Poll reveals lost and stolen phones at festivals

Aug. 27, 2010 - PRLog -- In a new study by www.rightmobilephone.co.uk of 1,628 festival-goers, it has been revealed that 13% lost their handset at an event they’ve been to in the past, whilst 4% claimed to have had their phone stolen.

Almost a quarter of the respondents, 23%, said they opted to leave their phone at home when going to a festival. When asked why, 48% said they worried about theft, whilst 39% said they thought they’d probably lose it.

Of the 4% that claimed to have had their mobile phone stolen, just over half, 51%, said they had left it in their tent. More than a third of respondents, 36%, said they called someone, such as a family member or friend who couldn’t be at the festival, to let them listen to an act over the phone.

17% of the people that took part in the poll by rightmobilephone.co.uk said that their mobile phone had been damaged in some way at a festival, whilst 49% of these admitted the damage happened when they were under the influence of alcohol. 9 respondents claimed they had dropped their mobile into a portaloo.

Nearly two thirds, 64%, used their phone at a festival to track down a friend or family member they had been separated from and 71% returned home from a festival with a photo or video of a celebrity that they used their mobile phone to obtain.
9% claimed to have found a phone at a festival previously and only two fifths of these handed it in.

http://www.rightmobilephone.co.uk also offered five top tips to avoid mobile mishaps at future festivals;

1.      Under no circumstances leave your mobile unattended in your tent
2.      Keep your phone out of your back pocket to avoid portaloo problems
3.      Leaving your handset at home is an option that should be considered
4.      Take a cheap pay as you go handset specifically for festivals
5.      Keep handbags zipped up and only keep phone in deep pockets.

Neil McHugh, co-founder of http://www.rightmobilephone.co.uk, said;
“I would strongly recommend that festival-goers should purchase or use an old or inexpensive pay as you go handset specifically for the event, as having your usual mobile phone damaged, lost or stolen would be much more upsetting than if it was just a cheaper substitute.

“It’s so common now for phones to get lost or stolen at festivals, that perhaps leaving handsets at home is the safest option after all! If you do take your mobile, there are a variety of apps that are fantastic for use at festivals and we’ve put together a list of the five best, just for future reference.  

Top five festival apps
•         Shazam – available on iPhone, BlackBerry and Android platforms, Shazam allows users to identify an unknown song, artist and links to related videos on YouTube, simply by processing a sample of the song.
•         Weather Bug – available on iPhone, BlackBerrry, Symbian and Android platforms, this app allows users to check weather conditions up to a week before their festival, to help them chose what they should be packing.
•         Tent Finder – It’s only available on the iPhone, but this app uses GPS to allow users to stamp the location of their tent, their friend’s tents and anything else they may need to make their way back to again.
•         Reading Festival 2010 – Available on the iPhone, this one is a must for people visiting Leeds or Reading this year. It incorporates a festival map, news alerts and also lets users know what is going on and when.
•         Battery Life Extender – This one can be found in the Ovi Store for the Symbian platform, but it’s free and allows Nokia owners to extend their battery life by about 30%, which is ideal in festival situations when there’s nowhere around to plug your phone in.

LINK http://www.rightmobilephone.co.uk

ENDS

For further information or to set up interviews with Neil McHugh or James Zielinski please contact Shannon Haigh , 10 Yetis PR Agency, shannon@10yetis.co.uk, 01452 348211.

Notes to editors
Rightmobilephone.co.uk was launched in November 2007 to help consumers save time and money by providing a trusted comparison platform for customers to purchase from.

The site has become the UK's most comprehensive and user friendly mobile phone comparison engine, with 600,000+ mobile phone offers combined with user friendly consumer reviews, ratings and video.

Users can review and compare over 800 handsets with images, specifications and video with unique users reviews, opinions and ratings provided by handset owners and compare