But their CS is just a bunch of recordings "For English press 1" etc.

How soon will it get activated? Did you have any problems getting it activated? Where can I call and do they actually have PERSON customer Help, not the robots?

OH! And where can I find the new phone number? :) Looked all over the manual etc, did not see anything. where is it suppose to be?

[Darcy]

I wish I could help (I have a Tracfone), but I've had mine for years and don't remember what it was like to activate it. And I believe once you get the phone registered, they provide the phone number to you.

I'd suggest waiting the 4 hours like the site mentioned, and then go from there. The web site might have a "contact us" button that might be more helpful, although that might take some time to get back to you. Have you searched for more info from the web site?

[Angelina]

Done! I had to turn it off and then on again, it's working. And I was able to find my phone number thru Menu options.

Now, if we move to another area, can I change the phone number or it doesn't matter, all the us calls cost the same price?

Anyway, it's very nice to have a cell phone with no contracts etc (we've had Verizon once for a month, then my DH lost the phone and we had to pay all the fees, lost the money we paid for the phone etc).

So, thanks ya'll for your advice, pay-as-you-go will be better for us, I guess. It's hard to believe you can get a working cell phone for 19 dollars now.Wow.

Also, if we want some other phone model, can we buy it and just install the SIM card in our new phone?

[Angelina]

UP


Could you tell me, can I text message with this phone? Is it free or how much? Do I have to use whole UNIT sending SMS?