New toys - a journey

[Suff]

I have been waiting for more than a year to upgrade my phone technology. At the same time I also wanted to upgrade my contract and get some realistic data capability.

In the end I decided that Vodafone (with 2GB for £42), was not what I needed. So I looked around and lo and behold, T-Mobile have unlimited data for £41. so, when Mrs S headed off back to France and I got some time to myself, I went to the EE shop and asked to take a new contract on their Full Monty. My chosen phone was a Samsung Galaxy Note II. Not because I really like or want a Samsung phone or an Android phone, but more because getting the equivalent Nokia on Windows is going to take at least another 2 years.

So I phone ahead, ensure they have a phone in stock and head over.

First hurdle: Address and security checks. Which I passed.
Second Hurdle: T-Mobile checks and offer. Note I have some very specific requirements

International roaming
International calling

So eventually T-Mobile comes back.

No they won't do me the phone unless I pay a £150 deposit for 6 months (refundable)
No they won't allow me International calls unless I pay (another) £150 deposit for 6 months (refundable)
No they won't allow me to roam in Europe, even paying another £10 per month for the privilege unless I pay (yet another) £150 deposit for 6 months (refundable)

Now if you're following this correctly, the phone can be bought on ebay for circa £500, contract free. On T-Mobile I'll have to pay £450 for 6 months for the privilege of using their service.

Well it wasn't the fault of the guy behind the desk so I say "So they don't want to sell me a service and are pushing me back to Vodafone then". Some of you may remember that I successfully took T-Mobile to court under the sales of goods act and got my whole contract payments back as well as the contract annulled. It seems they have a long memory.

So off I go to the Vodafone shop. Yes they say, they have a phone and can upgrade for me for £0. Great, go get it and I'll start signing.

No phone.

I'm getting annoyed by this time. So I step into Carphone warehouse and, yes, they have the phone in 2 colours. Yes they can do the upgrade. Yes, it's £0. OK it's not the plan I want but, hey, you have to work with what you can get.

20 minutes later I walk out of the shop with the shiny new phone and new micro sim with the promise that it's registered and I just need to leave the phone's on.

Next day, still working on my old sim in my old (nasty), phone, I call Vodafone. yes they can help but they'll need to put me onto SIM registrations. Sim registrations spend 5 minutes telling me I'll have to take time off work to go back to carphone warehouse when they remember that I can do this online.

I log into my Vodafone account and register the new Sim. 1 hour later the old phone is disconnected and the new phone needs to be restarted.

Gee, great joy, my new, large, super fast phone is finally working.

So what about that unlimited data I wanted???

Well. Vodafone also give you an additional 2GB of wifi hotspot access which I downloaded the tool from the app store. So that helps. But also, at the weekend, in poundland, I saw Three sims for £1. Pre pay, and for £15 you can get unlimited mobile data. No tethering they say, but it truly is unlimited.

OK so I have numerous 3g sticks which take data sims. I put the sim in the phone, register it, load it with £15, use the £15 to buy the add on for the unlimited data and plug it into the Laptop. Hey Presto, internet. Great. It even works for Bittorrent.

However the T-Mobile webnwalk software is very buggy on Windows8. Enter my TP-Link Router. It takes 3g Backup. I connected it to the laptop by cable, configured the 3g stick and the wifi and, like magic, I have unlimited 3g data for the next 3 weeks. So what does this have to do with my new shiny phone?

It's connected to the router wifi and I'm reading this post on my phone using Three mobile data (unlimited), on my Vodafone phone......

It has been a journey but, in the end, it was worth it.

[Workingman]

It has been a journey but, in the end, it was worth it.

For you and the tech savvy, maybe, for the average Joe/Jane, and there are millions, a nightmare; so they go the water route... the easiest way to the sea.

The companies know this, so it is in their interest to make things as as opaque as possible. Energy companies do much the same.

Welcome to rip-off Britain.

