Latest update

Big week this week... the company I work for moved premises which was really hard work and quite traumatic - It has taken about a week to get the bare bones of a working environment going - the 'phones and the computer network are still not exactly sorted, but most of what we need to carry on working is in place...
Also... I ordered my new quad core phone from McBub, but hit a few teething problems already... I found that their ordering system wasn't totally compatible with the Chrome browser, so when I clicked on 'other delivery options' I found that the total cost would not update when I tried to click back to the 'free delivery option' - so against my intentions, I ended up with the expedited delivery and an extra £11 on my bill. I immediately emailed McBub but got no reply - A day later I received acknowledgment of my order but no response to my message about the delivery costs. I then thought 'well OK, it's supposed to be a 3-5 day delivery so maybe the extra money will be worth it' - nope not really... Turns out there is a 'processing time' of 1-3 days on average. Well how can an average be 1-3 I wonder??? surely an average of 1-3 is 2!
So I checked the processing time and here is the timeline:

Ordered (ie. money removed from my PayPal account) 16th October
Order Acknowledged: 18th October
Order Despatched (According to DHL): 25th October

Already it has taken 7-9 days of 'processing time' as compared to the average '1-3 days' so much for the 3-5 days delivery, although I have a feeling that DHL will probably be able to make the delivery a lot quicker than McBub have taken to process my order.
Not only that, but I have been hit with an import tax bill - OK I hold my hands up to hoping to circumvent customs charges, but I think because the 'expedited' option was chosen for me rather than the free delivery, this probably attracted unwanted attention from customs. In itself, I am not too bothered about the tax, the phone is cheap enough for it not to be a concern, BUT when you consider that I was hoping to get a phone for £96, my bill is already at £120, and I haven't got the phone yet!
I have a feeling that once the 'phone arrives, all the hassle will melt into the background, but I won't be letting McBub get away with this completely, they will get an email from me, and if I get no response I will be leaving feedback for the phone which will highlight issues to future customers.
I intend to buy another 'phone from them as a gift too, so I should be able to use that as a lever to get good customer support, although I have a feeling that they may not value my custom very highly judging on the correspondence received so far...
Watch this space...

Tablet or 'Phone

I have been considering getting an Android tablet to replace the laptop(s) in the house as it would be ideal for the type of things that we use the laptop for - ie. emails and browsing the web. A laptop is really over-engineered for the sort of tasks they are generally used for in the home environment, a tablet is nice to use, cheap and a very effective tool.
Now I had been looking at various options for quite a while and was set on maybe buying something previously enjoyed from eBay - however, with these type of devices, you can get products direct from China that are not much more than second-hand prices, yet they are brand new and with the latest spec.
Further thinking persuaded my that actually I could get a replacement for my 2-year old smartphone that was as powerful as a tablet, yet not much more money. I was directed to the McBub website where they have a massive array of tablet and phone technology for rock-bottom prices.
I mused about whether to get a low-cost dual core model, but ended up maximising my budget by going for a top-of-the-shop quad core model instead. So far I can report that the value for money aspect of McBub seems almost too good to be true - whether the goods live up to expectations, or whether the customer service is any good at all remains to be seen...

Looks like we are going to have a change in phones for everyone in the house this Christmas, possibly with our young daughter inheriting my 'old' smart-phone, and maybe a second purchase (a little more modest than my quad-core model) for a Christmas present for my wife. I should be able to get two spare contract SIMs to add to my contract for £5 a month each, and we should all be able to keep in touch for free on the same network (well it won't be free for me, but I guess £10 a month for two extra phone contracts is not too bad).