Phone… my phone… it doesn’t like me

I was quite happy with the mobile phone I had, but it was outdated and it was time for an upgrade and since my daughter was moving to the States for a year I wanted one in which I could communicate with her more easily. I don’t know much about phones, I’m not that interested in them for anything but ringing people, messaging, and taking photos. I use the computer all the time when I’m at home, and I think on the whole, for someone who didn’t have a land-line at home until I was sixteen, I think I cope very well with modern technology.

I resisted having a mobile phone for some years, because really I didn’t need it. I was a stay-at-home mum, so why would I need one. However when I went back to work, I was in a situation where I went out and about and visited different places which might have had the potential for getting into difficulties… so I and my colleagues were given a phone each. When I changed jobs and moved from the north to the south-west, I realised that I did need a phone and so I got one… quite basic by today’s standards!

Over the years I’ve had a number of different phones, and liked them all, and managed them all and was an adept user… until I upgraded in the summer… The phone I got looked nice, red and shiny, and I quickly got used to the touch screen… but oh… either it was rubbish or I was rubbish. All sorts of little annoying things… even simply like messaging and trying to find the address of the person I wanted to send it to, being able to find the screen to press the ‘answer’ thingy when someone rang quickly enough to speak to them before they rang off… even the camera wasn’t that good…

I put it down to me; I though I was just not very good with this improved technology… it kept switching on the internet when I didn’t want it, turning off the ringtone, having a feeble vibrate, almost undetectable even when I was holding it in my hand… But then the provider messaged me saying I’d nearly used up all my minutes… what? I hadn’t knowingly used any!!!

Into the phone shop… but I was too late to change it… I should have taken it back sooner. The lovely and very helpful person in the shop told me that everyone complained about this particular operating programme and the make of phone (I didn’t say, well why are you selling it?) and the upshot of it all is, I still have my rubbishy old phone, but I have a new easy-peasy pay as you go phone too… waste of money on the old phone, but a lesson learned!