On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 02:36:01 GMT, (The Real
Tom Miller) wrote:

| On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 19:22:21 -0500, "peanutjake"
| wrote:
|
| |
| | The Real Tom Miller wrote in message
| | ...
| | On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 06:11:44 -0500, Bonnie Jean
| | wrote:
| |
| |
| | | Anybody have
| | | much experience with Virgin Mobils pay-as-you-go?
| | |
| | | Bonnie
| |
| | My wife and I have been using VM for about a year and a half now and
| | are quite pleased with the service. We make very few calls and it fits
| | our needs. I think we have had only two times we could not get a
| | signal, which runs off the Sprint PCS network.
| |
| | We have our account set up with our credit card so that it
| | automatically adds $20 worth of service when we get down to under $5
| | in our account. It will also auto-add $20 every three months if we
| | have not used up our minimum usage requirement,
| |
| | It sounds like Tracfone is a much better deal.
| | No minumums, no useage requirements.
| | Unused minutes roll over.
| | Customer service department that really solves problems.
| |
| | PJ
|
| I have no idea. Just answering someone's question. I'm not trying to
| sell anybody one, like you are. I get nothing out of my description
| and I don't care if anyone uses VM or not.
|
| However, just FYI, there are no set minutes with VM, so minutes don't
| need to roll over. You just pay for what you use as you use it. No
| contracts. No phone cards unless you want them. I hate those phone
| cards.
|
| My tiny customer service issue turned out to be a non-issue, although
| I was not impressed with the performance of the reps. That's just one
| incident, however.
|
| But the service is almost completely straightforward -- no gimmicky
| rebates, no airtime promos, no spam-bait "deals."

I just looked on the Tracphone website to see what kind of deal they
offered and noticed that you have to add minutes to the phone every 60
days. With VM, you have to add $15 to your account every 90 days.
Which is the better deal?

With a VM credit/debit card plan you don't need to actually do
anything, but with Tracphone you have to find a store and buy a phone
card and enter the number before your remaining minutes and usage time
run out.

With Tracphone, the minutes added to the phone expire after 120 days
and each of the cards have an expiration date too. With VM there is
nothing to expire if you choose the credit/debit card plan.

I'd say the Tracphone asks you to pay way too much attention to your
phone or else you'll lose your money. And you have to guess in advance
how much you will be using it in the next 60 days to buy the "right"
size card. To make it an easy, convenient plan to use you would have
to buy one of the annual plan cards with a significant outlay of money
up front. Too complicated for me. Too expensive for me. I just want to
use the friggin' phone and not have to worry about buying phone cards,
what day it is, how many minutes I'm going to be using in the next two
months, and how many minutes I have left.