Batter down your mobile contract cost

DanDeadstar

Hey, I work for a certain phone companies collections dept (:D yey?) and to be quite honest this thread was quite a laugh.!

I sit all day taking overdue payments and setting up arrangments. Sometimes I will transfere customers with bad payment history to the retentions department, as far as the customer knows they're disconnecting, but if the customer has withheld a 12 month contract they generally get whatever they want handed to them on a silver platter.

Normal tarrifs are pretty good value, if you where to actually calculate the costs of running a corporation; depending on how big it is th tarrifs offered usually only cover the price of the hset they give you plus about 30% profit after network costs - obviously that doesn't mean you shouldn't haggle for that little extra, just don't get carried away.!;)

P.S. Always buy phones from service providers direct, wether it be Orange/T-Mob/Voda as you will get tons of problems with the thirdy party conpanies (even big high street dealers like CarphoneWarehouse/Phones4U).
Avoid cash-back deals at all costs.!

DanDeadstar

Trist wrote:

I've tried to get Orange to offer me a better deal but either I'm shocking at negotiating or they're being extra stingy with me (probably the first one) and they don't seem to want to budge at all. In fact they seemed more than happy to just disconnect me… how unwanted am I??? I spend roughly £30/ £40 a month so I'm not exactly a low low user...

Basically I don't really want to leave the Orange network because my girlfriend and most of my mates are with them, but I really need a new phone (the old one died in the Glastonbury mud) and I'd like a nice new deal too.

Is there anything stopping me from cancelling my current deal (I'm past my original 12 month contract so I should be able to cancel at any time) and then opening up another orange contract giving me a nice new phone & all the goodies you get with becoming a new member (the only downside being I'd get a new mobile number)?

Just contact retentions and disconnect the handset. Go into the Orange shop and you'll get pretty much anything you want.

40.00p/mon is actually mid-low spend. If you pay 100.00p/mon then you'd be an average spender.

FJSRiDER

DanDeadstar wrote:

40.00p/mon is actually mid-low spend. If you pay 100.00p/mon then you'd be an average spender.

£100 a month is AVERAGE! :eek:

Good grief!

(I haven't spent £100 in total on my mobile phone calls in 4 years....!)

skimshandy

P.S. Always buy phones from service providers direct, wether it be Orange/T-Mob/Voda as you will get tons of problems with the thirdy party conpanies (even big high street dealers like CarphoneWarehouse/Phones4U).
Avoid cash-back deals at all costs.!

What kind of problems do you get with the third party companies? Why should you avoid cash back deals? Thanks!

miwinter

I'd have to totally disagree with DanDeadStar...

I have never seen a direct supplier (service provider) offer a better deal than a third party. Show me where the Orange website, O2 website offer you 12 month free line rental deals. As for avoiding cashback deals at all costs... WHY? It saves you a ton of cash and enough of us, who can organise ourselves to meet the requirements for claiming the cashback, have had no problems with getting this back.

Forget the direct option, hunt around and find a bargain - that is the best advice.

careerwumman

Despite several letters and emails, I had no joy at all in recovering any of my £150 cashback from these cowboys. My vodafone contract ends tomorrow (i've been on vodafone/singlepoint contracts since 1998). Am I right to be leaving vodafone because I have no faith in a company that cannot vet/police the agents selling their products? Vodafone have attempted to call me about 40 times since telling me there was nothing they could do to sanction the company or recover any of my cashback, but I can't even be bothered to answer their calls. I've been on £35 per month Anytime 100 (and only use about half of my free allowance and never text). Any ideas on how to negotiate a deal good enough to compensate for the loss of my cashback? Or should I just keep ignoring their calls? Other than that I'm thinking of moving to Orange PAYG (can I use my existing handset for this SIM?).

Mister.G_3

As long as it's a dual band h/set (orange and vodafone use different network frequencies) you should be ok - you'd need to ask your provider for a subsidy unlock code/unlatching code (different networks call this different things) but once you've got this bobs your mothers brother! ;o)

stefano

O2 fact file
On wednesday 15/6/2005 I called O2 customer service on 0800 9777027, spoke to Andy andtold him that my contract was expensive and that I could find a better deal elsewhere.
Andy put me through to Dale who offered me 100 Xnet minutes @ £16.50, plus 100 Xnet minutes bolt-on (usual price £10.00) for free, and asked me if I would be happy with that. He then asked me what phone would I be interested in, and having expressed an interest in either the Motorola V3 or Samsung D500, Dale told me that he would recommend the D500 as it has a better camera.
So far so good. I accepted the deal and asked for the details to be put in writing, but this was declined by Dale as, he claims, it is not standard practise. He then said that my new contract would start when I received my phone.

On tuesday 21/6/2005 I called O2 customer service again, to mention that I received my new phone and that my new contract could start. I spoke to John, and I asked him the actual details of what my offer included, and he told me that for £16.50 per month I would get 200 Xnet minutes, 20 SMS and 1Mb of data. I thought, very well, my new deal is on the system, what could go wrong.

WRONG.

On tuesday 5/7/2005 I received an email advising me of the new O2 charges and that my payment would be drawn from my bank account as usual. but I noticed that the charges included £16.50 + £10.00 + VAT which total up to £31.13. A mistake obviously. All I needed to do is call O2 again, let them know about the mistake and allow them to rectify it, and I called them up, spoke to Tamon who told me not to panick, it is ONLY a mistake, and that she will raise a credit, and take it from there.

On tuesday 26/7/2005 I looked at my online bank statement and noticed that O2 withdrew a sum of £31.13 from my account. So I called them up AGAIN, spoke to Lyndon Smith who initially told me that my 100 Xnet bolt-on was £10.00 per month. After I told him that there should be no charge for that, he went into my notes and looked it up, he then agreed with me, and said that although a credit was requested for this month, he was going to straighten the matter up once and for all and call me back.
I am still waiting.

Abs_3

Contacted Orange retention today and with virtually no prompting offered me a 12 month contract for 500 XN minutes, 30 texts (for 3 months) and a free 'phone for 30 pounds. I rang back and got a Samsung D500 and 750 mins for 35 pounds. Doesn't appear to be any catches but I'll let you know.
Cheers
Abs

PerpetualHaggler

DanDeadstar wrote:

Just contact retentions and disconnect the handset. Go into the Orange shop and you'll get pretty much anything you want.

40.00p/mon is actually mid-low spend. If you pay 100.00p/mon then you'd be an average spender.

This just got me thinking. Nowhere have I seen anyone talking about the rules that get applied to retain customers.

I figure your monthly spend is going to be taken into account but does anyone know if there are, say, monthly quotas available to the agents to offer as discounts? If so, would it be better to contact your network at the start of a given month?

[This is my first post, btw, spent far too long lurking :rolleyes: ]