I've tried to like net10, really I have. I don't use a phone constantly and their per minute rate was very attractive to me. I purchased a refurbished unit for only $20.00 and it came with 300 minutes of airtime. Heck of a deal and, while featureless, the phone worked. I tested coverage in a few places I knew were fringe areas, but for the most part my son and daughter in law used the phone so we could keep in touch. A positive enough experience, so I bought a new phone.

Thant's when the nightmare began.

The documentation that came with the phone was joke, as was the "manual" linked to from the site. When I tried to find more information on the phone I discovered that the manufacturer didn't even list the phone and didn't support it because the contract with trac prohibited them from it. Further research revealed that the phone was in fact a discontinued model that had been built for a totally different market, purchased by trac at an obvious discount, and reprogrammed and renamed. This would have been bad enough if the phone had worked like it should. Sadly, it didn't.

Audio was weak. I had a lot of trouble hearing the other party in a conversation and they had a lot of trouble hearing me. This was consistent and couldn't be blamed on "bad connection". The display was also very dim and could not be read in anything but the darkest of ambient light. I contacted net10 "support" and after some time of them "jacking me around" I finally got an RMA and they sent me a replacement phone. Fine, except the replacement was also defective. Same problem with weak audio most of the time with spontaneous spikes of loud and distorted sound in the middle of a conversation. While it did not have the dim display, it introduced me to a new and different problem, battery meter not properly tracking the state of the battery.

Again I called and got plenty of runaround, but finally did get them to agree to take back the replacement and let me return the original defect to the point of purchase. They claim they are sending me a SIM card so I can resurrect the cheap featureless refurb and use up my airtime rather than losing it. It remains to be seen whether that will come to pass or not.

When I returned the phone the point of purchase I was able to speak frankly with the clerk since we were alone in the store and found out that my experience was typical of those who make the mistake of buy net10 / tracphone. He was completely unsurprised by my description of the grief they have put me through.

I just hope they do one thing right and let me use up my airtime so I'm not out any more than I have been already.

Keeping my contract is looking better all the time.