Net10

[carcomptoy]

What does anybody think of NET10? Is it good? On who's network is it? Also, since they use GSM, can you use other phones on a Net10 SIM or use your phone on a Net10 phone (once unlocked of course...)

[jmax577]

just saw the commercial the other day....i am curious to see who's setwork they are using. i love these MVNOs and to see who really is using each others network. that is curious that they are using gsm. I would say either my beloved cingular or your beloved tmobile

[Box215]

i did some research...looks like cingular's go phone network.

[carcomptoy]

Eh, I guess that's a good thing...more coverage (supposedly:p) Wonder if T-Mobile has something against hosting MVNOs...I noticed, Tracfone's (has been) starting to use GSM phones. So who's network are they using now?

Net10 doesn't have internet does it...

[carcomptoy]

:eek: I just found out that Net10 is actually part of Tracfone...so why the hell is Tracfone making it's own competitor?

[Box215]

maybe net10 is the way tracfone is trying to reintroduce itself in the us

[carcomptoy]

I guess...cause Tracfone just plain sucks. Each minute cost a unit and it's just overall expensive and very limited in your phone selection:cool:

[rbarbourbis]

AVOID NET10 LIKE THE PLAGUE! They may advertise a cheap rate, but if you need customer service, it is nonexistence. At least this has been mine and my daughters experience. She got a Net10 phone can after a month the thing doesn't won't activate, they won't pay provide a replacement unless we ship this one back at our expense, they won't refund. June to August without a cell phone. That's Net10 for you.

Rbarbour

[carcomptoy]

That sucks...guess that's why it's so cheap, cause they've got no one to hire and pay for. Heh...are you gonna switch to T-Mobile TO GO?:p

[phil reed]

Don't believe their claim of 10 days to port your old cel number to you new Net10 phone.
I've been waiting for two weeks and now they tell me it will take up to 30 days! Meanwhile, my old phone service no longer works and noone can call my business.

[carcomptoy]

:eek:That's wrong...

But...why is your business line on a prepaid phone?

[zoom2]

I bought a Net10 and the thing is pretty reliable. I haven't bumped into the need for cumbersone customer service.

Its also by far the cheapest prepaid alternative around. Other prepaid services also offer 10 cent a minute but anly after paying 25cents for the first 10 minutes of use in a day OR 1 dollar per day plus the 10 cents like cingular's go phone does. This one is actually 10 CENTS no strings attached.

To answer your question I think this MVNO actually activates with multiple networks (cingular and TMobile).

[BoobularGroove]

I've had it for about 6 months now. Bad reception unless you are right next to an antenna tower. They also charge you for a call if you get a busy signal. They suck.:mad:

[AEH]

Ok, I think I can answer everyones comments lol.

1. I bought a net 10 phone about a month or 2 ago. it is GREAT.
2. If you go like me buy the phone at Kmart for $100, go online and activate it you get the $30 card FREE
3. Providers, as someone has said Net10 is its own company BUT part of Tracfone. There for like tracfone they do not own 1 tower, they rent them from all the cell phone companys. Mine out here is Alltell. It all depends on your area. I know Montana is Verison.
4. Price, you CANNOT beat it for Prepaid. Great thing about net10 is you pay $.10 a min. though matter if your in your regular calling area, your roaming, or your calling long distance, inless your calling to another country which is only $.05 extra a min.

All and all you can't beat them. The quality and price is good,. I give them a 4 out of 5. Reason not a 5 b/c like eveything they have there flaws.

[slimstar]

Here is a review by a man who has used both net10 and tracfone and seems to be pretty savvy about prepaid options.

The link to the article is: (I hope this is legal. Moderator, please let me know)
http://www.cell-phone-prepaid.com/net10.htm

I have had both net10 and tracfone. My original cellphone was an analog tracfone and it worked everywhere and the carrier was Verizon. I got my daughter one for Charleston, SC and her carrier was AllTel... hers had voicemail.

I switched my old analog tracfone over to a digital model with voice mail, etc... They were unable to port my old tracfone phone number to my new phone. I also bought a net10 phone for 29.99 with 300 minutes just to see what it would do.

It turns out that in my area (Hampton Roads Virginia, Norfolk etc) both companies use Cingular, now. For some reason I can't get service when I go off Route 17 in Yorktown..... must be too rural and no towers.... but all along Route 17 itself no problem. My cell won't work in my school building either and also gets poor reception in the teacher's parking lot, but one I get near route 17, no problem. And the school is not that far from Rt 17. Other faculty members and students can use their phones in the building, but I don't know who their carriers are. (Something important to consider after Columbine shootings.)

I guess I prefer Net10 over Tracfone. It's always 10 cents. Eventuallly, I'll use up the Tracfone and let it expire.

Knowledge is power! :)

Sincerely,
Slimstar in Virginia

[slimstar]

Net10 now offers 1500 minutes for 150.00 for 1 year.

So that's 12.50/month for a good, basic cell phone service.

Their rates have changed somewhat. Again, I have both a Tracfone and a Net10 phone. I will eventually let the Tracfone expire and keep the Net10.

On on-line deals with Net10 are the best.

Sincerely,

Slimstar in SE Virginia :)

[Spitt]

I have had NET10 for about 3-4 months now. At my work, no one, can use a phone inside mainly it is too loud. However, I have so far not found an area without service. I live in the CA, NV, AZ Tristate area.

About 2 months ago I bought time online. Unfortunately I did not get my subscription card. However, I did get ahold of someone.

http://www.net10.com/contact.jsp?nextPage=contact.jsp&task=contact

I emailed them and they responded in a day. When they gave me a card which didn't work, i contacted them again, and they sent a new card, which did work.

Got a question? Need more information?
This is the place.
If you're an existing customer, please provide us with your NET10 phone serial number or your NET10 phone number when contacting us so we can give you the best possible service.

Contact us by:

Phone at 1-877-TEN-CENT (1-877-836-2368)

Correspondence at:
NET10 Wireless.
8390 N.W. 25th Street
Miami, FL 33122

Overall, I am happy with NET10 service. For me, all I use it for is basic service. I use it to contact emergency services or emergency calls. I don't use it to surf the internet or send IM messages. If you are looking for something more, like pictures, or music, or any other fancy features, go uy a $300 phone with a top of the line system. For me, $15 a month for service is economical, and serves my needs.

