I have a TracFone that was bought about five years ago, and never activated. At that time the seller activated it at the time of sale, or you did it on line, or over another phone. It was bought during a hurricane, and the store couldn't activate it. they told my dad he could use the piece of crap to call TracFone to activate it, but the manual clearly stated that you needed a different phone. of course, he couldn't return it, since the blister pack was opened, so he gave it to me to scrap. I put it into a box of other junk phones to sell to a recycler, but they didn't want that phone.