to suspect a swizz when a third handset breaks within a month of its contract expiring.

[kif]

do these things come with a self destruct chip?

After 18 months of flawless operation my phone has started swallowing messages intead of sending them, freezing, turning itself off and (according to DH) it had some kind of vibrating beeping fit last night about its SIM card which ended up with him needing to remove the battery.

It happens every time - phone goes within a month pf being out of contract. Does it agraphobic or summat - we the prospect of that untethered freedom>

Have they all been the same make?

Nope.

Nokia, Siemens and Samsung.

I'm going back to Nokia though. The Samsung is a handsome but bad tempered beast.

Do you ever look at reviews? They're inevitably subjective but you do get hints of weaknesses

your mobile phone reviews

mobile phones uk

look up your broken ones & see if it mentions the faults they've had

kif, after 18 months you should be entitled to a free upgrade anyway! who are you with?

I was assuming kif keeps hoping to move over onto a SIM-only deal but the phones keep thwarting her break for freedom

no - never looked at reviews. i just go for a middle of the road contract with a middle of the road phone,

I hate and despise mobile phone companies, so indeed I do endlessly try to break free. I was briefly on a pay-as-you-go with a £30 cheapy handset - but I was told by everyone that when i was talking the sound kept cutting out. Hence back to contract with their fancy so-called 'free' phones.

ahhh i see
nothing wrong with cheapy £30 handsets, my mum has one and never had a problem!

hmmm maybe it's you kif??? maybe you are releasing some kind of magnetic energy that gradually breaks all of your phones????

this is my phone on the review site

obviously I should have read the reviews!

But honestly - really - does no one else get this? Really? I was marvelling at the precision self-destruct! I've never had a phone break within contract (i.e. I've never been forced to keep paying while my phone wasn't operational).

my mum had a cheapy handset too. she had a little wooly case for it and used it for four minutes a day, to phone my dad when she needed a lift home from work.

mind, she turned now. got another phone, and is glued to texts. they all give in eventually.

yes, dp often hands on his old phone to me if its better than the one I have or if mine is broken, when his contract is renewed. they rarely last beyond a six months.

no, i have nmever had this, but then i usually have a 12 month contract and then upgrade.
but i've had my current one for 2 years nearly and no probs with it at all

i actually requested my PAC code last week.

When the lady asked me why i was leaving i might have said words to the effect of 'Orange had such awful customer service that I've been looking forward to to cancelling my contract all year"

Do you think they sent a death ray just for me?

yes i think that is what happened!