midliferider
Guru
- Location
- Northampton
A cautionary tale
During last couple of years I have increasingy relied on my smart phone for many activities including shopping, banking, credit card payments at shops, online checking of flights, boarding card, storing documents etc. You know where this is going now.
So I booked a weekend in Poland and did everything using the phone.
It all went smooth, as it had done in the past. When I landed at Szczecin airport, phone did not update the time although it's settings were meant to update when in different time zones. Sometimes you just need to put it on and off for it to work. So I put it off and on again. Now the phone is asking me to enter the SIM pin code. I have no idea what it is. I entered wrong code 3 times and phone is now completely locked. No amount of pleading, cajoling will bring it to life. It steadfastly refused to let me use it.
Panic started to set in but I tried to think logically and face the events one at a time.
I had booked the ticket to the city by bus but ticket is in the phone. The driver luckily had a list of passengers and I was allowed to board.
I got down at the city but can't remember the name or the place of my hotel. It is all in the phone. I had planned to meet a friend, was supposed to ring her when I am at the airport. But I don't have her number. Fortunately she turned up anyway. She had suggested me to stay in a hotel closer to her home and knew that I had booked it. So we went to that hotel. But it is not the one I had booked, mine was an apartment. The hotel receptionist was extremely helpfull, she knew about the apartment near by, printed a map and gave me the directions. Now I was supposed to ring the owner to collect keys but I don't have the number or a phone. Again the hotel receptionist came to my rescue.
I had the credit card to pay the hotel. But I still need my boarding card and details of hotel in Poznan to get back home. I could do this if I had access to a computer but I will still need to remember the passwords to all these sites and they are securely stored in my phone. But I could reset it if I can find a pc with internet access.
I had planned to do so many things in the city and those plans and maps are in the phone.
How do I resolve this problem?
Then I remembered that all the information is actually in Google and not exactly in the phone. So I went to a local shop and bought a SIM card for £1. Fortunately my phone was not locked in to any network and the phone and my tour came to life again. But if my phone was locked in to a service provider, that would not have worked.
So the lessons.
I will never ever use a phone locked in to a network. The fact that my phone was unlocked, saved me from further trouble. Google is helpful but it has taken control of my life.
Will I stop using the phone in the future for all these things? No, that will be a retrograde step. Perhaps I will not risk having the boarding card only in the phone. Hotel bookings, I will risk it unless I am touring with no access to a pc or internet for days.
During last couple of years I have increasingy relied on my smart phone for many activities including shopping, banking, credit card payments at shops, online checking of flights, boarding card, storing documents etc. You know where this is going now.
So I booked a weekend in Poland and did everything using the phone.
It all went smooth, as it had done in the past. When I landed at Szczecin airport, phone did not update the time although it's settings were meant to update when in different time zones. Sometimes you just need to put it on and off for it to work. So I put it off and on again. Now the phone is asking me to enter the SIM pin code. I have no idea what it is. I entered wrong code 3 times and phone is now completely locked. No amount of pleading, cajoling will bring it to life. It steadfastly refused to let me use it.
Panic started to set in but I tried to think logically and face the events one at a time.
I had booked the ticket to the city by bus but ticket is in the phone. The driver luckily had a list of passengers and I was allowed to board.
I got down at the city but can't remember the name or the place of my hotel. It is all in the phone. I had planned to meet a friend, was supposed to ring her when I am at the airport. But I don't have her number. Fortunately she turned up anyway. She had suggested me to stay in a hotel closer to her home and knew that I had booked it. So we went to that hotel. But it is not the one I had booked, mine was an apartment. The hotel receptionist was extremely helpfull, she knew about the apartment near by, printed a map and gave me the directions. Now I was supposed to ring the owner to collect keys but I don't have the number or a phone. Again the hotel receptionist came to my rescue.
I had the credit card to pay the hotel. But I still need my boarding card and details of hotel in Poznan to get back home. I could do this if I had access to a computer but I will still need to remember the passwords to all these sites and they are securely stored in my phone. But I could reset it if I can find a pc with internet access.
I had planned to do so many things in the city and those plans and maps are in the phone.
How do I resolve this problem?
Then I remembered that all the information is actually in Google and not exactly in the phone. So I went to a local shop and bought a SIM card for £1. Fortunately my phone was not locked in to any network and the phone and my tour came to life again. But if my phone was locked in to a service provider, that would not have worked.
So the lessons.
I will never ever use a phone locked in to a network. The fact that my phone was unlocked, saved me from further trouble. Google is helpful but it has taken control of my life.
Will I stop using the phone in the future for all these things? No, that will be a retrograde step. Perhaps I will not risk having the boarding card only in the phone. Hotel bookings, I will risk it unless I am touring with no access to a pc or internet for days.
