Batter down your annual mobile costs article Discussion Area

matUK

I have been a loyal customer with 02 for quite a while. Firstly had their broadband installed then took a sim deal. Now after 2.5 years I asked for details of my cancellation policy and available offers for old customers. Now, it turned out to be a joke as I ended up disconnected from the chat with a representative and left baffled how stubborn and rigid they can be, not caring for their customers at all.

I wanted a check out some discounts for a sim only deal and then an option with a phone. I reached nowhere so I logged a formal complaint immediately. Basically I was offered limited minutes, unl txt and 100mb data for 36 pounds, plus they made me pay for the phone 59.99 while new customers get unlimited minutes, txts and 1gb date for the same price and the phone comes free as well! How sick is this.

I am currently awaiting a reply that may take 5 days. I simply cannot understand how their behaviour may be accpetable. Misleading and hard selling, that is what they are.

SalfordSlim

Hi,

Wonder if anyone can advise (bear with me this is a bit long winded!).

I'm on contract with O2 having been a customer for at least 6/7 years. My 24 month contract was originally due to expire in July but has been brought forward for early renewal for reasons I will explain later in this post. My current deal is as follows........

£30.64 p/m for 300 mins, unlimited texts & 500mb tinternet with 32gb iPhone 3GS refurb thrown in for free.

I want to upgrade to iPhone 4S (happy to downgrade to 16gb) but keep paying the same amount as currently on. I don't need unlimited texts so happy to reduce but still need 300 mins & minimum 500mb tinternet.

Now the reason O2 have agreed to a 3 month early upgrade is as follows. Recently my current iPhone fell apart (literally in half!). When this happened I remembered that I had taken out a £45, 2 year AppleCare Protection Plan so I assumed I could get the phone fixed/replaced as part of that deal. When I went to the Apple store they told me my plan hadn't been activated and because the phone was in half they couldn't accept it or send it off for tests and they advised that I should speak to O2 about it (they also mentioned that they thought the battery may have expanded causing the phone to separate). When I spoke to 02 I told them I wasn't happy that the phone was unusable and because I wouldn't be unable to trade it in it's current condition (losing out on £100 trade in) I wanted to bring my renewal date forward as a goodwill gesture for the faulty phone. I also complained that the advisor I agreed the original deal with hadn't activated the care plan at which point O2 told me that was down to me (although he didn't tell me that at the time!).

O2 agreed to the early upgrade but the best they could offer on same terms as my current tariff was £50 upfront for iPhone 4S and £36 p/m for another 2 years. I told them this wasn't a great deal as A) I'd be a fiver worse off p/m than currently, and I was losing out on £100 trade in.

I'd also commented that there were online deals available at £31 p/m for same tariff plus free iPhone 4S thrown in but they weren't prepared to match that so said I was going to leave & asked to be put through to retentions/disconnections for PAC. Adviser then told me I was already speaking to retentions and gave me PAC code.:mad:

I need to know where I go from here. If I terminate the contract I assume I have to pay up the 3 months of my existing contract before I go, thus costing my around £100? If I stay I'm getting a far worse deal and O2 have fleeced me blind. I've also seen deals online for the HTC One X which look tempting between £26-£31 p/m with free handset. I know there are cheaper deals out there if I go SIM only but I can't afford to pay for the handset outright which is why "all-in" packages appeal so the cost can be spread over the contract.

Apologies, for the long post but can anyone advise as I'm stuck with a crappy old Nokia at the mo as a stop-gap I and need a new phone asap?!:eek:

lupyloo

Hi my contracts are up for renewal with Tmobile, I currently have 2 x blackberry curve 8520,
1st line costs
Your monthly plan charges100Mins&100Text(24)10 £8.51Unltd Text Booster (FB) FreeBlackberry Email Booster £4.25Internet Included FreeLoyalty discount from your monthly line rental- £4.26Monthly charge total £8.50
What you used outside of allowance - UK Calls00:22 mins outside of allowance £0.34Picture messages1 message outside of allowance £0.17Total charges outside of allowance£0.51This all adds up to: £9.01
2nd line costs
Your monthly plan charges300Mins&300Text(24)15 £12.77Internet Booster (FB) for 13/3/12 to 12/4/12 FreeBlackberry Email Booster £4.25Loyalty discount from your monthly line rental- £6.80Monthly charge total £10.22
What you used outside of allowance - UK Calls00:51 mins outside of allowance £0.10Picture messages6 messages outside of allowance £1.02Total charges outside of allowance£1.12This all adds up to: £11.34
I am wondering if maybe grumbler (or someone else in the know)could give me some advice on which phone to upgrade too and if it is worthwhile haggling the amount im paying. Im not really a big user as you can see, but do like latest gadgety things.

Swanlake_2

I saw Martin on This Morning a couple of weeks ago and with my phone contract with T-mobile coming up I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Firstly I had a look on phones 4 u and carphone warehouse websites to see what was available (I have really had my eye on the new Sony Experia S in white). Orange were offering the handset free with their dolphin contract (200 mins/unlimited text/100mb data) on a 24 month basis at £20.50. My current T-mobile contract was unlimited text, unlimited data, 300 minutes for £36 (which has just gone up due to their recent price increase), but my bills were always coming in around £40 due to having to pay for 08 type calls, and to call my own voicemail. Knowing Orange are under the same umbrella as T-Mobile (they are both 'underwritten' by Everything Everywhere) I decided to try my luck and call them to see if they had a similar package.

