Vodaphone - Getting out of 2 year contract

gjchester

dangerman7uk wrote: »

Ok ok, I take it back. I'm a mickey mouse business man at best.

I thought I was doing ok getting double the investment on each bike.

I've been schooled.

You were but half your costs are hidden, businesses have to cover all costs.

redped

dangerman7uk wrote: »

Yeah, the Voda deal was on the Voda site, and the Talkmobile was on Mobiles.co.uk. They're both real deals, I assure you. I'm going to buy the Talkmobile one if it's still available in a month.

Before buying from mobiles.co.uk, check out talkmobile's own website - it's normally cheaper than buying via mobiles.co.uk. E.g. I'm thinking of buying a Wildfire S for £12/month for 24 months; Talkmobile (a CPW company) give you the phone free (okay, included in the cost), while mobiles.co.uk (also a CPW company) charges £100 and CPW themselves charge £150 for the phone. These are all for the same contract on Talkmobile.

The fact the Voda sign you up to a two year deal but only give you one phone is the whole point, my entire logic, of the statement. They charge roughly the same, but only give you one phone for the whole two years instead of one phone a year. There is no flaw, it's perfect.

Ah, but in your calculations you're comparing the total cost over 12 months with Talkmobile, versus the total cost over 24 months with Vodafone, and then pointing out that one is more than twice the cost of the other. Hence the fundamental flaw in your comparison.

dangerman7uk

redped wrote: »

Before buying from mobiles.co.uk, check out talkmobile's own website - it's normally cheaper than buying via mobiles.co.uk. E.g. I'm thinking of buying a Wildfire S for £12/month for 24 months; Talkmobile (a CPW company) give you the phone free (okay, included in the cost), while mobiles.co.uk (also a CPW company) charges £100 and CPW themselves charge £150 for the phone. These are all for the same contract on Talkmobile.


Ah, but in your calculations you're comparing the total cost over 12 months with Talkmobile, versus the total cost over 24 months with Vodafone, and then pointing out that one is more than twice the cost of the other. Hence the fundamental flaw in your comparison.

Ah, I didn't even think that was possible. I always thought that the tariffs and deals that network give to third party companies are exclusive. I'll call them direct and see what they say. Cheers.

I know that my calculations are comparing a cost of one over 12 months vs another over 24 months. But the point is that you get more and are committed to the contract for less time on the cheaper deal. You could take the 12 month deal out and at the end have the freedom to upgrade and get a new phone or end the tie in and go with another company. If you go for the 24 month, you get less and are tied in for double the amount of time.

Iain_L

dangerman7uk wrote: »

I say they're over charging based on, for example, this:

Talk Mobile offering a £99 phone (Samsung Galaxy 2 which would cost £450 about the same as the iphone) with 400 minutes, 1000 texts and a gig of data for a £30pcm for 12 months TCO of £460. Theoretically, you could buy another contract in 12 months and get a similar deal and a new phone.

Vs

Vodafone offering the same phone for the same price with 900 minutes unlimited texts and 750mb internet for £36pcm fo 24 months TCO of £964.

So, as you can see, Vodafone are charging more than double for a very similar contract, yet you're only getting one phone for the two years.

I'm surprised that no-one else has mentioned it, but another area where you are not comparing like-for-like is the actual details. The Talk Mobile deal is offering you 400 minutes airtime instead of 900 mins on the Vodafone deal, only (!!!) 1000 texts vs unlimited texts (which I believe may mean up to 3000 reading other threads) and 1gb data vs 750mb.

Despite what you say above (post #74), you're not getting more for the year the Talk Mobile contract runs; you're potentially getting considerably less. The only advantage you can possibly have with the 12 month deal in your example is the freedom to look around earlier for another deal, but no matter how you work it, that is the only one (apart from 250mb data monthly more).

dangerman7uk

Iain_L wrote: »

I'm surprised that no-one else has mentioned it, but another area where you are not comparing like-for-like is the actual details. The Talk Mobile deal is offering you 400 minutes airtime instead of 900 mins on the Vodafone deal, only (!!!) 1000 texts vs unlimited texts (which I believe may mean up to 3000 reading other threads) and 1gb data vs 750mb.

Despite what you say above (post #74), you're not getting more for the year the Talk Mobile contract runs; you're potentially getting considerably less. The only advantage you can possibly have with the 12 month deal in your example is the freedom to look around earlier for another deal, but no matter how you work it, that is the only one (apart from 250mb data monthly more).

It was a rough comparison, I was just saying they were similar. The Voda deal is slightly better minutes, but most people I know don't have a specific amount of minutes or internet they use, they just take was deal would do the job. I think both these deals would appeal to the same type of people.

It's not twice as good. But it's twice as expensive.

Iain_L

dangerman7uk wrote: »

It was a rough comparison, I was just saying they were similar. The Voda deal is slightly better minutes, but most people I know don't have a specific amount of minutes or internet they use, they just take was deal would do the job. I think both these deals would appeal to the same type of people.

It's not twice as good. But it's twice as expensive.

And lasts twice as long. This is the fundamental flaw; you cannot say it is twice the price of the shorter contract, without factoring the cost of the extra 12 months phone contract you would need to make a valid comparison.

I wouldn't have an issue if you were to then add a 12 month sim only price to your Talk Mobile example (SIMple £18 for example). Over the 2 years then, Vodafone would have cost £964, and Talk Mobile would have cost £676.

This now shows that over the 2 year period, with a comparison of more similar products, Vodafone is £288 more expensive. £12 a month less for the Talk Mobile deal is not to be sniffed at.

You have succeeded though in getting me interested in Talk Mobile; maybe in 21 months when my Vodafone contract ends.

dangerman7uk

Iain_L wrote: »

And lasts twice as long. This is the fundamental flaw; you cannot say it is twice the price of the shorter contract, without factoring the cost of the extra 12 months phone contract you would need to make a valid comparison.

I wouldn't have an issue if you were to then add a 12 month sim only price to your Talk Mobile example (SIMple £18 for example). Over the 2 years then, Vodafone would have cost £964, and Talk Mobile would have cost £676.

This now shows that over the 2 year period, with a comparison of more similar products, Vodafone is £288 more expensive. £12 a month less for the Talk Mobile deal is not to be sniffed at.

You have succeeded though in getting me interested in Talk Mobile; maybe in 21 months when my Vodafone contract ends.

Voda charge about £15-£20 for this kind of deal on a rolling contract on sim only, others offer it at about £10. The extra 12 months contract is worth at best about £240 (if they let you have it on a rolling contract). But the cost it near £500 extra. Hence why I argue that they owe the customer an ungrade, cashback, or line rental reduction to that value. Or allow them out of the contract.