Mobile phone question from ancient, non-mobile user!

[BlogOnTheTyne]

Just bought myself and DCs their first mobile phone - v cheap PAYG Samsung E11??? (not sure what the number was), no gadgets at all, from Vodafone. None of us has ever really used a mobile before and I am hopeless with teccy stuff.

They 'played' with them at home, sending txts and making calls to me and each other (we got one month's free calls and txts to each other) and then we went to local supermarket, to try them there. Left DCs in cafe and went round with trolley, with plan for DCs to phone me for fun to practice using mobiles. Mobiles didn't work, except once.

Now I think this might be because of signal problems - but might that just be in a big supermarket or might we live in/near a network blackspot? I hope I'm using the right terminology here! Sorry to sound so thick!

I don't know what or if the phones network is, IYSWIM? I don't know how to check our local area for network issues anyway, even if I knew which network it was. Can anyone advise me?

Secondly, one of the DCs accidentally txted the wrong number with a rather rude, silly message - twice - instead of to his brother. He is mortified and really worried. What's the etiquette if you do this? I ended up txting that same number with a brief apology saying it was a new phone and a message was sent to the wrong number. Should I have just left it?

Many thanks for any help here.

On the screen, usually the top left, there should be a few bars. That's the signal strength indicator. The more bars you got, the stronger the signal. Most phone will display 'no signal' if there are no signals.

It's good you apologise to the poor soul who got your sons messages. My DD is only 1 so I havent had to worry about that yet. You can program each other's number onto the phone so this wouldn't happen again. Even the cheapest phone can do it. So instead of typing a 10 digit number to text, you choose the persons name instead.

A lot of supermarkets have signal problems with mobiles. This is partially due to the vast amount of concrete they use in the construction and the lack of windows round most of the store.

Also if they offer online shopping they will have their own local wireless network in store for the handsets they use. This signal can interfere with mobile signal and cause you to not receive calls. Hth!

There is quite often no reception inside big buildings with few windows, regardless of network. Office buildings seem OK, but shopping centres and supermarkets are particularly bad.

As for the chap your DS accidentally tested, just send him another saying something like 'Oops, sorry, new phone'.