Three "upgrade" more expensive than a new package...

Regshoe

Firstly my apologies, I suspect that this is a question that has been asked many times before, but I couldn't find anything from searching the forum.

I'm just coming to the end of a 24 month contract with Three and I looked at the upgrades available through their site. For an S3 on their "Oneplan" they wanted £29 a month, exact same deal is available through various resellers (Buymobilephone.net etc) for £27. Tried calling Three to see if they could match the price and save having to mess about, but they didn't seem interested and only offered things like Three to Three minutes - I barely use a fraction of what I have for cross network minutes, so largely pointless (main reason I have a relatively expensive plan is for the high data usage and option to tether).

To add insult to injury Three were going to charge me £4.99 for delivery, whereas Buymobilephone.net are giving me free delivery (all being well on a Saturday too).

What irritates me the most is the person I called at Three appeared to by lying about the resellers not selling the same deal and that their "unlimited" data was not really "unlimited" even though I bought my last package in exactly this way and got a clearly identical Three package to what I would have got had I gone direct. I was almost tempted to just "Upgrade" and swallow the £2 increase (albeit £48 over the two years), but after the rubbish the Three operator was spouting (in an almost ineligible accent) coupled with the delivery charge and the fact that the Buymobilephone.net operator was very helpful I've gone with their deal.

It seems like they try to get you by not allowing you to easily transfer your number from one Three contract to another - so I'll be using a free Tesco SIM as an intermediary to make the transfer. It will probably add a day or two onto the offer, plus by buying a new package whilst my old one is still going I will be paying for a partial overlap (to ensure that I have plenty of time to port numbers and then cancel the old contract). Even so I will still be £30-40 up and have the warm sense of satisfaction that instead of gouging an extra £50+ from me Three will be presumably be paying fees to another company (with who i had the better customer experience).

So why stay with Three given the above? Well for my requirements they offer the best value for what I want and frankly I don't expect any of the operators are much different in their approach.

Anyone else had a similar experience with Three, or other operators?

ZhugeEX

Regshoe wrote: »

So why stay with Three given the above? Well for my requirements they offer the best value for what I want and frankly I don't expect any of the operators are much different in their approach.

Anyone else had a similar experience with Three, or other operators?

Agree, there is no real incentive to stay with any one provider/upgrade at standard price any more. Even if they did offer it to you at a lower price you still might be able to get a better deal elsewhere.

Customer loyalty isn't rewarded anymore, and to be honest it's our fault for switching every year/couple of years.

The number porting thing is standard. And i'm guessing the reason Three wouldn't budge on price is because they know they do the only plan with unl data + tethering. Therefore giving them no reason to.

Cycrow

3rd parties can often do cheaper deals than the networks themselves because they dont have the costs to run the actual network. They also source thier handsets differently and can cut the costs that way. They also get commission from the networks for signing up contracts and sometimes use that to reduce the prices.

if you want to compare your upgrade, then you will need to look at what three themselves will sell a new contract at.

networks generally do not sell their new contracts cheaper than upgrades.

Remember if you get it via the 3rd party and you have any problems, its with them you have to sort it out

Frozen_up_north

The networks love customers to upgrade, they get you hooked for up to two more years. Customers needing a new battery have been sold an upgrade and also those who came to the end of a contract being sold one too.

Why not ask customer service to put you onto the £18 per month "SIM only" One Plan? Keep your current phone for a while and see what happens in the market place.

IMO you are generally better off with the flexibility of owning your handset and having a 30 day SIM.

octavian

Cycrow wrote: »

3rd parties can often do cheaper deals than the networks themselves because they dont have the costs to run the actual network. They also source thier handsets differently and can cut the costs that way. They also get commission from the networks for signing up contracts and sometimes use that to reduce the prices.

if you want to compare your upgrade, then you will need to look at what three themselves will sell a new contract at.

networks generally do not sell their new contracts cheaper than upgrades.

Remember if you get it via the 3rd party and you have any problems, its with them you have to sort it out

Hi, I've been considering moving to Three from T-Mobile. The main reason being that my reception at home is really bad. I read that if you have reception problems then Three may offer a device which emulates a mobile mast and connects to your broadband (femtocell?).
Does anybody know if they will provide this if you buy your contract from a reseller rather than directly from Three?
(PS sorry for hijacking your thread.)
Thanks, Octavian

Celli

I had a similar experience with T Mobile, they were offering an Iphone 5 to new customers for £99 and £27 pm on a 24 m contract, 500 minuets , unlimited text and unlimited download, same deal to exsisting customers was £199 upfront and £44 per month.
When I phoned they weren't interested in matching the new customer deal, so I cancelled my contract, waited 30 days, and joined back up as a new customer and got the £99 Iphone.

Orrin

I've never been able to get as good a deal as an existing customer than I could as a new one, but then I'm neither a heavy user nor someone who is happy to pay £40+ per month just to get the latest handset.