If you put a different SIM into the phone and then activate it without the system/CS asking for the SIM S/N, then it will activate the phone thinking it has the SIM that was sold with the phone. It won`t activate and the e-bay SIM will be ruined. Also, once you power up the phone with a SIM installed the SIM can not be used in any other phone. A SIM can only accept one phone number in its lifetime.
Right, when I enter the ESN, Tracfone's computer knows what sim was in the phone when they sold it to me. I missed that in thejmart.com's tutorial. So if I call CS they will refuse to activate it with the AT&T sim or offer to send me a Tmobile sim? I wonder what people do with those AT&T sims they buy on ebay?
Right, when I enter the ESN, Tracfone's computer knows what sim was in the phone when they sold it to me. I missed that in thejmart.com's tutorial. So if I call CS they will refuse to activate it with the AT&T sim or offer to send me a Tmobile sim? I wonder what people do with those AT&T sims they buy on ebay?
Thanks for the info.
If the online program or the CS does not ask for the SIM number then you cannot continue with the activation because it does not know the number of the one you acquired and put in the phone. This does not mean the CS will refuse to activate it with a different SIM.
Right, when I enter the ESN, Tracfone's computer knows what sim was in the phone when they sold it to me. I missed that in thejmart.com's tutorial. So if I call CS they will refuse to activate it with the AT&T sim or offer to send me a Tmobile sim? I wonder what people do with those AT&T sims they buy on ebay?
CS will try to activate but it won't ask for the sim number just like as if you tried it yourself. They will not be able to figure out how to activate with your sim of choice. They will try a few things in order to be helpful. Keep in mind these regular CS people just push buttons and cannot override or improvise or have insight into the way things work. They also have a devil of a time transferring you to a tech person, since TF is so fraught with screw-ups that they are overloaded.
You can ask for another sim, but you will have to plead for it if they don't think you need one. If you order online, you can just fill in the blanks.
People buy sims on ebay because they don't know how else to get one. If they took a little time to search some forums, they would be better off. Sometimes, they just might want to remain anonymous to TF. You need a new sim in order to reactivate a used phone and also to change the phone number of an existing phone. Some of the ebay offerings look like old style sims and might be troublesome.
...Opening the phone does NOT automatically open an SMS and result in a 0.3 minute deduction. When you open the phone it tells you how many new messages you have and then you have the choice to select what you want to open. And yes, you can delete one or all of the messages without opening them and no minutes are deducted when you delete unread messages.
But, if you scroll through and read the message with the phone closed on the external display, you can read it without any minutes being deducted. Next time you open the phone, you can read (or delete) the message on the internal display and still not be charged...
I've been able to confirm this behavior on my week-old LG 420g/T-Mob, sending SMS from a PC via www.txt2day.com--no units deducted if I read the message on the cover display, scrolling with the volume rocker. No units deducted subsequently when re-reading those messages via the menu w/flip open.
HOWEVER, I then did a test sending 3 successive SMS's and DID NOT READ THEM on the cover, just to see what would happen, and how many units would be deducted. On the cover, rather than a single message notification, a folder icon appeared and "3 messages". Pressing the rocker, words to the effect of "Open folder" appeared...but that could not be performed from the closed cover display. I opened the flip, went to the messages menu, Inbox, and saw three new individual messages. I selected the earliest (3rd from the top of the list), which did not open the message, but provided some perfunctory details, and the choices: "Options - Retrieve - Back" which I found odd, since my previously "cover-read" msgs. offered the choices: "Options - Reply - Back" within the menu access (AFTER they had been read on the cover). Not sure what the usual SMS behavior is, but I later discovered that these 3 unread msgs. were being treated as MMS, not SMS...strange. Not one to frivolously burn units, but willing to test, I selected "Retrieve" this one time...it then asked for confirmation (nice feature), and I pressed "Yes". "1.00 Units deducted" WHAT? A WHOLE UNIT?! Then (some details may not be 100% accurate, but close) I had to press something like "Read" and again, "0.50 Units deducted" WHAT? I THOUGHT SMS ONLY COST A THIRD OF A UNIT! Well, having lost almost 5 X the units I had anticipated, I decided to delete the remaining two unread messages. Upon closer examination of the "retrieved" test message, it appeared very different from the "cover read" msgs...they were small white text on dark background, whereas this "open flip retrieved" msg. was a larger black font inside a white box. Details revealed it was MMS. WHAAAAA? Why would either reading the msg. on the cover display, and/or collecting multiple msgs. before reading make any such difference? Of course, sending from a PC via www.txt2day.com probably has something to do with this, but ALL test msgs. were sent by this method!
