Bl**dy Vodaphone

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'm only a light mobile phone user, and changed from contract to PAYG in '06 having been with Vodaphone for about 12 years. And with the same number. Before that I was on Cellnet analogue.

I only used my mobile a few times last week - mainly for texts. Both sending and receiving. On Friday evening when going out and actually looking at it, got the message 'SIM card registration failed'

Phoned the helpline from my landline. They said that number doesn't belong to me, but to a contract customer. On giving them details of who I'd texted, they admitted there was a problem, but I'd have to go to a Vodaphone shop to get it sorted.

Which I did on Monday. Systems down, so nothing they could do. Come back later.

So I did today. At about 11:45. Left at 13:55, still not resolved. The assistant was as helpful as could be - despite a busy shop.

They think it may be an attempted fraud. Normally, they let a number lie dormant for a year or so before re-using it.

Would be a real PITA to have to change my number.

[Huge]

Lying, thieving scum. They stole £20 from my 93 y/o MIL.

(The SIM in her emergency cellphone aged out and they took the £20 credit on it. I don't GAS what their T&Cs say, that was theft. I won't willingly give them another penny.)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They've sent me a text or voicemail before saying I have to use or lose it. I only spend about 40 quid a year with them on average. Could be quite heavy use followed by weeks of nothing.

Being a freelance, its main use is to allow potential clients to contact me. And as such I don't want to change the number.

[Skipweasel]

Never had that from Orange, with whom I have had the same number for fifteen years or so, originally on contract but now PAYG. We have an idle Samsung A800 which has an Orange SIM in it which is just there to be grabbed by anyone in the family who can't find theirs. It's been unused for six months at a time and still OK.

[Man at B&Q]

Perhaps if you did GAS, you would have been forewarned.

MBQ

[Huge]

A text? She's 93. We had to buy a special "old fogies" cellphone so all she had to do is push a (large, red) button on the phone to summon help. She could no more read a text than fly to the moon.

[Andy Cap]

Nor have I from Virgin. For years I've had a PAYG phone which gets

*very* little use and there's never been any query.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I can see that.

So someone sold you a phone specially designed for emergency use on a tarrif which was no use for this?

Bastards.

[The Other Mike]

You've been lucky. On Orange PAYG you need to attempt* an outgoing call every 6 months iirc or the account will drop into the 'not used' bucket. It can be reactivated by customer services but its a PITA to have to do that - but far less of a PITA than on other networks that appear to require far more frequent use / top up.

I know of one Orange PAYG phone that is about 10 years old that still has most of the orignal five quid credit on it!

• Just ringing a landline number and not answering it is enough.

[Skipweasel]

Yeah - I've done that. Well, actually the bloke wasn't driving, just in a drunken stupor slumped over the wheel with the engine still running at

2am outside our house. I thought he'd had a heart-attack, but he'd been there a while and was still breathing fine - and you could smell the booze as soon as you opened the door.

The dibbles were more than happy to turn up and deal with him.

[tony sayer]

In article , Dave Plowman (News) scribeth thus

If its -that- important then put it back on a contract and use your spare inclusive minutes instead of the landline for calls..

They sometimes will let a PAYG drop if it hasn't been used for a period of time. They all seem to be all differing in that respect..

Alternative is to let everyone know your landline number and then use call diversion to divert to the mobile then it doesn't matter what number mobile you use. Sometimes we use more than one mobile to divert too and sometimes to another landline..

I know your pissed of with Voada but having dealt with all of them apart from T-Mobile who's cover round here is U/S they all have their problems in one way or the other, but ironically I've found them to be the best of the bunch!...

>

[John Williamson]

Stay well away from O2 on any tariff, too.

The PAYG tariffs expire after not a lot of sitting in a pocket, and they charge a fortune should you accidentally use one of their data plans outside the UK. They're not *that* cheap inside the UK,come to that. Don't even *think* about using one of their mobiles on data without a bolt-on tariff applying.

They're the people that convinced me to go back to Voda contract for phone and data.

[ARWadsworth]

I prefer "Well driven?, if YES then call 999 as the van is stolen"

[Andy Cap]

..or the driver's not qualified or not insured.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

No way. Mobiles have generally poor audio compared to a decent land line phone.

[tony sayer]

In article , Dave Plowman (News) scribeth thus

Dunno .. reckon it depends on the phone and network .. sometimes these days difficult to tell them apart!...

[Mark]

IME they all do this. Maybe some have a longer period of "inactivity" but, eventually they will cut you off. I know this is a real pain if you want a phone just for emergencies. Virgin used to do a monthly billing option (PAYG) but I don't know if this still exists.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Seems what's needed is a PAYG tarrif with a fixed annual payment (before calls) for low use types. £10 a year should be more than enough. Could be paid in the same way as top-ups.

[funkyoldcortina]

Unless you are lucky enough to be using a phone capable of HD voice and so is the other party. Sounds like a radio or TV with a small speaker then, way better than a landline.

[Skipweasel]

Talking of which, and ever further from the topic...

Some mobiles, when rung from mine, play me the owners ringtone (I assume it's theirs) instead of a ringing tone.

Is there any way to stop this? I hate it.