I was playing around with downloading a ringtone yesterday (my new W367G) and was told that the cost was 23.92 units, much higher than the 9 units that I had read it would cost. I had already burned throuh 5 units (10 minutes worth) browsing around the ringtones so I just left without downloading anything.
To make a long story short... Tracfone converts your units into $1.99 (or more?) based on which card you used to put time on the phone. If you used a less efficient card like the 60 minute card, your cost in units for a ringtone will be lower because you paid more per unit. I used a 400 minute 1 year card with DMFL + 300 bonus minutes, thus my cost for a ringtone in terms of units was very high, and I'm thinking that they take bonus minutes into account. That's the only way I can get to the price of 23.92 units for a $1.99 song. Plus the time to download the song @ 0.5 units per minute. You can read about the conversion process, as well as other data services information, here:
Also, note the paragraph "Restrictions" which states that you can't access outside websites and also that you can't transfer ringtones to new or replacement tracfones:
Attempting to go to a URL outside of the TRACFONE Mobile Web on your TRACFONE is not possible, and you will be charged units if you type in another URL and try. The Data Services you purchase and/or download may only be used or viewed on the TRACFONE for which they were purchased and cannot be transferred to any other device, including a new or replacement TRACFONE. Data Services are non-refundable and non-transferable.
Something else that was interesting - I was browsing the ringtone store online at Tracfone and you have to enter the phone's serial number / phone number. When I entered my wife's phone (LG600G), the ringtones were all of the really cheesy synthesized stuff. When I entered my phone's information (W376G) it was real music from the artists.
Not only were the ringtones different depending on which phone you have, the selection was different from online vs. going to the "ringtone store" from my phone. The ringtone I was wanting to hear before buying was "Chocolate" by Daddy Yankee, but it wasn't avaialble online (just wasn't there). The song "Lowrider" by War was sounding pretty good though.
My W376g, when I go to the Trac ringtone site, and enter in the serial number and phone number, gets a mixture of polyphonic, and real MP3 tones. The search option at the top will NOT work for me with my W376. Very limited selection of MP3 songs. But, when I enter in the ESN of my W370, I get a whole dropdown menu of real Tones, and the music search function on the site works....I can enter "Pantera" for example, and get a Pantera ringtone...but not with the W376G!! Even though both phones are capable of having MP3 ringtones, Tracfone will say the Real MP3 tones are "Not supported on the W376g" if you ask them why. It drives me nuts...I upgraded to a w376g from a W370 for the Bluetooth and camera, thinking the tones would be the same, but NO.... about a third of the selection of real MP3 tones...If enough folks keep complaining to CS about this for the w376, maybe we can get them to open up all the ringtones....
[1 bar??...only ONE BAR of Signal????...but it's a TRACFONE!!
I went back to The Trac ringtone site today, and now it WILL show me the 'music Tones' dropdown menu with a W376g esn...but still does not have all the same songs available to a W370 phone....weird...
OK, I see the "music tones" dropdown menu now (w376g). The cost for music ringtone downloads is $2.99, the cost for a polymorphic (cheesy keyboard) ringtone is $1.99.
Since I put a $100 / 400 unit card on my phone, doubled to 800 units (W376G has DMFL built in), my cost per unit is 12.5 cents. Bonus code minutes are not counted when they figure your cost per unit.
That’s how they came up with the cost of 23.92 units for a music ringtone. 23.92 x 12.5 cents = $2.99. Or I could pay with a credit card.
The CC would end up cheaper for ringtones....Some 'Real Tones' (MP3) cost 33.90 units now...And remember, the phone itself does NOT show all the tones, the site has way more...even if they show different tones for different phones.
all those numbers... do you think it would be cheaper to pay with a CC or minutes?
is it easier/cheaper to get songs online since it doesnt use minutes to browse? but i guess not if selection is limited online.
Same price.
The reason they want you to enter your serial number / phone number is so that they can figure out how much you spent per unit (not including bonus minutes), then that is converted into $2.99. So... you either pay $2.99 with a credit card, or $2.99 in units.
And the online store is much easier to browse plus you aren't burning units while browsing online. The selection does seem to be a little different online vs. through using the browser but I'm not 100% sure. The problem is that the search button doesn't seem to work. Oh well.
Ouch.. Ringtone prices are up to $2.99 now? Back in the day I think ringtones were $0.99 or less but the last time I bought a ringtone was probably in 2001. After that I just started downloading them from free websites via WAP or in recent years, making my own. I think $2.99 is absurd considering you can buy a whole song for $0.99!
However, I do think buying a ringtone or two is not bad considering I find it much easier to recognize my own phone ringing when I have a custom tune. Rather than a generic 'ring-ring' or T-Mo/AT&T jingle. My current ringtone: David Archuleta - Angels
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I just had an interesting thought. If the W370 and W376 can do MP3 ringtones, I wonder if AT&T's MMS gateway will strip an MP3 attachment if it's coming directly from another phone? I know it will do that if it's coming from an email address.
The reason I mention this is because certain T-Mo phones (and most of AT&T's phones) have an option to send MP3 ringtones via MMS which I use from time to time.
When you enter your serial # on the TF site if you will notice the first list of ringtones that pop up say "Most Popular " or something like that . Over on the left side of the page you can click a link to look at all ringtones either the MP3 or the cheapos . You can break it dowm by category country rock etc. As far as I can tell I can download any or all of these with my W376g . I think some people are just mistaking the most popular list with being the only ones available for your phone .
Ringtone lists differ with different phones because they are not all compatible with all phones. The nice fancy new phones can handle mp3's but old phones such as the Nokia 1100 can only handle "beep" tunes. Whatever the phone can handle will be listed.
"whatever the phone can handle will be listed"...Not always. like I stated before, the Moto w370 and W376 have the same capabilities for storage. in fact, the w376 has more storage. Both phones are capable of "real music" ringtones, as trac cals them. but the selection is NOT the exact same, even though they have been getting better. I like heavy metal, and until recently, the bands Chimaira and Cradle Of Filth had ringtones only available for the w370. they did not show up on the list for the w376, even though it WOULD be able to handle those songs. Now, in the last 2 weeks, they show up in the w376 list...it's strange, but Trac does make seperate lists for different phones, and it's NOT just because the phone cant handle the tone, as my example above shows. Why they do this, I don't know, but at 33 units per real music tone with a 400 minute card, and the unit cost of download time, some tones cost almost 40 units. Oh, well, I still buy em, but I'm still waiting for the EM 326g, the Moto MP3 player phone that's coming soon....
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Originally Posted by NismoMax80
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