Tracfone Gets Laundered

[bruce1]

I have never successfully given a modern electronic device a bath.

 

[TromboneAl]

Al, instead of a poll on actual experiences you should have started a pool on "will it or won't it". I say no...

Hundred bucks on "No"?

You should get yourself a phone with SIM card, like T-Mobile. Then the next time you need a new phone you just drop the SIM card in it. No need to call customer support.

I agree, but T-mobile doesn't cover this area.

Tracfone represents another instance where a product is made inferior (no SIMs) in order to increase revenue.

 

[FUEGO]

Tracfone represents another instance where a product is made inferior (no SIMs) in order to increase revenue.

My tracfones have typically had SIM cards. But I think each one is tied to a phone. I have never been able to "switch" a tracfone SIM to another tracfone though. They usually require a new tracfone SIM to be activated on a different tracfone.

 

[Texas Proud]

I voted yes even though it was not me... but my BIL had his dropped in salt water... after drying out the only thing that did not work well was the screen... I think half of it worked, the other half did not... but the phone made and received calls...

 

[TromboneAl]

It works perfectly!

I put the battery in, and it didn't switch on (not surprising), but as soon as I plugged in the charger everything worked, including a test call.

 

[ziggy29]

I'm a little surprised it still works perfectly when the battery was in the phone. I know many electronic devices can usually survive a "bath" after a long "drying" session if there was no current going through the device. Perhaps the current from the battery was low enough that it didn't cause any of the electronics to ***zap*** when submerged.

 

[Sue J]

Nice to hear it's working. Does it still work if you unplug the charger?

 

[REWahoo]

Very glad to lose my bet...

 

[W2R]

I am so happy for you!!

Personally I have never had the misfortune to drop my cell phone into water, but would have just assumed that it was toast.

 

[bruce1]

Excellent

 

[TromboneAl]

Nice to hear it's working. Does it still work if you unplug the charger?

Yes, and the battery holds a charge fine. I took a call today while on my bike.

 

[ERD50]

Yes, and the battery holds a charge fine. I took a call today while on my bike.

Good News!

You can answer your poll now

-ERD50

 

[rescueme]

Give us your number; we'll all be glad to help you test it ...

 

[Bikerdude]

My tracfones have typically had SIM cards. But I think each one is tied to a phone. I have never been able to "switch" a tracfone SIM to another tracfone though. They usually require a new tracfone SIM to be activated on a different tracfone.

I've had tracfone for 10 yrs and every phone I've had (maybe 5) including my current one, has had a SIM card.

Maybe they contract with a different carrier network in your area. Glad to hear yours still works Al.

 

[FUEGO]

I've had tracfone for 10 yrs and every phone I've had (maybe 5) including my current one, has had a SIM card.

Maybe they contract with a different carrier network in your area. Glad to hear yours still works Al.

Were your SIMs interchangeable or did you have to have a new SIM for each new phone?

 

[ERD50]

I'm also curious about the SIM card. Is this a CDMA phone? I thought they switched to using them too, but maybe the lower end phones have not yet.

Every bare-bones-cheap-skate-no-feature phone I've owned for many years has had a SIM, because they are GSM based and it's standard for GSM. It's a very good thing, you can save an older phone as a backup, or swap SIMS to test a phone, or buy an unlocked one cheap (ask your friends who get a new phone every year for their cast-offs).

-ERD50

 

[powerplay]

Congratulations! I'm happy it is still working.

When I had a Net 10 (part of tracfone) phone it had a sim card. It was incredibly frustrating because the phone number had been previously used by someone who had bill collectors chasing him and I could not get them to stop the calls so just let the phone expire.

 

[Bikerdude]

Were your SIMs interchangeable or did you have to have a new SIM for each new phone?

Every time I got a new phone it was included in my one year renewal and came with a new SIM so I never tried to swap a current one with an old phone. It would be cool if I could.

 

[ERD50]

Congratulations! I'm happy it is still working.

When I had a Net 10 (part of tracfone) phone it had a sim card. It was incredibly frustrating because the phone number had been previously used by someone who had bill collectors chasing him and I could not get them to stop the calls so just let the phone expire.

That is independent of SIM no-SIM. That's just the result of getting a new phone #. I'm guessing that they tend to re-assign pre-pay phone #'s back to pre-pay customers. Since these are no-contract-no-credit-check required, there seems to be a better (worse?) chance of getting the phone # of someone who owed bills or were criminals or had different sleep patterns.

Ask for a new #. When I switched recently, I wasn't ready to port our old number until I knew I liked the service, and we kept getting bill collector calls. So then I ported our old number (it had expired, but was still available).

TIP: Porting from a pre-pay phone is slightly different than from a contract phone. They will ask you for your 'account #' (I thought I didn't have an account?). The nice lady handling my request (apparently with 5 other people in the same cube, because I kept hearing 6 conversations at once, which didn't help), who hopefully is fluent in some language other than English, acted as if my phone number was good enough as that's the only number I have (you would think they would know, since this is what they do!). So, 24 hrs later, and no port, I called again, and at least got to another tier. And *that* person told me I would need to call my old provider and get the account number (and it's a number I never saw before) and call back. The port went through in minutes once I had that.

-ERD50