[Suff]

And here's the photo. Showing the router, with the 3g stick in the back, the post and the phone reading it on the wireless network....

All good fun. Now I need about 3 months to get a decent SD memory card for data and to load all the junk on it I want....

[Suff]

For you and the tech savvy, maybe, for the average Joe/Jane, and there are millions, a nightmare; so they go the water route... the easiest way to the sea.

Maybe but, in the end, what have I done?

I have bought a new phone and had hassle setting it up. OK I know more than the average person so instead of trekking back to carphone warehouse to get them to sort it out.

OK I did a LOT of research first but nothing people don't do every day.

I bought a sim for a pre pay phone, followed the instructions, put it in an unlocked phone, charged it up on the website, then the website and texts bombarded me with

buy the add on
Buy the add on
BUY THE ADD ON

So I bought the add on.

Two phones working. Then I did two things.

One I put the three sim into a 3g stick. Something that people are doing every day today as they buy these sticks for travelling or for temporary internet. OK you need to know how to set up the profile and you need to know one thing only. the APN. That is available at a very quick search on the internet. And that is to use it on a pc, not with the router.

Two I configured a modem router. OK it's a special modem router, but actually it was very simple to set up. In the 3g network I told it my country was the UK and that my network was three. Done. Then I configured the wifi. Something it actually has a config program for but, in fact, many thousands of people do this every day.

Finally it really is a case of "The more things change the more they stay the same". Back in the early 90's there was an old joke about If Operating Systems Were Airlines. I quote from the MacAir line.

The cashiers, flight attendants, and pilots all look the same, talk the same, and act the same. When you ask them questions about the flight, they reply that you don't want to know, don't need to know, and would you please return to your seat and watch the movie.

Nothing has changed. Join the Mac world and they'll do your phone. Their way. They'll do your music "Their way" and they will do your internet and applications on their I[everything], their way.

It's not the technology, it's people......

[saundra]

ho heck suff i got confussed after the first sentance
were you went into the shop

[lissie]

I give up Suff
Are you trying to baffle us--if so with me you are succeeding

lissie

[Weka]

That was a very fast acquisition of a phone. It took me 3 months of trying to finally get a simplistic phone on a simplistic plan, then it took BT another 2.5 years to finally get roaming right, and this is with me going overseas every month. Finally I had to call them via Skype from Croatia to get it sorted, and via fast Internet browsing to discredit all their excuses before they realised they were not going to fob me off and they actually needed to look at my account settings.

Mostly I failed on the credit cheques as they had no local history of me as I was fresh off the boat. BT finally agreed to do one in NZ and Oz on me, and that's how I finally got it. Every other company could not deviate from their script. I even offered to pay bonds as that was what we had done in oz, but no one was interested. What ticked me off the most though, was I had been a Vodafone customer for almost 15 years in 2 countries, but Vodafone uk could not even be ar$ed to flick an email to their counterparts in oz and nz enquiring about my account. I've never been a Vodafone customer again, and probably never will.

[Suff]

Yes I guess it sounds a bit baffling. The even shorter version is:

All mobile phone companies are useless and won’t give you the services they advertise until you have been a customer with “their” company (Vodafone in every other country is a different and separate sub company), for a year or more.

Carphone Warehouse are a bunch of idiots who just take the commission and push the problems on the customer

Three give fantastic deals on pay as you go internet (unlimited use for 30 days for £15).

It is possible to use Three to provide that unlimited internet to run your home internet, if you know enough and are willing to put the time into it.

Weka, BT Are now O2 and their position in my house is just lower than used toilet paper, such is my experience with them…

A personal lesson learned is that if you take a telecoms company to court for lying to you (and win), expect them to be a real PITA if they come out with a really good plan for your mobile phone (Full Monty) and you want to contract with them. I’ve been with Vodafone for 9 years and it seems I’m going to be with them for another 2.

The phone is outstanding though