I signed up for Straight Talk. Received my phone 4 days later by Fed X. I called Straight Talk to move my existing phone # from ATT and my new Straight Talk phone was working with in 5 minutes. I had a signal every where I went and talk-text-pictures-Internet was working great. I liked it so much I called Straight Talk and singed my credit card up for automatic renewal every 30 days. I got my credit card statement and saw they charged me another $45 8 days after my original service started. I called Straight Talk and after a lot of typing things on the computer and telling me 15 times sorry for the delay that they were verifying every thing they told me Straight Talk does not carry over minutes that you can only add minutes the day you run out or you lose the previous minutes.I told them I originally bought an unlimited 30 day card with the purchase of my phone and then called back to sign up for automatic renewal every 30 days. Finally I demeaned to talk to the supervisor she had been putting me on hold to talk to every 3 minutes. The supervisor and me got the extra charge refunded and (hopefully) I am signed up for automatic renewal.THEN I was trying to lock the keyboard so the phone would not accidental call or take pictures while I carried it in my pocket and I accidently locked the phone up FOR EVER now it shows Prepaid Service Disabled on the screen. It will not make or receive or send calls (makes a good paper weight). WELL Straight Talk said they could not unlock it and they would send me a new one by Fed x. That was last Friday now it is Thursday afternoon. I called them every day this week to see why they haven't emailed me a tracking number for Fed X
So far they verify my information every day but they don't have a clue why the replacement phone has not been shipped. So here I sit day 7 with no phone and the bad thing is you have to be home to sign for the phone When Fed X bbings it. Does anyone know how to unlock a Samsung SCH-R451C. I would appreciate you help. You can email me at rgburks@bellsouth.net.

I'll give this to you straight. This provider sucks! I'm actually reporting them to the FCC. They are in violation of fraud because of charging me for the fractions of minutes when my phone was in the process of being ported, which took 5 days. The FCC defines air time differently than ST, is that legal? As soon as I make a call, my minutes get eaten up with their reminder of how many minutes I have left. When I go to retreive my voice messages I have to listen to a long explanation about what is already in my phone manual and my minutes are being eaten up. My issues are also with the non-American speaking reps who wasted so much of my time on a question/issue that could have easily been answered if one of them knew how to comprehend, not just speak the language. Nowhere on the website does it say you MUST purchase the phone from Walmart or on their site so I, to save money since that's what this is all about, got mine from E-Bay. I just couldn't understand why it wouldn't activate. Duhh! That's when I realized I had to buy their phone that is no good if I decide not to stay with them. So, as many of you are, I am really disappointed with Clark's endorsement of this product. Go figure, a Verizon phone, Net 10 e-mail notification, TracFone plan, and Straighttalk all mixed together out of the Philipines. Even when I called Florida I got a foreigner. I'm not a happy customer and regret cancelling my Verizon account for a cheaper phone plan. I believe the plan is to get you so frustrated with the $35 plan that you switch to the unlimited one.

HipCat
how do you get 2 phones unlimted for 102.00 when it is 99.00 dollars a line i have sprint i have a bad plan i hate it put have company phone so i am tring to find unlimited talk text and data like you have for 60.00 a month

I apologize, I misread your posting, and skimmed some others. I thought you wrote down the names of the other carriers because you wanted to comparison shop. Then when I saw other posters posting about Cricket (which helped me), and Boost Mobile, etc, that reinforced my misread.

Sorry. But this thread was very helpful.

P.S. I think others are confused with where it says "other cheap unlimited plans" right above the "Add your comment" section (if you skim fast...you'll miss the details).

Sorry again, I hope Straight Talk is good. I would like to try it too.

BUT, it's weird when my old phone (I'd dropped the service for at least a year, but kept the phone as a watch/alarm clock) started receiving voicemail notification and alerts for the person who had my number now. I assumed that the guy (I called my old number--it was still in my phone) was getting his voice messages, but after it kept happening, I called and left him a message (I guess he got it) just in case.

SO fast-forward to Oct or Nov 2008 when I'm buying a new phone and service plan with them. Ok, so I had the phone for I think 3 days before I decided to return it and get my money back.

It turns out, when I decided to check the phone to make sure it worked (I had a feeling it was used...), I called MY phone, that was in my pocket at the time, from a school payphone, I left a voice mail message too.

When I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, NO missed call, NO voice mail (it didn't even ring).

Ok, I thought I hadn't missed dialed, but just in case, I try it again, this time with my cell phone in my hand and I watched, NO ring, NO lighting up, NO indication of an incoming call AT ALL....So, I leave a voice mail message for myself, THINKING, ok, MAYBE it only shows up AFTER you decide to leave a voicemail or not (which is SO wrong, but I was broke, and I wanted to give a VERY nice company the benefit of the doubt).

I leave a voicemail message, MAKE SURE it's delivered. The delivery is confirmed and well...NO voicemail message indicated on the phone, I think I even went home and called the voice mail from a landline (if not dialing it on the phone first), you have NO messages (new OR old!).

