TracFone Wireless  -  customer (chat) support

Here is a transcript of a support chat conducted with a TracFone rep this evening:

"Thank you for visiting Tracfone today. How may I help you?

Thank you for contacting TracFone. Our hours of operation are Monday-Sunday 8am to 11:45pm. If you receive this message during normal operation hours, our chat agents are helping other customers. Your position is 2 in the queue. Your wait time will be approximately 6 minute(s).

Kenneth: Thank you for visiting TracFone Wireless.

Kenneth: Hi Mark.

Kenneth: How may I assist you?

You: Hello Kenneth. My TracFone suddenly began displaying Invalid SIM in the upper left corner of the screen.

Kenneth: I'm sorry to hear that.

Kenneth: Before I check your account, does your phone number end with ####?

You: Yes

Kenneth: Thank you for the information. Please allow me a moment to check your account here on my end.

You: Thank you!

Kenneth: You're welcome.

Kenneth: Thank you for waiting.

Kenneth: Kindly turn the phone off and remove the battery.

You: Done.

Kenneth: Pull out the SIM card.

You: Done.

Kenneth: May I have the SIM card number?

You: ####################

You: I'm only guessing on the series of zeros, since the last character has a factory punch mark in it that renders it unreadable.

Kenneth: It's okay.

Kenneth: Put the SIM card and battery back in and turn the phone on.

You: Done

Kenneth: Does the phone is showing the same message?

You: Yes, still showing Invalid SIM card

Kenneth: With regard to this matter, we will need to speak with you directly to better troubleshoot this issue. Please contact one of our customer care representatives at [protected]. Please use reference PIN (032700). For your convenience, our representatives are available Monday-Sunday from 8:00 AM to 11:45 PM EST.

You: I cannot call anyone, as the Invalid SIM renders the phone inoperable as a phone.

Kenneth: You need to use a different device.

You: A "different device" isn't available.

Kenneth: Thank you for chatting with TracFone Wireless.

Kenneth: Have a wonderful evening.

Thank you for chatting with us today. The agent has left this conversation. For further questions, please start a new chat."

Immediately after the support rep ended the chat session, the option at the top to print or email a copy of the transcript disappeared, so I had to copy the entire thing to the Windows clipboard and past it into a Notepad document to save it.

So I now have a TracFone with a lot of value in unused text, data & phone service that I cannot use, and the response to my particular situation is, "Have a wonderful evening."