last edited 2010/03/21 11:29 (
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I moved from Switzerland to France, and I thought I just buy a new phone "S by SFR 112" and test a new french phone-carrier, in my case
SFR.fr 
. After 2 month the display broke, when I moved to the store to ask for a repair and warranty, both was denied . . . the LCD display broke, not the glass protecting it, I wasn't aware when it broke, it fell a few times without problems, one day I noticed the broken crystal display.
So, they deny the warranty, they sell a phone which breaks all of the sudden, the customer care of SFR replied "just bad luck" - wow. Euro 30 lasting two months. They asked me if I like to buy another cellphone.
Ok, that moment I thought, let's SIM unlock my swiss chellphone Nokia 1209, it cost me Euro 20, about Euro 15 discount by Sunrise.ch , without SIM lock it would have cost Euro 35, but that I found out later. So I purchased it at Sunrise - about 8 months later, me in France, ask for the legal unlock:
Handys, welche mit einer Prepaid Nummer bezogen werden, verfügen über einen Simlock von 24 Monaten. In dieser Sperrfrist von 24 Monaten (bis am 09.04.2011) ist es nur möglich, den Unlock Code gegen Bezahlung von CHF 300.- zu erhalten.
which in plain english means:
Mobile phones sold under prepaid condition contain a 24 month SIM lock. During this lock time (until April 9, 2011) it's only possible to unlock with a payment of CHF 300.
This is insane . . .
That's about 8x times more than a single unlocked cellphone . . . at that point you realize, they are either thieves or insane. That they are able to operate a sophisticated network of cellphone towers is amazing. That's only possible when the insane people are actually working at the sales department, and not are technicians.
Update 2010/03/20: I've got a new Samsung E2100B cellphone, and when I demand how much balance I have for the prepaid, and I'm not in range or bad reception, the phone locks up that I can't receive calls or messages even when in good reception - solution: turn the cellphone off and on again (aka "reboot"). It took me a while to realize, after people tried to reach me or sent messages. What does it tell us? Cellphones getting more and more complicate, and flaws and bugs become more and more - the same everywhere. They can't even make a phone in 2010 which can retrieve the balance via SMS from a provider like SFR.fr , and then still be operational afterwards . . . and some people wonder how we ever made it to the moon the first time, when 40 years later cellphones don't even provide reliable basic functionality. The devil lies in the detail - and those details are the many in more and more complex systems all around us (shrugg!!).
2010: India
2009: France: Two Tours
2008: Tour de Romandie
2008: Zug - Bern - Zug
2008: Strasbourg
2008: Europe
2007: France
2005: France & Italy
2004: USA: Denver - Sedona
2004: Lenzburg - Marseille
2004: La Gomera
2003: Sardinien
2003: La Gomera
2002: Korsika
2002: Bordeaux - Hendaye