------
Spitt
Admin of RPG-Exploiters (http://rpg-exploiters.shoq.net)

[Breeze]

Hi
I found this forum by googling for experiences with net10. I am new user, got the phone yesterday. I have a Motorola C139 which we bought at Walmart and my hubby also bought a $30 card -not realizing it came with 300 minutes , a $30 vlaue.

I have very little cell phone use experience-I had Sprint for 3 years b/c I worked nights and had way too many minutes but there was not too much else. I never did learn how to set up voice mail. Then we got a ugly T-mobile phone and always had way too many minutes. Also, their customer service was not good for us. They gave us a new number once and gave us a wrong number. That's right, we did not even know our own phone number for almost a month. B/c we generally just used it to call out, we did not notice anything. Then I loaned it to someone and they gave a call back number and you quessed it, it was then we found out we did not have our own number correct. After a lot of talking on the phone, we ended up with another number, and 1 month free service-6 months later. :) We just need the phone for emergencies and odd times i'd need to reach someone while away from home.
i cancelled T-moble 2 weeks ago, and let me tell you something-that is not easy to do. They harassed me no end to stay with them. I am however, totally sales proof though, and they finally gave up. They have however had the nerve to call us 2x at home to harass us into resigning. Not on your life.

Anyway , to net10. So we have the phone. My husband is not tech savy (nor am i)-I think he actually may be scared of technical devices. We got into a huge fight trying to set this dumb thing up. It is really hard. You have to install a card into it, and then find the right numbers and they are really long numbers, and then you either have to call or use the net to activate it. My hubby choose to call to activate. well he got it done, but when he hung up-he did not know our own number. So we had to go searching through the booklet to find customer service and we called them and they gave us the number and told us where to find the view page-duh-on the front screen.
So we have almost quit fighting. Anyway the thing is charged and we get a message from them -for which they charge you 5 cents. I checked to see if we could block text messages and then sent them a contact IM-and within 24 hours they responded and said basically"no" they were not a part of a network and could not do that. I also cannot believe they charge for busy signals.

So now that all the drama has passed, the thing stays plugged in. Every so often I get a little ZING type ring. it is not a call-just something.?? if anyone knows what it is, please post. I usually leave my cell on charge until I leave the house. That way it is fully charged.

if this thing works, it will be good for us-we just need a few mintes each month. 300 will be more than enough for 60 days. I have to go out of the house tomorrow, so I will take it for a test drive.


breeze

[Breeze]

Hi, just thougth I'd pop in and let you know that after viewing the coverage maps for net10, i am rethinking whether I will stay with them. The coverage map shows in green all the places that they have coverage . I notice that the non convered areas, the white, is quite a bit actually. Actually, a HUGE portion of the West coast is not covered.

So if I need to make a long distance call, or we are traveling, it appears that I may run into huge amounts of non covered areas. Areas where they do not have other mobile towers to use. major areas amounts of unvoered areas..
I sent them another email and they have replied but they are giving me vague, non helpful responses. They say to send a zip code. Well take a look, the whole state of Nevada is almost all white. Most of Arizona, New Mexico , South, and North Dakota, Montan, and lots more. Can I even make a long distance call to those states? if they have no coverage , how could I?
anyone with tracphone experience please fill me in. I undertand they use other companies towers. That they say is the covered area. But if the white area is not covered, the phone would be useless for a huge portion of the usa. go to their website , net10.com and check out the coverage map. yes there is a lot of green but look how much white area, almost whole states in some instances.

Breeze:

[carcomptoy]

In regards to long distance, as long as you're in a covered area, you can make any type of calls, as long as the person in the non-person covered area isn't with Net10 too. Net10 not having service in a location you're not in doesn't have an affect on you whatsoever. You can make a long distance call TO those places, but you can't obviously make any calls FROM them.

[Breeze]

Thank you for the reply. That does help clear things. So basically, if i am calling from a covered area, i can call anywhere in USA. but if not in calling aea, don't buy net10. well that proves I ned a cell phone for beginners. I noticed that in my first post, the word phone is green and it now a link. I clicked on it and it goes to some kind of cell phone sales. I did not put this in here, there is no way I am that tech savy. how did this happen? I believe I am going to go back and see if i can edit it out.
breeze

[carcomptoy]

The green link is a default thing...it's an ad so it brings revenues for the website. You don't do anything but type and the system recognizes a word and automatically turns it into a link.

[tejas55]

What does anybody think of NET10? Is it good? On who's network is it? Also, since they use GSM, can you use other phones on a Net10 SIM or use your phone on a Net10 phone (once unlocked of course...)

Everything you read about the lack of customer service is true. Trying to use the online tech support is a waste of time. Every few days, my phone just stops working and I have to call with a land line phone and enter a ton of LONG codes. I had over 100 minutes on my phone a few days ago and suddenly all those minutes just disappeared. Bought ANOTHER $30 plus tax set of 300 minutes and took most of the day to get the phone back activated and working. Worked one day now all my calls and received calls fail. Every call I make is long distance. Every call I get from family in the same town is long distance for them.
NEt10 is owned by Tracfone. On the old tracfones, I could get a local number in the small town I live in. With net10, I can't get a local number. I understand now that even Tracfones won't get a local number where I live if you start service with them. Strange how convenience and technology is going backwards. AVOID NET10 AND TRACFONE LIKE THE PLAGUE.

[Wwhispers]

Everything you read about the lack of customer service is true. AVOID NET10 AND TRACFONE LIKE THE PLAGUE.

I have used Net10 for 18 months now, Two phones actually. The cheap Nokia phones. I have never had a problem with the phones nor customer support. My youngest will inherit this phone, so he can use up the minutes. I still need less minutes, there's times where 300 minutes could last me for 4-6 months.

[Nobodyknows]

Everything you read about the lack of customer service is true. Trying to use the online tech support is a waste of time. Every few days, my phone just stops working and I have to call with a land line phone and enter a ton of LONG codes. I had over 100 minutes on my phone a few days ago and suddenly all those minutes just disappeared. Bought ANOTHER $30 plus tax set of 300 minutes and took most of the day to get the phone back activated and working. Worked one day now all my calls and received calls fail. Every call I make is long distance. Every call I get from family in the same town is long distance for them.
NEt10 is owned by Tracfone. On the old tracfones, I could get a local number in the small town I live in. With net10, I can't get a local number. I understand now that even Tracfones won't get a local number where I live if you start service with them. Strange how convenience and technology is going backwards. AVOID NET10 AND TRACFONE LIKE THE PLAGUE.


ugggg!

