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I had been a Straighttalk user for the past couple of years with very little issues with their services until I baught their Android phone. I went on the internet and looked at tethering my Android to my laptop. I had checked out a few websites that had offered a free service but,of coarse,after a trial period you had to pay for their services. Well,to my surprise I had found a website that offered free service without having to commite to their service after a trial period. That website is PDAnet.com. I am warning all Straighttalk Android users planning on tethering their phones to not do it. I downloaded everything for tethering my Android right from PDAnet's webpage,which also included downloading everything needed on my phone. Everything seemed to be going great,until about a month into me using this tethering,my phone had been disconnected from Straighttalk. I had called Straighttalk to see why this was happening and they had told me that I was using the tethering too much and PDAnet wanted my service disconnected.

After a couple of hours of complaining and quit a few phone calls to Straighttalk we came to the agreement that they would reactivate my phone as long as I agreed to not use the tethering as much as I had been. Both Straighttalk n I agreedand my service was restored. All was well until 2 weeks later when i was in the middle of sending sms messages to my daughter,my service was shut off again!!!

Every time I tried sending an sms an error message would show on my screen with a CODE 97 and to call customer service.

Once again I had called Straighttalk to see what a CODE 97 was and why my service was disconnected again. The first person I talked to told me they were sorry for any inconvenience this may be causing me but I had to call another office number and talk to a supervisor. When I asked what a CODE 97 was,this person would not tell me anything about it. In fact he kept backpeddaling and appologizing and avoiding my question about the CODE 97. He did give me another number I needed to call but he informed me that it was past their office hours and I would need to call them tomorrow. First off if my phone was shut off at 10pm and their office closes at 8pm how can they expect their customers to be understanding n not get pissed about their services being disconnected??? The Straighttalk guy hung up on me...

The next morning I had tried to call that number given to me the night before by Straighttalk but I couldnt do to my services being shut off...I had to call Straighttalk customer service back again. I told them I was given this number to call because my phone had a CODE 97 but I couldnt call because they shut my phone off and i needed them to connect me to that other number thru them. As I waited half an hour on hold,I finally got to talk to a supervisor!!!

Well this supervisor had appologized for any inconveniences this has caused me and continued on to tell me that my services have been terminated indefinately. INDEFINATELY!!! What!!! She had explained that I had been warned numerous times about using PDAnet and I didnt listen to their warnings so they terminated my services. Of coarse I was getting really pissed by now and I had asked the woman to give me some dates of these warnings because it wasnt true on their part. I had the 1 phone conversation with Straighttalk when the had previously disconnected my services and made the agreement with them to not use PDAnet "as much" as I had been. I went on to tell this woman that I had NOT used PDAnet at all since I had made this agreement to keep my service going. This woman preceeded to argue I had numerous warnings from them about using PDAnet. We had argued back n forth about the usage and yet she still would not give me any dates of these so called warnings from them. She had also notified me that my Android cellphone will not be able to be reactivated ever again. What!! So,i asked her what they want to do about the rest of the month of service I had paid for and the $150.00 I spent on this Android phone. Were they willing to re-emburse me for any of the money I spent? She told me that the only thing I could do is buy another phone from Wal-Mart and have it activated with a new number and service card then call them back to see if I will get the rest of my month I paid for put on the new phone.

So,here I am without my phone,a phone I spent $150.00 on that will never be activated again by me or anyone else,and having to spend even more money to buy another phone and service card.I cant beleive that Straighttalk would even think I would stay with them after all the wasted money I spent on something that is now useless to me or anyone else all because of tethering.

I will never use Straighttalk again and I hope all the Straighttalk users out there please take my warning of the tethering use. Please dont do it so this wont happen to you too. Im very dissatified with the outcome of this whole situation.Discusted is more like it!!

Location: Westminster, California

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Guest

Been using PDAnet for years with multiple carriers. This has never happened to me once and I use several hundred GBs of data per month.

Guest

Thank you

Guest

Boost Mobile is same price (if you count the cost of HASSLE) and they have an amazing hotspot service that comes with their plans. Makes you wonder how much straighttalk is gouging us.

I mean UNLIMITED HIGH-SPEED DATA... that's exactly what it says yet it is in no sense of the word unlimited. It does say speeds may slow during busy times but that is understandable. CUTTING service because of use of an already purchased product is unbelievable, sad and oh so unprofessional.

Congratulations Straighttalk executives, you officially has THE WORST service that offers "unlimited" data.

You are sad and greedy and hide behind terms of service YOU HAVE TO USE THE INTERNET TO VIEW. I hope you treat your employees better than your customers but for some reason I highly doubt that.

Tyreik Gkk

iv just learned the pdanet thing and came upon it by researching something else that lead me to foxfi and than to pdanet. In the research it suggest to use a vpn so that they dont know who is using the data as a hotspot. Did you also use a vpn with pda?

Claudio Flq

Thank you!! You literally saved me from this happening to me!!

Another warning... do not use the hotspot without paying their outrageous fees!! I've been using it for a year, but last week i recieved a text saying that I can't use the hotspot or they will shut off my data!! Their hotspot packages are outrageous!!

