Very scary TF message ?!?

Telecom
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Here we go again - more forced changes in the works...

My partner's Moto G 2nd gen is on TF prepaid & has still got ~1100 T&T on it 'cuz she has barely needed to use it.

Their scary (to her) message, in part, says=>

You are receiving this recurring service message because you have not taken the necessary action to secure your service.

The wireless network that provided your service was shut down on 2/22/22, and has been replaced with Voice Over LTE (VoLTE). Unfortunately, your current phone and SIM card are not compatible with VoLTE, the network standard, and will lose service at any time.

But as of tonight (5/26), here in Vermont - the phone is still working - though it is months after the cited date.

Looking at their store shows the best deal as a tcl a3 which does NOT say it requires a plan purchase - and our account still has all that T&T credit that we wish to keep.

We also have a load of reward points, but the site will not add that phone to the cart...woof.

Their 'upgrade' offer is also worrying because it seems to say we cannot keep our balances with such a low priced phone ??

We need 100% assurance that our prepaid, active phone's balances will transfer ??

After wasting over 20 minutes with a chat rep, he finally said to go here:
https://www.tracfone.com/support/contact-us

And of course we were #12 in line & it was closing just minutes later.

Much to my amazement, while I was posting this an agent came on & said that yes - it was OK to do as I'd asked AND would keep the balances.

She said:

As long as you keep the same service the phone number and minutes will migrate to the new phone.

When a transcript was requested, this was the reply:

Please note an order to request a chat transcript. A sworn statement will need to be emailed to the email address we have in our system from your account.

No email came, of course, but I was able to copy/paste the chat contents - for whatever good that may be later.

So now, at a bit after midnight (eastern) I'll have to wait for tomorrow to see what is possible to do about this.

Thanks go out to anyone who actually has read all that !!

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What MNO are you on via TF?

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Thanks for asking Redrotors.
Her phone is on AT&T - that is the only thing which keeps us using TF.
(We got a superb gift from a wonderful friend which still has months to go before it runs out of time.)

I will be re-contacting TF after this weekend to see if it is possible to get better answers from them directly.

After keeping 2 phones going for her for so long because of our unreliable coverages in our area, her Twigby phone has been working so well that she hardly ever needs the 2nd phone anymore...
Until she does need it !!

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I suspected that but didn't want to assume.

I can't speak directly to your message / probable whitelisting issue but if you were not aware of this article it will be of interest to you.

Days of non-VZW service on TF is limited. Since I know how much you love TF customer disservice in general I might suggest an exit strategy while there is some time to use your credits unless you want to stay TF on VZW past 2023 but that would seem a duplicate of your Twigby service. In any case don't invest too much in staying AT&T on TF as after a year it may start getting pretty sketchy.

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Thanks Again Redrotors !!
Sketchy - yes - in my POV TF & all its babies could just be re-named "Sketchy'R'Us" & that shoe would be a 100% perfect fit.
Between that & "TF customer disservice" I must also thank you for brightening my day !!!

Around here it seems that Vz is, or will soon be the totally dominant force in cellular, with AT&T pretty much becoming irrelevant.

The main use of the AT&T based phone is as a worry stopper;
This is because of how crazy our coverage can be & so that she can call me after work to alert me that she is headed into the 10 mile long dead zone between here & her workplace.
It is a very wooded section of road with few homes & zero signal or lighting which she is afraid she might get stuck in sometime.

I also had AT&T via Truphone on a cheapo Cricket phone - but that has become useless now - and I am unwilling to waste ~$100 to get more RP AT&T, so this all may just be our EOL for that sometime soon.

My only lament is that she has all those units remaining & a pile of 'reward points' which will be good to use up before that all goes bye-bye.

I'll just have to see what their 'customer disservice' can be made to do when I am able to sit & read whilst awaiting their (un)help after this busy weekend has gone by.

Thanks Again Redrotors !!

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Customer Disservice*

*Abreviated form of Customer Disservice Circus ™America Móvil

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Once again I find myself extremely disappointed in TF.

It took 4 chat sessions which in total wasted ~2 hours of my life before I got to a supervisor in the 3rd & a native english speaker in the 4th.

The gist of all of it is now that ~4 months after their 'deadline' passed we still have an AT&T based device on TF that works fine & just keeps popping up with SMSs saying it should already be dead.

More ridiculous is that they are changing to 100% VZ at some future date which they cannot specify.

