I'm glad they sorted things out for you. My niece has sent me a text tonight (Wednesday) to say that the credit has been put on her phone tonight so it has taken 120 hours but at least it is now there.

Went back to Argos and told them I thought the sim should have been in the handset. They rang customer care who told them to call vodafone. To cut a long story short the lady I spoke to from vodafone via Argos manually credited the free minutes, calls and Internet access to the phone.

I too have had the same problem. I purchased a htc wildfire s in grey from Argos about a week ago with the promise of £15 freedom freebee. The member of staff opened the box to check it was all there and I noticed an ordinary sim card loose inside. I asked how I would receive my free credit and was told it would be added as soon as the sim was activated. This has not been the case. I wonder if the handset should be supplied with a pre registered sim inserted in the handset which would appear has been the case in your previous experience. I have been into Argos today who were less than helpful. They suggested topping up and the credit should be added at a later date. Which to my better judgement have done but I am now worried that if I need to get a replacement handset to get my registered sim that I may have to surrender the sim card I have now put credit on. Why does everything have to be such a hassle.

I have always had contract mobile phones and do not understand the complexities of Pay As You Go mobile phones which is why I am hoping someone on this forum can advise me or maybe has had the same problem.

I bought my niece a 'Vodafone HTC Wildfire S Purple includes £15 Vodafone Freedom Freebee' from tesco.com for £149.97. I wasn't sure how the credit gets on the phone.

Anyway, on Friday 23rd December, I inserted the sim card and set up a few basic things on there such as date and time ready for her to use on Christmas Day. I keyed in 4354 which is supposed to give you 200 mins talk, 600 texts and 100MB web access for £15. The automated message said there was no credit on the phone and the only option coming up was to buy credit with my bank cards so I ended the call.

On Saturday 24th December, I phoned the Tesco mobile helpline on 0845 300 6660 to explain there was no credit on the phone and the lady seemed helpful enough but put me through to the 'CARE' department!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The 'CARE' department was an automated service that kept repeating 'mobile phone credits can take 48 hours to appear on the account' You could not speak to a human being.

I picked up a Tesco mobile brochure from my local store and this offer is on the back page and the small print says the credit will be activated on insertion of the sim.

The 48 hours would have been up about 5pm on Christmas Day so I went to a local shop and bought a £15 top up to ensure that she was able to use the phone on Christmas Day. 5pm Christmas Day has passed and it's now 9.30pm on Boxing Day and still no credit has arrived on the phone.

Does anybody know what the problem is here? I know that when I ring Tescodirect they will blame Vodafone and when I ring Vodafone they will blame Tescodirect. I don't know if this is relevant but I also bought 2 Vodafones from Argos (for another nephew and niece), both with credit applied immediately and the sim cards were already in the phones. The sim card from Tescodirect was loose in the box on a card and had to be pushed out ot the card and manually inserted into the phone.

Many thanks for any help you can provide