Since then, T-Mobile has been the provider of her rarely used flip phone, she says, “not because I’m a particular fan of T-Mobile, but because their prepaid plan suits me perfectly.”

Or at least that was the case until last March, when Martin ran into a series of difficulties – some of which required the help of SOS.

Martin explained in a letter to SOS in early July that after several phone calls to T-Mobile, she successfully recovered $150 in unused minutes (i.e., money) that had been deleted from her account because she had missed the deadline to renew her plan by a few hours.

In the course of that effort, she mentioned to a T-Mobile customer service representative that her phone was not working properly. She was then told that her phone was no longer “compatible” with T-Mobile’s system, but that she could “use $100 from my account to purchase a compatible replacement phone.”

“He then described to me the three options available to me and, since I felt I needed more information about them, he agreed to email me some information,” she said.

When the email arrived, Martin says she was unable to open it. When she called again to request a replacement, “I was told that I was unable to use some of the money in my account to purchase a replacement device.”

Martin said that while she hasn’t had any medical emergencies recently that required me to rely on my cellphone, she did get lost a few times in Madison and couldn’t call her husband to let him know she was running late.

“I’m old (I’m celebrating a birthday soon where I’ll be 80 rather than 80!),” she told SOS, “and have over $150 in my T-Mobile account, but no phone to activate the accumulated minutes.”

SOS contacted T-Mobile’s corporate communications department on July 8 to see if T-Mobile would stick to its alleged initial statement to Martin that she could use her account minutes to purchase a new, compatible phone. Three days later, T-Mobile received a response from the department’s April Ryan, who said she had escalated the issue to the “care team, but they have not been able to reach Susan by email to date.”

SOS gave Martin’s landline number and also informed her that T-Mobile was trying to reach her. On July 14, Martin reported that she had received a call that morning from T-Mobile headquarters in Bellevue, Washington.

The company then sent Martin a new phone that was free—that is, it didn’t have to deduct her minutes to pay for it—but with a SIM card that had expired three years ago.

Martin would likely have had to drive to a T-Mobile store in Sun Prairie to get a working SIM card until T-Mobile sent her one, she says.

“It’s hard to believe, but the phone works now,” Martin said on August 1. “I’ll never fully understand how it works. But I think I at least know how to make a call.”

Ryan said T-Mobile was happy that Martin was satisfied, but declined to comment further on her story.