mmegaera | am I being unreasonable?

To expect that when something goes wrong with my cell phone minutes (I'm on a cheap $15 automatically charged to my credit card every month gives me 200 minutes and 30 days burner cell phone, because $50 a month is too much to pay for a cell phone I use maybe an hour a month) and I have to call Net10 to actually get the minutes I paid for because every six months or so there's a glitch and they have to be downloaded manually, I should be able to use my cell phone to call and get this straightened out?

This time when it happened, apparently the rules have changed because they now say I have to call from another line to get my minutes (and my days -- I can't get one without the other or I would, because I've got almost 2500 minutes on my phone right now, but if I don't get the monthly minutes I don't get the days). This pretty much enrages me. Yes. I have a land line. But what if this was my only phone, like cell phones are for a lot of people? Would I have to go try to find a pay phone or something, or borrow someone else's phone? At this stage of the game it's the principle of the thing.

Is this utterly ridiculous or what?

I really don't want to get rid of this phone because I don't think I can transfer a burner phone number and all my clients know this number. Also I don't want to lose all those minutes I paid for. Also, see above about not being able to find a phone contract for less than $50 a month.

Although if anyone knows how I can solve those issues and get away from Net10 to a company with real customer service that doesn't overcharge, I'd be grateful (and you can quit laughing now).

ETA: I guess I shouldn't have taken it for granted that my "you can quit laughing now" would signal that this was mostly a rhetorical question. If there's one thing I don't want to do right now, it's go through the hassle of switching cell phone companies, or lose all those minutes I paid for, or buy a new phone. I just want things to work the way they're supposed to.

But thanks for the suggestions.

My first reaction to the issue was to complain to my state consumer advocate [g]. Not that their response time will be timely enough to do any good even if they can do anything which they probably won't. But it made me feel better.

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I don't think you're being unreasonable.

I've just started using Ting - www.ting.com - you have to buy the phone outright, but their plans - and overage structure! - are incredibly reasonable. I can give you a referral worth $25 if you'd like.

Thanks, but do see my ETA, above. Obviously I should have spelled my feelings on the subject out more clearly in the original post [g].

I realized it was a long shot - one of the questions I'd be curious about is how likely are you to use any of those 2500 minutes? You have to buy minutes regularly, I'm under the impression that, in general, the minutes you have to buy per month are exceeding the minutes used.

I know. Until I cool off about this, though, it's the principle of the thing.

I suppose what I need to do is look at the $15 a month as paying for the days, not the minutes.

But I [insert adverb -- except there isn't one strong enough to convey my feelings]do not want the hassle, etc., of new phone/company/etc. right now. I had a hard enough time dealing with getting the cell phone the first time around, and that was only two years ago.

YOu can transfer the number, even for a burner. It will take a week.

However: You lose everything you have with Net10. Minutes go boom.

You may want to look into the paylo option from Virgin Mobile. Will require purchasing a new ($20) phone, $50 for the fancy one with bluetooth.

Not sure, but the cheapest plan is $20 a month. It runs on the Sprint network, so if they don't have coverage, it's not good.

I never had a problem with them and have a lot of friends who use virgin mobile.

Thanks, but do see my ETA, above. Obviously I should have spelled out what I meant on the subject more clearly in the original post [g].

No, it's not unreasonable at all. It's the kind of stupid, commercial catch-22 that leaves me frothing with rage. You're entitled to those minutes, and you shouldn't have to find another phone to be able to get them.

I've used Virgin Mobile for the last 6 or 7 years. I refuse to have a contract, so I go with the plan that requires buying $20 worth of minutes every 3 months. I just get a card from Target or WalMart. The good thing is that the minutes always roll over. I generally use about 10 minutes per month and maybe an equal number of text messages. The per minute cost is higher than some other providers, but for low usage it doesn't matter.

But if you switch, yeah, you'll lose everything.

Well, one of the reasons I went with Net10 in the first place was that I would be able to have minutes/days automatically added to my cell phone every month so that I wouldn't have to remember to do it myself. Because the first two times I went the route you describe, and both cell phones died because I did not remember to buy more minutes for, oh, a year or so...

To me, a cell phone is no more than a necessary evil, and I do not want to deal with necessary evils any more than I absolutely have to.

But I do appreciate the suggestion, and especially the validation.

Any agency that's likely to have any authority will probably move too slow to give you any satisfaction. That said, I've occasionally had good results sending a scathing letter/email to all sorts of sources and cc'ing both the company and local newspaper on it (especially if you can find the email of a VP or PR person, who might be worried about getting a bad reputation).

I'd start with the BBB and FCC; I usually also include my state's Attorney General. I suspect they just throw it away (although sometimes I get a response referring me to the consumer protection dept.) but having them on there looks a little more alarming.

I have had very good luck in the past with my state's consumer advocate. Their backlog is such that they won't be able to act in a timely enough fashion for this, but something may eventually happen, which would satisfy me.

I suspect a letter such as you suggest is probably in order now. Either that or I need to quit tilting at windmills [sigh].

am I being unreasonable?

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