We have one of their new .99 SIMs headed our way whenever they get around to shipping it - and even if we end up having a compatible device on hand (doubtful) that SIM will remain dormant until the AT&T service is definitely dead here.

I seriously also doubt the usefulness of using TF after that since our Twigby services are quite affordable & pleasant.

Native AT&T in its several forms is priced out of our reach with no MVNOs looking any better.

All in all my standing of finding just about zero value in all things TF remains unchallenged by these latest bits of wasted life energies.

Here's the punch line for me:
Now that it will likely become useless to us - I was able to make use of most of our 'reward points' to add to the balance, leaving very little just sitting there and with zero intentions of trying to get any more of those.
Funniest of all is that they refused to allow points to be used to get a compatible phone deal UNLESS it was with a monthly plan.
NOT ever happening with TF !!

Their site & its services remain a mess - there is no longer any way to manually get a chat transcript AND even when the rep says they'll send one - they do not do so (I tried all 4 times).

Fortunately I was able to copy/paste some of those - but I see all of it getting little use except maybe for wasting more time & efforts with this quagmire of a company.

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I acknowledge it's a matter of opinion, but I don't personally consider it ridiculous for Verizon to stop offering service on their competitors' networks through an owned MVNO. I could see considering it ridiculous that Verizon was able to buy the Tracfone family to begin with, though. (Edit: and also that they still can't specify when. Although I think there are some public aspects of their agreement when they bought the Tracfone family that puts the answer in either q4 2022 or q4 2023 at the earliest, depending on which part is considered binding. I'd have to go hunt down where I read that again.)

The one thing from my perspective that they will still have going for them after it's no longer possible to use them for service on other networks is that for as long as they keep occasionally offering those annual eBay plan deals, they are still - as far as I can tell - basically the only competitor to Red Pocket's similar plans for cheapest possible coverage with both voice and data on that network. And for my usage profile, Tracfone buckets are better than RP monthly allotments. I'm much more likely to need to drain almost my whole accumulated data bucket in one month than I am to use a few hundred megs on the regular - even if it were my main SIM.

I will readily acknowledge that their customer experience is bad enough that I completely understand considering it a dealbreaker, though.

I had them for Verizon coverage for what sounds like it's largely the same reason you had them for AT&T (price, some level of sunk cost, and what deals were available for the specific network) and as my first backup for if I couldn't use data on my main SIM for some reason...and I might not have gone that route post-pandemic with the way my travel patterns changed. As it is, I doubt I'll add any more credit beyond what I can get from points after my service end date in 2025, and I am almost tempted to try selling the account.

As a possibly relevant point of data: Due to...more Tracfone screwiness, really, combined with what I said before about changed usage patterns...my Tracfone line is actually currently on a T-Mobile SIM instead of Verizon (it's really hard to get them to activate a Verizon sim if you don't actually have an unlocked Verizon phone). And as far as I can tell, they are not pushing the "Oh no your service is going to have to switch to Verizon!" messages out to me yet.

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Yes, I get the idea of their consolidation - during which many places on their site still claim 'networkS', and it, as well as their so-called 'support' operate very much like it is all in the hands of kids forced to work during school detention.

The entire cellular biz has very much resembled the old wild west of the US or even cargo ships vs. pirates at sea.
You tossed your dice & took your chances - BUT:
Some of the entities have been more visibly evil than others & it is my contention that TF has always been way up in the top 5 of that evildoer list.

We've had many adventures with many entities in our efforts to have T&T in some reliable sort of way at all times during the decade or so since being forced into 'digital' phones.

I was actually one of the 1st cellular users here in Vermont when Cellular One arrived in my efforts to escape the gouging of a small, private telco.

Now - all these years later, I still view that 1st big, clunky, heavy 'analog' 3 watt bag phone as the most reliable cellular tech that I've ever had.

It is starting to look like (to me...) that when all is said & done there will just be a single cellular provider left standing in our immediate area.

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Oddly enough, the previously always dependable Moto G 2nd gen stopped being able to work over the cellular network tonight - many months after it was 'sposed to have quit.

Just for yuks, I moved its SIM over into the phone we planned to use next (ZTE Maven) that SIM was accepted - got right onto the cellular network & made test calls & an SMS balance check 100% fine.

In view of that success, I was delighted to use the TF tranfer app via wifi between the phones - and unless something else gets changed, it looks like I can be done wrangling with TF 'customer dis-service' for now.

Phew. That waste of life energies will NOT be missed !!!