Ok, problem because I ONLY wanted the phone so that I could receive voice mail messages, and calls for jobs that I would be applying to (I was moving, and I wanted to have a contact number on my resume).

Not to mention, that YEARS ago, metro worked...well...not even in the Metro area that I was living in reliably. It roamed at the place that I was staying, so I couldn't use it...constantly "looking for signal." I thought that years of popularity (more people buying MetroPCS=better coverage...they could buy more towers or something?).

I was wrong. My younger sibling and his friends along with one of my friend's family members (with the exception of ONE person...not a reliable source of information though) ALL have the same notion of oh, Metro doesn't work here, or there.

So. VERDICT: MetroPCS may cost you a job offer, or something else. When people leave a voice mail, they kinda assume that you'll get it. So when you Don't return a call, it just looks like you're not interested.

I've been trying to transfer my number to straight talk, I'm currently on day 4 and have just been told we're going to day 5. Don't understand what takes so long, and no one has been able to explain it to me. They tell me to call back in four hours, one hour, half an hour, tomorrow morning, every day for four days. It's torture, and hugely inconvenient.

I have three #'s on this plan. One Rzr and two LG. I have had no problems! I even had one # deactivated due to non-payment on the owner of the #'s part and had no trouble with a VERY helpful American operator. My guess is Phyl called on the weekend. Love it!

We took Clarks advice and got straight talk. We've had nothing but trouble with the company. If you need help, you get someone in the Phillipines! Never allowed to talk with an American operator. Our service was supposed to be on an auto renewal plan, but the phone got cut off. Was on the phone to the Phillipines, for over 40 minutes (3 different times) trying to get help. Am concerned about the safety of my credit card number. It makes me mad that I have to get help from the Phillipines and NOT from an American.
Would not recommend this service and if we have any more problems, we will throw the phone away, count our losses and try to find a plan with someone in the U. S. we can talk with.

The topic of this thread is "Straight Talk's $45/month unlimited calling and texting plan".

I was hoping to find comments related directly to this topic and personally don't care about:
-re: Sprint/Nextel
-Virgin Mobile USA
-BUZZIRK MOBILE
-CRICKET
-Net 10
-BoostMobile
-At&T Wireless Phone
-Text and pictures..from T-Mobile
Or, much anything else other than what this thread topic was originally. If you don't have any info or comments on Straight Talk's unlimited plan, then please go post your comments on a thread that relates. As most people reading your off topic comments don't care about your problems with other carriers.

We loved the direct connect, however stay away from them. Clark was right, they stink. I had 3 phones with them. 2 lines had the contract satisfied, and one didn't. The 3rd line was not getting used at all and I called to see if they would drop the contract on it, or at least comp me something for having to pay for a phone that wasn't being use for 4 months till the contract ran out. I told them I would drop the service on the other 2 lines if they didn't do something. Well they did - they crammed me into another 2 year contract on both phones. They claimed I authorized it, but would give me the name or employee ID of the person that did it Illegal to say least here in Washington State. I had to spend over and hour on the phone with them to back it out & I am going to file a complaint with the state attorney genera's office. BEWARE! Swithced to Straight Talk, and am paying the minimum plan on the one line left with Sprint - canceled the other 2 lines.

Does anyone actually know someone using the new Buzzirk service? Has anyone seen one of their phones?

Verizon lied for a year about putting new towers up here. This would be great but I feel like Verizon's network will be the next great cell disaster.

I love Net 10, yea it always cost 10 cents a min, there's no free calling. I can get by on $15 a month. I don't talk that much on the phone so it's great. coverage seems great in MO,KS,NE,TX,OK.

I have been with Metro PCS for about a year, dropped calls, no service....that's until about a month ago,,,switch to Boost Mobile and I love them!!! No problem with the service at all!!

But I haven't found anyone beat verizon's family plan - unlimited texting 5 phones. Has anyone?

I am convinced that most people use their cell phone wastefully. When you really analyze the content of their conversations it is mostly trivial and unnecessary. I’m not talking about someone who needs the phone for business, but rather the private phone user.

A great example of what I’m talking about is my daughter called me to tell me something totally unimportant, and she did it while she was driving to my house and was only 15 minutes away. She couldn’t wait until she got here? My point is most people don’t really need 1,000 minutes per month, but they use them because they have developed bad habits just as the phone companies planned.

I have had a Tracfone for about five years and am thoroughly satisfied with it. The coverage is excellent and the service is good. I purchase 1,000 minutes at a time for $100 ant it will last me for almost a year; after all 1,000 minutes is over 16 hours! To me that’s a lot of phone time. Ten cents/min. is high, but it is still costing me only a little over $8.00/ month.

Don’t complain to me about high cell phone costs, it’s because of your wasteful bad habits.

