A Question About Tracfone Minutes And Ebay (e-mail, security, purchase)

[mandavaran]

I've recently noticed a trend on Ebay that maybe someone can explain.

I used to buy Tracfone minutes on Ebay and they were usually in 2 different forms. Either I would buy the card itself and it was mailed to me (rather cumbersome) or the pin was e-mailed to me and I applied it directly to the phone myself.

Nowadays, it seems like virtually all Ebay tracfone sellers want you to give them your phone number and they apply the pin and minutes to your phone themselves. I really don't want my phone number floating around to god knows who out there and possibly have it made available to anybody and everybody.

I can still buy the minutes cards the old fashioned way at the store but they are more expensive. Also, I don't want to buy directly from Tracfone and have a credit/bank card on file with them. So, is there a legitimate reason they all want your phone numbers when you buy minutes?

[unit731]

Interesting.


I got a call from Tracfone Security a few years ago.


Here is the story. Purchased Tracfone 60 minutes card off eb*y. Loaded card/time/minutes. All worked fine.
About a month later the call came from Tracfone Security. I was advised that the eb*y seller had purchased the Tracfone card with a stolen credit card. Tracfone did allow me to keep the minutes but since it was originally purchased illegally, Tracfone did not have to honor the card. They did. But this was the last time I purchased any Tracfone card off eb*y.


I now get all of my cards from Best Buy. Online purchases are free shipping from Best Buy.