Batter down your mobile contract cost

thehound

tried the advice with my provider t-mobile, quoting orange's 100min & 100txts for £20 pm. best they offered was the same for £25.50. Said I would leave, they said ok and gave me my pac code. I'll be off then!

karendoyle

Has any one seen any better deals than the one I currently have as my contract is up for renewal in a couple of weeks. I am currently with Orange and pay £27 per month. For that I get 60 minutes any time any network and 120 texts per month. Is there anything out there to save my some much needed money? I would like to stay with Orange but would change to save some cash. Karen

MSE_Martin wrote:

This has now been turned into a full article. !To read it click here


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 !(click here to read). !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 now extra charge.

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

klausvk

Today I spoke to the 'Customer Retention' Department at O2 and said I had been looking at their online tarriffs and also at Vodaphone as my contract was up.

Said that my O2 200 calling plan of 200mins and 50 texts wasn't competitive at £30.

It turns out that the telesales people can't offer the online tarrfifs but are able to compete with their plans!

He asked how many texts I was looking for - I said 400mins and 200 texts for the same price.

To which he said could offer me the O2 400 plan half price for 12 months (£22.50 for 400mins cross network and 100 texts) plus bolt-on 200 texts for £9.

So I'm going to be getting 200 extra mins and 250 extra texts for just £1.50 more a month - if I decide that the bolt on isn't for me then I can cancel (subject to 6mths I think) and then I'll be saving.

I then asked about upgrading my phone and he said I could have a 6230i for free or they would credit my account £100 if I kept with my current handset.

Why did I never try this before?

"if you don't ask you don't get!"

kida

I've been doing Martin's wonderful "3" V "Orange" contract negotiations for the last two years..And to give Orange their due they really are helpful...and work hard to keep customers - good on 'em!
Now here's my update to Martin's advice - Find a "3" phone with the most extreme amount of gizzmos and find a unique function that only the posh ones have (EG PDA functionality).
Now follow Martin's advices on getting Orange to Match 3 tarrif offer - but when they offer you a phone - advise that you really need one with the specific functionlity of the 3 phone. This pushes the disconnect people to squeeze the best possible phone free into the deal.
When the new Orange phone arrives - carefully store all your box and packaging in your loft.
Now enjoy the phone for 11mnths & 3 weeks on your low tarrif. On the 51st week, call Orange to say that there is an intermittent problem with the screen - Orange will send out a new (they say refurbished but you can't tell the difference) phone by courier next day!. Pack this carefully away in the original box whilst you get on with the fun bit of renegotiating a new phone. When the new phone arrives - Place the old(new) one on Ebay and flog it.
In 2002/3 I sold an SPV for £89, 2003/4 Another SPV for £112 and this year I sold an M1000 (PDA) for £120. (All of which bought by people in the US?)
I consider this as a nice cashback that goes a long way against the first few months contract charges.. :T

kai666

kida wrote:

Now enjoy the phone for 11mnths & 3 weeks on your low tarrif. On the 51st week, call Orange to say that there is an intermittent problem with the screen - Orange will send out a new (they say refurbished but you can't tell the difference) phone by courier next day!. Pack this carefully away in the original box whilst you get on with the fun bit of renegotiating a new phone. When the new phone arrives - Place the old(new) one on Ebay and flog it.
In 2002/3 I sold an SPV for £89, 2003/4 Another SPV for £112 and this year I sold an M1000 (PDA) for £120. (All of which bought by people in the US?)
I consider this as a nice cashback that goes a long way against the first few months contract charges.. :T

Is this fraud? claiming a phone is broken in order to get a second one to sell on ebay for a profit

pennypincher_2

It is fraud, and watch your eBay feedback burn in flames when Orange blacklist the IMEI of the handset you sold to some poor eBayer who won't be able to use it on any UK network.

Yes, the IMEI will be checked to see if its still in use.In certain cases (2005) some people doing this have received a charge for the full price of the handset ,Orange now include a statement to this effect when you receive your warranty/insurance replacement ,it says you will liable if you do not send back the correct handset.

Its 2005 and some people don't realise about something called TECHNOLOGY!

