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This is a continuation of a previous event

At 09:00 on Friday I was at the front door of Phones 4U. I spent the next hour and a half in the shop as two separate employees on four separate computers and all the phones they could find attempted to battle their way though Vodafone’s systems to find their way though this little paradox:

  1. To reissue my contract with the old number, I had to make a 14 day return
  2. However, to do this at the same time as disconnecting my existing contact, I had to be issued a new phone
  3. To put a separate handset and number on my existing account, I had to pass a credit check
  1. To pass a credit check, I had to have made three successful monthly payments

    (Apparently – and after an hour of sorting though the systems we found someone who knew what they were talking about – they can use the auth code for the credit check I passed two weeks ago to bypass this).

    Then it was a simple matter of sourcing another, identical phone from another store, being repaid 50 for the old phone, paying another 50 for the new phone, and getting to work. Four hours late. For that, as you may expect, I got something of a bollocking.

    But I will get a new phone, and will not be changing my phone number.

    Well, eventually. First they have to keep my new phone in a safe for a week while the transfer happens.

    Isn’t technology wonderful?

    (And I have to say, the staff of Phones 4U in Letchworth were great, pulling out all the stops to try to make this happen properly, and validating the reason I’ve only ever bought contracts & phones from them. Maybe I’ve been lucky with the stores I’ve been in (Sunderland, Cambridge, Reading, Letchworth), but they’ve always been helpful. This was not a paid advertisment 🙂

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