I got my Tracfone today....

[crazytimes]

Well I got my Tracfone today.

First off...I just want to say I am NOT happy with the eBay user who sold it to me. They gave me NEGATIVE feedback, saying my money never arrived....and low and behold it arrived the next day.

Secondly they charged me $10 shippinhg, and on the box it said $1.60! I was expecting priority.

So anyways, there was a letter saying the phone was charged, activated, and ready to use w/ 20 minutes on it. He also gave the ESN, Pin, as well as the phones #.

Now get this. My home area code and the cell phones are code are different! We have 2 area codes in Chicago.....

So I called Tracfone and asked for a 773 area code number, which is my home one. The lady tried many different Zip Codes but they kept coming up saying 312. So she just gave me a NEW 312 # and said to call back in 5-7 business days, and she told me to do "reasearch on the phone and zip codes in Chicago."

I wasn't happy about that. But oh well.

Then I tried the phone and it didn't work! When I tried calling from the phone all I got was a busy signal, and when I called the cell phone from my home phone (making sure I did the 312 area code) it said "We're sorry. This cellular one customer is not available right now." And I had my phone, TURNED ON, RIGHT NEXT TO ME!! Grrr....

And the phone was activated on August 10 (because the phone says be sure to redeem an airtime card on 10/10...and you have to redeem 60 days after you first activate) so there is NO reason why the "test" calls aren't working!!

I have no idea what to do, as the Tracfone lady told me my knew phone number should work fine.

-Matt

[deal4u]

Just my opinion but--I wouldn't want to use a phone that was activated by someone else. I would call Tracfone and let them know that you bought the phone on E-bay and you want to activate it in your name with your own number. Stay on the phone until you get things worked out. Have customer service try to call the phone. I have found tracfone customer service to be very nice and very helpful.

[crazytimes]

Yeah I was not happy that he pre-activated it, but I called Tracfone and got it working.

I soon realized that after the call STARTS ringing, it will decuct one unit after 17 seconds! About 3 times I have called only to be told that the person wasnt home, and each time it deducted a unit....so I have to be careful with them!

I still need to get a 773 area code....my friend says that it is probably because their system is old...but I am not sure.

-Matt

[zbikenut]

The minutes will go away as soon as you push send on some of the Tracfones. You will not be charged minutes when you are called until you pick up though. The cool thing about many of the tracfones is you can get text messages incoming for free on several different models of the phones.

[url]http://www.compare-prepaid-cell-phones.com/TracfoneTexting.html[/url]

[zbikenut]

Tracfones will often take up to 24 hours to update to the new phone number if you have the number changed.

Be sure to use the bonus codes when you put minutes on your cards. Sometimes you can get 60 free minutes for just putting a 5 digit number in after the 15 digit number of your tracfone card. The latest tracfone codes are on this website.

[url]http://www.compare-prepaid-cell-phones.com/Codes-for-Tracfone.html[/url]