Straight talk zte z288l hotspot experience

Gulfcoast wrote:
...
It's easy to get good customer service from Straight Talk. Simply go to their website and find their chat button and click on it. In a short time they will come online and help you get it working. ....

That worked for me too. I had one issue with a PIN not being applied and the chat mode took only about 10 minutes to resolve the issue. (would have been less but I type slow ... )

Since you brought up an old thread, let me say...

It's easy to get good customer service from Straight Talk. Simply go to their website and find their chat button and click on it. In a short time they will come online and help you get it working.

I've had excellent service out of my hotspot.

I guess patience and a good attitude goes a long way.

I ordered the ZTE 288L through Walmart.com. The hotspot came unactivated. I returned to Walmart and they tried to activate it by taking it as return and reselling it to me, but the system did not prompt to scan the activation code. The store manager (very helpful) spent nearly an hour on phone with Straight Talk without success-in fact complete runaround. At that point I returned the hotspot for a refund. The manager thought because the 288 was not a normally stocked item the system did not accommodate the activation-and Straight Talk would not help.

I may look into buying another 288 hotspot in a store that normally stocks it. Which looks to be about 60 miles away. But I caution about activation on Straight Talk hotspots purchased from Walmart.com unless you're willing to drive to store which normally carries the product. At that point there is no good reason to buy it online.

I have a Verizon MiFi and just go online to check my usage. Have never called them.

1985air345 wrote:
I refilled my ZTE 288L with 5GB. The Straight Talk website shows a balance of 0.0. I called ST and the agent said I had the full balance but that for "this device, the balance was not available" at this time. The only way to find the balance was to call into ST's call center. Anyone else with the Z288 having that issue?

This is quite normal for the Verizon 4G network. Verizon MIFI customers have the same complaint, and must call Verizon to determine how much of their monthly allotment they have used. Verizon has set it up this way because if you are a Verizon data customer and go over your allowance they start tacking on outrageous charges per gigabyte for the excess overage. Since you are pre-paid, when you reach your limit they can't charge you, so they cut your service.

I refilled my ZTE 288L with 5GB. The Straight Talk website shows a balance of 0.0. I called ST and the agent said I had the full balance but that for "this device, the balance was not available" at this time. The only way to find the balance was to call into ST's call center. Anyone else with the Z288 having that issue?

Just a quick follow up on my ZTE Z288L (red map/Verizon). I traveled through western Maryland today and the Z288L had good coverage all of the way through from Morgantown, WV to Hagerstown, MD. I tested the speeds (while my DW drove) and it kept steady with the 5 mbps download and 2 mbps upload that these units seem to be throttled at.

This was an important test for me because my old Straight Talk phone (Verizon, red map) was on the Verizon pre-pay network and totally lost coverage between Morgantown, WV and Frederick, MD. I was concerned that the ZTE 288L hotspot may also drop out in that area. I do travel through this area often for work. I also can't wait to fire up the RV and spend time in the Maryland mountain region and not just drive through it!

Mountain Mama wrote:
.... So since I have the ST 3G hot spot there isn't any reason to get a newer 4G model as it won't work any better than the 3G I have??

When it works the 4G is a little faster than the 3G hockey puck. (well, it looks like a hockey puck!)

Duramax1 wrote:
StraightTalk confirmed to me that they do not have a 4GLT data plan available, only 3G. So basically you are buying a 4GLT capable device but you are unable to purchase a plan that will take advantage of that capability.

So since I have the ST 3G hot spot there isn't any reason to get a newer 4G model as it won't work any better than the 3G I have??

I'm an ex-Millenicom refugee and I picked up the Verizon plan that was offered to us when Verizon stopped supporting Millenicom. I use Straight Talk as my phone provider, running on the Verizon network, and would switch to their (Verizon) MiFi in a heartbeat if it was worthwhile. But not now - too big of a step backwards IMHO. I'm hoping that within a year things will improve. I'm going to monitor this thread with high hopes !

Tim