Needs some help here - stuck in upgrade loop hell!

[HankMcSoank]

So I purchased DC phoenix, it errors with this when I try to load stock firmware into my phone...

Writing partition: VERLIST...
Error downloading file VNS-L31_C432B371_Firmware_Switzerland_Italy_United_Kin gdom_Germany_Portugal_Netherlands_Nonspecific_3.dt work, partition: VERLIST
Error writing software

So I read the DC Phoenix doc, it says I need to do step 2 (HCU),
I therefore download HCU ...when I press read info ...it connects to & reads my phone (which is on fastboot),

The guide says this...

"After flashing in fastboot, phone should be able to boot up now
Now you need to rewrite model, vendor & country even if it remains same"

...it's unclear that to use HCU to re-write model, vendor & country whether the phone should be in fastboot ...or fully booted up ...but nevertheless HCU cannot connect to the phone when I try to do this in either condition (yet when in fastboot, & I click read info in HCU, HCU does successfully read info from my phone)

[HankMcSoank]

Ok, I managed to sort the connectivity & HCU is connected to my phone ...however when I tried to use HCU to set the country vendor ...I'm informed I don't have sufficient credits..so it appears that - even though I've just paid 15 EUR for dc phoenix - that I need to pay more - it's not clear from the credit page how many credits I need to be able to set the country & vendor using HCU?

[Valdemaras]

Need 8 credits to use repair service on HCU.