Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Please keep in mind my review is more geared towards Tracfone service with this phone, and not a review of the phone itself. I'm a 7 year user of traditional (non-smart) Tracfones. I decided now that Tracfone is offering Android devices, and after punching my zipcode into their website, it was determined they would work in my area, so I decided it was time for an upgrade. After receiving my phone, I followed the directions to transfer my number, my old phone quit working, then it came time to activate my new phone. It would not activate using the instructions of calling *22890. When calling that number it stated "this call cannot be completed as dialed". I called Tracfone support and after several hours of powering phone off, do this, do that, it was determined the phone must be defective. So I returned it to Amazon, and purchased another model Android phone. After receiving this phone, it would still not activate, and spent a couple more hours on the phone with elevated tech support. Now, I'm finally at Level 3 support, and they have a carrier network engineer (for Verizon, since that is the service these phones operate) on the other end. I was told drive a few miles from my home zip code, activate it, then all would be good. I proceeded to do this, and after returning to my home zip code, I could receive calls, but when making calls, all I got was a message "please re-enter the phone number and do not press send". I had to do this for every outgoing number. After researching further online, and no help from Tracfone support, I found out I'm living in a area that Verizon does not consider a "home network". But still showed me as having service in their extended network. So to sum all this up, unless you live in the Verizon "Home Network", you will not be able to activate your phone, and if you do travel to an area to activate it, and return home, it will be extra steps to make outbound calls because you are essentially roaming on someone else cell towers.