No-contract $30 / $45 Straight Talk wireless plans storm Walmart
By Darren Murph 
posted October 14th 2009 1:16PM
posted October 14th 2009 1:16PM
posted October 14th 2009 1:16PM
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phone service is great unlimited everything for 45 dollars and the slider phone isnt bad at all especially for 79 dollars
the service is amazing lol i talk and text and check my email all day long
i have been with verizon t mobile and att and they all suck ass id rather spend my money on better things like clothes than minutes
lucgrad00 - You were lucky you GOT a person at Customer Service. I ordered a Straight Talk phone and received it on Friday, 10/30. I was so excited. The phone looked super. I went on-line to do the activation because the service guide said you could activate your phone and add or use an existing service card to add the minutes to your phone. Since I had already purchased the $30/mo plan, I thought this was the easiest way to go.
After filling out all the information online, much to my dismay, I then was told to call to activate. This has been the WORST experience of my life. You call their 877# to get a message similar to I'm sorry, we don't have any customer reps available. Please try later. So you keep redialing and either get the same message or you will get a message that your waiting time is estimated to be 15 minutes.
Folks -- I put my landline on speaker phone for ONE HOUR. Nobody every came to the phone.
Not only that, when you try to do it through their automated system, it won't accept their service pin that is on their service card.
I'm so sorry I purchased this phone. For my money, the way to go is to go to your nearest Circle K and pick up their Talk and Go phone. I paid $10 for the phone and $25 in talk time prepaid. Their customer service is wonderful.
I'm sorry to say, at this point I believe StraightTalk.com does anything BUT straight talking.
I bought one last night and I might have to return it due to the fact the stupid serial # being "Invalid". Entered it several times and it still says "Invalid". There was bloody $95 buck wasted. Called the 1-877 # and there's "No one there to take my call" yet they have no hours listed as to when they open nor when they close. Company needs to really work on their Customer Service because...it sucks!
Has anyone noticed SPAM Calls increase after porting your number over to ST?
I just purchased the ST Samsung QWERTY slider phone for $99 and the $45 unlimited TALK, TEXT, AND DATA card. I ported my number from Verizon Wireless cancelling my contract. The good thing is that Verizon prorates your early term fee. So it was not too bad. I dropped calls all the time on my Verizon phone. Now with the Straight Talk service I never drop calls. ( makes me wonder if ST really uses ONLY Verizon towers) where I only got 1 bar I now get 5!! The only problem with the service (besides customer care not knowing what they are doing or talking about) is when you port over your TN the data will not work. You cannot get online. But with a new TN you can. I assume they are working on it. But when I am paying $60 a mo. with Taxes for 450 min. and 250 text with no data and free nights and weekends with Verizon compared to $45 unlimited everything including 411 calls with ST I think I can wait.
@ faith84--I called ST on Sunday and got right through. I think it depends on when you call the 877# on how long you will wait. I work for a business and Monday's and Tuesday's are the busiest days of the week. Anyday after Tuesday you will get ahold of people quicker without long wait times.
Also my bf got out of T-Mobile and went to ST too. He also had trouble entering in the Serial #. SO I took over and hit the help key on the website to help find the serial #. I got the Serial # straight off the device (phone) itself, which is easier because it breakes the #'s up in 3 digit increments. The first time I tried it went through. Only thing I could think is that it was user error or wrong on the booklet.
Replied
hey thanks for the tip engadget.i'm gonna go right out to walmart now.
PEACE
Not sure about the negative comments. I moved to Straight Talk earlier today. I didn't port a number but simply went with a new number. The entire process took perhaps 2 minutes online and then another 30 seconds to upgrade the *22801. Since that time, I've had bars where I did NOT previously have with my Alltel/Verizon phone (odd?). I'm connecting with no problem to various web sites ... not high speed certainly but good enough for my limited purposes.
I went with the Samsung slider phone .... seems to have a solid feel to it (much better than the LG Banter that I had with Alltel/Verizon).
For $45 a month - unlimited use - it's certainly better than anything that Verizon offers directly to customers. Hopefully this is a start of a trend in the cell phone industry!!!
Update on the Motorola V3a Phone. It does synchronize with Outlook using Motorola Phone Tools v5, both with USB and Bluetooth. Granted the Contacts list is a dumbed down version of what my V3xx can do but good enough for me. No Physical address or notes fields.
Identified as V3am in Motorola Phone Tools.
It can handle data fields for: Full Name, Category, Work, Work Fax, Home Phone, Mobile, Pager, Work Email, Main number.
This Translates to Outlook data Fields: First, Last, Category, Business Work, Business Fax, Home Phone, Mobile, Pager, Email (1), Primary.
The calender does sync, and reminders appear to work normally but I have not checked into the complete details.
I bought this Phone in AZ (visiting) for use in Seattle, WA. I am pretty far east of Mesa, where my ATT 3G V3xx phone is getting poor (2 bars) reception, and this Straight Talk V3a phone has full signal (5 Bars).
BTW, the return policy on the phones, according to the “guy behind the counter” is 15 days to any Walmart, with all parts and packaging.
I setup an account with credit card online and phone was activated w/in 5 minutes... Exactly as advertised. I had called their tech support line a week or so ago to ask about Outlook Sync-ability... but I think I was talking to Timbuktu... and they didn't know anything about their phone limitations.
So far voice quality appears to be about the same as Verizon.. friend on other end (who was on his Verizon wireless phone) said the ST V3a was much clearer and louder than my AT&T V3xx.
I'm looking forward to hopefully hearing similar Outlook Contacts Sync news about the Samsung SCH-r810... I want one..!
--Bill--
There has been some confusion on actual Straight Talk Coverage...
It does not include all of the Verizon's Standard Plan Coverage Area. (Click link Below to verify your coverage)
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/CoverageLocatorController
You must select Prepaid, and then click on Refresh Map!
(Map coverage should be shown in Violet and Lavender NOT RED)
Straight Talk Coverage is Verizon's Primary Prepaid Coverage Area (shown in Violet) only, and does NOT include the Prepaid Roaming Area (shown in Lavender) on the Verizon coverage map.
The coverage is still quite good, but not all of Verizon's full coverage area as many have mentioned, so do take the time to do this simple research before buying something that might not work for you.
--Billy Zimmerman--