o2 upgrade - am I being unreasonable?

bairn7

Hi all

Just looking for some honest advice. My O2 contract is up for renewal. I hardly use it at all (around 400 texts a month and hardly any minutes). I found a phone I really want (nokia 5800) and I phoned the upgrades line who put me through to retentions.

I told them that I'd searched around and found a tariff with T-mobile which would be perfect and I wanted to stay with 02 so I hoped they'd match it. Its basically free 5800, 300 anytime/network minutes, 300 txt and unlimited web usage all for £25pm (18 month contract) with 12 months half price. I found this on mobiles.co.uk.

I was told that they couldn't match that under any circumstances and pointed out that the 12 months half price was a redemption offer (which is fair enough but I don't see why that should be used against me). They offered me similar for £25pm for 18 months or £20 per month for 24 months.

I said that that was a little too much for me and that I would have taken the 18 months if they could do it for £20. I also said I'd be happy for them to reduce the minutes because I don't use them. The guy point blank refused and took my details to cancel the account (and order a code to transfer my number).

Was I being unreasonable looking for £5 off per month for an 18 month contract? I'm not that good at negotiating but I gave it my best shot (saying how I'd been with them for ages and I'd rather stay with them if possible, and saying that I'd stay if they offered me the 18month contract for £20p/m) but no joy.

Any advice would be appreciated. I suppose I would take the £25p'm if pushed but I'd be disappointed that I couldn't haggle any further discount.

Thanks

Exemplar

You wont get anywhere with them nowadays (normally). Take the PAC code and go with T-Mobile and then forget to post one of the redemption letters ono time and when it all falls through as they wont honour any more claims as you have 'defaulted' on one......etc etc

laughingcow81

I don't think you were being unreasonable - their job is retentions, they should be trying to keep you and compromise, not just give up!

I would just move on to another contract - you'll probably get a better deal elsewhere.

PotatoPotato

Hey you wont get anywhere asking for retentions to match a cashback offer cos its not always 100% guaranteed.
Try Virgin here

You can ask them to match the £15 x 18 month offer or the £18 x 18 month.
If you do actually decide to leave go to virgin, since they piggy back on T mobile for signal and its cheaper.

bairn7

PotatoPotato wrote: »

Hey you wont get anywhere asking for retentions to match a cashback offer cos its not always 100% guaranteed.
Try Virgin here

You can ask them to match the £15 x 18 month offer or the £18 x 18 month.
If you do actually decide to leave go to virgin, since they piggy back on T mobile for signal and its cheaper.

That tariff would do me nicely, thanks very much!

bairn7

Spoke again to o2 and they are still refusing to match that tariff!! I was told that the best they could do was a 24 month contract for £15p/m but a reconditioned phone. If I wanted to take that down to 18 months it would be a lot more expensive than the £18 offer from Virgin.

I'm really disappointed to leave o2 because I have been with them for years and I considered them to be a really good provider and I think their network coverage is better than t-mobile? but I'm shocked that my loyalty counts for absolutely nothing and they can't even match an offer available to a brand new customer with Virgin, let alone beat it.

Any last ditch things I can try? If not, I guess I'll be going to Virgin and having to go through the hassle of number porting etc.

Thanks again

jamiex

bairn7 wrote: »

That tariff would do me nicely, thanks very much!

Bear in mind that I've read about Virgin taking whole minutes from your allowance if you use under a minute, i.e. if you have 300 minutes and make a 2 second call it'll go down to 299 minutes.

Not sure if this is still true but you should consider it before entering into a contract with them.

Kijoki

Weird, I got a 200min/400txt/unlimited internet + tocco lite for a 18month on 15/month for my little brother roughly two weeks ago.. It is possible. BTW this was a 25/month but got a 10 credit. Just mention the 10 credit they know about it, as I've been bargaining my current one as well..

PotatoPotato

If you do go for virgin, i would suggest the £18 with the internet if you wanted to go online with your new phone.

I'm not sure whatelse you can try with o2. They have been stubborn since they got the iphone, thinking everyone wanted one :mad:.

nemoo

if it's not too late, have a look at the T-Mobile deal at Tesco mobile.
Had a similar experience with O2 retentions (actually worse, offered me something but when called back to accept - they changed their tune) and moved to T-mobile via tesco. A simple 24mth deal at £15/mth for 300mins, 300txt and one free bolt-on of choice (my choice was unlimited internet).

worth a try.... oh forgot to mention that the 5800 Xpress music comes free of charge!!

good luck