Please help!! Switching to straight talk....can i use my current phone with the new provider?

[Aquarian Renassiance]

I think there may be the great divide between us. That is the "troubleshooting techie" vs. the cautious consumer.

In no way shape or form am I unhappy with Samsung.

For the $70.00, with free shipping, they replaced most of the major components of my phone, including the major chipset.

But even if they hadn't, why would you recommend buying a new phone when I had a perfectly good one already working, that just needed to be unlocked. That is a stretch.

As far as a dime a dozen, I just did a search on Amazon.com for my phone based upon my specific model number, and two phones came up, both over $ 160.00. I also think there is a risk that some of these unlocked phones won't work- so for the greater audience out there - before you buy an unlocked phone from a random seller make sure they have a solid and believable return policy.

So I'm sorry but so far a lot of your feedback has been very fuzzy related to the facts. You said my phone was new and could not be not under warranty. Not. You said it was a waste of money to get it serviced by Samsung, and I could buy my phone unlocked for a dime a dozen. Not.

Not to pick on you, but this is exactly why I don't advocate the shoot from the hip technology quick fix on phones.

As far as Straight Talk throttling you at 1.5 gb, probably true. For a lot of non-technical folks out there, 1.5 gb is more than enough. And Straight Talk is generally great, and cheap, and as reliable as the network it happens to be on at the moment.

Need to be careful about generalizations and how they are interpreted by ordinary people just looking for advice.

 

[c_elliott83]

I give up speaking true logic. I know well what im talking about. Good luck with that

 

[fbod383]

I think there may be the great divide between us. That is the "troubleshooting techie" vs. the cautious consumer.

In no way shape or form am I unhappy with Samsung.

For the $70.00, with free shipping, they replaced most of the major components of my phone, including the major chipset.

But even if they hadn't, why would you recommend buying a new phone when I had a perfectly good one already working, that just needed to be unlocked. That is a stretch.

As far as a dime a dozen, I just did a search on Amazon.com for my phone based upon my specific model number, and two phones came up, both over $ 160.00. I also think there is a risk that some of these unlocked phones won't work- so for the greater audience out there - before you buy an unlocked phone from a random seller make sure they have a solid and believable.

you have a galaxy S. Not an S4. The S4 came out in march of 2013. The S3 isnt even 2 years old. This needs to be pointed out as this is a HUGE misinformation. Samsung did not change your chipset, they just reset your. Samsung does not do this for carrier mods. That's just absurd.

 

[arcasper1]

I am having the same problem!!!!! Had US cellular, have a 3s, and its locked and don't have a carrier yet. I do not want to buy a new phone. Were you ever able to use your old phone? How did you get it unlocked if so. Thanks.

 

[grahamc1965]

DO NOT USE STRAIGHTTALK.
That company is a ripoff . if you use to much data in a single day or over a month , they will shut off your data .Their customer service is horrible and they dont know anything about their own products . They would rather trick you into buying a new phone , rather than telling you what the true problem is .I was using a LG L9, downloaded a 43 mb file and had my data shut off for excessive usage . Instead of them just telling me that , they lied and said there was something wrong with my phone and i needed to purchase a new one from walmart . One that was specificaly for the straighttalk service , as other phones would not work . Only a straighttalk branded phone would work on their service . I had a tmobile LG F3 that i had as a backup, so i installed the sim card in it . Called them back, told them i bought a new phone. Still no data , was told i probably received a bad phone and would need to take it back and get another .
Got fed up with their bull**** so i looked up their company information online and contacted them . Straighttalk is owned by tracfone , which is owned by american movil .
Tracfone handles all the buisness stuff for straighttalk. After being on the phone for 5 hours and talking to the corporate superviser , i was finaly told that my data was shut off for excessive data usage . I hung up the phone, went to best buy and signed up on the unlimited 4g from tmobile .
Straighttalk sucks, plain and simple .

 

[KCandroidite]

I have been with Straighttalk for almost 3 years now and yes their customer service sucks. But, since I am saving over $100 per month I will tolerate it. I use less than the 2 gig that is "allowed" per month and usually stay under the established 100 meg per day "quota". I have used as much as 300 meg one day and everything was fine. I have had one outage and that was when ATT was down. Since I am usually on a wifi network ST has been perfect for me. If you require more than 100 meg per day and 2 gig per month than you are not a candidate for ST, period! Yes they lie like all the others but I run my business through my S3 with ST daily...

 

[grahamc1965]

i tether my tablet and laptop and average about 100 gb a month . I download alot of music and movies . What made me mad was that my phone did a automatic ota upgrade and they shut off my data .

 

[KCandroidite]

Tethering and streaming are specifically not allowed. Did you change your proxy setting to get the data?

 

[muszical]

If you really need a good way to always have a network at your disposal, you can buy a non-contract Verizon hot spot and pay $ 60.00 per month for almost unlimited data (I think it's 10 GB and you can connect up to 5 devices). Verizon has the most comprehensive coverage for wifi. If you couple that with your Straight Talk at $ 45 per month you have access to everything you need.

So you pay 45+60 or 105?
I pay 80 a month for unlimited everything so how is that saving money?

 

[RubyRed2319]

I tried to switch Sprint Galaxy S3 to Straight Talk ~ customer service for ST is the WORST in the history of cell phone services.... 12 days #61 out of the country CSR and I now have NOTHING they have transferred my business # into lala land...... PLEASE DO NOT CHOOSE STRAIGHT TALK ~ you will regret it

 

[RubyRed2319]

12 days and 61 people to retrieve my business # straight talk LOST ~ that's a little more than SUCKING ~

 

[Jenny Churchill]

I see this is an old post - assuming your all set by now - but yeah you have to buy the "SIM Card" unlock kit from straight talk - I got mine for an Iphone 4S for $8 a year ago - looks like they're now $31.00 online at WALMART. Or you can go directly to straight talk.com. I will say the ONLY downfall to these is Straight Talk is currently only running 3G - slower than death if you ask me - unless you have wifi of course. But for the $45/month unlimited data, min and texts it's SO WORTH IT! I have gotten HOSED by Verizon, AT&T and US Cellular. Won't even go back to contract phone!

 

[sampler012]

Be prepared to go from 3G to 1x most of the time and no service. . Their service sucks and so does their customer service....I am leaving them to T mobile. Good Luck in your change....