Well, That Experiment Didn't Go As Expected

 Last April I decided to switch from TracFone to AT&T. AT&T had a prepaid plan where you get unlimited data, talk, and text for $50 a month with autopay. There was 5 something in taxes etc on top of that. I don't talk or text much so that wasn't the attraction, it was the data. I was looking for something better than the DSL we had at home. We were in AZ at the time and I had to buy the phone at Walmart as there wasn't an AT&T store where we were. If there had been a store it would have been closed because of Covid like the Verizon store was. Anywho, I looked online and decided on the phone and went to Walmart and bought one. 

This is the phone I bought a Samsung J2. When I went to activate it I put in the zip code where it would be used the most. The bastards gave me a new number before I could indicate I already had a phone number. Finally after 3 days of talking to Bangalore I got my number transferred. Then I couldn't get autopay set up and I was not going to pay $75+tax a month. Finally before the month was up I called the AT&T store close to where we live in Michigan and got help in setting up the autopay. 

While we were in AZ about all could do online was check emails, facebook, twitter, etc... Thought when we got home I'd be able to download TV shows to the phone and then watch on the TV, WRONG!!! The fucking phone would not mirror to either the laptop or the firestick. Googled it and the answer was download an app for mirroring.  All the apps said the phone and laptop or firestick have to be on the same wifi. I have 2 routers and tried using both. The message I got when I had both the phone and the firestick on the same wifi was no internet. Well, DUH! The internet was on the phone, but you have to turn off mobile data when you turn on wifi. If I had internet at the house I wouldn't need the fucking phone to watch TV shows! Tried connecting the phone to the laptop and all I accomplished was I could look at pictures and messages from the phone on the laptop. Also now I have to enter a pin number to access Windows 10. Pain in the ass!

There are 2 AT&T stores within easy driving distance of where we live (within an hour). I went to both and didn't get any help whatsofuckingever. First one told me to go the Walmart because that's where I bought the phone. Second one said they don't sell phones for the prepaid plan outright, go to Walmart. Went to Walmart and bought a different phone, not only didn't it do what I wanted it was less user friendly than the one I had. Returned it and got my money back. It's like they purposely restrict mirroring to LIMIT you unlimited data!

Anywho, we went back to the phone company for DSL and I went back to TracFone. Again I had trouble transferring my number. It asked for my AT&T account number and pin. The only account number I knew was the phone number and I had set up a pin so I used that. WRONG! On the day my service was about to expire I had to call AT&T and get the account number and a temporary pin. Finally got the number transferred to TracFone, but when I tried calling The Old Lady's phone got an error message and transferred to Straight Talk. After trying to fix it by calling, texting, online chatting with tech support I finally tried calling a different number and it worked. The problem was The Old Lady's phone was out of minutes. Funny part is I had been using her phone to talk to AT&T and TracFone to get my number transferred and then several hours later when my phone was supposed to work hers didn't.