I'm not trying to feed into this, but iceshark, I suggest you also read through the following thread if you have not already. (My apologies as my earlier post was meant to reference this in regards to the OP.. forgot which prepaid thread I was on)
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1455014
It goes back to about January and has many many reports of users on all different prepaid GSM carriers. You will see a range of reports from "I got kicked off after using 50mb of data in a day" to "AT&T STRAIGHT TALK RULEZ!". Some of us have read through hundreds of reports about prepaid. Hell, I have a Google Alert set up for new articles about prepaid, and most of the articles are nowhere near the level of collective knowledge you will find here. Posters like martonikaj have answered questions like "Can I renew my plan after 2 weeks if I run out of data?" dozens of times, and for the most part we are not talking out of our asses. "Straight Talk sucks in WA" is not very useful, and doesn't even get into the issue of which Straight Talk network is the one that sucks (TMO? AT&T? Verizon?). If you have experiences with Straight Talk on all 3 of their networks and can let us know why they are bad, I would like to hear about that (although the Verizon network doesn't pertain here, obviously).
I sold cell phones for about 3 years. I sold AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile. I can say that I felt the overall training was poor for all 4 companies, and that I learned more from these forums (and HoFo). Most of the good training I received was sales oriented rather than technology. Much of the training could be learned simply by reading the customer brochures. I had several training reps provide what turned out to be false information after researching online. Considering the way they treat prepaid sales, I would be even more hesitant to trust anything they told me in that regard. As you see with the ability to renew this plan mid-month by anyone who calls to request it, just because someone has a T-Mobile (or AT&T, or Verizon, or....) shirt on does not mean someone else is wrong.
(Note: I did have a few very knowledgeable reps, and they too turned to the internet rather than their company for a lot of their info.)
If you can show us another way to get 10gb of data, 200 mins, and unlimited messaging for $60 a month (and no contract), please do share, as I am not seeing how this is "foolish". Remember, you could use this for a tablet or portable hotspot as well, and good luck finding a tablet/hotspot plan for this price. (Just checked, T-Mobile wants $80/mo for 10gb... and a contract!) Some people need more data than others, and for those that do, there is nothing that even comes close. I'm not in that boat, but if someone needs 10gb why should I have a problem with it? Just the opposite in fact, as there is going to be a need for even more data use for everyone in the very near future, and I hope the carriers see that people are willing to pay for it as long as it remains reasonable. Unless technology decides to stop progressing, that is. (whats that old quote? something like "640kb of RAM ought to be enough for anybody."?)
I don't think anyone is trying to put you down, but between these 2 threads we have gone hundreds of pages without bickering, and I think most of us would appreciate if we could maintain the discussion without the negativity. I'm sure you do have a lot of helpful information, but please don't assume you are correct just because a trainer told you so. Run a quick search or go back a few pages and you'll see that no one is really in the habit of responding to posts with incorrect information. Thanks!
Question: Do the T-Mobile reps still hand out Starbucks gift cards like candy? I swear it seems like I didn't pay for coffee for almost the entire 3 years.
Back on topic: I'm switching off of the $30 plan next week and moving to Net10 (AT&T network) for the month. I make the choice to move to a Tracphone company (actually America Movil) after reading about it and deciding that I can deal with perhaps poor customer service and slightly lower data speeds that may get throttled if I go over an arbitrary limit. I'm tired of subconsciously trying to keep my calls short, and AT&T does get better coverage out here. I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep under their data limit, but if it becomes an issue I'll probably try Simple Mobile next. (Only time I have coverage issues are when I'm camping, and that's not such a bad thing.) I have had absolutely no issues with TMO prepaid over the past 4 months, and this included number porting as well as transferring the account from one SIM card to another (lost my phone about a month into service, called in to give them a new SIM card #, back up and running immediately). Their customer service was very professional both times I spoke to them, and I would highly recommend this plan to anyone who does not use very many minutes (or is able to find a VOIP solution that works well for them). Hell, I might even be back when they change up their plans or if the other carriers don't work out for me. That's why we love Prepaid GSM!
edited for clarity....