My word, I thought I was the only one!!! I thought I was losing my mind and that I was at fault but couldn't figure out what it was that I was doing wrong seeing as this problem occurred intermittently.
I bought my phone in the sale at one of the Link stores £39.99 and whilst I didn't buy the phone for all the other gadgets that it claims to provide (and I haven't tried the other functions either) I am bitterly disappointed that this doesn't even provide an adequate basc function as a phone (which is all I wanted really). As I only payed £39.99 for it, I toyed with the idea of just writing it off and buying another phone, but at the end of the day the lobster handset itself is perfect for me in terms of design and size and there's nothing else out there that comes close to this (which is also frustrating).
If there is anyone out there with a solution to this problem, please, please share it with the rest of us sufferers.