How I did it: I lost my old pay as you go AT&T cellphone, for which I had never reset the password. After a huge time wasting hour searching through the AT&T website and calling their customer support I was told to buy a new cell phone within the next day or two or risk losing my number.  (AT&T doesn't list the Pay As You Go number on the manuals or the website, so I had to be put on hold, explain everything, wait to be transferred, and then explain everything again everytime I called. Plus each time I had to listen through their mandatory sales prerecorded sales pitch.)

After an online look at reviews, I spent another hour and a half going to Walmart and buying their base model Pay As You Go Nokia 2320 for $30, which included $15 of airtime. Walmart doesn't have any of the models out on display, so forget taking the phone out of the plastic case until you buy it. However, the clerk said there is a 30 day return policy, if you keep the packaging.

Another hour spent looking through the manuals and then on the phone to AT&T who then informed me I had to go to an AT&T store to have the phone reset if I wanted my old phone number. (I didn't have the PIN for the old phone as I never rest it when AT&T required me to upgrade to a new phone a bit over a year before, so I'd have to present an ID in person. The first rep neglected to mention this.)

They also told me I actually had 90 days after my old phone expired to reup with my old phone number, contradicting the day or two I had been told the day before. Since the local AT&T store is chronically understaffed, this would mean another couple of hours of my time wasted. I asked to speak to the rep's supervisor to complain and was told that it wouldn't do any good. I then asked to be transferred to the complaints department and he said I'd have to write to a physical address to complain. WTF? AT&T is a phone company for god's sake! Yelled at the guy and hung up, which was simply unpleasant and totally useless.

Now I have a new phone, a new cell phone number, and a keen desire to dump AT&T for Verizon.

Lessons & tips: 1. If you don't use your phone much, like me, prepaid by the minute phones are much cheaper than a service contract.

2. Extra bells and whistles aren't worth the money or time, if you just want to use your cell as a traditional mobile phone.

3. AT&T's customer service is an unpleasant time waster apparently designed to get you into their physical stores.

Resources: Online Cell Phone Reviews and Walmart.

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Mar 01, 2010, 12:24PM PST | 0 comments | 8 cheers