My advice is to quickly scroll through each test msg. AS IT COMES IN, rather that to collect and read later. As a rule, I'm not a texter, but if I can read an SMS for free, I'd prefer that to a voice mail.
I've been able to confirm this behavior on my week-old LG 420g/T-Mob, sending SMS from a PC via www.txt2day.com--no units deducted if I read the message on the cover display, scrolling with the volume rocker. No units deducted subsequently when re-reading those messages via the menu w/flip open.
HOWEVER, I then did a test sending 3 successive SMS's and DID NOT READ THEM on the cover, just to see what would happen, and how many units would be deducted. On the cover, rather than a single message notification, a folder icon appeared and "3 messages". Pressing the rocker, words to the effect of "Open folder" appeared...but that could not be performed from the closed cover display. I opened the flip, went to the messages menu, Inbox, and saw three new individual messages. I selected the earliest (3rd from the top of the list), which did not open the message, but provided some perfunctory details, and the choices: "Options - Retrieve - Back" which I found odd, since my previously "cover-read" msgs. offered the choices: "Options - Reply - Back" within the menu access (AFTER they had been read on the cover). Not sure what the usual SMS behavior is, but I later discovered that these 3 unread msgs. were being treated as MMS, not SMS...strange. Not one to frivolously burn units, but willing to test, I selected "Retrieve" this one time...it then asked for confirmation (nice feature), and I pressed "Yes". "1.00 Units deducted" WHAT? A WHOLE UNIT?! Then (some details may not be 100% accurate, but close) I had to press something like "Read" and again, "0.50 Units deducted" WHAT? I THOUGHT SMS ONLY COST A THIRD OF A UNIT! Well, having lost almost 5 X the units I had anticipated, I decided to delete the remaining two unread messages. Upon closer examination of the "retrieved" test message, it appeared very different from the "cover read" msgs...they were small white text on dark background, whereas this "open flip retrieved" msg. was a larger black font inside a white box. Details revealed it was MMS. WHAAAAA? Why would either reading the msg. on the cover display, and/or collecting multiple msgs. before reading make any such difference? Of course, sending from a PC via www.txt2day.com probably has something to do with this, but ALL test msgs. were sent by this method!
My advice is to quickly scroll through each test msg. AS IT COMES IN, rather that to collect and read later. As a rule, I'm not a texter, but if I can read an SMS for free, I'd prefer that to a voice mail.
So why would you use www.txt2day.com to send a message to your tracfone??? You can cut out that middle man and send from computer email direct to phone.
Not sure what the usual SMS behavior is, but I later discovered that these 3 unread msgs. were being treated as MMS, not SMS...strange. Not one to frivolously burn units, but willing to test, I selected "Retrieve" this one time...it then asked for confirmation (nice feature), and I pressed "Yes". "1.00 Units deducted" WHAT? A WHOLE UNIT?! Then (some details may not be 100% accurate, but close) I had to press something like "Read" and again, "0.50 Units deducted" WHAT? I THOUGHT SMS ONLY COST A THIRD OF A UNIT!
Regular text (SMS) messages are charged 0.3 minutes per message sent or received.
If the message arrived to your phone as an MMS message, you were correctly charged 1.5 minutes - broken down, it's 1.0 minute for the message itself and 0.5 minutes for the data connection to download the message. 1.5 minutes is also charged when sending an MMS message from the phone.
Originally Posted by Scott in Boston
Upon closer examination of the "retrieved" test message, it appeared very different from the "cover read" msgs...they were small white text on dark background, whereas this "open flip retrieved" msg. was a larger black font inside a white box.
This could be the reason why they came through as MMS and not SMS, the formatting of the message. I would not blame the phone.
So why would you use www.txt2day.com to send a message to your tracfone??? You can cut out that middle man and send from computer email direct to phone.
