Ting.com Ting Tucows, Inc Excellent Phone Service, Be Careful of the Refurbished Phones Tucows Inc. Toronto Headquarters 96 Mowat Avenue T Internet

This company does phone service right.  I can easily choose what I want to spend each month and turn off my service at the click of a button.  6-months or so I decided it might be worth it to buy a refurbished iPhone 5 and 5s from them for a little extra money (it came with a 30-day warranty and was guaranteed to work on their network) over an eBay retailer.

I should have been tipped off by the knock-off charging unit printed with the words "Designed DS Happy in travel" included with the iPhone 5 that sparked, failed to charge the phone and quickly overheated (they refunded me $10 to purchase a new charger), but I kept the phone with the new unit and when the next IOS update hit, the phone was nonfunctional (this being outside of the 30-day warranty, there is nothing that can be done but to buy another).  I don't have an explanation except that the battery was made in "Simgapore." [sic] 

So, now I have a great phone service and no phone.  It's kind of like a vacation that only costs $6/month (about the cost of freezing a line).