Cell Phones: I use a cell phone that is about 5 to 7 years
old. At the time I purchased it at Best Buy ($49.99), it was offered with
a "Triple Your Minutes" bonus. What that means is that each
time I buy a refill on the term of service and the minutes for Data, Calling,
and Text, what ever amount I buy is tripled at no extra cost. A few years
ago Tracfone phased out these bonus plans, but for those of us that still use
those phones, as long as the phone works, Tracfone has to honor these plans.
Depending on our usage of
minutes on our "Pay as you go" Tracfones, I will either purchase just
another year of use, or a refill for the Data, Talk, and Text minutes.
The term of service is not tripled, only the minutes.
Unlike the more common
"unlimited" plans that most people have where they pay a set monthly
fee for their cell phones, for years we have had Tracfones, where you buy a set
number of minutes annually, which brings the cost down to less than $5 a month
for each of our phones.
Normally, I wait until a couple of
weeks before the current usage year is up before I buy the next refill. I
buy the cheapest refill I can find on Ebay. This year I bought this one:
To determine your monthly average
cost, you simply divide what you paid for the refill, by 12. In this case
it started out as $82.72 divided by 12 = $6.89 a month for our next years
usage. The cost of buying just another year's usage and no additional
minutes would have been $30 less than that.
The way it works is the seller will deposit
the duration and minutes into your cell phone account within a few days of your
purchase. They'll email you when they've done that.
I started out with plenty of
minutes, and normally, all I would have purchased this year, like I did for the
past 2 years, is an extension of time, not more minutes. However, I have
never seen anyone offer 2000 minutes before for that price, and it was too good
a deal to pass up.
After I received the seller's email,
I checked my Tracfone account, and only the number of days left had
changed. This is a screen capture I did of my account summary. You can
see I have more than a year since I added to what was left of a bank of time
that didn't run out until May. Somehow, in the process, I ended up with
an expiration a month later, in June. That is reflected at the bottom of
this picture where it says, Service Period.
When I contacted the seller, he said
if my minutes didn't show up in a day or two, to contact Tracfone, which I did.
When I called Tracfone the first
time 3 days ago, the only thing that changed after the call was that they added
another year of service to my contract. That was a mistake. I
already received the year extension I purchased. So now, I had a free
year, for a total of 2 more years of use. That brought my average monthly
cost to operate my cell phone down to this. $82.72 divided by 24 = $3.45
a month. Me, likey!
I had to call Tracfone again and go
through the wait which is always 8 to 30 minutes. I opted to have them
call me back instead of hanging on the line. When I got the call back, I
explained to the first person I spoke with that I bought a refill for 1 year of
service and 2000 minutes. All I received was the year of service refill,
not the minutes. After putting me on hold numerous times, they finally
came back and said they couldn't change anything, and would transfer me to a
"manager." I had to explain everything all over again.
This time, this manager was able to get me the 2000 minutes, but it didn't
triple. He said to wait until the next day and call back for that.
This is what my account summary
showed after I got the 2 year extension of service contract time, and the base
increase of 2000 minutes:
At this point I still wanted the
rest of my "Triple."
I called Tracfone again
yesterday morning, went through their bs routine of sending me a text to verify
my phone, explaining everything to the first customer service person, then
after they said they had to transfer me I talked to a "manager."
He was able to finish my triple minutes for making calls, but my data minutes
and texting minutes remained the same.
I took a break from Tracfone..
We went to Costco and MR headed for
the pharmacy for Tango's meds, and I went to the Optical department to return
my new glasses. The clerk didn't want to accept them. He said that
they only take returns for defects. I persisted to assert that I simply
couldn't wear them because they were heavy and tearing into my nose.
After the 3rd go round, he acquiesced, and I picked out a new lighter frame,
with smaller lens, all in the hopes of a less painful pair.
After my afternoon nap I called
Tracfone again to get my other minutes. The first person I talked with
finished like everyone else, telling me they couldn't add the minutes and would
transfer me to a "supervisor." While I was on hold
waiting for the transfer I got cut off and had to start all over again with another
person, explaining my situation, waiting for the text with the code to verify
my identity. blah, blah, blah.
This time, the woman I spoke with
and explained everything to (I think I was up to 4 times in all), told me at
the end she couldn't do anything, and wasn't permitted to transfer me to anyone
else. WTF?!!!!
I explained to her that I had
already talked to 3 other people who also told me that they couldn't not do
anything else, and they all transferred me to a "manager" or
"supervisor" so why couldn't she? She argued with me for 10
minutes, and I told her, "This is unacceptable. I've been buying
refill time for the past 8 years without a problem with the triple minutes, and
now you're telling me I'm supposed to accept that only my phone minutes are
tripled?" I demanded to speak with her supervisor and she refused to
transfer me to anyone else.
After another 5 minutes I ran out of
patience, and for the first time in years, I screamed at her. I asked
her, "Are you a mental defective, because you're sure acting like
one?"
We went round and round for another
5 minutes, and I ended up hanging up on her, and starting the whole process all
over again with someone else, which included going through a telephone maze,
and the call back wait.
On this call I was connected with an
older sounding woman. She was very polite, and every time during the call
when she achieved something she would say, "Congratulations, I have
located your records." Whatever step she took, she put me on hold for a
minute or two, and came back and started with "Congratulations."
This time I laid out the facts to
her, and didn't mention how many times I had called or how the previous person
refused to transfer me, and kept saying, she couldn't change anything.
I don't know what magic powers the
older woman had, but she did not need to transfer me to anyone. She was
able to get me my balance of data time, and text minutes.
This is the final outcome, MISSION
ACCOMPLISHED!
Anyone who has enough money to buy
an "unlimited plan" and not suffer this crap, or who is unwilling to
persist as I do in these situations is very fortunate. I fight to save
pennies so we can afford to have money to spend in other areas. I wish I
didn't have to, but it is, what it is. I'm just glad we're not struggling
like some retirees on fixed incomes.
Sometimes though, when I find a
loose shopping cart at Aldi, which means when I return it after I put my
groceries in the car, I'll receive a quarter to put in my pocket, I think to
myself, "Look at where life has taken me, I'm getting excited over a
quarter!"
I hope this phone and I last as long
as these minutes do.
I wasn't able to pursue additional
minutes on MR's phone. Her sister bought it for her, and it was a newer
phone that didn't have the triple minutes bonus.
When this phone dies on me, I have a
slightly newer and larger phone that is also triple your minutes on refills
that I'll switch to because in the words of Benjamin Franklin, "A penny saved, is a penny earned."
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