Update- last night I used the chat feature of Tracfone and it was much less frustrating. I explained how we had a different zip than the one our phone is assigned and he asked for my actual home address....had me take the battery out while the phone was on, put it back in . He said he had reprogrammed it. so I had to wait until I was away from the house today to try it and it worked! I had bars and no searching for a mobile network. Before I trust it completely, I will try it in the other two areas where I generally travel, but I think he fixed it!!!!! I found the chat much less irritating because I could understand what was being said. So the next is to tackle the double phone dialing that is on my husband's phone. Thanks Steve for the ideas to try and ask about.