I can advise anyone wanting to buy a net10 phone NOT , repeat NOT buy it from the net10website. If you get a defective phone like i did then you're in for a great many of hours on the phone with them. After your out of pockit the return shipping, they'll tell you between 14 and 30 BUSINESS days before you recieve your refund. I'm at day 12 and about 7 hours of talking to them.
Net10 gave me the wrong address in miami to return it to.
Then trying to get them to locate and verify that they actually recieved it.
Things move very very slowly at tech/sales support.

Better advice is buy the NET10 phone from walmart, They'll refund you the $$ if you get a bad phone.

I'm also in ringtone hell with them on a different net10 phone i have. I bought a tone and it didnt download and failed.
They tell you to call 866-323-0462 which i did, you get a voice mail telling you to email them at ringtones.com, which i did.. Their reply was that they couldnt help because it was a net10 issue and to deal with net10 about it.
Callen net10 again, they werent aware that nobody answers the phone# that they give out. and that they refer people back to net10 tech support.
They took my IMEI# and all that and said i'd get a call back... That was 4 days ago. Called back today and i was told a 24 hour call back.

If your problem with net10 is anything to do with a refund or something you're screwed. If it's something simple like programing the phone i guess they can help..

They may have the best rates for a prepaid phone but their call center is hand tied and can only deal with very basic phone help.

Pluses with net 10 would be that the motorola speakerphone v176 (Blue flip) is a pretty decent phone. It was a Nokia that was defective for me.

[Nobodyknows]

*update*
They fixed the ringtone link and my phone was able to go the the url and download it. I had the, "OMG it actually worked this time!" look on my face!!

I'm still in limbo on my defective phone refund.

[NeoBurn]

I really want to try this net10 as it seems like no lock-in. My feedback is, net10 messed up my order that took a LONG time to complete. I'm covered bu ny credit card and you should buy online without credit card protections. If fact, since the prices are NOT (currently) better and they charge tax AND shipping, you are FAR better served buying locally for less (plus gas) and being able to return for a full refund, post haste. Some have reported bad phones and if you gat just go back to the store and get another, you're covered.

Perhaps the only reason to buy online (now) is to spend $10 less and get a V171 reconditioned. I'm not sure it's worth the savings.

They do claim to give minute credits and they do say they will do some things (like a free sim card if yours is bad) but you REALLY don't want to call these poor (Guadamalan) soles if you do not have to.

Still, if you can get a good phone, you can save if you use the thing minimally for some periods of time. Just as long as the time limits do not expire before you by another card/minutes/time-period.

10 cents a minute us easy and self adjust somewhat to your needs. Yet, it is the expiration time you want to watch.

I was told not to wait to after 6p (like 4p or 5p) on the day before expiration (to extend your next card and longer) so that if something doesn't work, then you'll have time to call them and fit it before your phone service expires.

One thing I note, there's no "in calling" or minute saving between Net10 phones that I know about. But it is RUMORED that cingular customers can talk to you free/included (but your minutes are ALWAYS used.) I think that one (spouse) person with no minute charges for either of you (on two active net10 phones that require cards) would be great! Mention it to them, if you call.

[Nobodyknows]

Good stuff ^

I was getting the runaround trying to get a refund on a defective nokia2600 that i returned to Net10.
Guess what though, About 3 days after I complained at BBBonline.org I got a refund check in full deliverd overnight by DHL.
You have to ruffle their feathers to get your money back from them!!!! Otherwise, they'll take a month or more before you get your refund. FYI
The check came from Tracfone in Miami.

My new Net10 motorola v176 (from walmart) works great. Love the rates, .10 a minute anytime, anywhere, is pretty good.
God help you if you have to deal with the runaround you'll get from the call center.

[SeaFox]

:eek: I just found out that Net10 is actually part of Tracfone...so why the hell is Tracfone making it's own competitor?
Tracphone's image is pretty old hat in the cell phone world, weren't they like the first prepaid wireless MVNO? Also, were they analog? That might explain the Net10 thing. New network without the old reputation to work through?

[zbikenut]

There are several reasons for Tracfone to set up Net10. Tracfone has based their business on being able to sell you a phone for use in every zip code in the US. They have a high cost of buying minutes in some areas where there are no competing suppliers. When they made a deal with cingular to buy minutes on the cingular network they could charge a lot less and make money but not cover the entire country since there are some major holes nationally in the GSM networks. Tracfone also had a refer-a-friend plan that was expensive---they gave out a ton of minutes. Refer-a-friend has ended and now tracfone is making better deals on their minutes. Tracfone and Net10 have problems porting phone numbers because they are not doing it---the company that they buy minutes from Cingular, verizon, alltel do the porting and tend to be slow to work on tracfone customer's phones.

I have had tracfone service for a couple of years now and I have had several phones--some from Verizon and some from Alltel. Verizon ported my number in minutes Alltel took a week.

[HeHateContracts]

Every few days, my phone just stops working and I have to call with a land line phone and enter a ton of LONG codes. I had over 100 minutes on my phone a few days ago and suddenly all those minutes just disappeared.

About the same thing just happened to me. I still have 123 minutes left on service that doesn't expire until 11/20/2006, but I can't make any outgoing calls and all incoming calls immediately go to my Net10 voicemail. There's no dial tone on outgoing calls, and there is no ringing when calling the phone before it goes to voice mail. Almost acts as if the phone has been prematurely deactivated.

Customer service was pretty funny. I first got a case number by entering the problem on the Technical Support page of the Net10 website, only to find out that it could take "24 to 48 hours" before the problem would be addressed. Then I called the Customer Service number (obviously offshore) and after I explained the above details she said, "So, you are having problems making and receiving calls, is that right? If the problem continues after 24 hours, please call us again."

The phone is a Motorola V171. Nothing fancy, but we got great service on our 10-day driving trip from Minnesota to the Great Smokies to Niagara Falls and back to Minnesota. I'm driving down to Florida in two weeks and really need a phone, so hope they can fix this puppy.

