Batter down your annual mobile costs article Discussion Area

gendgsbdy

Help!!
I entered into an 18 month mobile phone contract on the 3 network via UK Buzz. Included in the contract was a free handset for £25 per month with a £75 cash back incentive after each six months. Upon contacting UK Buzz to confirm the correct procedure to follow in relation to claiming back the cash back I discovered they were no longer trading and they have been replaced by Unique Distributions. Despite having two assurances via telephone from this new company they would honour the cash back offer, to date these promises have not materialised. I made enquiries with 3 about cancelling the contract or swapping to a cheaper contract. They are immovable on the contract and they have confirmed (twice!) cancelling would incur an early settlement fee of £248. Any ideas please??

verbanonfacta

Been with 3 for 4 years now, and just received the yearly upgrade call from customer services. They offered me what sounded like a better deal, I asked for time to check it out, it turned out to be the same deal available for new customers!

When I rang back I used the ' I've been with you for 4 years, can you do me a better deal' angle - and ended up with a free new Sony Ericsson k800i, £16 per month with 500 min, 100 texts and 30mb of data per month. Saving of approximately £80 on last year. It really is worth finding out what you want, then asking for it.

veggie4life

its coming up to change over time with three but i dont know wether to just wait for the iphone and change over to O2

purpleivy

I've been on Tesgo PAYG for years, but decided the time had come to go onto monthly contract. I looked for a contract paying roughly what I was paying per month (£15) in order to stay on the best of the Tesco tariffs.

After some shopping around I got an 18 month deal with cr**y phone from 3 with 750 minutes and 100 texts, all for £17.50 per month.

I didn't really want the phone, as I wanted the SIM to put in my unlocked PDA. In spite of the assurances from some bloke in a call centre in Bombay (don't worry Martin.... I sourced a non-0870 number., www.saynoto0870.com!) it didn't work in my PDA so I made arrangements to return said package.

Then I called Vodafone, which seemed to have the nearest package to that with 3 months half price on a £35 package, again with 750 mins, but also 250 texts. I skillfully negotiated a cheapo Nokia phone and 15 months half price package, but couldn't complete that day as I had to leave the house. Call centre person promised to call when he started shift the next day.

He didn't, so I had to start the whole procedure again, this time the deal couldn't be completed, as my card details couldn't be verified for some reason, but was assured that the person would call me the next day, Same package was agreed, but with a better phone.... funny, I couldn't remember what phone person a had suggested.

Person B didn't call back, so on Monday morning I started again. In spite of the fact that they had taken bank details, the only record they had of me was from about 10 years ago when I first had a mobile! Person C told me there was no way that I could have any more than a 3 monthhalf price deal. Deals only valid on day of offer etc etc.... I asked to speak to the manager, pointing out that if their software or whatever had accepted my bank card then the deal would have been completed at the time. Manager replied that the only person who could deal with this wasn't in till the next day. She arranged a call for me.

I was out shopping half an hour later when I received a call from yet another person, saying that he would be happy to arrange the 15 month half price deal for me and what sort of phone was I supposed to be having. 'Unfortunately' I had left the model number on the pad at home. I now have an even better phone in addition to the package I wanted.

I suspect I only got this after so long because they screwed up with the calling me back process.... twice! But never mind, I got quite a good deal. Just shows you have to keep going.

purpleivy

mattbuk99 wrote: »

Just got off the phone with O2 Retentions.. Got 100 mins and 100 texts for £15 a month and a Nokia 6300!! Awesome! I called Customer Services earlier and they gave me nothing, telling me to go with their SIM-only deal but I called retentions direct and quoted a 3 tariff for £15 with a phone etc and the woman sorted me out - presto changeo! :-) Definite result. Oh and it was on a 12 month contract so I can renegotiate soon enough!

FOllowing my previous post I just read this! I got a Nokia 6300 plus 750 mins/250 texts for 15 months of an 18 month contract. having just seen that I'm well pleased cos mine is £17.50/month. Was told I could upgrade after 15of the 18 months... don't know how true this is.

dana_scully_2

I'm in the last 3 months of my contract with Orange and got the first 'courtesy call' today. My current tariff is rubbish - after VAT it works out to about £30 a month for 500 texts and 100 minutes, plus 50 extra minutes which I can carry over to my next contract for free. I told him I wanted a lower bill - £20 - and more texts but no minutes aside from my 50, as I never use them. He then tried to sell me Dolphin 25. I reiterated that this was too expensive, but also that only 300 texts during the day is unlikely to cut it as I send a lottt of texts whilst at my desk at work. (LOL) He then tried to sell me the Dolphin 30! I got bored then and told him, "oh well, I'll just leave when my contract expires" and he said, "ok, I'll make a note on your file that I spoke to you" and hung up.

What do I do now? Wait for them to call back nearer doomsday, or ring and "ask to leave"? I've found the tariff I want - it's on 3, and it's £15 a month for 600 texts and 75 minutes. I'm worried they won't play though, cuz I really don't want to switch contracts and go through all that puk code rubbish. Any advice greatly received!

MonkeyKong007

hi guys,

I just got offered

Orange
18 months
500 mins
Unlimited texts
New Sony Ericsson W660i phone

for £20 a month

Is that good, is there anywhere i could push for more?

Dan

dana_scully_2

Sounds good to me, how did you do it?! I may have to bag myself the same deal!

mountainchrisriver

Hi all,

Just thought i'd put this in for information... been with Vodafone for years, contract at first then shifted to payg as didn't use my phone much when changing jobs... now using my phone more so hunted around for a contract but no-one could beat what Vodafone PAYG retentions could offer me:

If I top up with £15 per month they credit me with 500 free texts (plus they add the extra £1-50 calling credit on for topping up with £15 if I do it in one hit). They didn't give me a free phone but my old one is fine for now!

Always worth chatting to customer service department to see what they can offer... may have given me free minutes instead of texts but I said I was a texter! :j

Hope this helps someone?!

hedgemunkey

^^ Nice deal! Sounds like good work :money:

At the moment I'm with o2, started my contract in june 2005, got a free nokia 6822, 50 anytime any network minutes, 200 free texts for £19 a month. Somewhat foolishly didnt take an upgrade after the first year, nor this june, so using the same phone still on a sort of month-by-month rolling contract. Well, I'm going to uni in september so needed to do something about this - the aim was a new phone (specifically wanted nokia E70 - used to typing with keyboard phone as my last was the 6822 so this suits me perfectly), needed more minutes as I'll no longer have a home phone as such, and wanted more texts too... and for less.

Well i was on the phone about 20 minutes, on the o2 automated phone-answerer I went through to sales, then straight through to wanting to end my contract.

Eventually the offer I got was 200 minutes and 400 texts for £15 a month, with a £75 voucher, so I don't pay anything for the first 5 months basically. Definitely a good deal... But anybody know how I can push them further? They say they don't have nokia E70s (and this is definitely the phone i want) so how else can I push them?

Going to ring back now and try and get the deal pushed up a little, wont accept anything or disconnect though so any ideas or pointers would be much appreciated!! Thanks,

Matt.