Batter down your annual mobile costs article Discussion Area

alanm_4

I saved I don't know how much today by ringing Vodafone and re-negotiating my mobile contract. I'd done the same thing a year ago (without upgrading my phone) so I was a bit wary, but result: Same monthly rate (£30 incl VAT) but doubled my free monthly minutes to 500 and got 'any call over 3 mins is free evenings and weekends' thrown in (ie "pay" maximum 3 mins - though don't actually pay as it's just 3 mins off the monthly allowance of free mins). Also doubled text allowance.
:j
This time I had decided I wanted a new phone at long last, so armed with the Link catalogue I asked what they could offer me. Immediately offered a free upgrade phone, so I've now got a new updated all-singing all-dancing Motorola phone for nothing.
:j
I then innocently enquired about how you go about buying the bluetooth headsets and whether you need to get specific ones to be compatible with specific phones and where you have to go to get one (playing the "I am technologically thick" card), so the Vodafone rep said he'd send me one free with the phone. That saved me £79 according to the phone catalogue I had in front of me while talking, on top of the £159.99 which is the phone price in the phone shop catalogue. Yes I know phones are often free with contracts, but still, I count it as a saving!
:j
And to top it all, as a "valued customer" they are sending me an extra Pay As You Go SIM card to put in the old phone (when I put the old SIM card in the new phone) with £6 credit already on it, so I can have the old phone in reserve (or let another family member have it as their main phone).
:j
Must admit, I've been with Vodafone for years now and have never had a problem persuading them to improve my deal. In fact I have even known them ring me up and suggest changing the tarif I'm on because of my recent usage, in order to save me money. I'm sure they do/did that just to pre-empt customers leaving, but it's a fairly unusual example of customer-orientated customer service.

lorre

Your deal sounds good but did you also recieve a new phone as part of the package?
I know t-mobile will give you a line rental discount i you remain with them but don't need a new handset, so if you're on a £13.99 a month contract
and don't need a phone they will reduce your line rental to £3.99 per month.
I'm not too sure about other networks.

lorre

Your deal sounds good but did you also recieve a new phone as part of the package?
I know t-mobile will give you a line rental discount i you remain with them but don't need a new handset, so if you're on a £13.99 a month contract
and don't need a phone they will reduce your line rental to £3.99 per month.
I'm not too sure about other networks.
And don't forget you can take the new phone sell it put the money towards your line rental.

lorre

Can someone explain to me why it's possible to pass on the ownership of a contract but not the ownership of a handset?
What i'm trying to say is if you have a contract that for whatever reason you don't need any longer you can contact the Network and pass the contract on to another person very easily.
But if you have a handset it's impossible to do likewise.
I know of several people that have purchased handsets only to later on to find out the handset has been reported lost/stolen by the original owner and has been barred by the network.
How can the owner ever be protected? Can someone please give me some advice on this situation?

Thanks

musicreative

Thank you, Martin! I contacted Orange and have renegotiated a better deal following Martin's script almost to the word!

I was just out of contract paying £80 a month for 1,000 X-network minutes and 50 texts (but using less than that a month). I now have a new phone free, 6 months at £20 followed by 6 months at £40 for 750 X-network minutes and 150 texts.

:T

mattc_3

Hi,

I'm currently on an O2 online off peak deal - i'm getting 300 off peak minutes to other o2's and landlines and 500 texts per month.

I rang them with the pretense of getting my "pac code", so that i could go across to three and they started offering me all sorts - which was what i wanted after reading all these helpful posts!!

the best deal they offered me was 750 anytime minutes and 750 texts for £35 a month - this included a brand new Sony Ericsson W810i and £180 credit on my bill, effectively reducing my line rental to £25 a month for 18 months.

They also offered me other deals with a monthly discount of £15 quid instead of £10 but these were for twelve month deals.

I know all this is quite a lot to take in but it seems that o2 have £180 quid to play around with if you're a current customer.

They also don't offer you the best phones right away - at the start they offered me a Nokia 6230Ii, when i asked for specific phones they then said they'd check...lo and behold, both the Sony Ericsson W810i and Samsung Z320i were both available - they just told me about the cheaper and older ones first!!!

Anyway - I went away to think about it - think i'll go give them a call...

Bezzer_2

This is the first time I've posted - I just had to share this with you. My 12 month contract with O2 is up so I phoned and said I wanted to change to Pay as You Go, the contract was £19 per month with 50 free minutes and 500 texts - they've reduced it to £14 and given me £100 cashback straight to my account - so the next 12 months will cost me £68! I know this will tie me in for 12 more months but it was definitely worth phoning.

stardust2000_uk

On the anniversary of my contract I have just phoned Orange to see what deals they can do me, I currently pay £25/month for 1000 off peak minutes and get 1000 free txts, this is a great deal but without a landline I have to make peak calls and it costs me a fortune!

I managed to get them to give me the T-mobile Flext tarrif which I wanted for £35/month but gives you £180 credit to spend on txts and calls as you wish.

The orange tarrifs would have given me the phone I wanted for free rather than the £50 that it was if I was on this tarrif, I didn't budge and so he threw that in the deal as well! (its a complicated system apparently!). New tarriff starts tomorrow and phone's delivered on Monday

I love being a pushy... I mean assertive customer! )

stefano

It is now nearly 12 months since I successfully negotiated a cut price deal with O2, including a brand new D500. My question is:
What are the chances of getting an even better deal? And a new handset?
I am currently paying £16.50 for 200Xnetwork minutes. Various outlets are telling me that nothing will beat that, however, the chances of getting a new handset are slim to none.
Any advice?

coxinio

Hi there this thread seems like it has potential unfortunately I haven't the time to trawl through every page.

My question is; has anyone had any success using this method with T-Mobile?

Any comments appreciated.

Matt