When I called I was immediately transferred to the 'specialist department' and got speaking to a gentleman there who turned out to be no so helpful. I was of the opinion the advisor was trying to call my bluff rather than the opposite way around! He advised me I could not have the phone in white as the manufacturer had not yet released the white version. He also told me that the very least he could do me a contract for would be £26, which would include the same benefits as the Orange offer. He advised me that new customers would pay £36 for this offer which appears to be true if going through T-mobile direct - however 3rd party providers do offer the phone at £26 a month with T-mobile! I found being on competitors websites whilst on the phone really helped as I could call his bluff straight away and tell him what's on the market! As I was getting nowhere with him and think that having to pay the same as new customers after a lifetime of loyal service to T-mobile (I'm such an old customer I was originally One2One!) I wanted to see how far I could push the advisor to get me a better deal. After telling him I did not see any benefit from renewing my contract with him for £26, or going to phones4u for the same price (plus getting £65 cashback through topcashbackuk). I then asked for my PAC code, at this point he got slightly less complacent and started reeling off the 'benefits' - apparently T-mobile will be the only provider to have access to the 4G network, and so I should not leave (don't be swayed by such things - once one provider has their claws into something you can guarantee all others will follow suit to reclaim their share of the market). He did not, however, try and offer anything extra, or for less. I left the phone conversation with my PAC code. I didn't let up because most companies now insist on a 30 day cancellation notice, regardless of whether your contract expires in this time, so effectively that gives you 30 days to change your mind about cancelling too.
Within 5 minutes of my putting the phone down an advisor from the 'high value customer' team gave me a call saying they had noticed I had been given a PAC code, and wanted to look into my account properly. Again I was offered £26 but this time with 300 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited data, the phone free and all 08 numbers free and voicemail. I advised the lady this was still £5+ more than I would be paying with Orange for the white phone and the only real benefit to myself were the free voicemail calls which did not warrant an extra £5.50 p/m. She asked if she could call me back. A couple of minutes later she was back on the phone offering me T-mobiles full monty package (literally completely unlimited everything! And no extra charges from voicemail/08 calls), most importantly, with the FREE white phone for £21. I asked how she has managed to get the white phone bearing in mind it is nowhere on their website, and the previous advisor told me they did not do it yet. She told me that T-mobile actually use 3rd party providers like phones4u, carphone warehouse etc. She had made a call to a 3rd party company 'chitter chatter' and secured me the white sony experia s as T-mobile do offer it through them.

Interestingly it would seem that mobile providers offer these 3rd party companies special deals to draw in the custom, yet they're very secretive to existing customers about having access to these deals. What I have done is double bluffed T-mobile - firstly be saying I was leaving (rather than simply calling for deals) and then secondly by actually taking away from them a PAC code. And when push came to shove - they bent over backwards to keep my custom and I got a price similar to what I had seen, yet with much more for my money. Yes, it may be ballsy to demand that PAC code, but within 15 minutes of asking for it I had everything my own way!

oh and finally - sssssssh - don't tell T-mobile, but I never had any intention of leaving them in the first place!

grumbler

Swanlake wrote: »

Interestingly it would seem that mobile providers offer these 3rd party companies special deals to draw in the custom, ...

In fact they just pay them a huge commission that 3rd parties use to offer you better deals.

ulasash

I just thought I'd report my recent failure to renogtiate a contract with Vodafone.i had come to the end of a 24 month contract and was looking to keep the phone and drop to a sim only rolling monthly contract.i was offered a package that was virtually the same in tariff as I pay now,when I tried to drop the cost to something more reasonable (to match other network tariffs) I got a firm rebuttal and "I can't do that".i haggled a bit more but to no avail,played the master card of threatening to leave and had no response.having been a customer with them for several years I thought they would want to keep their custom.they didn't,so now I'll switch my
Custom to a business that care about their customer.toigh luck
Vodafone!

Babache

Took out a deal with 3 just over a year ago - 25% discount on handset and dongle so pay >£30 / month for 15GB allowance on dongle + 500 / 5000 / 500 on HTC Wildfire S. I still consider this a good deal but:
The dongle I have almost never used so wanted to cancel and "transfer" costs to handset. Was told would cost £118 canx fees!!! Then put me through to mobile people (separate billing, separate CS team?). To cancel, a further £197 in fees!!! To change phones / upgrade, possibly in June otherwise take out a separate contract whilst keeping the present one ... kesako??
No flexibility whatsoever ... until the anniversary date of the contract (April 2013).
So, bit of a failure, really.
Had Vodafone recently who proposed an excellent deal with FOUR months free with HTC One or Galaxy sII and thereafter similar tariff to 3 but can't do with 300 plus quid in canx fees :mad:

latecomer

Why the :mad: - you signed up for a 24 month contract and got a nice handset as part of the deal. Why should 3 let you change the terms of it just because you dont use it?

philipmag

I am looking for mobile phones for my son &daughter (teenagers).

Are there any networks that cap/limit the usage of the phones; I.E. if i have a £15p/m plan, the bill cannot exceed this.

stuart210

I have been on 30 day SIM only plans with orange for 18 months now, i ring them up every time i see a better deal and tell them to match it and they do but be careful because they will try and coerce you into a 12 month contract so i always explain that i cant be tied down because my life isnt that rigid.

At the moment it seems the operators are moving to provide BlackBerry services for FREE instead of the usual 5 pounds per month.

MY CURRENT PLAN: £15pm on a 30day SIM ONLY contract w ORANGE (18 months loyalty)

600 mins
Unltd texts
500 MB data + BlackBerry services

Plus a £10 30 day 1.5GB data bundle as and when i need it.