Orange Blackberry Upgrade Offer - Am I Unrealistic/Avaricious?

Venusflytrap

My contract ends early July so I called Orange on Friday (3rd attempt as previous two weren't very successful) to renegotiate and finally got offered:

400 mins
300 texts
unlimited landline calls
250 MB internet
Blackberry curve 9360 - but i have to pay £80 towards phone
Inclusive of BBM services
£15 per month on 18 month contract.

I have looked at other options like buying the phone outright (costs between £200-£250) and getting a BB SIM only plan (looked at GiffGaff, Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone) but Orange's offer still works out cheaper over 18 months.

The agent was very helpful in saying that I should hold off committing now and if the phone's price goes down in the next few weeks then I may be able to get the same offer (or better) and the phone for free or half price (£40).

I am currently on a £25 monthly plan which I have gotten discounted to £10 (for the last 36 months) and while my contract ends in July, the loyalty discount stays on till end of Sept, so not looking to go up by too much (gotten used to the loyalty treatment ).

What do you guys reckon? Any other way to get a BBM for free for £15 per month or even better? Or am I drunk in la-la land?

OneADay

You can get it cheaper with cashback deals and its a crap phone (battery life nothing great, camera average or below).
Maps ok with right signal but pretty boring - prefer good large touchscreen.

Venusflytrap

OneADay wrote: »

You can get it cheaper with cashback deals and its a crap phone (battery life nothing great, camera average or below).
Maps ok with right signal but pretty boring - prefer good large touchscreen.

I had a look on quidco but no decent cashback deals. Anything else you can recommend?

Yes, my husband who is a light user has the BB and I did notice that the battery seems to be gone in 1.5 days. So...what would you recommend in terms of a good and reliable (battery life, functionality, hardware and expandable software) but affordable smart phone? I am not remotely interested in the iphone I have to say.

gjchester

Venusflytrap wrote: »

£15 per month on 18 month contract.

I am currently on a £25 monthly plan which I have gotten discounted to £10 (for the last 36 months)

What do you guys reckon? Any other way to get a BBM for free for £15 per month or even better? Or am I drunk in la-la land?

Loyalty these days is measured by your spend not time with network.

At £15 a month the network is probably not making much on you so you'll not get any great deals.

You proalby need to decide do you want a cheap contract or a newer smartphone as I doubt you'll get both without a up front fee. Given the phone goes for around £200 your getting £120 off the phone over PAYG.

Question is does PAYG work out better, PAYG would be £200 =(£10 x 18 on gg with a goody bag) = £380 Vs £350 on this contract.

Thats only a small difference to be tied in for 18 months.

Venusflytrap

You've raised valid points gjchester, also the issue of the phone's battery life being below par (which OneADay mentioned).

Things I need in a (smart) phone right now are:

1. Reliable internet access for emails, maps, skype (for free/cheap calls), WIFI support and overall web browsing.
2. Quality hardware and intelligent software (easy to set up, personalise, upgrade, apps support and good phone security features and password protection). I guess this is determined by the OS which I would prefer to be as encompassing and least fiddly as possible.
3. Strong battery life (at least 3-4 days with medium use) as my current one (Sony Ericsson Elm) only requires a weekly charge though I only call and text with it.

The Blackberry seemed attractive because of the BB services one of which gives access to BBM and emails which would be a benefit contacting family abroad for free.

I am also considering buying my own phone outright and then adding a SIM only bundle like the ones GiffGaff offer. The key thing is finding the right phone (for me) as well as comparing the savings of going it alone vs being tied down to a network for 18+ months.

Any ideas for reliable smart phones?

OneADay

Venusflytrap wrote: »

I had a look on quidco but no decent cashback deals. Anything else you can recommend?

Yes, my husband who is a light user has the BB and I did notice that the battery seems to be gone in 1.5 days. So...what would you recommend in terms of a good and reliable (battery life, functionality, hardware and expandable software) but affordable smart phone? I am not remotely interested in the iphone I have to say.

