negotiating with orange at end of contract - what can i expect?

Chinese_Democracy

i'm currently with orange and have been for about eight years, at the end of my contract i always give them a month's notice then negotiate with them to get a better-value deal than anything offered by going through the 'normal' routes.

i'd like an i phone 4 this time and have been researching the best deals. three seem to offer a hell of a lot for £35 a month plus a £69 upfront charge for the phone:

• 2000 any network minutes
• 5000 texts
• 5000 Three-to-Three minutes
• All-you-can-eat Data

the orange contracts for £35 don't even come close to touching that, plus there is a hundred and something upfront charge for the phone itself. you have to get up around the £50 a month mark on orange to even approach the £35 three contract.

so given that i like a bit of haggling, what do you think i can reasonably expect orange to offer to keep my business for another two years? 5000 texts is impossibly since they offer 3000 (which they call 'unlimited' but that's another discussion altogether) but to be honest 3000 will be okay. so would 1gb of data a month and about 500mins would be ample if i keep my orange magic numbers.

so to sum up i'd be happy if orange settled for:

• 500mins or there abouts (with magic numbers)
• 3000/unlimited texts
• 1GB data
• pay no more than 60 odd quid for the phone itself

with three i can get much more than that for £35 quid by leaving orange, so how close to £20 a month could i get orange though haggling?

opinions would be appreciated!

DUTR

If you are expecting Orange to fall over themselves to keep your custom, then prepare to be disappointed.

custardy

£20 a month for a handset people are falling over themselves to take?
look at upgrade options through resellers via cashback sites

drbesty

They won't negotiate on the iPhone full stop, there's plenty of people who will pay the asking price

matrix999

Why do you want an iphone 4???

Its been around for over 12 months now.. Have a look at the Samsung Galaxy S II or HTC Sensation, these phones are more up to date and you'll have a better chance at getting a good retention deal rather than paying for an Apple product thats overpriced anyway.

Kitty_Ears

DUTR wrote: »

If you are expecting Orange to fall over themselves to keep your custom, then prepare to be disappointed.

This. They wouldn't do a thing when my Blackberry broke... 4 times.

OP... if you work for the police, goverment or NHS, orange offer 25% off contracts. I was told this today!

keith1950

Chinese Democracy, if you have a look at www.e2save.co.uk , you can get exactly the same tariff as you list with free iphone 4 plus if you go via topcashback or quidco you can also get either £40 or £60 cashback.

They also do it for £30/month if you can live with 300 mins/5000 texts and 500mb data.

This is the lowest tariff available for the iphone to get it free.

You cannot seriously expect to get it anywhere for £20/ month.

£20/ MONTH X 24 MONTHS = £480 will just about cover the cost of the phone so there would be nothing left in the deal to give you any mins/texts/data .

Dream on !!!

wandos

It does make me laugh when people expect the networks to give them whatever they want at the end of their contracts.

An iPhone 4 sells unlocked at the Apple stores for £510. If you are expecting £20 a month with Orange, they will make a total of £480 from you over the two year contract period.

At the end of the day, all networks are businesses and they are out to make a profit. I feel as though many consumers expect far too much from a mobile phone network, especially as handsets become more and more expensive

robt_2

In addition to above, it is usually the least profitable customers who expect the most when they ring retentions (I'm not suggesting that of Chinese Democracy)