I've been using it for this long, but now i can't!? I was going to try tethering next... after reading this post, i guess that's not an option either... This is the worst company that I've ever used!!

Boost mobile offers free hotspot with their unlimited plan!! I'm looking for a compatible note 8 or an unlocked note 9 so that i can switch back to boost mobile!!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Claudio Flq

I've used my Straight Talk hotspot for years without issue. I tried it yesterday and was told by my phone that i'm not suscribed to tethering.

This must be something new ST has implemented. I thought it was the upgrade to Android 9, guess not.

Guest

Completely illegal..... They now can't limit you on using your Hotspot.

There is one straight talk phone that has the Hotspot feature still built in from the factory, and to my surprise it also works without any manipulation, downloads or any other 3rd parties involved. I originally used my Samsung galaxy s5, then an LG cheapo smartphone which I broke almost immediately which is why I ended up back at Walmart shopping for a newer better phone. After comparing features, stats, capabilities, cameras and obviously price, I found the LG Stylo 3 was an amazing deal. After about a week of use and being impressed to the point of saying to myself "I actually like this phone better than my S5" I noticed the phones Hotspot feature while playing around with it.

Of course I knew that it wouldn't work when trying to turn it on and that it would shut itself off and read some error message. Well to my surprise it worked and it worked great. The phone has a straight talk logo on it and everything. Since then I've broken 2 more lg stylo 3's and they all work the same.

Buying one this weekend as I've been using this pos Samsung galaxy juno sky pro...... I guess it's okay but garbage next to the stylo 3. Hope this helps! The juno sky pro is supposed to have Hotspot and tethering from the factory, straight talks version doesn't even have it in the software.....

Hmmmmm? Their way around the ruling that says they can't limit or restrict how we use our unlimited data plan we are paying for!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1522303

I also have the Stylo 3, and use the tethering regularly. In fact I'm using it on my laptop now as I am typing this.

Guest

I switched to Straight Talk today, bought a new phone and Totally Unlimited data, text and calling plan. I had told the guy at Wal-Mart that I specifically needed tethering to attend college and he sold me $200 worth of stuff and the tethering never worked.

I spoke with a Straight Talk agent and he told me it won't tether -- even though the Straight Talk phone has the capability and so do also. This company is a ripoff and I regret my purchases.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1476164

Straight Talk Galaxy S8 will hotspot.. s5 & s7 won't

Tighe Lma
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1476164

toss out st. Screw anyone that takes it

Guest

If in the US, the government made it illegal for service providers to force you to buy hotspot devices. Since Straight Talk sells and offers service plans for hotspot devices they are required in the US to allow users to activate hotspot services on their phones.

Regardless of their policies. But it generally takes a law suit to force them to do so.

Guest

your spelling is atrocious, please go back to school.

Guest

its ovious you went out of your way to teather the internet from your phone. You act like you had no idea that it was wrong. You sound like a whiner, and honestly you deserved everything that happened.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1289998

Except straight talk blocking the functions of your phone is illegal. Tethering is NOT wrong.

It's against straight talk's TOS, which ARE wrong. Stay tuned for lawsuit news.

Guest

Straight Talk SUCKS! No one speaks English and it takes dozen of phone calls to get anything done.

Go to GoPhone, ATT's no contract service plan, no issue with tethering or using your phone as a hotspot. If you unlock (jail break) that $150 phone you bought from SuckTalk you can just buy a SIM from GoPhone and be back in business without all the hassle SuckTalk gives you. AT&T has no issues with tethering or using your device as a HotSpot. You pay for the data plan, SuckTalk should let you use it as you want.

Just like SuckTalk, AT&T will lower your speed when you reach the limit on your plan, but will not shut you down.

Unlike SuckTalk, AT&T rolls over the data usage you do not use to the next month.

Guest

Pretty sure I just got put in "probation mode" on Total Wireless (Straight Talk derivative) for using planet as well. Even though I was buying $10 3GB cards and adding them, in last week I've been disabled 3 times.

I figured after the 2nd time they detected pdanet but wasn't sure...they said I was out of data, when I had over 3gb left. So I added a new $10 card and within 12 hours (where I used pdanet) the service just stopped, like before, while using pdanet w/ PC. I called tech support and they mentioned "probation mode" but didn't go into details. They did something and told me to reset phone...after i did that, my data connection reappeared.

Sooooooo long story short, no more pdanet. TotalWirrless us a good deal and I don't want to brick my phone, so I deleted pdanet 100%.

WARNING TO OTHERS....DO NOT MESS WITH PDANET ON ANY NET10/TRACFONE/STRAIGHTTALK/TOTAL WIRELESS PHONE. THEY WILL CUT OFF YOUR DATA WITHOUT WARNING!!!

Guest

you should just buy unlocked phones. that would have prevented all of this.

if they have a carrier name on them (straight talk, verizon, whoever) stay away.

All you should buy from the carrier is a sim card. I have been doing this for years and never looked back.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1237135

Amen

Guest

Tethering is prohibited by the TOU. So I never did it.

So I still have phone service.

Still overall happy with ST. For around 6 yrs so far.

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