Net10 - Tracfone Net10 charges for a message saying "this phone has not been activated for international calls" 6 waisted hours with their customer service Miami, Florida

Bought Net10  cellphone that  was supposed to have a built in MP3  player using a  Micro SD card.  Phone was not  accepting the card,  obviously  the card was defective.  Called  their  "Tech support"   apparently  these guys  barely  understand what a  cell phone is.  He  spent about 3  hours with me,  wasting my time.  It  was  a  continuous,  "take the  Micro SD card out,  put it  back again,  turn the phone on,  turn the phone off,  take  the battery  out,  take  the  SIM  card  out,  put  the  SIM  card  back,  turn the phone on,  turn the phone off,   etc.  etc.  etc."

I  believe  that  this  "technician"   was  just  trying to fill up his  hours  with  something.  When he told me  for  about the 15th  time to take the SIM  card and the Micro SD  out I  asked him how many more times he wanted to try  this  and  finally  it  was  "it  looks like your phone is broken,  we  are going to exchange it".  Actually  it  was  just a  bad  Micro SD  card  that  they had included with the phone.  I  bought one from  Walmart and it  worked fine.

There was still another issue with  international  calls.  According to  their manual  this phone and this prepaid plan was good  to  call  to  a  list  of  countries  for  an  additional fee  of  5 cents per minute.  Nothing  about having  to  activate  the international  service,   the  manual  just  states:  "  you can call  over 60  international destinations from your Net10 phone for just 5cents more per minute.  Please wait 2 business  days  after your Net10 phone is  Activated  to make international  calls. 

A -  From  your  Net 10 phone,  dial  *1,  then  press the SEND  key.

When ever  I  pressed  *1  I  heard  a  message  like "this phone is not  activated for international  calls...."   and  another minute was deducted from my  account.   After about  1  week  I  still was not  able  to make international  calls  but  I  had  about 30 minutes  less on my  account. 

I  called  their  tech support  again:   the guy  told me  that  I  had  to  wait  for an  email  confirming  that  the  international  service  was  activated on this  phone.  (about 1.5  hours with this guy)   I  asked  him  to  return  the  minutes  that  were  deducted  from my  account  without  having  received any  service  and  the  answer  was  "no,  I  can't  give you these minutes back".   He  transferred me  to  the  department  for  international  calls  and  I  spent  another  1.5  hours  on  hold  without  talking to anybody.  Finally  I  hung  up.  Its  been  3   weeks  now  since  I  activated  the  phone.  Until  now  I  have not  received  the  "international call activation message."   I  will  return  this  phone  and  stay  away  from  Net10.