Assurance Wireless/VirgenMobile insufficient support Internet

I've had an Assurance Wireless/VirginMobile Jax S1300 phone for over a year & have no complaints as far as normal service is concerned. My 250 minutes are there promptly every month.
My problem arose from carrying the phone in my pocket, since it has exposed buttons as most anyone has had happen they can inadvertently be depressed & even make a phone call without your knowledge. When I took the phone out of my pocket, there was a red screen with FTM Mode written on it. Could not do anything with it from then on, not even turn it off. Had to remove the battery.
To cut to the chase, I did some research online & found a lot of people had the same problem but no solutions available. FTM stands for Factory Test Mode, Kyocera said it was software related & suggested VirginMobile re-flash the phone. Spoke to VirginMobile customer support & they didn't have a solution. Their official response was to buy another basic phone & they would transfer the account. OK, not that big a deal.
Now I'm posting this to prevent it from happening to someone else such as an elderly or disabled person whom might have this occur in a moment of emergency. Posting a text message about this quirk would have been nice instead of reminding me to check my minutes.
In hindsight, I suggest using Keyguard for prevention and if it does occur, make your next unit a flip phone.