[Hands0n]

Well blow me down with a feather, knock me sideways with a duster :) What a pleasant surprise awaited me yesterday (preceded by a nasty experience).

My 16-yr old daughter went to a friend's party last night, left her Vodafone contract mobile handset in her handbag and, surprise surprise, it was not there at the end of the evening when she went to retrieve it. It is a sad old world where you cannot trust even those at the same family and friends event, but there you have it. I am way too cynical to have done what she did, and it is a tough lesson for her to learn as she is now minus her treasured Sony Ericsson W900i.

That was the nasty bit, now the good stuff .....

Late into the night, after cancelling her SIM with Vodafone I went into my "box 'o phones" to see what I could put together for her immediately. We're one of those families that have a need to be contactable and she has a large network of friends too. Being without a mobile in this day and age is unthinkable. So an interim solution was needed while we wait the replacement contract SIM from Vodafone and a suitable handset be sourced to use it in.

I retrieved one of my LG U8100 (unlocked) and a T-Mobile PAYG SIM that I picked up late in 2006 which still had £8.50 left on it. The SIM had previously been set up for T-Mobile's Everyone (http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/Dispatcher?pf=Pay+as+you+go&nmid=pas_pp_plan_payg_details&ppid=26&nmid2=ctl_pas_pp_details&menuid=ctl_pas_pp_change_plan&chosenPricePlan=payg) flat rate plan. A few minutes configuring the U8100 and it was up and ready for use on the T-Mobile network.

I then went to the T-Mobile website and created an online account to manage the PAYG number and, while I was there, topped the handset up with another £10 giving her a total of £18.50 to get started with. And this is when the fun starts ......

Within a few moments of topping up with the £10 I got the following text message on the handset



Congratulations! You made a top-up of £10 or more in a single transaction. You now have Free Weekend Texts for a month.


The above is in keeping with T-Mobile's Free Evening and Weekend Texts (http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/Dispatcher?menuid=orphan_freetexts&WT.mc_id=freetexts&deeplink=freetexts) plan. I had expected it, and nice to have it is too. Having topped up with £10 she now has unlimited texts (FUP is 3000 texts per month) for a 30-day period.

Then, later in the night, another text message came through which I only read in the morning (it was very late!!). This went



Thanks for topping up. Your reward of 100 mins to any other T-Mobile number within the UK is now available to use. These mins are valid for the next 30 days.


WTF???? Where on Earth did that come from? I cannot find anything on T-Mobile's website that makes mention of giving away 100 on-net-only minutes to reward topping up. Does anyone who is in the know have further information on this best kept secret? It is a marvelous and very welcome additional reward - especially as we already have a pair of T-Mobile contract handsets in the family.

So all in all, a silver lining to this particular little dark cloud.

[3g-g]

I hate the thieves of mobile phones nowadays, absolutely pointless for use on any network in the UK once it's added to the blacklist, and even more infuriating that it's an event attended by friends and family!

Would this turn of kindness on the big Ts part be enough to bring the family together on the one network? Do you not have a few contracts due for renewal shortly?

[Hands0n]

Yup the Mrs contract is up on 21/1 so she'll be leaving O2. I already have daughter and myself on Vodafone, spotty yoof is on Voda PAYT at the moment, big lanky yoof is on T-Mobile Flext35+WNW like me. I carry both Voda and T-Mobile. So the tossup is whether to get Mrs on Voda (Family, STC and Pasport) or T-Mobile Flext35 (prob). Decisions, decisions ...... :)

I'm leaning towards Voda for her as their Family deal is tantalising for our in-family calls. But I have to consider the overall call package too and T-Mobile's Flext is still astonishingly good value once you hit Flext35.

T-Mob's free 100 mins on their PAYG was entirely unexpected, and I cannot find anything out about it. I'm interested in knowing does it repeat, what is the criteria for scoring again, or was it a one-off.