Batter down your mobile contract cost

jaymi

I spent all of today searching for new deals online and was then very tempted to sign up with 3 network because of their excellent tariff deals such as "Talk & Text 900 750mins & 150 texts at £40 with half price line rental for 3 months OR 16 months half price line rental" but decided against due to their brick-like phones and their not-so-reliable network coverage...

I am an O2 customer and realised from reading this forum that O2 are not as generous compared to other networks like Orange. This is the main reason why I spent so long researching other packages in case I was pushed to leave them. I am currently on 500 off peak X-net mins & 500 texts all at £25 but my bills have reached up to £40 on average! So I was willing to pay for up to £40 but with anytime mins.

Here is the package that was offered to me by the lovely man at O2:
750 mins Anytime X-net mins & 200 texts @ £29!!! What a bargain!! A new K750i was free of charge also!! I am one happy bunny!!

clark.ar

hello all...

thought i would fill you all in with my recent dealings with Orange

contacted Orange CS last night to see about an upgrade, as i'm currently in month 10 of my contract, ending on 6th Jan. This is my 1st year with Orange on a Student tariff (1000 texts) on YP 200 with an extra 100 anytime mins, costing me £35pm, with a free K700i.

my OH took out her orange contract (on the same package) a month after me, in Feburary and was recently called by Orange Upgrades and offered a nokia 6230i (or any phone within reason) with 200 mins offpeak extra pm as a bonus over the 18months. She snapped up their offer and the handset arrived 2 days later.

Confident in the knowledge that i usually spend an extra £15 - £20 more pm than her, i called the CS expecting them to fall over backwards for me.

CS said "sorry, you are in a different spending band and therefore, we wont be willing to upgrade you until the end of your contract. And then to upgrade, we will charge you a min of £50 for a entry level handset, rising in £50 increments for more popular handsets" :mad:

totally didnt expect that response. True, we are in different spending bands, me being in a HIGHER one!!! :mad:

CS : "sorry about that, but theres nothing i can do for you"
Me : "ok then, i'd like a PAC code so i can transfer to a network that values my considerable custom"
CS : "OK sir, i can transfer you to our specialist disconnections department, who may be of assisance"

Jackpot :T . Two minutes of hold music later, Disconnections offered me ANY phone Orange stocks for FREE, (ive opted for a Sony P910i!!) as long as i can wait until exactly one month before my contract ends (6th dec). Disconnetions are going to give me a call back on this day

I will also be able to access other offers on this upgrade, Disconnections said it was best to wait until Dec to decide this, so i can get the most up to date offers. Im hoping to wangle a bluetooth headset, some free pic msgs and half price line rental from them. Bit cheeky but its worth a try

My OH, feeling a little short-changed with her 6230i, called the CS back as soon as i'd hung up. 2 mins later, shes allowed to send the 6230i back and theres a shiny new Sony W550i on the way to her as soon as orange gets it in stock. :beer:

Does anyone know when its released??
does anyone also know when the new Sony PDA is released? think its called the P990i??

It just goes to show that Orange arent really concerned about keeping existing customers happy unless you threaten to take your business away from them.

Rokkster

Well - I've been counting the days to when my monthly contract expires so that I can pull this one - phoned Orange, got through to disconnection - followed Martin's script almost verbatim and they told me that I couldn't have anything better without paying for it!! Have they changed their policy?? Should I just try phoning back and speaking to someone else?? Anyone else pulled this off recently?

Ad.

***** UPDATE *****

OK, I phoned back and spoke to someone else - he was a bit more helpful, but still only able to offer an additional 60 minutes of calls (260). But, no new phone unless I paid the stanadard £50, and NO texts (currently have 500 a month) - apparently because there is no promotion on at the moment - so no real advantage whatsoever there

I wonder whether it's because Three are about to drop a lot of their promotion prices - in essence bringing themselves into line with the other networks?

Anyway I've been sent my PAC code (did you know that you get charged a further three weeks after your phone is disconnected with Orange just to put the boot in!) so it's off to hunt for a new deal

clark.ar

as i understand it, existing orange customers should be able to use the "Our Customers First Promotion" to get 6 months half price line rental on YourPlan 100, 200 + 300.

or 3000 minutes of free weekend calls for 6 months on selected plans.

it seems to be that they grade the amount you spend monthly against your future upgrade fee. Online it states an "estimated" upgrade fee.

