I've had that plan for some time, and I still have $9+ Paygo on the account, which at 1 cent a minute for calls is a good deal. When my Paygo balance runs out or if Tello cannot transition to supporting VoLTE, I can still use GV via data only for calls at about 5 minutes of calling per 1 mbp, so 2500 minutes = 500mbp = very cheap phone calls. The Tello 1 GB $6 plan ain't bad either.
So you have to spend at least $80/year to be a tello customer?
$30 is more acceptable.
Otherwise why won't I just use FreedomPop?
Oh I forgot I still have freeup lol
$60 a year = $5 a month which can be stopped at any time.
$60 gets you 500mb every 30 days. Good if you have wifi most of the time and just need data occasionally.
$85 gets you 4.5gb for 30 days per year. Good for road trips.
As I now see it, PayGo's sole good now, apart from some cheap international calling, is to provide inexpensive calling on a $5 or$6 data plan, which is still cheaper than the $10 unlimited t&t 1 GB plan, assuming one doesn't call much. PayGo by itself, at $6.67 monthly, plus having to pay for calls and data, makes no sense. So, it was good while it lasted, which was what--3 or 4 years?
250mb at 2 cents = $5 PAYGO
If you consistently use more than 250mb a month, the $5 plan is better...
LOL back at you for omitting her full answer!
[i]2) If you pay for a plan prior to Dec8 will that keep your Paygo service active for a further 90 days?
--> Yes :). We're counting the 90 days from your last order.[/i]
It is disingenuous of you to edit out her full answer to change the context of what she said.
Additionally, she had consistently used the word "order" to refer to a paygo order.
Besides, if you felt there was a contradiction between the two answers, it doesn't mean that you are entitled to the outcome you prefer. A simple email or call to their excellent customer service sometime over the last year would have clarified things for you.
But for some, it is obviously easier to bash an honest, hard working, excellent company.
The agent clearly stated that a plan purchase would extend the paygo 90 days. If you can't see that well then hmmm :blink: Have a nice day.
My question:
"Just to clarify, let's say I put $20 today, if I order a $5/500mb 30 day plan on day 90, I get to use the 500mb LTE and also keep and use my $20 PAYGO, right? (Key concern that I carry over PAYGO balance)"
This was the response:
"Yes, you got it right. The plan will keep the 20$ PAYG balance active for 90 days."
They also used the word "renew" when referring to the plan.
It seems obvious that an active customer for the purposes of maintaining pay go balance is one who renews a plan or one who tops up every 90 days.
Someone who starts and stops a plan to circumvent this is not renewing. They're simply trying too hard to find a loophole.
The only exception that makes sense is if a new customer starts on paygo, and then starts a plan before day 90. But once the plan is started, they can't keep on closing it and then start it again once every 90 days. That is not renewing a plan and is clearly trying to see if the system can be circumvented.
It turns out it can't. Tello are not only fair and honest, they're too smart for customers that try such things.
Makes sense. I guess $20 then $5 to get 180 days with 1.5GB LTE is pretty good.
I've been reading through several days of posts.
Chosen's response from CS is not what I anticipated, or I think what most anticipated.
golan's reading of the TOS seems correct, based on what we now see happening.
I, too, am a big fan of Tello, and we've had 1-5 lines (fluctuating) for several years. I usually think their customer service is very good, that they're far more consumer-oriented than most telecoms, etc. I want them to be sustainable, too.
But Tello has continued for a year to botch this process up. It did cause a lot of upset when the change was initially discovered by a user without any formal notification from Tello. And Tello has had a year to make this process understandable and clear to users, without even beginning to do so.
If, as is now apparent, the definition of 'order', for purposes of PayGo balances, only includes PayGo orders and not monthly plan orders, that could have been addressed long ago by differentiation in the terms used to refer to them (and report them to users.) If the account history listed "PayGo order", and the TOS clearly stated that "PayGO orders" are necessary to extend the expiration date, it would have avoided this issue.
Like Chosen, I've paid for intermittent monthly plans on one line that also carries a PayGO balance. A phone call to Support confirmed to me before I did it that it would not put my line at risk of closing since I already carried a PayGo balance. (This was early this year, when it looked like I was going to be spending extended periods outside of a Sprint service area.)
Reading back through the TOS & threads here and on Reddit where a Tello rep replied to some questions and fears, it does seem defensible to read the need for 'orders' either way. It's obvious that Tello did nothing to define the terms to be more clear, either then or in the intervening months. It is clear to me that both of the threads that had official Tello rep responses included user discussion about using intermittent monthly plans to extend the PayGo expiration date, and Tello did not take an obvious opportunity to explain that would not work.
I suspect that Tello did not have a full plan of how this would be enforced when they changed the TOS, and that they've only recently come back to deciding how to implement it.
.
This is an example of Tello becoming a "bad" company when they quietly changed their TOS without informing customers.
But I aint too annoyed with Tello. Instead, what annoys the heck out of me is when I see fellow consumers side with Tello and bash other consumers.
Hey, we're all consumers here, it's time we united together. No need to go around dissing other consumers and siding with the company, IMO.
Honestly, I think getting rid of the lines losing money was an important goal: but not high enough priority to dedicate a team to really think it through and follow through on the process in a logical manner. I don't think it was really 'bad', as much as negligent. (Of course, the argument could surely be made that negligence is bad....)
Thanks to all who have shared direct responses from Tello about what isn't likely to suffice to keep a line active. I'm sure more of us would have been hurt by losing numbers without the warnings.
I have one PayGo line that I'll move to the Red Pocket/Freedompop $3/mo plan, because I need to keep it working for a while to monitor incoming texts & voicemail on a legacy family line. I have several weeks to move it, since I'd already added a $5 plan a few days before it became apparent that won't give me another 90-days to figure out what to do with the line.
I have a second PayGo line that I'll keep open on a $5 data-only plan for a couple of months, because I have the Tello dollars to do so, and use it as my primary phone during that period to burn off some of the balance. I'd like to keep the number (memorable & clean, but not used as outward-facing), and will keep my eyes open for options. I could port it somewhere for a deal, or move it to UltraMobiles $3/mo plan. (I don't normally have a T-Mobile network line available, & it would let me do monitoring as the network expands.)
I received e-mail notification from Tello of phone number expiration on November 3. Today when I logged in, I noticed PAYG balance $0. This was over $13 previously and with barely any activity. Number still active. Signed up for $5/month plan with Tello Dollars.
Has anyone else had their PAYG balance drop to $0 after receiving expiration notice, but prior to number expiration date?
My notice reads to imply what you are describing, I think.
Bold added by me.
My balance was only 0.01
[i]"Dear xxx,
We noticed that you currently don’t have an active plan and your last Pay As You Go order was more than 90 days ago. Due to this, your Pay As You Go balance has expired.
According to our Service Agreement your Tello number +1 (###) ### #### will automatically expire too on 11/06/2020.
To keep this number and avoid service termination you can go ahead and subscribe to a Tello plan (starting at only $5/month) in the following days. Regardless of any account activity (call, SMS, data usage), your number will expire if no order is registered by 11/05/2020.
Please note that once deactivated, a Tello number can no longer be retrieved."[/i]