(All of which bought by people in the US?)

These handsets would work in the U.S.because the barring of IMEIs currently only works in most of Western Europe, the GSM Association is pushing for a worldwide IMEI database which will end the export of grey listed 'lost' & stolen phones.

And people wonder why they can't get a cheap deal. :mad:

pennypincher_2

I've been doing Martin's wonderful "3" V "Orange" contract negotiations for the last two years..And to give Orange their due they really are helpful...and work hard to keep customers - good on 'em!
Now here's my update to Martin's advice - Find a "3" phone with the most extreme amount of gizzmos and find a unique function that only the posh ones have (EG PDA functionality).
Now follow Martin's advices on getting Orange to Match 3 tarrif offer - but when they offer you a phone - advise that you really need one with the specific functionlity of the 3 phone. This pushes the disconnect people to squeeze the best possible phone free into the deal.
When the new Orange phone arrives - carefully store all your box and packaging in your loft.
Now enjoy the phone for 11mnths & 3 weeks on your low tarrif. On the 51st week, call Orange to say that there is an intermittent problem with the screen - Orange will send out a new (they say refurbished but you can't tell the difference) phone by courier next day!. Pack this carefully away in the original box whilst you get on with the fun bit of renegotiating a new phone. When the new phone arrives - Place the old(new) one on Ebay and flog it.
In 2002/3 I sold an SPV for £89, 2003/4 Another SPV for £112 and this year I sold an M1000 (PDA) for £120. (All of which bought by people in the US?)
I consider this as a nice cashback that goes a long way against the first few months contract charges..

The old handset has to be returned to the courier before they hand over the new/refurb one - so what is there to sell????

Rant over.

Scrumshie

Thanks Martin.
Mr Scumshies O2 mobile was just out of contract( was paying £30 month for 200 min and 100 text) and he was dithering as to what to do.
Followed your advise.
Got him to phone O2 and ask for PAC code because he was thinking of going to 3 for 500min and 100text £15monthly deal with new phone.

Within minutes they had offered new Sony ErricsonK750i( just what he wanted ) 500min,100txt free for 4months then £25 a month. Fantastic.

He cannot believe it was that easy.

Money saved. Brilliant phone. Thanks

kida

Maybe I should have pointed out that when I take out a new phone with Orange I include Orange Care in the package. I only "replace" the phone if it is damaged (in 2 out of the 3 of my SPV phones the screens went monotone..) - but wait until the end of my contract to replace it(if possible - i.e. you can still use the phone). Sorry if my original thread was misleading!

As for IMEI - I unlock the phones before selling them that is why they invariably sell abroad - I know unlocking voids any Orange Warranty - but I don't think this is against the law once the 12 month contract has finished. My wife uses an old unlocked phone bought from ebay - and has not been barred in 2 years of use.. I think the barring comes into play when people get a free phone on a tariff deal and instantly try to sell it whilst within the contract.

Orange do not collect your old mobile when sending out another on a new yearly contract.

I'm really not sure why this could be considered immoral - why, I'm sure a lot of contract deals offer you cashback for your old mobile phone whatever the network.

Finally I'd like to again commendate Orange - They may have provided me with some cracking price match deals groovy phones & excellent customer service; but in return I have stayed with them for 6 years now. If I find any deal better they match it - I agree with Martin that we as consumers almost have a duty to enforce this to ensure the best deals for all..

Busdodger

It's interesting reading through all the comments bearing in mind about two weeks ago I had to negotiate a new ocntract with Vodafone.

I was on 200 anynetwork minutes and 50 texts for £30 a month. Anyhow I rang them up, asked for my PAC code since I was looking to transfer networks and all of a sudden I was put through to a 'personal consultant' to see if they could suggest an offering that might make me reconsider.

Looking online i'd seen that 3 had some fantastic deals but even more interesting was T-Mobile's current offer of 12 months 1/2 price line rental. As such I managed to blag the following:

400 anynetwork minutes
Stop the clock
250 messages

All for the same £30 a month... but to make matters better, they even gave in to giving 10 months 1/2 price line rental.

By my counting that comes out as not much more than £18 a month overall... bargain I tell you!