Mom’s Tracfone killed by 3g sunset but replacement won’t activate
 

Tracfone decided to upgrade my moms flip phone whether she wanted it or not to an Motorola g xt2163dl, she was terrified to set it up.

I had to end up going through their line to get minutes transfered,
Sadly after 4 attempts and 4 hours of get a call do stuff wait I still can’t accept or make a phone call, minutes appear transferred, days also
I can make texts but the thing absolutely refuses to make a call

Not sure what to do

Do what I do, live without one?

Sadly for long distance her landline is much more expensive, unfortunate she will loose 10 hours of talk time if the phone is crapped out on technical issues.

It seems like every new tracfone is always a fight whether I start activation online or not.

I had a candy bar Nokia that when they didn't roll over minutes from one year to the next, I decided it wasn't for me.

I didn't know tracfone was still in business. Also, I didn't know paying for minutes was still a thing. Not sure I can help, other than to suggest that there are several MVNO's that offer unlimited service for $20 or less per month.

https://www.mintmobile.com/

Her phone is under $7 a month (should say was)

Nothing you can do but keep calling them. I moved older relatives away from Tracfone years ago because their customer service and technical service is awful. Nothing works like it should the first time and then you have to keep calling to find the handful of reps that actually know how to fix your problem. I found it very hit or miss.

$7 a month for all phones is a great price. But is sound like she is paying$7 on top of a landline bill. That is when dropping the landline as switching to unlimited cellular makes a lot of sense (and cents). Mints $20 a month is with 10 gig of data but there is also a $15 a month plan with 4GB of data. Mint uses T-Mobile.

I'm sure they are cheaper plans than Mint but Mint has shown good coverage and zero hassle since I switched to them. Cricket was good too as is AT&T prepaid's yearly plans

I'm using Mint's $20 10 GB plan while my wife is on AT&T's 8GB plan for $300 a year. I like to mix and max providers to maximize the chance of having service in remote areas. (My work phone is Verizon on a global unlimited plan)