I FEEL MY SMARTPHONE IS SMARTER THAN ME

The first thing I did, and what the instructions tell you to do, is to activate the phone. So I called the 888 number, answered the computer's questions and waited. They said it could take up to 24 hours. So I waited and waited and waited, even after the 24 hours about three hours later. I then went on line to activate. I got up to a certain point and then ran into a brick wall. I then found another 888 number on their web site and told the human I've been trying to get activated for two days with no luck. He said in a very accommodating, nice way, OK, he'd help me.

I turned on my new phone and we began. At first, I thought I was being punked. He told me to go to a certain page of my phone which he guided me to, since I wasn't familiar yet with all of this phone's features. I had played around with the phone's features while waiting for the activation, so I realized that this phone was much more user friendlier than my old phone.

The tech told me to input numbers. There were about 30 to begin with. He then told me to go somewhere else on the phone and read the number that is there now. It was zero before. It came up the number 4. He then asked me to go back to what appeared to be the same page as before and again he asked me to put in some more numbers. Again, maybe 30 or more. He asked me to go back to the previous page. The number there was a 5 and he seemed pretty happy about that. He asked me again to go back and put in more numbers. Another 30 more. After a few minutes of his doing things, the activation was installed with ten minutes and 30 days of service.

While I was on the phone with him I asked him if he could transfer over my left over minutes, 500 of them, to my new phone. He said that since I had no service on my old phone, I would have to buy 30 minutes for $10 so I could activate that phone and then he would be able to move those minutes over to my new phone. So I believed I could do that transfer without having my old phone being active and I had a year to do so. He said no, the phone had to be active. Since I'm getting 1300 minutes from HSN's deal, I doubt I'd use that much time up like before when I got 1200 minutes. But I told him I'd think about it and if I should decide to do so, I'd call him back.

My new phone number isn't any easier to remember than my last phone number, but it sounds better saying it than my old cell phone number, so I may just get this new one. I could not get an easier phone number to remember, as I asked the tech about that too.

Now that my phone was activated, I then called the HSN's 800 number to get my 1300 minutes. After answering another robot's questions, I hung up and waited and waited. They also said it could take up to 24 hours to get my minutes. It took about 12 hours, because at about 3:00 AM I heard a new ringing from my new cell phone and I jumped up from bed and saw my 1300 minutes were added with about 13 months of service.

So far, I'm really happy with this really great user friendly phone. I've made a call and went on line, which after waiting several minutes said I was disconnected, but it took my minutes. I'll be writing down all of these can't get through messages and reporting them to Tracfone and ask for them back. I had to do this many times with my old cell phone and they gave me back 30 minutes at a time.

Since the instructions to this new phone is in a book which, of course, doesn't cover everything you want to do with this phone, I looked on line for the complete instructions of every feature. I started reading them and then had to do some other things for the day, but saved them to my favorites so I can get back to them ASAP. Evidently, you have to set up an e-mail account, which even with the directions, I didn't understand. There were some other things that I tried doing according to their instructions, but I either didn't understand them or what they said should be on the phone at the time, you do what they said, wasn't there. Figures. I may have to call that 800 number to talk to a real person so they can guide me through the features I couldn't figure out.

Maybe with a fresh day ahead of me, I'll understand more. I believe I'll get this phone set up and use it without any problems when I'll need it for my birding/photography trip near Oroville next month.

Getting a phone set up and understanding how to use it isn't that easy. With any electronics, for that matter. Getting to know my new camera, before going with a group and being able to use it quickly, on the spot, at a location, doesn't come easy. So if you're planning on getting any type of electronics, it will take quite a while to set up and using it for a while to feel comfortable using it.