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Alba flip phone problem
DougalGeorge
30-09-2016
I have bought an Alba flip phone for an elderly relative. When they receive a text message, there are no sender details, even if the sender is in their contacts phonebook. After a dozen emails back and forwards to Argos, and a live chat, I am no further forward. On one of the replies they sent me, and also on their Q and A page, it says to press options and then ' message details'. There is no such option on this phone. I have screenshotted the 'options' page and sent it to them and now they have basically backheeled me onto the help pages.

Does anyone have any ideas ? TIA
Orbitalzone
30-09-2016
Does the number on the incoming text start with 07 or 44?

I wonder if the phonebook contact entry doesn't match exactly the same in that respect and so the phone can't match the two together....
swb1964
30-09-2016
Your problem is the four letter word 'Alba'.

Doro make great flip phones for older users.
DougalGeorge
30-09-2016
I am using the phone in Cyprus at the minute, using a local sim. Some of the numbers are local mobile numbers and others are 0044 numbers. None of them show the sender.

Rubbish phone and rubbish customer service from Argos.
jonmorris
30-09-2016
I'd love to know who makes the phone for Argos to use with the Alba brand.

I had a tablet one year from them, which they took off sale before Christmas because it used an unapproved version of Android - prompting potential legal action from Google.

The tablet was AWFUL even without that minor detail.
swb1964
01-10-2016
Originally Posted by jonmorris:
“I'd love to know who makes the phone for Argos to use with the Alba brand.
”


I asked that very question not so long ago. The answer seems to be....lots of people, whoever they can get the cheapest stuff from.

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2144805

I'm no brand snob and I don't earn much money either. But I think you can go too cheap and I think Alba and Bush are brands to avoid. It's probably better to wait until you have just a few more pounds to buy a mid range brand, or go second hand (although this can obviously be risky)
jonmorris
01-10-2016
I'm not a brand snob either, but when you have the likes of Argos and Tesco buying from multiple suppliers and asking them to put on a name, whether that's Bush, Alba, Technika, Polaroid or whatever, then you can never be sure of the quality - for the simple reason there's no one manufacturer.

So the best advice is steer clear, at least until someone reveals that a product might be a real gem, which I suppose the law of averages suggests might occur every now and then.
Chris1973
01-10-2016
Shame really, as i've got both Alba and Bush branded appliances dating back from later Childhood, which should we say is quite a long time ago and they still work 100%, they have only been resigned to the loft because no one listens to Vinyl any more and the analogue TV system was switched off

I think its unfair to tar every single piece of cheap equipment as low quality or unreliable, I bought a Cubot GT-99 phone for less than £100, which worked flawlessly as both a phone and home wifi hotspot for over 3 years, and was only replaced earlier this year because 4G came to the area, and its replacement a Cubot X-15, again bought for less than £80 is so far shaping up to be just as reliable.

In the meantime the press continue to draw attention to high priced branded goods with exploding batteries and whilst this happens I fail to accept that price is always a sign of quality.
Thine Wonk
01-10-2016
Originally Posted by Chris1973:
“Shame really, as i've got both Alba and Bush branded appliances dating back from later Childhood, which should we say is quite a long time ago and they still work 100%, they have only been resigned to the loft because no one listens to Vinyl any more and the analogue TV system was switched off

I think its unfair to tar every single piece of cheap equipment as low quality or unreliable, I bought a Cubot GT-99 phone for less than £100, which worked flawlessly as both a phone and home wifi hotspot for over 3 years, and was only replaced earlier this year because 4G came to the area, and its replacement a Cubot X-15, again bought for less than £80 is so far shaping up to be just as reliable.

In the meantime the press continue to draw attention to high priced branded goods with exploding batteries and whilst this happens I fail to accept that price is always a sign of quality.”

Bush was an old British brand founded in 1932 and was arguably the most successful UK radio brand of all time. Toshiba, Murphy, the Rank Corporation were all associated with Bush in one way or another.

In 1986 it was sold and the name was used as a brand for any cheap tat from the Shenzhen market that the new company wanted to affix the adhesive Bush badge on to, could be good, could be bad, basically was just used as a badge for import goods from the electronics wholesale markets in China and elsewhere.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_(brand)
jonmorris
01-10-2016
Exactly. They were good brands, now just used as names to sell to people who are totally and blissfully ignorant of the current situation.

It doesn't mean everything is crap, but say there's one good TV released - it doesn't mean the next one will be.
Thine Wonk
01-10-2016
Here's some irony for you....

On Ebay you can find original Bush 1960's radios listed for sale like this one with a broken aerial http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Bu...kAAOSwl-FXNM3v

As it's Ebay you can 'click and collect' the parcel from Argos,, where incidentally a brand new copy of the original has been made specially and is on sale http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Search...:reviews:radio

The price of the 50 year old one with the broken aerial? £49.99
The price of the brand new one with DAB from Argos £39.99!

I should mention that this is untypical as this model was made as a retro, as mentioned previously most Bush and Alba products are just badged items from various low cost electronics makers.
jonmorris
01-10-2016
The old one probably sounds better though, if you fix the aerial at least.

Heck, maybe even if you don't..

I wonder how good the DAB reception is? Also it doesn't seem to support DAB+. Bit of a fail then, if true.
tghe-retford
02-10-2016
Rather than take individual sets at their merit, it seems easier for some to assume cheap = bad, mid-range = meh, expensive = good. The old phrase "you get what you pay for" crops up in this instance.

However, it is the case where a cheap product can be better than an expensive product. I did a test of several pocket DAB radios which I blogged about and posted about here and the best for reception is from a mid-range radio. A few cheaper radios did well as well but I was surprised that the most expensive radio was not the best.

Price != quality. Just ask anyone who owned a Note 7 with a faulty battery.
Originally Posted by jonmorris:
“I wonder how good the DAB reception is? Also it doesn't seem to support DAB+. Bit of a fail then, if true.”

It's a retro radio so supporting low quality mono DAB and not DAB+ should give it an authentic retro sound.
DougalGeorge
09-10-2016
I bought the Alba as it is the 'clam' type of phone. I've bought the Samsung clam types for years, which cost me a tenner, plus the unlocking fee but I found they were prone to switching themselves off after having them a while. So I thought I'd go for a more expensive phone. Paid £30 for it. Still haven't fathomed out if I can turn on the sender details. I will take it into Argos when I am back in the UK. Not holding out much hope though.
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