Last year my youngest son reached 16, on his long list of "suggestions" for presents was a new mobile. He had an old Nokia on PAYG so I thought it was time to get him a monthly contract and a new phone. By coincidence I got an advert with my Virgin credit card bill, a choice of several phones and 100 minutes and 100 texts a month for £10.

He liked the look of a black Nokia 6300 so I made the call. Waited in for the phone to be delivered and nothing arrived!!!! Called Virgin to be told I had failed the credit check, well they could have contacted me instead of wasting a day of school holidays. After a bit of chat it turned out they had entered my birthday incorrectly and suddenly I could have a contract. Great. Waited in next day. No phone. Getting cross. Call customer service, order was too late previous day would definitely be with me next day. Following day the phone arrived. Great. Hang on the screen was cracked. Call customer service, I'm on first name terms with woman handling my order, apparently her boyfriend had just had the same phone and was really pleased with it, a bit of background information is always good.

This all sounds a bit of a disaster, and to be fair that was how it felt, but to be fair to Virgin they gave me four months free rental so I ended up with new phone and 12 months of 100 free minutes and texts for £80 so pretty good deal in the end.

His contract is up for renewal next month, he is happy with his phone so we aren't going to have a new phone and his contract will change to 200 free minutes and texts which is great as he is using the phone alot more now.