Cell phone story

Last Monday I bought a cell phone. I wanted a Iphone but you have to sign up for a 2 year contract and have a Health Insurance Number. I just got a "Pay as you go" basic phone. Today as I was chatting away with an American friend who's living on the French Riviera, all at a sudden the phone went dead. It said "you are very low on credit". It was actually a in-coming call... Anyway I went to a $ 0.99 store to buy a top up card. I followed the instructions and then it said : "you need to register a credit card on line for your 1st top up. O.K. So I did. Then it said "we are having trouble with your top up please phone up..." Well how could I phone up without a phone ? And it was no way I was going to get my... frozen on an outside payphone ! I borrowed one of my room mate's phone to contact the provider services. And I must say I was impressed by the efficiency of the operator. It turned out that there was one digit I hadn't figured out from the pin # of the top up card.