The phone came with 300 minutes. I haven't purchased any additional airtime yet, and I won't if they can't fix this problem and assure me it won't happen again. Actually, after reading what has been said about Net10 customer service here, maybe I should be happy that I at least got something out of the thing before it crapped out.

[HeHateContracts]

Just an update to my previous post, and it is quite positive.

I called again after waiting 24 hours. I explained that I really enjoyed the service and would very much like for there to be a successful resolution. She agreed to do everything she could to help.

First she had me turn on the phone, then with the phone on remove the battery and the SIM card, then wait for 60 seconds before reinstalling them. I reset the date and time and tried making a call. No luck.

Second, she walked me through the menus to find "Master Reset". I clicked that and again reset the date and time and tried another call. No luck.

I asked about getting a new phone under the 1-year warranty. My concern was that it might not get here before I have to leave on my trip. She said it would take 5 business days, then spoke with her assistant and said that the problem would need to be 48 hours old before they would implement the warranty. Yes, I recall reading that somewhere, too. She said their Technical Support team hadn't really looked at my particular case yet, but they would within the next 24 hours. Okay, let's give that a shot.

So I'm on my computer with the phone next to me and it beeps. Hmmm. Open it up and it says I have two messages!

It works! Hooray!! While I don't have any idea what happened, nor do I have any assurance it won't happen again, I am at least relieved that if it does happen again it can be fixed.

By the way, out of curiousity I asked where she (the customer service rep) was located. She said she was in the Belise City call center. I hear Belise is a beautiful country, I told her. She agreed that it was very pretty. Gee, wife and I might just have to jump on a cruise ship that stops there sometime.

Conclusion: Net10 experience still favorable. Advice: be especially respectful to (and patient with) customer service reps, no matter how strong their accent, and they will do what they can for you.

[lin]

I'm new at this, what is GSM?

[HeHateContracts]

So I decided to buy another 300 minute airtime card for my Net10 V171 and went back Wal-Mart where I first saw them. They don't sell them anymore. They stopped a month or so ago. Tried Target and they don't sell them anymore either. I'm guessing someone decided that if a retailer sells Tracfone it cannot also sell Net10, and vise versa. Kmart sells Net10, but not Tracfone, so that's where I ended up getting a new card. Just fyi.

[Richy_rich]

Some RAVE about the 10 cents a minute service. I have checked many threads on the Net 10 (run by TracFone.) 10 cents a minute sounds good. HOWEVER, you are paying for non-answered calls, busy signals, roaming fees, AND you only have service on REFILL CARDS FOR 60 DAYS!! The service area is not very good. I have tried just about ALL of them I like Virgin Mobile!! WHY? No charge for ring, no answer,.No charge for busy signal. Customer service - good. REfill (Top Up cards can be activated in less than a minute on the Internet!!) THE best part, refill cards last for 90 days..NOT 60!!

Also, no roaming fees, good coverage. It is 18 cents a minute, but worth every penny, when you consider the comparisons!! All features included. Voicemail, Call waiting, you can get special celebrity voices for your voicemail, etc. Absolutely blows all the others I have tried out of the water!
Has worked for me everywhere...(and I travel.) Of course, you can also purchase 1 year service like many other carriers.

[HeHateContracts]

"The service area [Net10] is not very good."

The reason I went with Net10 was because of its excellent coverage area. Just returned from a driving trip to Florida and never hit a dead spot. It worked everywhere.

18 cents a minute [Virgin Mobile] seems a little stiff in today's competitive world. Net10 also has voicemail, caller id and call waiting. And the top off card I used worked in less than a minute, too, so no big whoop there either for Virgin Mobile.

The biggest difference is the 60 versus 90 days of service. If you use your phone a lot and plan on going through 300 minutes in 60 days, then Net10 is a good deal at 10 cents a minute. If you don't use all 300 minutes, you can carry them over as long as you buy another 300 before your 60 days are up.

I purchased the Net10 phone because I needed to keep in touch with my elderly parents and the care givers I lined up when I had to be out of town for two weeks last September, and renewed it when I knew I had to go to Florida to put their beachfront condo on the market. Now that those trips are done, I might just let my Net10 service expire since I won't need as many minutes any longer. I used almost all 300 minutes on the first card, but have 200 minutes left on the second with 30 days still to go.

[Gerard]

Just purchased the NET10 Motorola v176 at Wal*Marts this afternoon around 4PM. Full charging of the battery took only 3 hours or so (give or take) and I activated service over the Internet through their website. WOW was it ever easy and a smooth as glass process. I have Tracfone now so I'm not new to the process but it is still VERY user friendly for the novice. The phone was activated in seconds of finishing the activation process (takes about 10 minutes or so) and I've already set up my voice mail too!! ALL-IN-ALL I think NET10 is the BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK and will continue to use them when our Tracfone yearly ends in a few months. Hope this helps others that are considering NET10.

[Gerard]

My wife liked my phone so much that I went (had to :D ) and bought her her own today. Same as above for the activation.... EXCELLENT process without any problems! Our daughter will use my wifes old one for now 'til the minutes are out or the yearly ends in a couple of months. NET10 ROCKS!

[Rider]

Richy_Rich said:

"I have checked many threads on the Net 10 (run by TracFone.) 10 cents a minute sounds good. HOWEVER, you are paying for non-answered calls, busy signals, roaming fees, ..."

I was surprised to read about hidden charges like non-answered calls or busy signals, is that true? Where is that information coming from? If you read all the info given by Net10, they explicitly say that there are no hidden charges and no roaming fees, where is the true?

[Nightowl]

I have used various wireless services but my current provider does not have coverage in the small town I will be visiting so I did some checking and decided Net10 was the cheapest way to go for a two week trip. I bought the Motorola C155 refurbished phone with free 2nd day shipping and 300 minutes for $21. I don't care that the 300 minutes expire in 60 days. I only need them for 2 weeks. Fedex went to my neighbors house instead of mine so I called to have the driver come back which she did. I activated the phone and got a local number that my wife can call while I'm on this trip. The charges for busy and missed calls don't bother me in this situation. I use a free message center apart from Net10 so I didn't waste time setting up voicemail. Net10 uses Cingular so it's good at home and in the small town in East Tennessee. My daughter racked up a $2000 phone bill traveling with her Verizon phone. I'm leaving my T-mobile phone at home. For now Net10 seems like a super deal. I'll keep it for trips. ;)

[carcomptoy]

Where in the world did she travel???