The prices shown are dependent on the services that you subscribe to.

the terms and conditions state that :

************
Promotions are available to existing Orange pay monthly customers who have 3 months of their minimum term to complete e.g you are in :
- month 10 of a 12 month contract.
- month 16 of an 18 month contract
- month 22 of a 24 month contract

By taking a Promotion, Eligible Customers agree to be subject to the following new minimum term contract:
12 months without a handset upgrade
18 months with a handset upgrade.

************

Virez

As my 12 month contract is up, I decided to give Orange Upgrade Department a call first. Told them I liked the Sony Ericsson W800i which was offered to me for free immediately but I told them I also wanted a more competitive tarrif.

I was then transferred to Orange Customer Relations, I then explained to the lady that Three is offering 500 min x-over and 100 txt for £30 and I'm paying £25 for 120 mins x-over anytime + 120 mins x-over evening mins for life and no txt. She managed to match Three's offer straight away but I said I actually prefer more txt than the mins so she said how about 400 mins x-over anytime and 500 txts a month on a 12 month plan, all for £30 incl vat etc.

This tariff suited me perfectly so I took up the offer. Thanks for all the great advice on this website!

stevefffff

Yehaaaaaaaaaaaa thank you martin , i have just renogotiated my contract with o2 , i got my self a brand new phone and i am now paying half the price i previesly was cheers for that , that now makes steven a very happy chappy.
happy xmas and a happy new year

JollyNolly

Also feeling very virtuous. My wife decided to upgrade her phone to Sony Ericsson K750i on her Orange contract. Despite paying loads of cash to Orange every month, the guy in the store said that her "band" meant that the phone would cost £99 quid. To be fair to him, though, he did suggest ringing Orange, as they would be able to give a better deal. Which they did, but still £79.99. So I rang Vodafone, and asked if my wife could move to them, have a Sony Ericsson K750i for free and keep the same number - and they said yes. So I rang orange disconnections and said my wife would have to leave as Vodafone were offering the phone for free, same contract. So they instantly said no problem, she could have the phone on her existing Orange contract. I'm just kicking myself for not asking for the 250 texts a month she'd have got on Vodafone. Hey, I'm surprising myself at my advanced age - I can be assertive and get better deals!

ADC_3

rang in month 11 of my contract and made a simple request. I'd like new phone please, happy with the contract. Orange said no. I asked for my PAC - they sent it. I left. Got same deal with new phone half the price elsewhere. Orange just weren't interested. Well done all you guys who got a great deal. I got nowt.

Veegee_2

Your site is brilliant. I just made one call to O2, as described, and secured an amazing deal.

I was paying £19 a month for 50 free minutes. But I did my homework and saw that Three offer a package for £12.50 a month for 200 minutes and 100 texts (that is only for six months incidentally, before price doubles).

After initial salesman offered me a duff "improvement" and I remained unmoved, he put me through to "retention" dept who offered me an extraordinary offer - £12.50 month for 500 free any-network minutes. No free texts, but I don't send very many of those anyway. Plus either a free phone or a £100 credit.

I took the £100 credit. Which means that, by my calculations, I won't be paying anything for my phone for more than six months... Amazing! At present I have been faced with a bill for anywhere between £30 and £60 a month. So this will have saved me more than £200 - for one phone call!

Thanks

090481

Hello everyone,
I just wanted to share idea in the hope that it may help someone else save some money.
I have a contract with Vodafone where I pay £30.00 line rental and pay £
14.00 for an extras pack which gives me 200 texts messages. I called Vodafone on saturday and got some figures and realised that I am going over my text limit by about 180 messages each month! Arghhhhhhhh! so I am paying approx an extra £30.00 for messages as well as my line rental.
Today I purchased a Nokia 2600 from the Carphone Warehouse for £29.99 which I have just managed to unlock using the unlocking thread. I am now going to top that up with a tenner each month to qualify for my 300 text messages. I wont bore you with all the mathematics but I have worked out that by having 2 mobiles, one for text and one for calls I am going to save around £300 a year!!
The 2 mobile idea may not suit everyone but I am happy to have 2 full pockets if I can save that much!!!
I have spent hours in the past trying to find the ideal tariff and I have concluded its easier to invent my own :T
Thanks for listening and I do hope that I can help at least one person as there are so many of you on here that have helped me. Thank you

x

P.S I got my 02 Sim free when 02 were doing an offer but there are loads of reasonably priced ones on e bay.