Back in sunny England/Hull now (in comparison to Prague -25 degrees). Only used the phone to call home when I needed to, so shouldn't of ran up too much of a bill. Thanks to everyone who replied with the intent to help.

Has anyone used/can anyone recommend any of the online unlocking services? I've got a Nokia 6700 locked to T-Mobile I want to use as my travelling phone but I'm being quoted £25 by the unlocking place near my office which seems a bit steep.

Can't/won't T-Mobile do it? If not it looks like £10 gets you a code on eBay.

The contract ended a year or so ago, I didn't think to ask for it at the time - I rang T-Mobile about it the other day and they said they couldn't help because the account isn't active, which doesn't sound right to me but I know nothing about these things.

Sounds about right for T-Mob, only way I've done something like this with them is take it into one of their stores and ask if they can help, you'll need to buy a PAYG SIM from them too.

I've managed to sort it with them via their twitter help account, they're charging me £15 which I can live with.

Skygo has been rolled out today for some android devices,works a treat on my galaxy

Cool

Does anyone know why the app needs to be able to 'read sensitive log data'? Is this strictly necessary, or is it just so that Sky can harvest personal information?

Uncool. Appears they have only released it for 2 Android handsets so far and mine is not one of those.

Last month, I had my mobile and few hundred pound stolen from my car. ( My fault I know.) I had insurance so got a temporary replacement mobile until they sent me an upgraded phone.



My contract ends next month, which I have cancelled. This morning I received a bill for £83. 42, which is some 60 quid more. My snag is, between my mobile being robbed and me reporting it, the scroat had joined upto some texting service -£20, and used the internet -£13 odd. My argument is, I don't use the internet on my phone and have not joined any texting service, so as my previous 2 years bills prove, could I have a case of not paying the full amount.



ps/ should I know cancel my direct debit? I have asked Vodafone to send me a paper itemised bill. cheers.

Not sure why it should be your fault if some low-life steals from you.

Presumably you reported the crime to the police and informed them of when the theft is likely to have taken place.



Vodafone will be able to look at what the phone's usage was after this time and date and so it should then be assumed that whoever nicked it will have racked up those charges. Whether the insurance covers this, though, is anyone's guess; and if now, I wouldn't bet on Vodafone refunding those charges.

I would suggest you persist with Vodafone. If they take your money by direct debit then, if they will not repay write and ask them to check with their legal department why they are not committing the criminal offence of money-laundering (ie knowingly benefitting from the proceeds of a crime)? Say that if you do not receive a full written explanation of their view of the law and / or a full refund within 10 days you will have to assume they have committed an offence and will report the to the Serious Organised Crime Authority. Furthermore, ask why they do do not consider they have committed an offence under the Theft Act by taking money from your bank account and refusing to return it when you have advised them that you did not utilise their service? If their T&Cs include some clause to protect them in the small print, is it an Unfair Contract?

This. I'd have thought that if you reported it to the police straight away with details of the time and date of the theft, Vodafone (who I've found to be OK in this sort of situation) would accept the police report details and credit you with anything on the account after that date/time.



I'd give them a call again and explain, taking it up a level each time they can't/won't assist.

If you're leaving Vodafone anyway, cancel your direct debit and tell them you're willing to pay the normal bill amount by card and not a penny more. They won't chase you for £80 or the £60 difference.



I had a phone nicked once - around 2002 I think - I was a bit worse for wear at the time and went to sleep before cancelling it the next morning. Unfortunately for me the schlllllaaag who nicked it had racked up £300+ in calls to various numbers in Pakistan. The phone company wouldn't back down (quite rightly from a contractual point of view) so I cancelled the direct debit and told them to go whistle. Actually, that could have been Vodafone as well.

So basically, cancel my DD and just pay what I normally pay?

I suppose you may be in breach of contract if you do?

Obviously if you don't cancel your DD then the full monty will go and that will be that.



I think the idea is you get your final bill, go through it and deduct everything after the phone was stolen, and send them the net amount, with a written explanation why.



You can't be liable for charges racked up as a result of "joining" a texting service that you didn't join. Vodafone should recoup anything they have paid to the texting service company, it is their problem, if despite knowing that the texts were fraudulent, they still want to pay the provider.

Sort of hi-jacking but its related. I took out 2 contracts at phones4u about 6 weeks ago, with the intention of paying by direct debit. I filled in the direct debit paperwork, and they said they'd set it up. Despite this, they never did. Maybe clutching at straws but would it be worth me complaining about this?

Quote Live Wired="Live Wired"Last month, I had my mobile and few hundred pound stolen from my car. ( My fault I know.) I had insurance so got a temporary replacement mobile until they sent me an upgraded phone. My contract ends next month, which I have cancelled. This morning I received a bill for £83. 42, which is some 60 quid more. My snag is, between my mobile being robbed and me reporting it, the scroat had joined upto some texting service -£20, and used the internet -£13 odd. My argument is, I don't use the internet on my phone and have not joined any texting service, so as my previous 2 years bills prove, could I have a case of not paying the full amount. ps/ should I know cancel my direct debit? I have asked Vodafone to send me a paper itemised bill. cheers.'" www.vodafone.co.uk/personal/pric ... /index.htm Did you get your insurance direct from vodafone? if you did their policy includes £1000 call protection surely this includes text and data too.

Quote Live Wired="Live Wired"Last month, I had my mobile and few hundred pound stolen from my car. ( My fault I know.) I had insurance so got a temporary replacement mobile until they sent me an upgraded phone. My contract ends next month, which I have cancelled. This morning I received a bill for £83. 42, which is some 60 quid more. My snag is, between my mobile being robbed and me reporting it, the scroat had joined upto some texting service -£20, and used the internet -£13 odd. My argument is, I don't use the internet on my phone and have not joined any texting service, so as my previous 2 years bills prove, could I have a case of not paying the full amount. ps/ should I know cancel my direct debit? I have asked Vodafone to send me a paper itemised bill. cheers.'" www.vodafone.co.uk/personal/pric ... /index.htm Did you get your insurance direct from vodafone? if you did their policy includes £1000 call protection surely this includes text and data too.

My insurance was taken out when I signed up for the 2 year contract. I did not know this until I got my 1st statement. No mention of insurance when I got the phone.



DD is now cancelled.

So, Samsung Galaxy S Plus - decent handset or not ?



I'm at one month to go to get rid of my Orange Blackberry account and they don't seem bothered about retaining me so I'm looking at the Samsung on a VirginMobile account, handset free, 24 month contract at £15.99, free Spotify streaming for 3 months, 100 mins, 500 texts, 500mb per month.



The phone and texts allowance is probably all I use all year (I'm a bloke, I say "yeh" or "no" or "see you in the Fox" on the mobile) and from what I'm told 500mb is ample for daily browsing of, say, RLFans or Wordpress - would that be right ???



Any other handsets with a decent size screen for browsing that I should consider ?



The lowest Spotify deal on Virgin is a £10.99 contract on Samsung Galaxy Ace or Sony Ericsson Live - any good ?

Dunno what the S plus or the Ace are like, but I have the S2 and it's quite brilliant. I've had cheaper Samsung phones and found them to be good value for money, so I'd definitely recommend them as a manufacturer.



You certainly shouldn't need any more than 500mb for casual browsing. My provider doesn't charge anything for browsing, and you only use your data allowance for downloads and uploads. I have mine connected to the wifi at home anyway, so I rarely use mobile internet.

go for the galaxy s2