The BB 8520 is pretty good for battery - lots of browsing and it just goes on and on. The 9360, they seem to have gone wrong by plugging lots of things on it but forgetting the battery. The keypad was worse on 9360 for me than on 8520. The only thing it has over 8520 is 3g and wifi, gps and slightly better camera.
I prefer the 8520 to 9360 even with lower spec.

If looking for something perfect, I would probably want one of the Samsung Galaxy phones, S2 or S3 but never had one so can't comment on how good or bad they are. But going by the battery on an old samsung tocco lite, the samsung phones are better for battery.

Venusflytrap

OneADay wrote: »

The only thing it has over 8520 is 3g and wifi, gps and slightly better camera.

WIFI is a must (for me) for free web access when i'm abroad.

If looking for something perfect

Not looking for one; just a good phone that ticks the key boxes I mentioned.

Thanks for your pointers.

OneADay

Venusflytrap wrote: »

WIFI is a must (for me) for free web access when i'm abroad.

Tell a lie, the 8520 does have wifi, still just too old to be getting one new as an upgrade :eek:.

Oh and if you are willing to switch network, O2 offer the iphone 3gs for around £18-£21 and you get some quidco with that last time I looked. Tell that to Orange and gt them to give you the iphone 3gs.

Venusflytrap

OneADay wrote: »

Tell a lie, the 8520 does have wifi, still just too old to be getting one new as an upgrade :eek:.

Oh and if you are willing to switch network, O2 offer the iphone 3gs for around £18-£21 and you get some quidco with that last time I looked. Tell that to Orange and gt them to give you the iphone 3gs.

I went off to have a look at other options:

1. Buying phone outright - my budget is circa £200 but most decent smart phones are miles away from this.
2. SIM only plan - in addition to (1), don't get much for around £10-£15 per month.
3. Going the way of GiffGaff - perhaps keep my simple Sony Ericsson Elm and get the £10 goody bag. But just checked GG reviews which overall are not encouraging: network down for days/weeks leaving customers unable to make or receive calls/messages. Also CS seems to be lacking.
4. Sticking with Orange - negotiate a SIM only plan using my old phone. Two problems i've found so far - these plans do not include free access to voice msgs and the plan i'm interested in for £7.50 per month doesn't include landline calls.

Seems that there is more research still to be done...

kingcog

Venusflytrap wrote: »

I went off to have a look at other options:

1. Buying phone outright - my budget is circa £200 but most decent smart phones are miles away from this.
2. SIM only plan - in addition to (1), don't get much for around £10-£15 per month.
3. Going the way of GiffGaff - perhaps keep my simple Sony Ericsson Elm and get the £10 goody bag. But just checked GG reviews which overall are not encouraging: network down for days/weeks leaving customers unable to make or receive calls/messages. Also CS seems to be lacking.
4. Sticking with Orange - negotiate a SIM only plan using my old phone. Two problems i've found so far - these plans do not include free access to voice msgs and the plan i'm interested in for £7.50 per month doesn't include landline calls.

Seems that there is more research still to be done...

I was in a similar position with Orange and wasn't getting anywhere, so moved network to Vodafone as there were some discounted tariffs plus great cashback deals on top for SIM only and also there is no extra charge for voicemail or email unlike Orange. I like my current phone which is in good nick still and now I have 900 x-net / unltd texts / 1GB data / free Voda calls for just over a tenner a month.

Venusflytrap

Me again:

Still trying to secure a good deal (with Orange) and happened upon a Quidco cashback offer:

Up to £60 cashback when a 12 month Orange SIMO plan of £7/month is purchased via the site. However it says that upgrades will not get the cashback - i'm not understanding this: As i'm looking to 'switch' my current 18 month Orange contract for a SIMO, is this considered as an upgrade too?

Wouldn't want to lose out on the cashback which will effectively make the SIMO contract roughly £2.83 per month.

Thanks