Samsung 3 Mini Problems

gettingtheresometime

Wondering if anyone can shed any light on problems that Mum is having with her new PAYG Samsung 3 Mini phone.

She bought it from CPW last Saturday and within a few days, her balance had dropped from £20+ to approx £2 and she was complaining about the battery life.

I think we've sorted out the battery life issue by turning things off such as bluetooth etc but the main issue seems to be the eating of credit.

We were told that it was because the mobile data was switched on so that was turned off but for some reason it got switched back on (mum swears she never did it).

Is there a way that the mobile data is reactivated or has mum done this unconsciously ?

At the moment she's not a happy bunny !

grumbler

I think it's time to RTFM if she wants to keep using a smartphone.

Mobile data can be easily switched on and off in the phone settings, and, generally, there are various ways of doing this, but ultimately it's only the user who can do this.

The special icon in the top "status and notifications bar" appears if mobile data is switched on.

Also, without an appropriate tariff with some data bundle a PAYG smartphone can become an expensive toy, especially if settings are incorrect for WiFi, updates and synchronisation. A popular alternative is '3' 321 PAYG where data costs 1p/Mb.

gettingtheresometime

Sorry Grumbler I didn't make myself clear!

We turned it off at the settings bar once she became aware of the implications (tbh I don't think she knew it was on in the first place!) but she noticed that it was on again today and the woman in the CPW told her that she must have switched it back on accidently - though she denies she did and even got a bit offended at that!

That was why I wondered how the mobile data could be reactivated .

btw what's RTFM?

grumbler

Read The F****** Manual


If she doesn't need mobile data and never will, you can ask the network to switch it off permanently on their side and then use the phone on WiFi only.

gettingtheresometime

grumbler wrote: »

Read The F****** Manual


If she doesn't need mobile data and never will, you can ask the network to switch it off permanently on their side and then use the phone on WiFi only.

Ah thanks! (though in fairness I've seen better instructions on how to cook a pizza lol)

I didn't know that you ask for the mobile data to be turned off permanently and will put this idea to her - why she got the ruddy phone I don't know ......yes she needed a new one as the old one died but definitely didn't need a phone with this spec - would certainly have tried to persuade her against it had I been with her but unfortunately wasn't!

pepdavies

Delete the APN settings in the phone, data won't work then.

mac.d

If going without any data isn't ideal, as well as double checking the data settings, another thing to look out for is that various apps have their sync settings switched to off. And uninstall apps that she might not really need that are connecting to the internet.

I bought a Moto G 2 or 3 months ago as my first smartphone, I haven't switched mobile data off but try to stick to wi-fi and still have nearly half my original £5 credit left (though I did get 100mb free in the first month). So it shouldn't be necessary to cripple your smartphone by turning data off altogether. If its not needed, why not encourage her to get a standard mobile phone instead?

JJ_Egan

Depends but why have mobile data on unless you actually need it .
Turning data off does not cripple a smartphone unless you desperately need to be connected to facebook 24/7
My data so far this month has been about 1GB .
Actual mobile data content of that was small as 98% was over various WiFi .

mac.d

Fair point JJ and I guess just disabling mobile data should be the easiest way to stop the phone eating up your credit. It is handy to have the option though. I use far less data per month, but like you, the vast majority of it has been via wi-fi. As a PAYG 3 user, I'd hate to have to rely on their mobile data anyway, seems to not work about 1/3 of the time I try to use it. :mad:

Rusty!

The S3 mini has a toggle for mobile data at the top of the notification shade, it wouldn't be difficult to toggle it by mistake to be honest.

JJ_Egan

True but you can move the toggles .