I switched from my Verizon plan to straight talk this past month and the coverage went from excellent to terrible. Their customer service is no frills and I realy have nothing nice to say about them. I just switched back to Verizon who I will gladly shell out my $76 a month with unlimited anywhere minutes, unlimited texting and 2 phone lines over the $46.50 for terrible coverage and service. Clark really struck out with this one.

AT&T charges me $49.99 for 450 minutes per month plus $9.99 for Text (300)plus
$9.99 for being able to talk on the phone after 7pm without being charged, plus junk fees the total usually runs $70.03 per month! I have another year on the current contract so tell me when another company will help people out of contracts to switch to their company which charges less. These tough economic times we are all hurting. I don't use my phone during the day but have to wait until 7pm. What a crock!
Help us somebody Please!

Well Tracfone runs it. Just go look for some of the no-support horror stories about them. I understand Wal-mart and Verizon are partners with them. From the coverage map post, I conclude it is native Verizon (with Alltel?) coverage. One of the better coverage maps if you can stand CDMA.

The phone selection is pretty rotten. Like all RAZR phones, theirs is lousy. W385 would be similar, possibly better, and the LG is essentially a $10 Virgin Mobile Aloha. It isn't so much that no "smart" phones are allowed. [b]No decent phones are allowed![/b]

Then they have a this in their terms: "You agree not to tamper with or alter your Straight Talk phone or its software... Improper, illegal or unauthorized use of your Straight Talk phone may result in immediate discontinuance of Service."

It has precedent. TracFone has been known to render their own phones inoperable. Worst of the worse, I declare. Do better: Get yourself a nice used CDMA Razr, flash it with Cricket firmware, and get yourself an account.

For two lines at T-Mobile for 19.99 a month we have unlimited text and photo's. On a My Faves and Smart phone!

We were looking for a reason to get rid of our land line and have finally found it. The total for ST's unlimited plan with taxes and fee's is about 46.60, which is almost identical to what our 24.95 land line totaled after taxes. The plus is we now get unlimited long distance and can take the phone with us. I ordered the phone online from Walmart and had it in 3 days delivered to my local store. It took 2 days to port our existing number, although we were told it could take much longer. Customer service was always very polite/knowledgeable and I never found anyone that had an accent so bad I couldn't understand them. I bought the W85 for 80$. Yes, there are only 3 phones offered are are not the most feature laden. But, for phone use and texting are fine. I do not plan on using the data so it is a moot point to me that the phones are not that great for web access. The phone gets a better signal and is clearer than my expensive ATT smart phone. We are able to get a signal at remote places where my ATT phone gets no signal. I think this is a great plan to replace a land line. I plan to set it up to auto pay from my credit card so I don't have to refill it each month. Also, we will keep track of the minutes each month, and if we consistently use under 1000 minutes we will switch to the 30$ plan.

Does anyone have a phone? How do you sign up? I don't think this has launched anything but a bunch of hype. Clark's investigators should look a little closer on this one maybe!?

Tmobile has unlimited voice and roaming for $50 for longtime customers.

I have my own unlocked cell phone. I was going to try out strait talk but they will only accept their phones. There are only 3 models and all outdated. Whats up with that? Just give me a sim and let me use my phone.

Normally, I am impressed with Clark's advice. I have to agree with most of you that he didn't look at ST's coverage and am horrified by the customer no-service story. I pay $72/mo. with taxes and fees, but at least I have true nationwide coverage with VZW.

if you look at cricket closely you will notice that the unlimited plans don't include any roaming. that is how they make money. it is unlimited in your home city and then when you leave they tack on roaming charges. i thought roaming charges were a thing of the past.

Does Clark even seriously check these things out before posting. How many times does it take for people to get taken on what he reports! Really now

I switched to Straight Talk from Verizon because of the lower priced plan. I was expecting a drop in service commensurate with the drop in price, but I was shocked by how terrible the service is. After spending 3 hours on the phone with people that can barely speak english, I found out that there is no online support for customers that switch over from Verizon (the network they use). I made it through the first month and had no idea when I was out of minutes because I couldn't check and they told me to call back to setup auto refill which is possible only the day before you run out of minutes. The date they gave me was July 30th so when I ran out ahead of time I called customer service the next morning (this morning). My cell number which I have had for 5 years is no longer associated with my phone(I'm probably going to lose my number). Worst of all the customer service person mentioned the problem with my account and when I asked to speak with a manager who was unavailable she quickly took my credit card number to refill my account and assured me my phone would work. After an hour it still doesn't work. Calling them back to cancel my phone, try and save my number, and get this months bill refunded. STRAIGHT TALK IS ANYTHING BUT WHAT THE NAME INDICATES.

Go to Verizon. Look at a map. Go to Straight Talk. Look at a map. Clark, it might use Verizon's network in a limited capacity, but your discount phone service has discount coverage for sure.

No phone purchases are available in the Orlando, FL area. So this plan is not available in FL?
567bluegrass@cfl.rr.com