Batter down your mobile contract cost

MSE_Martin

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Make one call for 300 cross network minutes, 30 extra texts and a new camera phone:

Now, I admit I’m showing off (though truth be told I should've done this ages ago - but even for me sometimes time gets the better of you), but the above is the result of the deal I negotiated today with my mobile phone provider just by making a call.

It was easy, all I did was tell it, if I didn’t get a better package I’d leave. Try it yourself and then reply to this to let me know how you did (i hope you do even better than me!)

The Story:

It’s important to note, I’m an Orange contract customer, and I want to stay that way as it enables me to use the ‘mobile override' trick (UPDATE NOV 05 - sadly this trick has now been closed). Therefore negotating a better package rather than actually leaving was important. It went a bit like this.

Martin: “Hi, I have a package with you, frankly I’m not happy, the mobile network Three offers 500 cross network mins (means you can call mobiles too) for £25 a month, and I’m paying £30/month for just 200 mins.

This simply isn’t good enough, while I want to stick with you, unless you can offer me something better, I’m going to have to leave.”

Orange: “Sorry Mr. Lewis, let me put you through to our specialist disconnections department and see if we can find anyway to improve it.”

Thus I repeated my mantra to disconnections.

Orange disconnections “I think we can help, we can match that Three tariff for the same price.” (note: Orange’s own 400 min package costs £50 a month).

Martin: “that’s not part of your normal price match plan?”

Orange disconnections “Nope, it’s a special offer for valued customers” (sub-text: we’ll pull out all the stops if we’re going to lose you).

After quickly checking this didn’t invalidate my ‘override trick’ potential, I proceeded to ask for more text messages and got them too, 30 a month more. Then the man happily told me it was upgrade time, pick a phone any phone, what do you want? So I opted for a snazzy, new, tiny camera phone, with radio and tri-band – all of course for no extra charge.

It pays to be an ‘unhappy’ customer. Try it – with any network, see how far you get, report your feedback here.

Stickyticket

I am on a PAYG tariff from O2. How would I go about starting an account with them with the same sort of deal as you without paying a fortune?

snidgey

Think you might be on a stickywicket with that one Stickyticket ::) You need to be on a monthly contract already to swing the leverage Martin got. Definitely worth trying to blag a few extras if you can but not to go for the whole moon on a stick in one hit!

PaleScene

Martin's story is great - really heartening ;D

I'm not sure if there's anything I can do to better my own situation as I'm one of those 'glovebox' type users apparently - the mobile is not used for great quantities of calls. I switched myself from a contract of £80 a year (a discounted price hold package as we had cause to complain about wrong bills and general hassles) to PAYG, my main preparation being that there were no minimum top-up limits. I'm currently topping up £15 every couple of months, which is about the same (better if you consider they probably wouldn't have let me renew at £80 again) but feels more controlled. That's the bit I'm content is rightly placed for me.

The bit I'd readily consider changing in order to see an improvement is the provider - O2. Customer service historically has never been good and at present I do have a problem with registration sticking on top-up cards (so I keep having to buy new ones, fine if they have any in Tesco/Boots, but they often don't, which means ultimately topping up via O2). However, to get away from O2 costs £15 apparently, as I was informed when I told them I was thinking of going elsewhere. At that price it seems to remove any bargaining tool for a low-end user such as myself.

allthatmularky

Pale scene - £15 to move from 02 - as a PAYG user ? There is no cost bar cost of another SIM (£1-£2 upwards) and making sure your phone is unlocked to any network - what model of phone have you got ?

System

Cheers Martin , I got a new phone with 500 cross network minutes and 30 texts at £25/month should save me a good £20 a month

Rebel_UK

Hi Martin,

I did the same thing last week, I've been an Orange customer for 9 years now 12th May see's me start my tenth year contract, so, called orange about upgrade phone and change tariff, I've been on the same tariff for 4 years, £17.50 a month, 150 free minutes, unused carried over 1 month, NO free texts, No Cross network calls.

They put me through to the Customer services dept, since my usage was always under 100 minutes a month, but lots of cross network calls and over 50 texts a month, they gave me the following :-

100 Free cross network minutes a month
100 Free Text messages a month
150 MMS messages a year
£25.00 Credit on my account
1 years free insurance
And ANY new phone I wanted, Free, I wanted the new Nokia 6230 but it is reported to have lots of bugs (it was recalled before release) so I got a samsung E700.

They even called me by my first name which at first I thought was condescending, but then they wanted to treat me as a special customer, and they were very friendly and I could have had more, but the above was quite sufficient for me.

Not bad for a 5 minute phonecall

Rebel UK

System

I've been an Orange customer for about 7 years. About this time last year, I got a call from Orange saying that as I was a vlued customer, they'd like to give me £50 credit. "What's the catch?", I thought. sure, enough it meant I'd have to stay another year with them (which I would have done anyhow). so, I tooks their money!

Not received any such call yet this year, and as I want to upgrade my phone, I'll give them a ring and see what they say. I won't be changing my tarrif though as i'm still on the Everyday 50 tarriff (now discontinued for new customers, but still running for those on the tarrif). You get 1500 off-peak mins a month for about £15. Suits me fine. But, as this is not one of Orange's profitable tarriffs, I can see them refusing to give me a TOP NOTCH upgrade deal unless i come off the tarrif :-(

I'll keep you posted.

System

I've been wanting to join orange for a while now - and I've been calling them, trying to get a similar deal, however it seems to only be for current customers.

Anyone got any suggestions to get around it?

xx ???

snidgey

iciclesecret2 see reply#2 ::)

Gonzo

I think it's fair to say that with mobiles on contract there is no such thing as a fixed price.  After my first contract was up Christmas I wanted to upgrade my phone to the latest hot poop.  Orange wanted £250 to change my SPV to the E200.  However, as soon as you mention leaving or using an internet company, the disconnections department magically appears offering a free upgrade!  (As for matching free minutes and texts though, I'll definitely give that a try in December...)  Simple lesson though, any phone is available free on contract with the right leverage and all the other contract aspects are open to negotiation, the phone companies are very keen to earn/keep your business!