mobile phones...you must top up on purchase???

lancenotalot

My wife went to buy me a cheap mobile from the o2 shop and the guy in the shop told her that you are not allowed to have the phone unless you put credit on it,she explained that I have a sim in my old phone but his answer was the same.

I then went into tesco,picked up the cheapest mobile I could find took it to a till and then the checkout girl said "I can only sell you the phone if you top it up" I explianed that I wanted only the phone and had my own sim from my old phone but still the answer was the same.

Is this correct or is this a company thing to squeeze some more cash from us???

dduk

Someone mentioned this before. See http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1515129

Jakg

The phones are subsidised by the networks - this way you get a cheap phone and some credit, hopefully the network gets your custom.

UK phones are the cheapest in Europe - without this alot would be exported to the rest of Europe and the networks would lose out - eventually losing us our cheap phones.

If you really don't want the £10 topup - eBay it?

blue_haddock

I noticed this a while back in CPW - was having a look at phone to buy outright and the price on PAYG was cheaper than buying it outright, often by quite a bit. It would of worked out cheaper to buy a PAYG and top up £10 then bin the credit than buying it outright.

spinningsheep

On 02, if you are an EXSITING PREPAY customer and YOU are physically in the shop at the time, the staff will check to see if you can claim an upgrade reward as a discount off the phone price or double that amount back in credit on to your SIM. The reason your wife couldn't do this in your absence is down to data protection. If someone wanted to buy a phone as a gift, they could use their own upgrade discount if they are on 02 pay and go or, buy the £10 top up which will go on the new SIM and you can just use up the credit, its not like you will lose out on it, you can still use the credit, its just on a different number. If you want to pay cash or card its still £10 airtime, CPW make you buy £20 if you pay cash! And some phones come with £10 free credit at the mo too (you cant have the free top up if you have a price discount on the phone,you have to take the credit back on your SIM) hope this helps!

sillylittlejill

bargainbuy wrote: »

The only way the likes of Tesco and CPW get paid from the networks is if the customer actually tops up. The handset makes next to nothing for them, this is why they insist you top up!

Hi

I have worked with mobile phones recently (and will be again once I get a start date!) and this isn't actually true. The networks do not let us sell phones unless sold with a top-up. If it was an o2 one you were after, they should let you put the money on the old sim card, at p4u the screen pops up automatically and as long as you have the old number then you can use that instead of the one that comes with the new phone. The new sim card can then either be thrown out or kept as spare.

The companies get money from the phones themselves, you make nothing for the top-up, that money goes straight to the network.

Hope that helps

xx

spinningsheep

sillylittlejill wrote: »

Hi

I have worked with mobile phones recently (and will be again once I get a start date!) and this isn't actually true. The networks do not let us sell phones unless sold with a top-up. If it was an o2 one you were after, they should let you put the money on the old sim card, at p4u the screen pops up automatically and as long as you have the old number then you can use that instead of the one that comes with the new phone. The new sim card can then either be thrown out or kept as spare.

The companies get money from the phones themselves, you make nothing for the top-up, that money goes straight to the network.

Hope that helps


xx

the new SIM get disconnected so dont use it or top up, otherwise you'd lose the airtime!

sillylittlejill

It will get disconnected after a couple of months of non-usage like any other PAYG surely so you would have that time to use it. It doesn't really matter though if OP is wanting to use old sim card.

ivinsp

I bought an o2 prepay phone for a friend recently and upgraded in store when we gave his details

evenasus

lancenotalot wrote: »

I then went into tesco,picked up the cheapest mobile I could find took it to a till and then the checkout girl said "I can only sell you the phone if you top it up" I explianed that I wanted only the phone and had my own sim from my old phone but still the answer was the same.

I bought a Samsung E250 from a Tesco HomePlus store about a month ago.
I handed it over at the checkout and there was no problem. Just paid for it like I would have anything else.

macman

Why not just apply the minimum top-up, use the credit, and then switch to the other SIM?