Bring me from this lamp (Genie)

Member Name: happyhopwood

Product:	Genie
Date:	14/11/01 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free SMS, Free WAP

Disadvantages: Some errors, Bad help services

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Standard Peak calls: 30p
Standard Off-Peak: 10p
Standard Weekends: 5p
Peak Calls To Other Mobiles: 50p
O/P Calls To Other Mobiles: 35p
Peak Calls To Cellnet/Genie: 25p
O/P Calls To Cellnet/Genie: 10p
SMS And WAP Free!
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GENIE is the relatively new network that offers you free text messaging and WAP. The service is powered by BT Cellnet, and is available as prepay or pay monthly. Once you have signed up with Genie you can access your account details among other things online. You can also keep your old mobile number if you want, but they do supply you with a new one. (Obviously!)

You can purchase a Genie SIM card on the website, as well as a few specialist shops. The prices for a SIM card has varied over the last year, but don?t expect to pay more than a tenner for one at the present day. Previously Genie were running offers where the SIM cards were free.

When you hear ?SMS and WAP free?, you immediately think that?s a great deal, but then you think, what?s the catch. Well with Genie, all you have to do is top up your phone every 30 days, with a ten pound voucher. If you have any spare money from the previous month then it will be carried over. However, if you only bought the SIM card from Genie, (But not the phone) then you only get 300 text messages per month. This is still worth approximately 30 pounds, but it isn?t unlimited. If you bought a phone from Genie then the number increases to 600. WAP however, is unlimited, even though in my opinion it isn?t very good.

If you order a phone from the website, then it will be delivered free by parcel force. If you visit their website and type in a code, which you will have been given, then you can track the delivery.

As you open the packaging a big booklet greets you, however, this booklet tells you almost nothing about your phone or indeed the network. The booklet doesn?
t give you a tariff, or how to get your phone started up, so it is pretty useless.

If you are having trouble with your mobile, it is very difficult to get through and actually be helped by Genie customer care. The service seems to pretty useless. However, there are two ways of getting around this problem; the first is to call BT customer care. BT should tell you all you need to know about Genie, or your phone. The second is to visit the Genie website, as it has an in depth problems and FAQ page.

If you only bought the SIM card from genie to put into your old phone, you have to be very careful, as they aren?t compatible with a lot of networks. This is because the networks have been locked, but if you phone the customer care line then they should be able to help you. Orange, Virgin and Vodaphone are the only networks that I have come across which has this problem. This caught me, as I, trying to be clever and save money, bought a 3310 on Virgin, saving me 30 pound. At this time the SIM card was free, so I got one of those and put them together. However, they weren?t compatible, so now I am stuck with Virgin.

In my opinion Genie is only worth paying for if you have a WAP enabled phone, or you are a mad texter. I was caught in the craze, and convinced myself I would send more text messages, but there is no point of having Genie for the sake of it.

Genie seems to be quite a successful network, but sometimes things go slightly wrong. For example, the WAP stops working for a few days, or you can?t send a text because of technical faults.

My final thought on Genie is; if you use SMS a lot, or WAP, then Genie is excellent for you.

Summary: