A challenge for you lovely people

kebabkiller

As the title says i have a challenge for everyone. I'm about 3 months from the end of my mobile contract and would like an upgrade.

Currently i have the HTC Desire S and would like to upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

After looking on all the website on the MSE sites and a few others the best deal i have found so far is £114 upfront for the phone and £28 per month line rental for the One Plan on 3 through phonebox mobiles.

3's upgrade and retentions department don't seem interested and wont even attempt to beat it.

So lovely people of the MSE forums my challenge is can you beat that price and price plan. To the winner my eternal gratitude and maybe a bag of sweets

grumbler

There is not an cannot be "the best" plan that suits everyone.
Best in what terms?
What airtime do you really need?

Buzby

You are not near the 'end' of any contract. Have a look at the T&C's - there is no end date, if you do nothing, it will continue as before, the only change is that your commitment to keep the account active for (however many months you initially agreed) to just 1.

Networks have budgets to promore certain brands and tariffs, they are dynamic and depening on the time of the month (of THEIR accounting period) you may or may not be offered a deal. Similarly, if any deal is over-subscribed, the promotion is ended as quickly as it begun.

So your question is like chasing Willo the Wisp - you need to be there and the time to get the price you require, and it will niot be telegraphed in advance.

kebabkiller

@grumbler, i currently use about 1500 mins a month and about 30Gb of internet as i use my phone for personal and work.

@Buzby, Your right about no end date, just a date that i can stop the contract (with 30 days notice). I was looking more for if anyone can beat the quote that i had given, i know that networks have promos that come and go all the time.

The Desire S i have was a brand new replacement(now just over a month old) they sent after losing my old Desire at the repair centre.

Tony5101

30GB of data per month via a normal phone contract...are you sure?

Buzby

That it a massive amounr of data - 30Mb is more realistic!

kebabkiller

@ tony and Busby, yes 30Gb is right, i use it to tether my laptop when im away with work, iplayer, youtube and music streaming eat data. That's why i have the one plan, before that i with over allowance fees my bill was close to £200 a month

Tony5101

with that sort of data usage via tethering, I believe that your only options will be either the 3 Oneplan or the new T-Mobile fullmonty plan. To my knowledge, nothing else will allow you tethering with so much data.
had it not been for the tethering, I would have recommended giffgaff, but they do specifically exclude tethering on their regular voice based goodybags.

nsabournemouth

Sounds like 3 will be the best, T-Mobile have a data speed of 1-2mbps which is pretty bad.

jenniewb

IMO 3 wont take you seriously until you call to actually cancel. Until then your just talking to customer care staff, they don't have the power nor the desire to keep you joined up to 3 and wont care if you leave, they'll still get paid either way. If you talk to the retentions people its in their best interest and they would be more willing to try to do things to help.

Or just try phones4u or a third party, I got offered a deal which was perfect for me, (turned down on credit check ) I have not yet seen an offer as good anywhere and this was a month ago. I'd ask other providers what they can offer first before assuming what you read is the end of the story.

kebabkiller

Well an update to this is have managed to get a bloody good deal from 3. I managed to get the Galaxy Nexus on the one plan for £27 per month, with £10 upfront fee. They also waived the early upgrade fee as well.

It took a while an after 45 mins on the phone with them and asking quite a few time for my pac code, they seemed to just bend and give me what i wanted. I think the tipping point was me saying let me just get my credit card to pay the termination fee, that seemed to grab their attention and resulted in me being passed from their usual crappy indian call centre through to retentions in scotland.

Moral of the story is be persistent and be prepared to cancel and go elsewhere,

On a side note don't bother trying to upgrade instore they have no authority to change prices and usually they are pretty rubbish.