A foster carer is begging her mobile phone company to finally activate her SIM card after more than a week of waiting.

Sulann Staniford-Grainger, of Deacons Drive, Portslade, needs her mobile phone to work as a full-time foster carer across Brighton and Hove.

After losing her mobile phone on the weekend of November 14, she was told by Vodafone to buy a new SIM card and phone from their Brighton store with the promise she would be reconnected by Monday.

But more than a week later she was still not connected and has now been told it will cost her £350 to change network provider.

Mrs Staniford-Grainger said: “The rep in the shop told me I would be back in business by the end of Monday, and if I wasn’t I would be e-mailed.

“Tuesday came and I wasn’t contacted, so I spoke to a Vodafone assistant online who assured me it would be fixed the next day.

“Wednesday came and the phone still wasn’t working. I called again and was told it would be online by midnight and to ‘put a smile on my face’ my line rental would be waived for four days.

“On Friday last week it still wasn’t working. I called and asked to speak to a manager, was passed to four different people, held for more than 30 minutes and was told to turn the phone off for two hours, by which point it would be working. It didn’t.”

Mrs Staniford-Grainger added: “I am a full time foster carer who needs to be contactable at all times, so this situation is proving difficult. I would change network but it would cost me around £350.

“I feel helpless.”

When The Argus contacted Vodafone the firm said it was escalating the complaint as a “matter of priority”.

A spokeswoman said: “We’re very sorry Mrs Stanniford-Grainger has had these problems with her SIM. It seems the SIM swap didn’t complete properly and we are still working on trying to resolve this. We will get a temporary SIM with credit to her while we sort it out.”