<p>intparent, I have had a similar experience with them (without the sibling passing away part… sorry to hear about that). I had a basic plan and I added on text messaging at the time - it was unlimited to other verizon subscribers and had like maybe 250 messages to non verizon subscribers. my boyfriend was a verizon subscriber, my family was, etc. It worked out perfectly and the texting plan only cost about 10 dollars or something like that. Well fast forward to a break up, and me starting to hang out with this other guy. We exchanged phone numbers and sent quite a few texts. It never occured to me to ask him if he had verizon or not! I was having issues with my cell phone, so i took it into a verizon store to have it looked at. While the first tech was bringing up my account she mentioned to me that I was 400 texts over my 250! at like 20 cents or so each extra text, that would have been quite a surprise when my bill went through (it’s set on an auto withdraw!). She asked me if I would like to bump up to the next higher texting plan which was 5 dollars a month more and that she would be happy to back date it to my last billing cycle so that I didn’t have to pay for going over! I was so happy! I’ve since changed plans to something that has unlimited, but I thought it was such a nice offer and I’m glad she brought it up considering that wasn’t even why I went there!</p>
<p>Wow. Lots of great information. We decided to stay with Verizon. S’s favorite place to talk is his dorm basement and the reception is still good. Apparently Verizon is a good carrier for others on his campus too.</p>
<p>We were waiting for a nice looking touch screen w/keypad to come out that didn’t require data and found a nice one at Costco yesterday. Now I just need the time to acquaint myself with it.</p>
<p>(oh, and the 2000 minutes is because one of the phones is used for a talk-intensive business. The rest of us use about 5 minutes a month tops.)</p>
<p>psychomomma, my DS is also looking for a touch screen with keypad that doesn’t require data, and DH loves to shop at Costco. Would you mind disclosing which phone you bought?</p>
<p>It’s a new phone - Samsung SCH u-370. It’s $10 through Tuesday at our store. We were replacing phones with Verizon that were over their 2 yr. mark.</p>
<p>(basically the Samsung Reality without the data plan.)</p>
<p>Thanks, psychmomma!</p>
<p>We were on an AT&T plan for several years and switched back to Verizon a few months ago. On thing I didn’t check was my bill cycle. So we had just entered the new service period (bill cycle 9) and on the 16th of the month strolled into Verizon and changed carriers. End result: we paid for the full service period on AT&T (1/9 - 2/8) and also the new service period on Verizon (1/16 - 2/15). It was one very expensive month. I didn’t realize that AT&T Wireless didn’t prorate.</p>