I'm confused by the actual process of activating a line and buying a PIN. It looks like you can do that straight from the PP web site itself, but then there are all these dealer sites. If you start with one and activate with them, will all your future plans need to be bought from them, or is this something you can switch around and do what you want with? For example, I see different prices for activation and porting. What if I want to do those services with a certain one because the price is better but not buy the plan from them because something about another dealer enticed you away? Do a lot of people just do everything straight from the PP site and nothing with a dealer? Is a dealer necessary?
Just trying to figure out what my options are here. I have a phone coming from Amazon so I want to figure out what my plan will be once it arrives. Thanks.
Using a Dealer or not is a personal choice. Many Dealers offer customer support and if you need or want someone to hold your hand theyhave there purpose. As far as purchasing Pins you can get them anywhere you choose. If you set up an auto pay with a dealer then you have to cancel it but if you just buy them one at a time it makes no difference where the pin comes from.
Some dealers will tell you that they have a more direct line to PP and can get things fixed via there dealer channels that consumers can not or do not know how to get done. As to activating or doing most other things its is free if you call into PP directly. They even have an online chat that you can use for more immediate response. You have to decide for yourself if going through a dealer is better for you or not. Also One thing, the $80 one year pins are only sold via dealers.
Last edited by davefrdd99; 06-03-2012 at 03:30 PM.
Reason: spelling
look, this is no more difficult than McDonald's. You swing in, it's the same menu everywhere, you decide what you want, you buy it. Some franchises tweak the menus and pricing a tad here and a tad there, and you choose whether or not to do business with those franchises. You aren't stuck going to the first McD's you ever went to just because you went there first.
PPlus is no different. Buy the phone, buy the minutes. Use them up. Don't want more? Don't buy more. Sell the phone, throw it away, whatever.
Don't put any more thought into this than you would buying a candy bar.
From my research, I'd go through a dealer. Some dealers provide discounts and/or doesn't charge tax. I got the $80 pin for less than MSRP because of the discounts the dealer I chose gives out.
You can activate your new account from either through Pageplus or a dealer.
Once active you can shop around month to month or whenever you need a refill from anywhere or anyone you want.
I would suggest you keep an eye on the Cheap places to refill thread stuck at the top of this forum. Just go to the latest page and see who is offering the best deal or discount at the moment.
A lot of people don't use dealers nor buy from Page Plus directly but rather get their plan cards from a PIN retailer like callingmart who offer both discount codes and do not charge taxs
Does the phone number you end up with depend on who you activate with as far as online or in a PP store? Or don't we have any say in the matter as far as what we end up with? Hoping for same area code and prefix as what we have now but didn't know if that was possible. If there are options available during activation, I'd like to make sure I'm finding the right place to activate right from the start!
Does the phone number you end up with depend on who you activate with as far as online or in a PP store? Or don't we have any say in the matter as far as what we end up with? Hoping for same area code and prefix as what we have now but didn't know if that was possible. If there are options available during activation, I'd like to make sure I'm finding the right place to activate right from the start!
I have activated two different phones one via PP over the phone and one online via a dealer website. I do not remember if any choice was given via the online dealer route but when I activated over the phone with PP I asked for a specific area code and prefix. The first number offered was not what I asked for and I asked to operator if There was any other numbers available and she offered one I liked better. She did tell me that normally you have to have a number active for more than 3 days to request a number change but since mine was not yet activated she went ahead and did it for me. I believe that it really depends on the operator as I think there policy is take it or leave it. Some dealers may be able to do more for you I really do not know. i would suggest you send an email to them and ask before doing so or if you do it via an online dealer put it in the notes and ask them to confirm your choice prior to do anything. Since most dealers charge an activation fee they may well be more accommodating.
Pageplus is NO contract prepaid. You do not have a contract with any specific dealer, therefor let's say dealer "A" sells you a phone and a pin, let's say you buy a monthly PIN for $39.95. Let's say the dealer threw in some freebies to sweeten the deal and gave you free activation since you purchased a phone and PIN from him. Okay, now your month is over, of course dealer "A" wants you to come back to him because that's how he makes his money but you are not obligated to do so, you are free to go to dealer "B" to purchase your next PIN and he'll be too happy to sell it to you. Decide you need more data? You are free to purchase a $55 PIN. Not happy with dealer "B"? Go back to dealer "A" the following month. Decide $55 is a waste of money? Try a $29.95 PIN. Change dealers every month, change plans every month, the choice is yours.
Dealers are going to try to give you reasons to come back, offer you services only offered to repeat customers and offer loyalty discounts, but if you decide you want to pay a dealer to activate your phone then purchase discount PINs online, that's your choice.
One trick I learned, here cell phones are given a different prefix than landlines but it's still a local call from a landline. You want to find out what the prefix is for cell phones in your area and ask PPC if that prefix is available. If I put in the local landline prefix I get assigned a number for a town 50 miles away. By using a local cell phone prefix instead of a landline prefix or zip code, I've been able to get a local number first time every time. The only thing you would really need a dealer for is if you have trouble doing it yourself.
This has all been very helpful information. One question remaining is on tracking your amount of minutes, data, etc, remaining on your allowance. Once you are activated, do you log into the PP web site to get that information, or is that done through an online dealer's site if you went that route? I'm trying to see the big picture here as far as how it all ties together and how you track it. I want to make sure I'm doing it the easiest way. Phone has shipped from Amazon so I'm getting geared up to be prepared for this. Looking forward to trying PP.
I log into my PP online account to see my remaining funds or minutes depending on what plan you are on. I believe some Dealers have the ability to send out updates if you sign up with them. Also PP dose not save your data once your month is up you start fresh there is no easy way to see how many minutes are left over each month if you are on a monthly plan. If you use the standard plan you can see your remaining funds and do the math yourself. I personally recommend you start with either the $12 or $29.95 plan the first month unless you know you need lots of data and or unlimited text and minutes. If you carefully monitor your usage for a month or so you can always upgrade your plan. If you for instance sign up on the $12 plan and run out of minutes ,text or data you can just do an early renewal to either another $12 or upgrade to a larger plan based on your known usage pattern instead of a wild guess. I hate to pay for something I do not get to use so I start small and work my way up. I would also not sign up for any auto pay at first until I knew I was on the right plan.
Crystal, you can also text BAL to 7243 which will send you a text message with your remaining minutes, texts and data. This does come out of your text allowance, but unless you are on the standard plan, it doesn't really matter.
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Originally Posted by Crystall
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