Kajeet - Some Good - Some Bad

I chose Kajeet for my 10 year old because she wanted to text her friends. I loved the pricing structure - surely a plan for any budget. We went with the 14.99 for unlimited texting and 60 minutes. Perfect.

The first phone I received was defective - and the replacement phone that arrived on Dec 23rd was the wrong color. (ordered pink - blue came) Gave my daughter the blue phone because it was her Christmas gift and why should she have to 'wait' for a pink one. The return process with Kajeet was not customer friendly to say the least - Kajeet expected me to pay return shipping on the defective phone and there was an issue with the sales tax. Several emails later they finally credited my Kajeet account for the shipping and the sales tax.

The contact manager only allows you to 'allow' 20 numbers. You can 'allow' 20, 'always allow' 20. My daughter has more than 20 friends/ family members. This is per number so if you add dad work, dad cell, home, mom work, mom cell then you have already used five of your 20 numbers just on the parents.

So I am left with two choices 'always allow' 20 to ultimately get her to 40 or lift this particular 'parental control' and allow anyone to call her. Well if I was going to do that I could've just added her to my plan (which would've been $10 a month and free mobile to mobile and a 'free' phone).

I believe 100 contact numbers would be a more realistic number to manage. After all this 'tween' group of 8 to 12 is the fastest growing group of cell consumers - so who would Kajeet like them to call and text if they can only add 20 numbers to their 'allowed' parental control setting.

If you are buying Kajeet for reasons other than the parental controls then it is definitely worth it. The startup may have been a little rocky for me but I have no problem reaching someone on the phone if I have a question that I need answering,

Another piece of information I found 'misleading' was I was told I could suspend the service for vacations. When I wanted it turned off for a week I was told that it didn't apply since I was in a plan not a pay as you go. That is not how it was explained to me.

Lastly - the phones just aren't that cool. The Sanyo 2700 feels cheap. I did buy my daughter a cover and cell phone charm for it to make it more 'tween' for her. The pink Sanyo 2700 is definitely 'cool' looking which is why I ordered it but it arrived defective and then the blue one was shipped as the replacement.

Kids don't want their mother's phone. Sure they'll take it but then we spend more $$ trying to make it cool! Kajeet needs to get some lime green or orange or pink or purple phones. When you shop phones on the Kajeet page you mostly see blue or black. Other carriers offer plenty more choices.