Monday, April 5, 2021

Boost Mobile Saga

Today i decided i needed something, like a wi-fi hotspot or phone so i can go at least several hours a day in the park instead of sitting here breathing in the dust and s... the guy upstairs is giving to me any time he wants. Monday, Tuesday, days off. He went missing a few hours Monday when i left too, so i can't say he's been here 4 days in a row, but came soon after i started doing this. I saw that i can, using Angela's phone in the parking lots to get internet on the laptop and can be quite productive on it. Go in the park on a bench in the shade of a tree and do whatever i'm doing here. First i googled and found out about a wi-fi hotspot plan from Verizon, 4 Gigs for 20 dollars a month. But when i went to their website, i got lost. And i know a thing or two about web sites. Then i tried to go at the Verizon store near Walmart. A woman with big hypnotic blue eyes came to tell me that all their plans start at 55. Came back home again, searched again, again could not find that plan on their site. Then i've been thinking. Another device to carry. When i can get it on my phone. I like this phone because of the camera and is quite fast, a new similar unlocked one is 90 dollars now, but why the waste. If i could find a data plan only.

First, an attempt to unlock my phone. Spoke for up to an hour with 2 different agents. (It says online, on the phone only). Forgot the pin, had to guess first month of service last year Angela's got Boost Mobile for 35, with 6 gigs of data. On Boost Mobile plan there is an offer, 10 dollars off for a second line, which would made it 25. All i figured was i got 2 more months to go until i can unlock it.

Ok so again like nobody else had to spend hours to reactivate the phone with boost (prepaid, unpaid for more than 120 days). My attempts to add it as a second line to Angela's account failed miserably, because Angela's line is on a "14 days grace period" VIP plan which is not shown online. That is if she forgets to pay, they won't shut down her phone. I had a plan without that VIP thin (i guess, never asked or been asked for), on the same amount, and didn't pay and phone worked for 14 more days and then for up to a month for incoming calls only.

Because of that, they say, a second line cannot be added. But to figure all this i had to go through a Kafka like labyrinth. First, after talking on the phone, giving the ID numbers of the phone, they gave me a new phone number. I went online on Angela's account and added the phone.

Total cost should have been 35 + 25 (-10 for the second line) (Never realized how offensive this Sledgehammer song the're just playing on the radio while i type here).

So i went and paid the 35 dollars on her (main) account (there was nothing there to explain or choice to make as what the money were for, should had been 25 for the second line and 10 for activation fee or 35 -10 +10). It didn't work, i then opened the online account for the new phone number, thinking those 35 dollars will be for next month's balance, i paid the 35 dollars ballance there again, nothing happened.

Then i called them again and i just can't spend the next hour trying to tell what happened in the last two. I just can't. They put me on hold for periods of up to half hour and in the end "they opened a case" to remove the "VIP 14 days grace period" for Angela's phone so a second line could be added, then they will need to open another case for the refund or transfer the money i added on my account (so i can have the phone tomorrow in the park).

To make a long story short. Got the phone working, but not on family plan and paid two times 35 dollars each.

My guess if they use this excuse with the VIP grace period just to make it impossible to add a second line to a plan, as advertised. They just attract you with that, you go in there and end up paying an extra 120 a year for nothing. You could probably do it only if you start with two or more phones, not add another one later.  These web sites, customer service lines are black hole money traps, nothing else.

Thinking 10 dollars from 25 to 35 isn't much. It isn't? It's one third of the price. 120 a years, but who knows how many millions they trap with this trick. You decide based on the 10 dollars reduction, but once you get the phone activated and see it's 10 dollars more, is almost impossible to give up, once you have the phone activated.

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