[Randy]

Well it worked when I asked for service provider help, so here is my phone question.
I have a cell phone (like don't we all) except Mine stays in the Burgman, never use it, it's for emergence only and it cost me 30 dollars a month. While surfing the web I see AT&T has something they call "Free to Go" if I am reading this right I buy a phone for 60 bucks and then 10 dollars for 90 days (or $20 -$30 -ect) and that's it ? like 100 dollars for the year ?
I mean I don't care how much it cost per minute when I need to call AAA . So am I missing something here or should I switch to this plan. :?
Again T I A

 

[billmeek]

Randy,

Maybe you should look at something like :

Disposable cell phone

There are other vendors that offer a simular product too.

 

[seatec]

Thats what I do , buy card 30$ for 3 month, just renew before 3 months are up and you can carry your time over to next 3 months. Problem is we use it very little and forget about renewing in time and loose our saved time, but still best way to go i think.

 

[Arby]

In Ontario Canada we have at leaset 3 cell phone carriers. The two major players are Bell and Rogers AT&T. Both companies have a "pay-as-you-go" plan. You buy a phone and it includes X number of minutes that will expire in 30 days. If you buy another time card before the 30 days is up it will add those additional minutes to the previous months remaining total.

I have a phone with both companies. With Bell, $10(plus $1.50 taxes) a month is automatically billed to my credit card which adds 33 minutes of time to the phone. Since I use it rarely it has now accumulated 200 minutes. My other phone is Rogers AT&T. Same deal but they don't offer the automatic credit card service. I go on the net every 30 days and add $10 to the phone. Both phones will warn me if the # of minutes I have remaining is getting low.

Don't know if all this helps you in the States. There may be a similar plan with one of the US carriers.

 

[BobG]

Well it worked when I asked for service provider help, so here is my phone question.
I have a cell phone (like don't we all) except Mine stays in the Burgman, never use it, it's for emergence only and it cost me 30 dollars a month. While surfing the web I see AT&T has something they call "Free to Go" if I am reading this right I buy a phone for 60 bucks and then 10 dollars for 90 days (or $20 -$30 -ect) and that's it ? like 100 dollars for the year ?
I mean I don't care how much it cost per minute when I need to call AAA . So am I missing something here or should I switch to this plan. :?
Again T I A

Read the fine print about roaming charges and out of network charges and then compare it to the one I have: http://virginmobileusa.com/

I pay $20 every 90 days and there are no hidden charges. Unused minutes roll over.

 

[BobG]

Thats what I do , buy card 30$ for 3 month, just renew before 3 months are up and you can carry your time over to next 3 months. Problem is we use it very little and forget about renewing in time and loose our saved time, but still best way to go i think.

Use the Yahoo Calendar with the option to receive email reminders.

 

[Randy]

Forgive while I do a little venting, # 1 thanks for the help I decided to go with the AT&T "Free to Go" phone plan. (seems to be like the plan BobG said to check) It's on the web but I enjoying riding into town anyway I decided to go to the store, it's only 53 miles (90% highway).
Nice people at the store but they want 89.95 for the phone -the rest of the plan is the same-- The web said 59.95, well thanks but no thanks I'll go hone and order it. Now at this point I could make a long story short but, no....
Get on the web and find the site (had it bookmarked) fill out the form and it will not go through--You need to put a billing address and a shipping address BUT no PO Box #.This is a small town all mail goes to the Post Office and only to a PO # .
Well you can't explain that to a computer site but if you keep clicking buttons all aver the place ( and get lucky) you can get there phone number. I write it down 1800 290 4613 (get off the net) and almost fall off the chair when I get Welcome to Wal-Mart's Pharmacy --OK, back on the net check the number it's 1 888, not 1 800.
Got through to AT&T must have been there music department because that's all I got, then a recording telling me how important blaa blaa blaa. 18 minutes of this and learning all about things I could not care less about I get a human .It took over 30 minutes start to finish to order the phone , and if I thought it would be this aggravating I mite have spent the extra money at the store.
OK I feel a little better.

 

[pauljo]

I hear ya Randy! We've all had experiences like that. Customer Support in this country is generally awful. I worked for a large company, doing that for seven months last year. If the customer wasn't already irritated about an issue when they started calling, they were sure to be pissed off by the time they punched all the number options and sat in the hold queue for 20 minutes. And then, company rules often kept me from being able to help them (like the PO Box thing). Quite often they were ripping mad by the time the call ended. Meanwhile, I'm being recorded for random evals - and the automated time clock is running. Spend too much time with any one customer and my stats for the shift would be screwed. Forward to a manager? Managers didn't take hot calls - had to dump them into a voice mail box. A manager would call back "within 24 hours"...

Seven months of that was all I could take. It's not the fault of the poor employee making $8 to $10 per hour. It's the folks who design and administer the call centers and policies. There are a few exceptions (Cox Communications has excellent phone support), but overall it is a pathetic industry.

 

[gruntled]

Read the fine print about roaming charges and out of network charges and then compare it to the one I have: http://virginmobileusa.com/
I pay $20 every 90 days and there are no hidden charges. Unused minutes roll over.

Buy the card at Wal-Mart & it's approx $19.50. Use a credit card with a rebate & cut another 1%. Note that if you rarely use it you have 60 days after it expires to renew it without losing your number or credit. That way you could let it go over & renew it when you need to use it or are expecting a call.