Dear LPG,

I have a friend with whom I have quite a lot in common.  We are both ladies of a certain age and we enjoy nothing better than getting together to sort out life’s little conundrums, buying identical things when we go shopping and spending our days finding projects to keep our lives really interesting. 

Last year we both decided to get ourselves a new mobile phone each, and we were not content to consider one of those designed for the less informed technical brain.  We already had identical mobile phone contracts and decided on the Samsung Galaxy 8,  mainly because it was the one that was being advertised as the state of the art model at the time.

It took us about 6 months, and a lot of help from our children, but we worked out how to get the phones working to our satisfaction.  We managed to get ourselves Skype and WhatsApp accounts and we even learnt about some things that, were they not on the phone, we would never have really missed.   Learning about the phones took us quite a bit of time and effort, but it also kept us really busy for a time, and with the exception of one function we were very happy with them.   

We tried taking them back to the shop so that they could explain the problematic function, but they just told us that we needed to phone our service providers (the people we paid monthly to be able to use the phones).  We got together and phoned them but although they tried, they weren’t that helpful.  Finally, we called Samsung and were surprised to learn that they have a group of technicians that you can call who will help, and who are better equipped to help than any other agency.

After weeks of visiting the shop where we bought them from and trying to get through to them by phone all we really had to do was phone the people who manufactured the phone.

So I want to advise readers that, if you do have a problem with your mobile phone, a call to the manufacturers is a good place to start to get it sorted.

VB, Beckenham.

LPG agrees with VB.  We have found a list of all the phone manufacturers and know that many of the larger, more well-known ones are happy to answer questions about their products.  You are likely to need the IMEI number of your phone (please see our news post-dated    15^th November 2017).  You should be able to find the contact number you need by googling it but failing that, the shop where you bought it should be able to provide you with one. 

If you have an iPhone, the apple customer support telephone number is 0800 048 0408 while Samsung is arguably the bestselling brand of android mobiles, and their technical support number is 0330 726 7864, and Doro, probably one of the larger manufacturers of mobile phone designed for older people has the customer service telephone number 0844 369 010.  (Be careful of this one, numbers that begin with 0844 can cost quite a lot to phone per minute). 

These companies will help you to work out if your phone has gone wrong but, once you are through to them they will also explain any aspect of a fully functional phone that you cannot understand.

There is one other point to note, and that is the advantage of phoning for support from a phone other than the one with the problem so that you can do what the technician advises you need to do without the risk of cutting them off in the process. 

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