T-Mobile doesn't roam on Cingular in that area? I thought I was going to have to switch to Cingular when my school moves next semester, but thankfully we just roam on Cingular. Cingular service at T-Mobile prices sounds excellent to me.

[HeHateContracts]

I was surprised to read about hidden charges like non-answered calls or busy signals, is that true? Where is that information coming from? If you read all the info given by Net10, they explicitly say that there are no hidden charges and no roaming fees, where is the true?

One wonders if the post by Richy Rich is really just a plug for Virgin Mobile (see above). In fact, Net10 does not charge for non-answered calls or busy signals; and there are no roaming charges. Richy Rich does have a point regarding the 60 versus 90 days, but even if the service expires in 60 days, you are still paying just $15 per month. And that's net, not gross. There aren't those insideous taxes and fees piled on like there are with other cell phone contracts. AND you get to carry over any unused minutes if you renew at least the day before your expiration date.

No, I don't work for Net10. Truth be known, I don't even work. Retired as a self-employed computer consultant three years ago.

[freeluck]

The short answer, I like it. My fiance and I both use NET10. Since were together a lot, we use whichever phone has the most minutes left. We just use it for quick calls (usually). We have actually been able to only renew our 300 minute cards every 2 months. So we're actually paying $15 per month for wireless.

Every wireless company has areas with weak signals, but I think this is generally as good as any of the others. My son uses AMPD. He's paying a fortune and the signal where we live is bad for him, good for us.

In our area, there is a local site that lists things to do. They posted a review about NET10. Theres a story in it about some guy that had a daughter that ran up a bill (I think with Sprint) for over $1500!

If it's OK to post the link: syraction.com/net10.htm
Overall I like it. I've only had a few dropped calls so far. My son (on AMP"d) gets them all the time.

[leenanj]

I was about to purchase air time and I see that Net10 no longer offers the 1500 min card that was good for a year.
Now it will cost me $200 a year instead of $150 to keep the phone activated.

I liked keeping this service as an emergency phone but now it looks like
BYE BYE Net10. :(

[deltone]

My husband and I each purchased a Net10 the beginning of March, in Myrtle Beach so that we could keep in touch while there. We live in Canada and to add the US to our Canadian plans would have cost us each $40, and that would give us only 100 minutes each for the month. Made more sense to go to Walmart and buy the phones and get the 300 minutes each.

Anyhow, we loved the phones, never had a problem and used them to phone Canada on many occasions. We didn't come close to using all of the minutes and we weren't being stingy either. I figured I would get to use any unused minutes when my mother and I go to Atlantic City later this month.

Anyhow, we returned to Canada on Sunday and when we crossed the border, I thought for fun I would try the phone to see if it worked.....as perhaps we'd pick up a US tower. Surprise, it did work. So, we drove further and further, and we live around 3 hours north of the Canadian/US border and guess what? The phones work here!!!! I'm not kidding. They're not supposed to work here but they do. They're on roaming, but so what.

As far as Customer Service goes, well, after we had the phone a couple of days, we're sitting in our rented condo in Myrtle Beach and my husband gets a call on the land line. It was someone from Net10 enquiring about the service my husband was getting on his phone. Apparently (although we hadn't noticed anything), his phone was getting a weak signal and the gal wanted him to do a couple of things by punching in several numbers to give him a better signal, and so he did, and that was that. My point being, we were VERY impressed with this Customer Service. We hadn't even asked for anything.

Before going to the US in March, I had done a lot of research to find out what best 'throway' phones that were out there, and all I can say is I'm glad we found Net10 and we've told lots of our Snowbird friends and next year they're all doing the same thing. Also, a few of our American friends are going to go with them as well. I give Net10 two thumbs up and am super impressed that the phones work in Canada.

[freeluck]

I have 2 sons who use amp'd. I get better reception than they do. I don't stay on the phone for long and they do, so it's hard to compare dropped calls, but I know I get a better signal where I live. They have dropped calls every day. They both had Kyocera Jet phones, which rebooted themselves frequently. They replaced the phones with Motorola Hollywood's and have had much fewer problems.

I heard that net10 now offers a $15, 150 minute, 30 day card on their website only, but I haven't checked it out yet. I know the minimum in stores is $30/300min/2 months.

I didnt realize it a first, but I found out that if you renew your time early, the new expiration date is added to the old expiration date, not the date you renew. For example, if you have 30 days left on you phone and add a 60 day card, you get a total of 90 days before your time expires. Unused minutes also roll over.

I really can think of any problems I've had. I live near Syracuse, which is in central New York State (about 250 miles from NYC). Syracuse is a medium to small size city which a big suburban and rural area surrounding it. I would think that if the service is good here it would be as good or better around a large city.

A local web site (Syraction) has a review of net10, which gives some good information. I can't post a link here, because I havent had 15 posts. It will probably take years fo me to do that, because I dont do this very often.
If you want to type the link in yourself the link is (kind of) "syraction.com/net10.htm"

[motoeh]

Just stumbled on this site.

My 2yr experience with net 10 has been wonderfull.

From the east to west coast and along I-40 and south.

Always fast to answer the phones and very helpful. :)

I have been with other carriers and my experiences were :sad7: .

Each and every one of them treated me like I was to dumb to remember what they told me in the last conversation. At least I'm not paying them to do it anymore. Ed Good Luck!

[hw936]

I couldn't agree more with the Net10 praisers here. I've tried them all, contract and prepaid. Virgin is good, but over priced. I didn't want another contract, I don't talk on the phone all that much and usually have 100 minutes left at each re-up time. Net10 is the best quality and and value in the prepaid area. Except for Virgin, most of the others charge you up to a dollar a day whether you're using the phone or not. My coverage is generally great to -- and I live in a very remote area. I'm totally satisfied with Net10. Interesting that the same company owns Net10 and Tracfone. I found Tracfone to be a rip off, unless you're just using it as an emergency phone.

To answer another post: I saw the 150 minute cards at a Walmart near here (in Texas) the other day. I think they were asking $14.88 or so for them.

