Batter down your annual mobile costs article Discussion Area

steve_rob

Got a good deal out of Three, but it took quite a while - in fact they almost lost me!

Was on their £15 SIM only deal - 300 mins, 3000 texts, unlimited data - but was using nowhere near that amount, so rang up last Monday asking for my PAC and said I was leaving to go to Orange at £7 per month (150 minutes, 500 texts, 250MB data - more like my actual usage). They put me through to whatever their name for Retentions was and the guy offered me everything under the sun, but his best offer was to keep my current plan but for £10 per month. Every time I told him that I wanted to pay less for fewer minutes etc. he said he could only do £10 but with even more minutes or texts which was the opposite of what I was asking for!

Anyway, I got the PAC from him in the end but didn't have a chance to place my order with Orange until today. Just as I was about to go to their website, who should phone but Three. They now wanted to offer me 500 minutes, 3000 texts, 500MB internet AND a new phone (which I don't really want, but I suppose I can sell it), for only £8 a month with just a 12 month contract - result!

So a little bit of patience (and a lot of luck, because I was about to place my order when they got hold of me) paid off.

CoopCooper

Coming to the end of my first mobile phone contract in 2 weeks.

Going to digest this thread this evening and give Orange a call.

I'm not the greatest haggler in the world so am pretty nervous but need to give it a shot!

grumbler

You are coming to the end of the minimum term, not the end of the contract. Even if you give them a notice or request a PAC today, your contract will come to the end in 30 days, not 2 weeks.

CoopCooper

Thanks for clarifying grumbler.

tjsave

Last week it came round to my 12-month sim only contract ending, now luckily for me I have a pretty good deal already (T-mobile "friends and family" sim only 12-months 500 minutes, 600 texts, internet and I'm paying about £7.50).

Now when I have previously tried haggling because I am on friends and family (I get any t-mobile tariff for half price) I haven't been offered much better, which when I did a little research, while some seemed marginally better it didn't seem worth losing the friends and family line.

But I thought I'd have a little look around the t-mobile website and after logging in soon found an offer to renew, not expecting much I had a look and the page I got through to offered me £6 to renew, not really believing it I checked again, screenshotted the page and renewed!

I rang up a couple of days ago to check it had gone through as I hoped and sure enough I was told my new monthly cost was £1.66 inc. vat.

While I'm sure I just got quite lucky here, others on good deals already may be able to benefit from this sort of automatic online renewal offer!

amiehall

I'm sad to see other people having trouble with 3 recently. Although it makes me feel less like an idiot.

I've paid my last bill on my 24 month contract with them and was looking for a shiny new phone. My online deals were exactly the same as those generally offered on their website and when I called to try and have a talk about it all they were willing to improve was add some extra 3 to 3 minutes which I won't use.

I didn't go as far as starting to disconnect but I'm not holding out a lot of hope.... They just seem to want to give extra free stuff rather than reducing the price even one penny. I told the lady I'd be cheaper buying the handset outright and getting a sim only deal which tbh I think is ridiculous!

Has anyone had any recent success with 3? Give me some hope, my conversation was like talking to a wall!

grumbler

amiehall wrote: »

... They just seem to want to give extra free stuff rather than reducing the price even one penny.

Extra stuff doesn't cost them anything. Price reduction = lost revenue.

I told the lady I'd be cheaper buying the handset outright and getting a sim only deal which tbh I think is ridiculous!

Why ridiculous? IMO it's normal and reasonable. They sell you the handset on credit and charge interest and admin. fees for the loan.

amiehall

grumbler wrote: »

Extra stuff doesn't cost them anything. Price reduction = lost revenue.

Why ridiculous? IMO it's normal and reasonable. They sell you the handset on credit and charge interest and admin. fees for the loan.

Maybe I have been naive but I always thought the handset costs were subsidised on a contract. Otherwise what's the point?

At any rate, they're going to lose a lot of revenue when I sign up for a sim only deal at £10 a month rather than a deal I was willing to do for around £28 so it's a bit short sighted.

grumbler

amiehall wrote: »

Maybe I have been naive but I always thought the handset costs were subsidised on a contract. Otherwise what's the point?

'Subsidised' handset on a more expensive contract that would cost much less sim-only.

At any rate, they're going to lose a lot of revenue when I sign up for a sim only deal at £10 a month rather than a deal I was willing to do for around £28 so it's a bit short sighted

Assuming that the allowances are the same, you forgot to factor 'the subsidy' for the handset in.

That said, they may offer better deals to the customers who regularly waste loads of money on overpriced out-of-allowances services.

amiehall

Clearly I can see this isn't cheaper otherwise I would have taken the deal.... The carrier surely gets a huge discount on list price of a phone. Contracts I've taken out in the past have always been cheaper than spreading the cost of the handset over the contract length and going sim only or I wouldn't have taken them.