Batter down your mobile contract cost

System

I tried this about a year ago with Vodaphone and would certainly recommend that you are all very careful with this.
I was on contract that was costing me about £12 per month and spotted that I could get an almost identical deal from OneTel.  As my boyfriend lived in a Vodaphone blackout zone but OneTel use the O2 network, this seemed like a good idea.
Vodaphone's special secret department (that they only let you speak to when you utter those magic words "going to leave") offered me £11 per month + 60 minutes + 50 messages.  How could I refuse?
Only when the bills started coming in did I notice the tarriff name included "6 months 50%" in it.  I queried this and was told that they had signed me up to a deal that would cost me £11 for 6 months, then shoot up to £25 per month.  What was worse, I was locked into it for 12 months.  This was the first I had heard of this and certainly wouldn't have agreed - who would agree to pay more?  Duh!  But they insisted they remembered the conversation, that their staff member had definitely told me of this and that I had definitely agreed.  Several angry letters later, I just gave up in frustration.
I will be leaving Vodaphone at the first possible opportunity.

Jo-z

Onetel mobile is on the Vodafone network.

System

I did a similar thing with T-Mobile just over a month ago, after threatening to move to Orange. Having been a customer of theirs for well over 6 yrs (One2One previously,) I'd had enough of horrendous bills. Anyway, to cut a long story short, 500 text messages a month, 100 off peak minutes same network and BT landline, and 25 cross network minutes, plus £180 credit towards a new phone, which after some hunting round, eventually got me a Motorola V600, and all for £27 a month!
Not sure what the deal will be 12 months down the line, but hey, its a step in rite direction!

Jo-z

Thanks Donnie, I'll bear that in mind when I change.

System

Hi,

I tried this with 02, I have had my phone for a couple of years...called them and mentioned leaving and required my code.They made no offers to keep my buisiness :-/ I am not happy! ??? Any suggestions with 02

nujjy

monalisa, how much are you paying per month? Unless you are paying at least £30 per month, it is unlikely that they will be able to give you a better deal.

Bestselling_Author

I'm was on Vodafone's Anytime 30 (£15 per month), which was just enough free minutes, but I was spending about another £5 per month on texts. I'm happy with my phone and service but ideally wanted to limit my monthly expenditure to £15. I rang Vodafone and explained my disappointment in the fact that they don't offer combined free minutes and text packages. I told that that Three offered me a better package of 25 free minutes and 100 free texts for my £15 budget. Vodafone offered to upgrade me to their Anytime 100 with 50 free texts per month for £15 per month on condition that I signed up for another 12 months. I was happy with this. I've got a £28 package for my budget of £15 per month! If you don't ask - you don't get!

System

You realise this is a standard Orange practise that is called Orange Value Promise and has been around for years:

http://www.orange.co.uk/talkplans/ovp/

gazman_2

Hi All - I asked for this deal whe I upgraded in Feb 04. They said they`ll match all but the `3` network so I`m just on the standard Talk 200 + NO texts for £25. I spoke to customer services this morning - They said I should have asked at the time of upgrade !!! :-(

I`m now sending them a fax with my request for a match - I hope this works....

thanks again,

gazman

System

Hmm. I am with Orange on 200 min cross network tarif for £30 per month. Have just spoken to them and they said that if I wanted to leave I would have to buy my way out of the remaining time in the contract and that was it! No offer of matching the "3" tariff at all. What did I do wrong???

System

You have to be lucky with O2. I did it a few months back. I rang them & threatened to leave (as I was paying £20 pm and getting 500 off-peak mins, 50 off peak x-network mins & 100 texts per month). They offered me a £15 pm tariff which gave 500 off-peak mins, 25 off peak x-network mins and no texts plus new handset - not much of a deal I thought. I waited a few days and rang back to disconnect and surprisingly "due to customer loyalty" they offered me 400 off-peak mins, 50 texts (which they increased to 100 without any persuasion) and new handset for £8.50 per month. I also have a groupnet phone for my wife which gives her 200 off-peak mins per month for no cost (after the initial £99 I paid about 3 years ago) as long as I stay connected (so I had an incentive to saty with them anyway). The only problem is I have had 2 bills from them since with the same charge as before. I took it up with them after the 1st bill came in and they said they would credit my account. I got the 2nd bill yesterday, so now am ready to kick some ****. anyway, will keep you posted.