I have a simple Tracfone Alcatel onetouch flip phone that I bought five years ago that seems to have died–started turning on/off randomly, strange sounds, get message “activation required”–I’ve had it five years, have about 60-days left on current time card-- So I assume phone is dead.
Is there any hope getting a similar simple flip phone replacement? I use it only for occasional calls, texts, never net access. Want something simple and reliable–but can’t find one. No “smartphone” needed. Any suggestions? Thanks for advice–
Are the problems still there (and unchanged) if you plug the charger in and try to use it, and/or remove the battery and then plug in the charger ?
I’m wondering if it’s the battery. Even a slightly corroded battery connection (if the phone was exposed to too much humidity or got wet) could cause gremlins.
Or the battery could simply be on its last legs.
ETA: another possibility seems to be software glitches solved by a factory reset (NB: you’d lose all your data):
The ‘burner’ phone I use for our our voip system at work is getting old and I was looking at replacements during a recent trip to Walmart. I’m 84% sure they had a flip phone in the ‘pay as you go’ section.
Tracfone still sells flip phones through their website—I found an Alcatel for $20 and and LG for $30. They also offer a reconditioned Alcatel flip phone for about $5. However, I understand the phone offerings vary according to customer location, so these might not be available in your area.
You can also find Tracfone flip phones on eBay. I just checked, and there were too many to count.
When I plug in charger, the charger light is on, but phone will not turn on, whether charger plugged in or not. It was fully charged a few days ago.
I tried a “reset” by pressing power + # buttons same time; no result.
Is there a definite way to determine whether it’s a bad battery? Would hate to buy new battery if that isn’t the problem–
Should have specified in original post: It’s an Alcatel Onetouch A206G. Paid $4.99 [on sale] for it 5-yrs ago at Kroger–ideal cellphone for someone with minimal needs–
I found the manual for that phone, apparently (Note: PDF):
Page 3 shows how to remove the battery. If it were me, I’d simply pull the battery and see if there’s any obvious signs of corrosion on the terminals (of the battery and of the phone itself), and then re-install it, trying to get a sense if it ‘sits’ in its proper place snugly.
But if it isn’t Just That Easy, I’d probably buy a new phone. I didn’t realize you got it for five bucks. It almost surely wouldn’t be worth replacing a dead battery, but it might be worth cleaning some terminals (with fine sandpaper or a pencil eraser) just to buy you some more time.
If you stay with Tracfone, make sure the model you’re getting will work in your area. Several years ago I tried to replace a damaged and dying Tracfone with another, but although I bought it in this area it turned out that it couldn’t be used here.
That’s an excellent point, particularly if you’re buying a phone from eBay. Tracfone asks for your zip code when buying from their website, and will only show you the phones that work in that area.
Does that mean that a Tracfone may be useless if you travel to an area where they don’t sell it? Do they rely on older technology that is being phased out in some areas?
I don’t know. The particular model I’d bought wouldn’t work in my area; some other models sold as Tracfone would have. This was, oh, maybe around three years ago?
I wound up with a Verizon Kyocera flip phone, which suits me because it was available in a highly water and shock resistant version and fits (just) in the phone pocket on the pants I usually wear. The service cost is only a little more than the Tracfone, but that’s because I’m piggybacking on a friend’s service – it came with four lines and there’s only two of them, so they offered the other two to friends for only the additional-line cost. They also gave me the phone, which is cheap for an even semi-smart phone but considerably more than most Tracfones. I just ignore most of the smart phone functions it does have (which isn’t all of them) as the screen on a flip is too small, especially for my eyes.
Former techie for a big cellular company here. And the answer is a conditional yes. So, short version - the cheapie flip phones often work on a very limited set of ‘bands’ on which they can transmit and receive. Higher end phones normally support a much wider number of such bands. And recently, most of the cell companies are repurposing their bandwidth for VoLTE and other high-demand usage, with older spectrum being discontinued - this is why you’ll periodically see news stories where a major provider is notifying it’s customers to come in for a new ‘free’ or discounted phone before their old ones stop working.
For that matter there are different protocols in the US (GSM vs CDMA) that aren’t really compatible with each other, and depending on who Tracphone leases bandwidth from, well, a used phone in one area might not be compatible with the SIM you’ve be using. As an aside, Tracphone leased from the 4 major providers, so it was likely GSM for everyone but Sprint, but if you get a used Sprint CDMA phone and were using a GSM network before, you’d be out of luck, or vice versa.
Since they’re fundamentally a reseller, you have little recourse if the originating network repurposes bandwidth, other than buying a new phone. So, my advice for long term would be to consider some of the pre-paid options from the big 3 - that way you’ll generally get some options if it happens going forward. As an example, T-Mobile has a $15 per month prepaid option with unlimited talk/text and 2G of data, but that may be more than you’re paying now if you’re on a legacy plan.
Compared to Traphone’s website though, the T-Mobile would run you $180 year and Tracphone would be $199 per year for similar service.
Yeah, it happens with flip phones. I also had one of the Motorola Brand then one day it suddenly stopped working, I took it to the repairing shop and he said it cannot be repaired anymore. That broke me too XD