Now that’s not a total disaster – I expect the vast majority of our customers will either use their phone one time and this won’t be an issue, or use it regularly enough to ensure it doesn’t deactivate.  But we also make a big deal of the fact that you can take your cell phone home with you and use it again next time you visit.

You still can – but you will need to get a new SIM card and your number will therefore change.

This is unfortunate and outside of chaunt’s control, and we hope it won’t cause our customers too many issues.  We have looked into alternate providers and they all have similar clauses …

As small recompense, we would like to offer any customer who finds their SIM deactivated a new one free of charge.  Just send us an email with your details and we’ll post it to you.

The chaunt.com site does its best to clearly show you how easy it is to buy, not rent, a cell phone to use while in the UK.  But I often find it easier to understand a process when I hear a story, a real life example of what has happened to others.  So here it is, the first in a series of case studies of real life people who have bought a phone from chaunt.com, and what they did with it.

Larry lives in Pittsfield, PA, USA.  He has a wife, Sandy, and two daughters, Holly 17 and Harriet 20.

He travelled to London, UK, last March for a three week holiday with his wife, leaving Holly and Harriet back home.  It was the first time he had been to England, and was intending to cram as much in as possible!

Before travelling, he ordered a phone from chaunt.com.  When he arrived at his hotel, his phone was waiting for him – fully charged, £5 credit waiting to be used, and a simple instruction booklet.

Larry primarily used his phone to call his girls each evening to see how things were going, and perhaps to make sure they weren’t throwing any wild parties!  He also found it really useful for getting around London – he called taxis, phoned about theatre tickets (getting awesome prices!) and to call back to the hotel once when he needed to check what time the bar closed that evening.

The credit lasted about 10 days, so Larry bought a topup voucher from the local store and followed the simple instructions to put another £5 of credit on the phone.

At the end of this three week visit, Larry decided to take his phone back home with him.  He knew that a friend of his, David, was intending to travel to the UK on business in a few weeks, so decided to give the phone to him.

David was extremely grateful, and used the phone for his visit too, staying in touch with his business partners who live in the UK – on one occasion to tell them he was stuck on a broken down train!

(thanks to Larry for sending in this feedback and for giving permission to post it!)

Hope this shows how simple everything is and reinforce the benefits of buying rather than renting.

Ridiculous!  Why is it that way?  Surely it should be easier? Do these people just lack creativity, or are they just trying to rip people off?

Which is exactly what I thought when I looked at the cell phone rental business.  Ridiculous about sums it up, really.  I mean, cell phones are cheap enough to buy brand new nowadays, nevermind good quality refurbished second hand models (like those chaunt.com use).  Why on earth would you pay a massive deposit?  Leave your credit card details, ready to be charged exorbitant rates if you damage or lose the phone you rented?  Pay a daily/weekly/monthly fee, just for a basic cell phone?

You shouldn’t.

Which is why I started chaunt.com.  To do things how they should be done, to sell you a phone to use while travelling – not rent, not loan, not need returning in pristine condition.  But also to make things as simple as possible for you.

When you place an order with us, you get a choice of payment methods – paying via Paypal means you can use any major credit card, or your Paypal account.

You not only get a phone, but a local UK based SIM card which allows you to make super cheap international calls, as well as reasonable UK calls.

You get £5 credit, already applied.

You get clear, simple instructions on how to use your phone, how to top up, how to get in touch with us if you need to.

You get the phone delivered directly to your UK base, be that a hotel, your mom’s or a park bench (okay, the last might be tricky, but we’d try!).

You get to do what you want with your phone once you are done with it.  Throw it out of a window, flush it down the toilet, give it to a friend or family member for their visit, or send it back to us in the prepaid envelope and receive a small ‘thank you’ from us in the form of £5 (about $7.50) credit.

And you get all of this for just about $60.  That’s less than some places charge for just one week’s rental, nevermind the hundreds of dollars you will pay as a deposit.

You obviously think all of this is a great idea too, which is why people order from chaunt.com every day of the week.

Remember kids, say no to cell phone rental.