How did you try to activate it over the phone or online? Where did you buy your Straight Talk Phone, from their retail store, online, a third party reseller like HSN.com or a private party?
If you bought it new from a thirld party like HSN or QVC, you must call them FIRST if there are activation problems. They may have a special Straight Talk Tech Support number for you. You can creat an account on the Straight Talk website with your full, real, information and try to add the phone (by type) to your profile and then putting in the IMEI number.
Call Straight Talk tech support, keep calling till you get a real person. If the system says call back later, hang up and call right back. Tell them you want to activate a phone.
Porting your old number. If you wanted to transfer your old number from AT&T but they shut off your old phone, you may not be able to transfer it now. Both the old provider phone AND the new phone must be ACTIVE and working at the same time to port a number over. They need a working phone to move it TO.
Go to the Straight Talk has a FB page and post your issue online. That seems to get fast service. Save the chat with the instructions. Ask for the rep to call you and give you a "problem or issue number" via your email address.
You must speak to a real person for this problem - if it didn't work the way you did it.
You can email their tech support also. If the regular reps don't help, ask for a supervisor.
American Movil which owns Straight Talk, Net10, Tracfone and 10 or more other companies have terrible support. They're non-native English speakers, mostly in the Phillipines and Central or South America who read from a script and often read about a different problem. Whenever I have a problem with minutes or a phone I almost have a stroke before we're done.
Try to do as much as you can can online. Understand their web site often doesn't work correctly. After years of doing business with them often the site is partially broken or undergoing updates, that's why transactions don't go through properly.
Answers & Comments
How did you try to activate it over the phone or online? Where did you buy your Straight Talk Phone, from their retail store, online, a third party reseller like HSN.com or a private party?
If you bought it new from a thirld party like HSN or QVC, you must call them FIRST if there are activation problems. They may have a special Straight Talk Tech Support number for you. You can creat an account on the Straight Talk website with your full, real, information and try to add the phone (by type) to your profile and then putting in the IMEI number.
Call Straight Talk tech support, keep calling till you get a real person. If the system says call back later, hang up and call right back. Tell them you want to activate a phone.
Porting your old number.
If you wanted to transfer your old number from AT&T but they shut off your old phone, you may not be able to transfer it now. Both the old provider phone AND the new phone must be ACTIVE and working at the same time to port a number over. They need a working phone to move it TO.
Go to the Straight Talk has a FB page and post your issue online. That seems to get fast service. Save the chat with the instructions. Ask for the rep to call you and give you a "problem or issue number" via your email address.
You must speak to a real person for this problem - if it didn't work the way you did it.
You can email their tech support also. If the regular reps don't help, ask for a supervisor.
American Movil which owns Straight Talk, Net10, Tracfone and 10 or more other companies have terrible support. They're non-native English speakers, mostly in the Phillipines and Central or South America who read from a script and often read about a different problem. Whenever I have a problem with minutes or a phone I almost have a stroke before we're done.
Try to do as much as you can can online. Understand their web site often doesn't work correctly. After years of doing business with them often the site is partially broken or undergoing updates, that's why transactions don't go through properly.