Ting!

So I've moved hubby-Eric over to a smartphone as well now. Because Ting didn't have any of the $53 LG Optimus S refurbs left, I found a likely candidate on eBay. Ting allows customers to port some models of Sprint phones to their service, so I looked for a used Sprint phone from a high-rated seller that specifically said "clean ESN" and had a 14 day guarantee. I ordered it right before Thanksgiving, and was surprised when it arrived yesterday (Saturday).

After some initial difficulties with the phone itself, I was again surprised when a Ting customer support person working on Saturday ported the phone to Ting for me so I could activate it same day. Amazing service!

If I'm gushing a bit, that's because I expect to save about $20 off from our previous monthly bills, and over $100 a month from what I would have spent on two Verizon smartphones. That's just happy-inducing.

So Eric's phone is a grey LG Optimus S. I got him the same phone so I could do tech support on both phones without having to learn two systems. I was lucky to find one a little cheaper than I would have spent on Ting if they still had the refurbs, and in a different color so we can tell our phones apart easily.

When I got Eric's phone, it booted into a "Sprint ID" screen and nothing I did would get it out of the stupid screen. It was stuck on the "Sprint ID" screen. I couldn't download a new ID because I wasn't connected to the Sprint network, but it wouldn't let me bypass the screen. So, using my mighty Google-fu, I learned that one way to bypass the screen is to hold the voice activation button on the side of the phone, then say "Sprint ID" when it's ready for input. This took me to a selection screen where I just picked the existing installed ID. Then the phone booted into the normal main screen, where I could do the required updates and such.

It took awhile for Eric's phone number to port over from Verizon. I'm not entirely sure why, but it was around five hours from the first e-mail to Ting asking if the ESN was clean until the phone was activated on Ting with Eric's old phone number. The port for my phone was a bit quicker, but I'm not complaining. While the port was happening on Eric's phone there was a bunch of clean up I had to do to the software.

Once I had Eric's new phone on Ting and working, I went through my rooting instructions. Eric's phone went even more smoothly than mine did! I then connected his phone to his gmail account to link up with the contacts that I had already downloaded from his old phone up put into Google, and viola! He was set.

I've added a bunch of apps to my phone already. I have to be careful because the Optimus S doesn't have a lot of space on the phone itself for apps. But I found a few essentials. If anyone is interested, I can do a post about them. But I'm sure everyone is sick of me talking about my phone by now.

Anyway, after two weekends in a row working with tech support, I can honestly say I'm pretty impressed with Ting. I hope they turn out to be as good as they seem. If you want to give them a try, my referral code will give you $25 off the phone and will help me to pay my bill.