Mobile phone users 'overpaying by £200' per year

MorrisonsEmployee

vinam wrote: »

I think the research will have included customers who got a nice new shiny all singing all dancing got to have it now because etc etc,
regardless of tariff or allowances and only buying to get a phone.
Most people on here will be wise enough to know that high cost line rental will include the cost of the device and will accept that a better value deal will often be a compromise on the phone or device itself , we are also wise enough to know that the ''free gift'' type offers are also buried in the price but a cheaper phone with free gift and a monthly cost that they are happy to pay for both is what they want. I know deals are there to be had but as I work in the mobile industry I see both sides of the argument dealers want sales networks want income and customers want what they think is best for them. As I always put it You pays your money and takes your choice

Totally agree - I mentioned it earlier, I know i could get a much cheaper monthly deal but with that i would get a much cheaper handset which i don't want!

Bogtrotter

MorrisonsEmployee wrote: »

I think the article is very subjective - I mean i might be paying too much but for £35 a month with 600 minutes, Unlimited texts and Unlimited data with an iPhone 4 was a far better option for me than having to find £510+ in one go to be able to buy the iPhone 4 sim/contract free.

The sad fact is that by taking these expensive contracts just so that you can have the latest phone allows the mobile operators to control supply and hence price of the latest handsets.

Is it really possible the extra technology in an iPhone over an iPod Touch justifies double the price?

Maybe if more people refused over inflated contracts just to get the latest iPhone the actual handset would be substantially cheaper than £510+... maybe even affordable SIM free or PAYG.

MorrisonsEmployee

Bogtrotter wrote: »

The sad fact is that by taking these expensive contracts just so that you can have the latest phone allows the mobile operators to control supply and hence price of the latest handsets.

Is it really possible the extra technology in an iPhone over an iPod Touch justifies double the price?

Maybe if more people refused over inflated contracts just to get the latest iPhone the actual handset would be substantially cheaper than £510+... maybe even affordable SIM free or PAYG.

Apple actually have full control of handset prices and what deals they will allow the iPhone to be part of - The networks have no say in this which is why all the operators offer identical deals on the iPhone and Apple protect their brand.

iPhones will never be 'substantially' cheaper - Even the old iPhone 3GS 8GB still commands a PAYG sim free price tag of £399.99 again stipulated by Apple and when demand drops the price won't drop they will just simply stop supply so even if i did agree with anything you have said if you want an iPhone you have got to be prepared to either pay £500+ for it or accept a £35 a month contract because thats the best its going to be for a long time yet.

Bogtrotter

MorrisonsEmployee wrote: »

Apple actually have full control of handset prices and what deals they will allow the iPhone to be part of - The networks have no say in this which is why all the operators offer identical deals on the iPhone and Apple protect their brand.

OK i don't know the specifics about how Apple control the price but I'm talking about the market in general.

Mobile operators don't release the latest handsets to the PAYG customer precisely because they know that some will pay hyper inflated contacts to own them. They will usually only release handset to the PAYG market at a reasonable price when there is a new must have phone and the revenue from selling contracts with it dry up.

I would suggest that if mobile operators were only to sell call plans and all handsets (even iPhones) were only sold SIM free in any shop the price of the latest handsets would much lower than present.

Stuart_W

Billmonitor is a total pile of marketing/advetising pants.

I received an email from them today advertising the fact they can save me money (I used them a few months back to take up their bills comparison challenge).

The deal that they have "found" by comparing bills will "save" me £10.52 per year - but is based on some cashback deal. It will actually cost a fair chunk of that £10.52 saving in recorded postage to send off bills to claim cashback. Needless to say I can find better cashback deals myself if I were so inclined.

They also do no know what cashback deal I am on at the moment anyway, as that can't be shown by looking at monthly bills.

You can't ignore cashback deals on the one hand when looking at current costs, and them recommend them when trying to suggest better deals.

This marketing sales scam gives Oxford mathematicians a bad name. As far as being approved by Ofcom, Ofcom have already got a bad name so no futher loss there.

The only maths this site really relies on is earn as much commission as possible.

Avoid billmonitor. Advice and tools on this site are far more useful. How these jokers get so much press coverage is beyond me.

Susannah2011

It's just unbelievable!

grumbler

Yet another attack.... (to follow)