[hw936]

Richy_Rich said:

"I have checked many threads on the Net 10 (run by TracFone.) 10 cents a minute sounds good. HOWEVER, you are paying for non-answered calls, busy signals, roaming fees, ..."

I was surprised to read about hidden charges like non-answered calls or busy signals, is that true? Where is that information coming from? If you read all the info given by Net10, they explicitly say that there are no hidden charges and no roaming fees, where is the true?


I've never been charged any of those fees, Tracfone charges as soon as you hit the dial button, but so far my Net10 doesn't. You will be charged for the "non-answered call" if a voicemail picks up though.

To the other poster: The Walmart near here (in Texas) carries the full line of Net10 cards, including the new 150 minute. Some of the local gas station/convenience stores here have Net10 Cards as well, and I'm in a rather remote area of Texas.

[Ringman]

Well, I really wanted Net10 to be my solution. I'm tired of the contracts and since mine has now mercifully ended, I wanted to give Net10 a try. Unfortunately, my experience has not been a good one so far. I bought a Net10 phone with 300 minutes included. I've activated the phone but no minutes are on my account. I've email customer service 2 times over the past 2 days and have yet to receive any sort of reply. With this lack of service just starting out, it makes me concerned about the service I will receive later. I think I'm just going to take the phone back to the retailer and get my money back.

[rjlafont]

I have both Tracfone and Net10. They may not be the best service for every cell phone user but they fit my usage just fine. They both offer services for about 10 cents a minute if you purchase you time carefully. Tracfone currently owns Net10 but it did not start that way so forget about conspiracy theories.

Whoever noted that customer service is lackluster, is absolutely correct. Customer service is almost non-existent but once you get the thing working and don’t need any more service the price is right. When I bought my first Tracfone all went well. My second one took 2 months before I was able to port my old ATT number. The customer agents are very nice but English is not their first or best language.

Getting the second phone working was a comedy of errors. Since I didn’t really need it I kept playing the game. They lovingly sent me SIM card after SIM card in the mail without any positive results. Each time I called the 800 number and they politely sent me another. The didn’t just mail them they sent them priority at huge expense for a chip smaller than a postage stamp.

Bottom line is now that I got them working I love the service. They rent airtime from anyone who will rent them a tower so the service is the same as the carrier they rent from. When I had ATT I was constantly being charged for roaming or out of service at exorbitant rates, sometime more than a dollar a minute without warning. With Tracfone and Net10 you get exactly what you pay for.

My two phones with ATT cost over $1200 a year without any usage. Since I transferred to Net10 and Tracfone I am spending about $300 for the same service. Be warned that if you use your cell phone to chat endlessly or use it for business neither may be appropriate for you. I needed a phone that worked almost everywhere, including nowhere.

I traveled down the Colorado River by raft last year and my Tracfone worked when T-Mobile was dead to the world everywhere. It didn’t work all the time but it worked when others didn’t. Whoever thunk this up was a genius. A cell phone that anyone can afford without sucking the marrow out of the users.

Retired Verizon executive,

Bob

[Calvin]

I have had a Net10 phone for 4 months now. Customer service is good not great. Coverage is great. Renewal is getting better all the time. Biggest complaint is calls for previous owner of the phone number. The phone number must have been reissued quickly. It is the only way to go for occasional users.

[Farles]

I have a question about international
I'm really thinking about getting a net10 phone but I need these answered and I can seem to find one

It says on their site that the 5cent thing only applies to the countries with cellular next to the name? I think anyway.
So, if I were to call to a mobile in the UK what would it cost?
and can I text internationally?

[Sailor Steve]

I became a Net10 customer three months ago. I liked the idea of pay-as-you-go, since I rarely use more than 150 minutes per month, and paying $40 for that is expensive no matter how many unused minutes I get.

I bought the Nokia 1600 at Wal-Mart and a 300-minute card. Total outlay: $60. I like that. Someone asked earlier about the "300 free minutes". What happens is you activate your first card and they give you 400 minutes, and the same again with the next two cards, so the "300 free" is spread out over three card purchases. Works fine for me. They also gave me FOUR months instead of two. Needless to say I was very happy.

I had the phone for about a month and I accidentally trashed the sim card. I will make it clear that this was my fault. They tried to mail me a new sim card, but I was using General Delivery for an address and they couldn't get it to me. No problem, except it took me two weeks to find out about it since they didn't e-mail me to explain this.

I had been wanting an internet-capable phone, so I just went to Wal-Mart and spent another $80 for a Motorola W375. I activated it online, and then called the customer service line to port over the number, and was told that I should have activated the phone with them instead of online, as they now could not change the number. So, I now had to tell my friends to call the new number.

About two weeks later a friend told me in person that he wished I would turn my phone on once in a while. I told him it was on, so he tried to call me and was directed to my voicemail, which told him that I hadn't activated it yet. I called the voicemail number and it wouldn't let me activate; so now I could make calls but nobody could call me. This is bad because I do mostly temporary work and the people I work for need to be able to call me.

I called the customer service line and explained the problem. After almost an hour of typing in different codes they decided that the problem was in the phone itself and said they would send me a new one. I purchased a Post Office box so I could actually receive it, and after two weeks it didn't come. I called them again and somehow they had the number wrong. Maybe my fault, but in the meantime they took the minutes off the phone I had for transfer to the new one, so I now couldn't call anybody either. I was finally transferred to a very nice supervisor who gave me 40 free minutes to use while the new phone was mailed.

The phone came after a five-day wait, and we activated it. Same problem-no incoming calls. We went through the same half-hour process of typing in codes, with no luck. They decided it must be the sim card, and they sent me a new one. This time they left me my minutes, so I could still call people. EXCEPT, three days later someone de-activated the phone on my father's 80th birthday, so I missed calling him (I know that sounds extreme, but it's really true).

Five days later the new sim card came, and we tried it again. Still no luck, and another half-hour of code-typing. They decided that it must be the phone, and said they would send me a Nokia instead. Of course this would put me out the $80 I had paid for the Motorola, but I figured I would deal with that later. They kindly extended my due-date by two weeks.

Everything was fine until December 24. Yep, they de-activated my phone the day before Christmas.

The new phone came on the 27th, and when I opened the package it was another Motorola! I immediately called them, and waited 20 minutes for someone to answer. Never happened. I called again a few hours later and got the same response.

