I'm posting this because I've been reading post here for several months and found them very helpful. Maybe my recap will be useful to someone.
I've had my Galaxy SII since the last week of February (45 days or so). Prior to that, I had been using the $99 Straight-talk feature phone (3 or 4 years). In both cases, I've had the $30/month plan.
I'm an old 'palm pilot' guy. I still use a palm devise (Zire). I've been hoping to move on, but must admit I"m still using it. I've got a couple of android programs that are supposed to do what the Palm does for me, but problems getting the phone service where I want it have delayed the migration.
Setting up the right phone service, at the right price, has been a project. First, I bought the phone for $330 at Walmart. $30 was for 1 month at T mobile. T-mobile refused to accept the 'card', and told me to take it back to Walmart. I have not figured out how this would work.
My time with the phone for the first month was wasted getting the phone number changed. In the end, the number got moved 1 day after Straight-talk refilled. I was down another $30.
So what, I had my new phone and my old number. I then started trying to get VOIP to work. After about 2 weeks of trying and spending $10 on Skype and $5 on Vonage, I think I have it working, but neither is acceptable. Vonage doesn't work reliably. I never know if it will work. Skype always works, but my voice doesn't seem to get through very well. Audio to me is fine. It seems to be my voice quality that is lost (outbound). Today was the last straw. I called my wife while she was at work. I could hear her fine, but she kept shouting 'I can't hear you!', 'can you speak louder'. It was insane. This never happened when using the SII's built in cell phone.
Working with Skype was discouraging. I have never had an account with a company that worked so hard at being impossible to reach. In the end, I figured out what I needed, but I am convinced that if a 'real' issue came up regarding billing, this lack of communication would be a major problem. The funniest thing I ran into was a Skype support web page that said 'Let's get started, tell us about yourself'. So you fill out this questionnaire. When you are done, there is no 'continue' button. It is just a dead end. Maybe I'm stupid and couldn't read the page...
Anyway, at this point, I'm working up the energy to move to the $45/month StraightTalk plan. The VOIP just isn't working.
I've had my Galaxy SII since the last week of February (45 days or so). Prior to that, I had been using the $99 Straight-talk feature phone (3 or 4 years). In both cases, I've had the $30/month plan.
I'm an old 'palm pilot' guy. I still use a palm devise (Zire). I've been hoping to move on, but must admit I"m still using it. I've got a couple of android programs that are supposed to do what the Palm does for me, but problems getting the phone service where I want it have delayed the migration.
Setting up the right phone service, at the right price, has been a project. First, I bought the phone for $330 at Walmart. $30 was for 1 month at T mobile. T-mobile refused to accept the 'card', and told me to take it back to Walmart. I have not figured out how this would work.
My time with the phone for the first month was wasted getting the phone number changed. In the end, the number got moved 1 day after Straight-talk refilled. I was down another $30.
So what, I had my new phone and my old number. I then started trying to get VOIP to work. After about 2 weeks of trying and spending $10 on Skype and $5 on Vonage, I think I have it working, but neither is acceptable. Vonage doesn't work reliably. I never know if it will work. Skype always works, but my voice doesn't seem to get through very well. Audio to me is fine. It seems to be my voice quality that is lost (outbound). Today was the last straw. I called my wife while she was at work. I could hear her fine, but she kept shouting 'I can't hear you!', 'can you speak louder'. It was insane. This never happened when using the SII's built in cell phone.
Working with Skype was discouraging. I have never had an account with a company that worked so hard at being impossible to reach. In the end, I figured out what I needed, but I am convinced that if a 'real' issue came up regarding billing, this lack of communication would be a major problem. The funniest thing I ran into was a Skype support web page that said 'Let's get started, tell us about yourself'. So you fill out this questionnaire. When you are done, there is no 'continue' button. It is just a dead end. Maybe I'm stupid and couldn't read the page...
Anyway, at this point, I'm working up the energy to move to the $45/month StraightTalk plan. The VOIP just isn't working.
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