Yours but....only if you pay extra

50Twuncle

Could someone please explain how mobile phone companies get away with selling you a full price phone (PAYG) - then try to charge you extra (£20+) for removing their restrictive software from it - to make it SIM free ?

This is like you spending £20,000 on a new Vauxhall Insignia and trying to fill it with fuel at your local Ford petrol station and finding that unless you pay Vauxhall an additional £20 - to unblock the filler pipe - it won't run........ (unless a local mechanic can "bodge" it for £5).........

OneADay

Because most people who buy the phones are willing to pay for them and keep the software as is.

You do not need to remove the software if you change network generally. If the phone is locked then it will need to be unlocked but the software will continue working with settings for the new network.

DUTR

21Twinkle wrote: »

Could someone please explain how mobile phone companies get away with selling you a full price phone (PAYG) - then try to charge you extra (£20+) for removing their restrictive software from it - to make it SIM free ?

This is like you spending £20,000 on a new Vauxhall Insignia and trying to fill it with fuel at your local Ford petrol station and finding that unless you pay Vauxhall an additional £20 - to unblock the filler pipe - it won't run........ (unless a local mechanic can "bodge" it for £5).........

You maybe confused a little with the goings on, the PAYG handset is subsidised by the network and hence often sim locked, you are paying to sim unlock the handset, if you want a sim free handset then buy a sim free handset. :cool:

Buzby

PAYG is STILL a subsidised handset, hence the SIM lock and customisation. To be completely free, you need to purchase a SIM-Free handset, and you can then have a vanilla firmware phone and choose to add on's to store on your handset, rather than your network decide.

grumbler

21Twinkle wrote: »

Could someone please explain how mobile phone companies get away with selling you a full price phone (PAYG) - then try to charge you extra (£20+) for removing their restrictive software from it - to make it SIM free ?

In fact PAYG costs often (usually?) less than sim-free.

Fifer

21Twinkle wrote: »

Could someone please explain how mobile phone companies get away with selling you a full price phone (PAYG) - then try to charge you extra (£20+) for removing their restrictive software from it - to make it SIM free ?

This is like you spending £20,000 on a new Vauxhall Insignia and trying to fill it with fuel at your local Ford petrol station and finding that unless you pay Vauxhall an additional £20 - to unblock the filler pipe - it won't run........ (unless a local mechanic can "bodge" it for £5).........

I think a more accurate analogy would be buying a Vauxhall Insignia and then expecting the Vauxhall dealer to remove all the Vauxhall badges for free. Try it.