NET10 Unlimited international long distance fraud MIami, Florida

I am visiting from Canada and wanted to buy a service that I could call home while in the United States. Since I have an unlocked GSM phone, it seemed logical to buy a SIM card and a plan to use on my phone. I went to Radio Shack, and was told the best bet was a NET10 unlimited plan for $65 a month. Seemed high, but it included unlimited text, picture texts, data, and telephone to Canada. I asked how I would call to Canada, and was told I would simply dial 1 plus the area code plus the number and connect. It took three painful hours with the store manager on the phone to NET10 to finally get it activated. I paid for the SIM card with a credit card, but they demanded the $65 airtime be paid in cash. That should have been my first clue. When I got to my RV, I tried to call my daughter in the way I was told. I received a message that 'The International number you are trying to call is not allowed from this number.' I called tech support at 611 and was told I needed to dial 1-404-698-4700 and then put the number I want to call in when prompted. I tried it, but it is a cheap VOIP proxy and the call went through but with echoes, a 5 second or better lag, and weird background noise we couldn't even tell them (my wife's father) who was calling. I called tech support again and was read the 'conditions of service' telling me I couldn't use this for business and on and on. I said I just wanted to call my family and the person said that 'should' work just fine. The next day I went back to Radio Shack and spent over an hour with the person on line to NET10. They first said I needed to dial 1-800-584-7652 to activate the phone. We did that, and it said the phone was already activated. Then, much later, they decided I needed to dial 1-800-706-3839 before making any international calls. I said this was unacceptable if it was another VOIP knockoff, but they demanded I do it that way. I had the Radio Shack person tell them I would NOT have purchased this service had they not told me I could direct dial from my phone and I wanted my $65 back. Their solution was to let me 'use up' the air time in Las Vegas and then cancel the account. Given I don't know anybody in Vegas, I just gave up. I will try a letter when I get home, but I assume its a $65 lesson in not paying cash for a dubious service.

After this adventure, we went to a Cricket store, paid $90 for a phone AND a month's unlimited text and messaging, paid with a credit card, and made a call to Canada dialing 1+area code+number before we left the store. It works awesome and we're happy we got what we were told we were getting. As for NET10, I will never, ever, ever deal with those fraudsters ever again.