Upgrading With Three. Same Price As Taking New Contract?

Lady_of_D

I've had a HTC Desire with 3 for 24 months and I'm due an upgrade.

After a few weeks of checking out phones, I've decided on the Samsung Galaxy SIII.

As an existing customer with 3 I thought I would get a better deal than a new customer but the prices seem the same?

Would I get a better deal if I phoned or went instore?

Alternatively, maybe there are better deals on other networks out there. Ideally I'm looking for about 500-ish minutes, 1000ish texts and unlimited internet.

Advice is much appreciated!

npreece

Three have given me good deals in the past if you threaten to leave on the phone, but honestly in store they have been useless for me. The only thing they could do was add 50 extra minutes to my contract.

I would advise you to research offers on other networks and use those to persuade Three to beat them. Unfortunately they won't match or beat third party sites.

mije1983

Have you had a look at the tool here on this site?

Clicky

Lady_of_D

That tool isn't quite relative as my main question was asking if anyone had experience dealing with Three Retentions and getting a better deal if you're upgrading rather than a new customer.

I'm definitely NOT interested in using Third Party sites such as e2save. Personal experience is all. Thanks anyway.

J-Mac

Lady_of_D wrote: »

I'm definitely NOT interested in using Third Party sites such as e2save. Personal experience is all. Thanks anyway.

Apologies for hijacking your thread, but I just wanted to know what your experience of these small brokers was?

I'm currently in the process of upgrading and I'm tempted by some of the offers I'm seeing from brokers such as e2save.

jbainbridge

Lady_of_D wrote: »

That tool isn't quite relative as my main question was asking if anyone had experience dealing with Three Retentions and getting a better deal if you're upgrading rather than a new customer.

I'm definitely NOT interested in using Third Party sites such as e2save. Personal experience is all. Thanks anyway.

Have a read of the "3 Retentions Deals" thread.

mije1983

Lady_of_D wrote: »

That tool isn't quite relative as my main question

Not your main question no (I have no recent experience with 3), however you did ask about other networks in your final paragraph

tissot

3 used to give good offers when renewing the contract, but now it is very hard to get any decent offer unless you are a big spender. You are very likely to get the same (or may be just slightly better deal) than new customers are getting especially if you are after a good handset. You can try to bargain with 3 by giving them 30 day leaving the network notice and asking for PAC code - hoping that they will try to keep you and offering you good deal. But they are very 'hard sale oriented' so it may be difficult.

You can have 2 options in this case. Affordablemobiles (or some other 3rd party companies) are have good offers for S G III, check out hotukdeals.co.uk for that offers. You can also get a new contract directly with 3 using quidco or other cashback site - in this case it may be about $50-60 cheaper (http://www.quidco.com/three/).

If you want to keep your existing 3 number and use it on your new 3 contract, just use the PAC code to transfer your number to another network, simply get any PAYG card from EE, o2 etc within 30-day notice period, then ask for your new provider for a PAC code and give this new PAC to 3. It may take several days.

It is also the problem to cancel the contract on 3 as they will be trying hard by offering you various crap deals and telling you some lies that 3 is the best, and all other networks are rubbish, that leaving 3 will be the biggest mistake of your life and other stories:) people complain that it takes at least 30 min, but be firm and even rude to get it sorted out quickly:)

misiek404

Like above post, I think you are in much better negotiating position if you are big spender.

MarkBargain

Phone on 333 and follow the options to say you want to leave, then see what they offer.

The 3 retentions thread is worth a read: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/713243

A couple of years back they did me a £5-a-month SIM only deal (300 minutes or texts, 3000 3-to-3 minutes, 2.5GB data) and I've stuck with that since.