Today I called again, and again waited about 20 minutes for a response that never came.

I still like the idea of ten cents a minute, but I'm wondering if it will ever happen. I've been with Net10 for three months, and had a fully-functioning phone for about three weeks of that. For another month or so I've had a phone that could call but not recieve calls.

Sorry this was so long, but I felt that in order to fully feel my frustration you had to live through it with me. I'm planning on e-mailing a modified version of this story to Net10, Wal-Mart and Motorola.

[jcrowe]

Hello,

This is Jeff Crowe from Net 10.Well my stupid manager fired me the other day for doubling minutes to my family so I want to teach him a lesson.So However I still have all Net 10 Codes for some time before they change them so if you send me the pin card number I can double your minutes also in the special four digit code also if there is one located.Also it doubles your expiration date. But hurry up before they take my account away and change the employee codes.

Email: jcrowe@newyork.usa.com





Jeff Crowe

[LaneLester]

I just bought a refurb V171 from Net10's website for $40 with 300 minutes, and it works. So far, so good.

But there's no voicemail number programmed in, and there's no indication at Net10's site how to get one. I suspect one was supposed to be programmed into the SIM card. I've posted an email inquiry on their site, but if you know a faster way to get the number, please let me know. This thing is useless without voicemail.

I also want to port my old AT&T number over, but the horror stories I've read make me think it might be better just to put a voicemail message at AT&T directing people to my Net10 number.

Lane

[Hardane]

I've had my Net10 phone for about one year. The rules are, if you don't add airtime by the end of your paid airtime, your phone is deactivated and you have to reactivate it, and take a new phone number. My airtime was up on Feb 28, 2008. I spent most of the day trying to add airtime, both from the phone, and online. I bought an airtime card, but when I add the PIN, it says system unavailable. When I called customer service, they said that the phone is now inactive, and I'll have to take a new phone number. This is a major problem. I use this number for a home business. So, even though I tried to add time for several hours, while my phone was active, it's my fault their system was unavailable. Never had a problem with them before this, but this is ridiculous. :mad: So, if you don't mind losing your phone number because their service is down, go for it.

[sikatpinoy]

I just bought a refurb V171 from Net10's website for $40 with 300 minutes, and it works. So far, so good.

But there's no voicemail number programmed in, and there's no indication at Net10's site how to get one. I suspect one was supposed to be programmed into the SIM card. I've posted an email inquiry on their site, but if you know a faster way to get the number, please let me know. This thing is useless without voicemail.

I also want to port my old AT&T number over, but the horror stories I've read make me think it might be better just to put a voicemail message at AT&T directing people to my Net10 number.

Lane

hi there,sorry for your bad experience with net10,i have the same problem also,with their customer service,and special firmware.anyways,this is the voicemail phone#1323-229-6016,go to contacts,settings,voicemail box#,key in #13232296016,try this one,i hope it is the same for any area codes in the US.good luck!

[Assassin2]

We are two Brits who having retired and decided to explore the US in a motorhome and needed a couple of phones. We bought two basic Net10 Nokia 1600 phones from WalMArt [ A good decision! ] and tried to activate them. Well with one phone it was no problem, the other one took 3 weeks and hours of calls by WalMart associates to get it working. Then we had more hours of standing by the WalMart help desk while they tried to get the International calling activated. [ N.B. Making an international call means dialing a 1 800 no then going through some voice prompts then dialing the country code and no. we found that although we were often told that the call was not allowed as we did not have this set up we could just press the green button and the call would go through. NO INTERNATIONAL TEXTS THOUGH AND THEY WILL DEACTIVATE YOUR PHONE IF YOU TRY (they say!)]

After a couple of months they were both working and the coverage has been OK not up to Verizon but OK.

HOWEVER 17 days ago we tried to phone the 1 800 no for international as usual and got the message "Your call can not be processed" We phoned the help line and the run around started. We have spent hours on the phone to them, been into Walmart who tried on our behalf. Four times we have been promised that the problem has been fixed and to wait 48 hours for the fix to work through. GUESS WHAT HAPPENED yup no change.

We emailed them and got a promise that they would call us to help us fix the phone GUESS WHAT HAPPENED yup no call back.

As many others seem to have found Net10 has no customer service worth mentioning.

We have missed a birthday call to a parent and other calls.

If Net10 would tell us what the problem is and be open about the fix I would not mind but all we have had is the runaround.

Does anyone know a way to light a fire under them.

John and Carol :icon_pale:

[hillsdalebob]

I notice several posts suggesting that Virgin Mobile does not charge for outgoing calls that do not go through or outgoing calls that are made to a busy number.

Wrong. Virgin does charge the one minute minimum for these calls. They start charging when you click on the send key and finish charging when you click the end key - regardless of if the call is answered or not.

I did not realize this was the case until today when I got an email from Virgin confirming it. Perhaps this is a new policy?

[Thekid72]

I have had good luck with Tracfone over the years. They used to use a very good local provider - now it's either ATT or T-Mobile. When I had a C261 camera phone stolen, replacing it with a Moto 370 was easy and the DMFL that my old phone had still works on the new one.

So given my good luck with Tracfone for light use, I thought I'd switch to Net10 when my contract phone ran out as I don't use enough time for a contract phone - but more than what Tracfone (and some others) are setup for.

BIG MISTAKE! On one hand, my old number was ported in a matter of a couple days(!!!). Yes the new SIM card was NDA delivered and I was up and running on my long time number from T-Mobile. Bad news... to this day I still do not have voice mail. If I turn the phone off (or it goes dead), the caller receives a "the party at this number is not accepting calls" message. If it's on, it rings until the other party gives up.

Customer service just plain isn't. They try, they are polite, but they can't get the job done. Now I am ready to port my number to someone else - and I'm not sure who to switch to. ATT and Verizon have a good signal in my area (this Net10 phone is on ATT), but they charge a buck a day when used. T-Mo's signal is weak. Virgin Mobiles new 30 day refil period for 10 cents/min program is silly, and Nextel/Boost's base level super-thin phone is very poor quality (been there, tried that).

UGH!

