Friday’s Rants from the Soapbox in my Living room….

Welcome to my Friday’s Rants from the Soap Box in my Living Room. A small space in the week where I can have a chunter about things that have made me twitch with annoyance or made me question if the world has gone mad or not….
I also  linked up with MummyBarrow for her Ranty Friday. You can find her blog and link up here if you’d like to join in. A good rant can be therapeutic.

This week, T-Mobile or EE as they now are called, and mobile phone providers in general face my wrath!

I have an Ancient BlackBerry, an old phone from LSH’s work, that was no longer needed, that replaced the broken one that T-Mobile/EE refused to sort out, despite them messing up the repair and replacement of the BlackBerry I bought when I took out a contract with them. I got so fed up of the whole mess, I went to a SIM only contract, which costs me approximately £10 per month, and used this old phone. It has done its job, but needed replacing. I use it a lot, and need a phone that works well, particularly e-mail.

So I went into EE/T-Mobile, and asked them about buying a phone, off the shelf, with no contract or ties, that I could put my current SIM card in. Apparently, you can’t do this. The phone I had in mind, I had to pay for, and then purchase a  Pay As You Go SIM Card, which would then be what the phone was registered with. The phone would cost £110= £20 for a PAYGO SIM, which I don’t want.  They then offered to “upgrade” me, so I thought I would let them offer me their options, but apparently, I can’t have the phone I want, unless I go to a £30/month contract, for 24 months. The phone itself costs £250 if bought outright. If you multiply 30×24 that is £720, before you’ve added VAT, and any extra call costs, over 2 years! At the moment, my costs are not even 1/4 of that. That’s double the value of the actual phone! I asked if I could just buy the phone, for its market value, and was told I couldn’t. It seems this is true.  You cannot simply buy a phone, and put your SIM card in it. This seems UTTERLY ridiculous? Am I wrong? Are the mobile phone industry having a laugh, as they run all the way to the bank with our money? If I bought the phone at market value, and carried on with my SIM plan, it would be half the cost of what they wanted me to sign up for, and of course, they want my money, so they won’t let me take the easy route…

So, I have bought the phone I want, from Ebay (yes, I still hate Ebay, but it has its uses) under a 3 month guarantee, from the seller, and a year from Ebay under buyer protection (I checked) and it cost me less than market value, and it arrived today, and is brand new, unused, and works perfectly. My running costs will remain low, and I am not lining the pockets of T-Mobile and EE!

I loathe T-Mobile/EE now, and am pretty scathing of all the other providers (whom, I am told also have the same policies) but sadly T-Mobile/EE are the only network that work where we live, we have tried the others, we get no signal or reception so unless some new, sensibly priced, ethical mobile network that works in the Black Hole that is our little neck of the woods arrives on the scene, I am stuck with them!

BOO HISS to  Mobile Phone companies,  and T-Mobile and EE in particular! You are not a name that is popular in the Mad House of Cats and Babies!!

Have a good weekend! Don’t forget to link up if you want to join in with a rant of your own!