Cannonball-II, could you explain how this is done? Now that you mention is, I do recall reading something about that on another blog, but never tested it. Would the email be treated as SMS or MMS by Tracfone and/or LG 420g? Thanks.
Regular text (SMS) messages are charged 0.3 minutes per message sent or received.
If the message arrived to your phone as an MMS message, you were correctly charged 1.5 minutes - broken down, it's 1.0 minute for the message itself and 0.5 minutes for the data connection to download the message. 1.5 minutes is also charged when sending an MMS message from the phone.
This could be the reason why they came through as MMS and not SMS, the formatting of the message. I would not blame the phone.
EdwardP, the whole point of my narrative was: Why would those three msgs. be treated as MMS, when the previous ones, sent exactly the same way, were treated as SMS? Anybody?
I also discovered something else...a bit OT to the LG 420g, but still Tracofone: During the above testing, I also sent a single message to my trusty, still active, Nokia 1100, which was in my car, and turned off as usual (BTW, in this state, the battery just lasts forever on that thing). Upon powering it up, I saw something I had never seen on that phone: a flashing envelope icon in the upper left corner. Now, I've received SMS several times before on that phone, both when off & powered up, and never saw this behavior. No matter what menus I peruse, I cannot figure how to get to that message, or make the icon go away. Any clues from anyone with Nokia 1100 experience?
(Could this be a voice mail notification? I never set up voice mail on that phone, since in past, it's mostly telemarketers leaving msgs., and I generally do not give out that number. Now if I try to access the VM system, I doesn't recognize my number...that's okay, I was just trying to see if for some reason the msg. went there, even though I know that makes no sense).
It's probably voicemail. This will use minutes, but you can hold down the "1" and it should dial your official VM server. Then press "*" regardless of what the announcer says.
Or you can dial your phone number from a landline, which I'm sure you already know.
Cannonball-II, could you explain how this is done? Now that you mention is, I do recall reading something about that on another blog, but never tested it. Would the email be treated as SMS or MMS by Tracfone and/or LG 420g? Thanks.
Text only email is SMS. with pic and/or sound it's MMS.
Send a message from your phone (either SMS or MMS) to your computer email address.
Go to your computer and open that email. Note the Return addy.
That will be the addy you use to send a message to the phone. It's that simple!
It's probably voicemail. This will use minutes, but you can hold down the "1" and it should dial your official VM server. Then press "*" regardless of what the announcer says.
Or you can dial your phone number from a landline, which I'm sure you already know.
Thank you, Lisme...but yeah, bin 'ere, dunat. Both.
It's odd, since the text msg. I sent to the Nokia 1100 does not appear in the text msg. inbox (it has been hit or miss receiving SMS on the Nokia 1100 when it is turned off, but often it works), and I NEVER set up the VM function, nor have I ever received a VM on that phone.
Upon powering it up, I saw something I had never seen on that phone: a flashing envelope icon in the upper left corner. Now, I've received SMS several times before on that phone, both when off & powered up, and never saw this behavior. No matter what menus I peruse, I cannot figure how to get to that message, or make the icon go away. Any clues from anyone with Nokia 1100 experience?
This is taken from the owners manual on the nokia site: Reading a text message (Inbox)
When you have received text messages in standby mode, the number of new messages as well as an envelope are shown on the display.
1. Press "-" (dash or minus symbol) Read to view the messages immediately.
To view the messages later, press "c". Go to the Inbox menu (Menu 01-2) when you want to read the messages.
2. Use the scroll keys to browse through the message.
3. While reading the message, you can press Options for the following:
Delete, Reply, Chat, Edit, Use, Forward, As reminder, Small fonts and Details.
I am sure that the envelope will disappear once ALL the unread texts have been read. Why haven't you seen the envelope icon before? Dunno......maybe it just wasn't noticed.
Quite a lot of hassle with Tracfone getting it activated - as usual (this was the worst). Now I have questions. I came here looking for chargers (looks like the ebay link points to a proper car charger)- I have the universal kit and it does NOT have the correct tip.
Reading here - I was unaware that different tracphones used different carriers. I was under the impression that they used the closest cell tower. Not true, eh? maybe that is why I have had a variety of connectivity in my Tracfones.
So are all the LG420Gs Tmobile? Now that I have activated it can I change - and if so how would I do it and what are my choices?
Originally Posted by newtoy1001
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