[rjmurdock]

I have had both net10 and tracfone. I will not disagree that their customer service sucks but I have always managed to get my issues resolved eventually. A trick to the horrible engllish is to tell them their english is not understandable and I have gotten to speak to representatives that could speak english. Also you have to be stubborn and call alot and don't forget to ask for free minutes if you ask you will get if not they won't offer. I have had to go without my phone for a couple days before but I feel that anyone who needs their phone like they need air should not be doing a prepaid thing you want a contract. I would also like to add that many of my friends and my parents have verizon and although their customer service reps speak english they don't halp anymore than net10/tracfone reps. Ok well if you only use your phone for emergencies and I mean emergencies than tracfonr is a good deal you can get a 60 min card for $20 and 60 days of service that's 10 a month for a cell phone. If you want to use you phone a little more net10 is better because for 30$ you get 300 minutes and 60 days of service which is $15 per month. You can get 300 minutes for 30$ from tracfone with a little creativity first you get a double minutes for life card which some of the new phones come with and if it didn't they are 50$ at the store however I got mine off ebay for 25$ then you run a search on the web for promotional codes. Buy a 120 min airtime card which gives you 240 min plus use a promo code which will usually add anywhere from 20 min up to 80 min. But it is a pain and you have to keep track of which promo codes you used and when because they don't always work twice and if they do they will give you less minutes the second time. If you need more minutes than that you really shouldn't be considering prepaid. As far as reception goes you can't get better than net10 or tracfone because they use other carriers towers. If you have a cdma phone then you will use ALL cdma towers(verizon, Alltel) if you have a GMS phone you will use all GMS towers(Cingular, AT&T) you are not limited to one provider therefore you get more service. I will reiterate again that I am not denying customer service problems however if you need you phone to live you shouldn't even consider prepaid that is not what it was meant for.

[Bizzer14207ke7]

Does anyone know if a Net 10 SIM card can be used in a T-Mobile Phone ?
In a SideKick LX to be exact. And if you know how to can you tell me thx.

I have Net 10 service got my t-mobile turned off and i got a 200 $ sidekick and a 40 $ net10 phone so was wondering how can i make it work .

[mrplod]

Hi guys, does anyone know if a net10 sim can be used in an Apple or generic Apple, ie is the sim card locked. If so how can it be unlocked? thanx

[JJ Hardy]

[QUOTE=carcomptoy;86409]What does anybody think of NET10? Is it good?

I think that Net 10 is fantastic, they only charge 10 cents per minute and that's not like all the other pre-paid companys that charge you a daily rate first before you can have the 10 cents per minute rate. I make a lot of calls every day so it makes a really big difference to get the bast rate, I'm in my car most of the time and because Net 10 uses all the towers I never have a problem with coverage, it doesn't matter where I am in the US, I still pay 10 per minute. ;)

[snowsbaby]

my family owns several net 10 phones..you can't beat them ..cheapest prepaid phone on the market. the only place that i havent been able to get reception is in the mountains in virginia. never had any problems with customer service at all and if you buy a new phone to replace an old net 10 phone they will move everyting if you ask and they do it while you are on the phone. move min,activation time and everything to your new phone so you don't lose any of the money or time you have built up. we have been using these phones for 3 years with no problems. we have upgraded several times and all the phones are well worth it. go to net10.com and check them out they have great deals and you can see the great coverage areas. i live in texas and have never lost signal or anything here or any other states i have been through except virginia.:p

[b0bsc0fld]

As I was reading down the forum, I read Richy Riches comment that I knew was false. Then I read someone elses comment about his favorable bias toward Virgin. The thing is that I have been researching prepaid phone plans all day and I remember reading on some rating website that there indeed is no roaming charge on Virgin BECAUSE YOU PLANE JUST CAN'T GET A CALL THRU in a roaming area. That Virgin is not a nationwide service. So how is richy rich making these calls he's claiming. Maybe it's by beating his gums on the ground.

[barrysaddy]

Hello,

This is Jeff Crowe from Net 10.Well my stupid manager fired me the other day for doubling minutes to my family so I want to teach him a lesson.So However I still have all Net 10 Codes for some time before they change them so if you send me the pin card number I can double your minutes also in the special four digit code also if there is one located.Also it doubles your expiration date. But hurry up before they take my account away and change the employee codes.

Email: jcrowe@newyork.usa.com







Jeff Crowe
Hi Jeff;
Since you were on the inside, can you give us some secrets as to how to get good customer service out of Net 10
I bought a net 10 phone from best buy. Didn't have the features they told me it had so I took it back after about a week. I then bought a net 10 phone on-line. I believe because of this I get notices that my service will end before the actual time that it is suppose to end. The time line is just about 10 days which is just about the time it took me to change phones. I have called Net 10 several times ( 4 ) to correct this issue and while they say they will I believe they tell me that just to get me off the phone because it never stops. Emails and voice messages keep coming like the world is going to end. Today I asked for a supervisor and when she couldn't help I asked for her supervisor and he hung up on me. I was not abusive to him just persistent that my problem was not being taken care of after several calls. Each time i called they put me on hold for several minutes, I guess to discourage me so I would hang up. WHAT IS THE SECRET TO GET GOOD SERVICE JEFF ?, HOW BOUT AN EXECUTIVE OFFICE NUMBER AND AN EXECUTIVE NAME ? PLEASE, MAYBE IF THEY HEAR IT AT THE TOP THERE MAY BE SOME IMPROVEMENT. Right now they are using a front line as in football to block the complaints from reaching the people that might be able to change the lousy customer service they have. I switched from AT&T to get away from awful service and the extra $10.00 a month in fee's to nowhere. I got rid of the extra $10.00 to nowhere but am stuck with lousy customer service again.
Thank you in advance

[barrysaddy]

I believe net 10 uses AT&T and T-Mobile ALTEL
Customer service STINKS !!!

[barrysaddy]

Well, I really wanted Net10 to be my solution. I'm tired of the contracts and since mine has now mercifully ended, I wanted to give Net10 a try. Unfortunately, my experience has not been a good one so far. I bought a Net10 phone with 300 minutes included. I've activated the phone but no minutes are on my account. I've email customer service 2 times over the past 2 days and have yet to receive any sort of reply. With this lack of service just starting out, it makes me concerned about the service I will receive later. I think I'm just going to take the phone back to the retailer and get my money back.
good for you, Net 10 Customer service is terrible