Unused Minutes Unfair?

kentishplato

Old gold I refer you to my previous post

ArsenalFC

Some of you really don't get the point the OP is making!

Regardless of the current tariffs, minutes and text should be roll over. So this is an unfair practice.

treb1971

It's explained clearly.
By buying monthly minutes you get a discount.
As long as you use all or most of your minutes, you should be better off than on PAYG.

So it's not unfair. If you don't agree you can opt for PAYG.

redux

kentishplato wrote: »

Thanks but you all miss the point which is: When the phone companies were desperate for new customers they wanted to present a fair contract to customers and what better way than to rollover used minutes to the next month. So why change this practice? To disadvantage the customer of course to the benefit of the phone companies. Wake up and smell the coffee rip off britain is taking us all to the cleaners and all this passive i dont mind stuff is just making us all lambs being led the sacrificial company slaughter.

You've missed the point.

When the mobile companies are desperate for customers they keep improving the deals

3 years ago I got a contract with 250 minutes and 100 text messages a month, modest phone, 3 months rollover

2 years ago, 230 minutes and 100 messages, no phone, 1 month rollover

from 6 months ago, 680 minutes, 500 messages, free internet add-on, free incoming roaming in Europe, more expensive phone included free or £8.33 a month off if I did without again, no rollover

the monthly rentals were £20, £9.33 and £20

Would I prefer this contract or the one 3 years ago? I don't think it takes long to decide. I don't care if I only use 350 minutes, this will still be cheaper than it used to be.


As for your earlier assertion that no phone company has ever gone broke: rubbish. GEC used to be a diverse and cash-rich company. It changed its brand name to one of its parts, Marconi, over-invested in tech and telecoms infrastructure companies that weren't worthwhile, then its shares went down in value by about 99%; now it no longer exists. At around the same time, BT also overstretched itself, had to lay off plenty of people, and demerge and float its mobile phones arm, which now belongs to the Spanish. And a retired investment analyst friend of mine had his pension outperform the FTSE 100 index by the simple expedient of omitting Vodafone

Britain is one of the most competitive countries in the world for mobile phone deals. Most of the networks' profits come from countries where the markets are still expanding

[Deleted User]

But the thing is, you don't pay £20 for 400 minutes or whatever.

You pay your £20 for a month of network service, and you get 400 minutes to use within that month. Come the end of the month, that's the deal completed.

Next month, you pay another £20 for another month's service, and get another 400 minutes to use within that second month.

I suspect the OP has just recieved a big bill for minutes they thought would roll over but didn't, they wrongfully assumed that they would, but by not reading the terms they signed up to, they now have a large charge to pay, and hence a rather large chip on their shoulder about it.

Old_Gold

kentishplato wrote: »

Old gold I refer you to my previous post

I'm not sure if you realise that I am actually supporting your argument.

Old_Gold

billbennett wrote: »

But the thing is, you don't pay £20 for 400 minutes or whatever.

You pay your £20 for a month of network service, and you get 400 minutes to use within that month. Come the end of the month, that's the deal completed.

Next month, you pay another £20 for another month's service, and get another 400 minutes to use within that second month.

I suspect the OP has just recieved a big bill for minutes they thought would roll over but didn't, they wrongfully assumed that they would, but by not reading the terms they signed up to, they now have a large charge to pay, and hence a rather large chip on their shoulder about it.

Yes and if you are happy with that there is no problem for you. However if all the companies are acting like a cartel it limits the choice for anyone like the OP to have a contract run the way they would like.

kentishplato

Thanks very much for the support from the enlightened few on here such as Old Gold, Arsenal F.C etc who were able to see my point that regardless of minutes deals either 3 years ago or now, any aspect of a contract change that is a disadvantage to the customer subsequently, is an unfair change no matter how you look at it or dress it up. The plain fact of the matter is, that it doesnt matter whether it is mobile phones, gas, electric, banks or oil companies. We are getting screwed and being given lies and deceit as justification for the screwing. And if you are so blinkered as to ignore these documented facts then i suggest you go and take the time to read these forum posts to see how so many people are being told so many lies by customer service representatives. Or are the posters themselves all telling lies....i doubt it somehow. As for Bill Bennett your wild and totally inaccurate assumptions about my experiences remind me that there are still people in the world like you who are ready to accuse and have found guilty without one shred of substantiated evidence. Your crass, ignorant, opinions are unwanted unwarranted and unneccesary

Bernie

...the reason I and so many others are not bothered about the loss of the rolling over of minutes is simply because it is all so cheap these days!

Originally, years back, the wife and I "shared" a single Orange mobile. We got the whole family on the network because Orange to Orange was free for so many mins per contract which was novel at the time. We used to use an 0800 override number to make outgoing calls because they were so expensive.

Now we have a personal mobile each with 200 mins/400 texts per month on O2 Simplicity (sim only) with free o2/o2 calls! They're costing us £4.44 per month over the 18 months. We rarely use more than half our allowance - me because I have an O2 company phone too and with the whole company also using the same network, most of my personal calls to colleagues don't "charge".

You've never had it so good - mobile-wise!....

:beer:

SALOPMAN

Even with some PAYG you have to be careful,we were with Tesco but they had a limited time to use up Bonus add on mins,so both my wife and I changed to lycamobile,once bought you have the extra minutes worth ongoing i.e. Top up £20 and you get £10 free which rolls over each time until you re-top up.