Mint Mobile pt. 2

Walmart Family Mobile(WFM), with whom we've had service since June of '14, is switching from T-Mobile to Verizon network. Though WFM said the change was for the good, we had 4 phones that would need replaced to be viable on the Verizon network. The "free phones" they offered were downgrades, so we'd have to pay to have equivalent phones.

Being mad, I got a refund on the 2 months I had prepaid and started looking for another carrier. I have Spectrum internet service so I called about their mobile service. I got a person who couldn't answer a question about what network they used, thus forwarded my call to a dial tone. Seriously, I was wanting to know if my phones would be compatible and they hung up.

Jennifer looked into and picked Mint Mobile as replacement. Ordered online 4 plans of 10GB at $20/month, but they require 3 months of upfront paid. They charged $268.20 which is a bit north of $240 I was expecting, but still less than the $116/month I was paying WFM for 8GB/month.

Okay, switching from WFM was not easy. We could not get the NTP code generated for Jennifer's phone. We called customer service about ten times until they believed us that the code could not be texted to her phone. Her phone was locked from trying for 24 hours a few times.

WFM has horrible customer service. They have a script and getting past the 1st tier of service is not easy. Getting a person is difficult. They have you wait then say they'll call you in 15 minutes but don't until after you call them an hour later or the next day after THEY locked your phone.

Anyways it took a week of trying to get NTP code for Jennifer's phone, which meant our NTP codes were void and needed requested again(got texted 4 digit code instantly without having to call and getting emailed like hers). 

Okay, we started the process for Mint with Jennifer's phone. Everything went smoothly until the phone was locked from being used. We called Mint and their customer service navigated by calling WFM. So WFM says TracFone owns their phones and you have to pay fee to unlock if your phone has been on their network less than 12 months. Had to pay $42 for Jennifer's phone which was purchased in May and $18 for son's phone which was from last March. 

After requesting and paying, codes and directions were sent. A wait incurred. Hours later, we tried the phones one by one.

My phone was from Best Buy and never locked, so switch to Mint was seamless.

There was a minor issue about having the kids' phones listed under an account, but Jennifer got it sorted with Mint easily enough.

Circling back to the price of service. It's not $20/month unless you pay for a whole year upfront.

It's a bit of a bait and switch considering it's actually $113 after taxes and fees to add 3 months which is $37/month, nearly double the advertised $20/month.

Not cool.