Astonishing phone offer! (Or is it?)

FJSRiDER

I've just been in my local Carphone Warehouse and they can offer me an NEC e616 phone on the 3 network for £4.99 a month with 500 cross network minuets and 100 texts a month!

Seems a reasonable deal. So what is the catch?

I currently have a Nokia 3310 on Virgin PAYG that I don't over use and only really want to make and receive phone calls.

durain

18 months minimum contract?

FJSRiDER

durain wrote:

18 months minimum contract?

No, I understand it is 12 months.

sabelu

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FJSRiDER

sabelu wrote:

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Thanks but having looked at the website I feel I'm being bamboozled - which the lad in CW today didn't make me feel.

I know very little about phones - which one do you think is a 'better' offer? I know £4.99 for 500 cross network minuets is what interests me. (Along with a bluetooth headset for driving....!)

italiastar

Sounds incredible! is the phone free? From what I've heard 3 have pretty poor customer services, but their deals are usually very good.

FJSRiDER

italiastar wrote:

Sounds incredible! is the phone free? From what I've heard 3 have pretty poor customer services, but their deals are usually very good.

I believe the phone is free - all there is to pay is £4.99 a month - apparently.

I'm not at all bothered about the 'services' (all of which cost!) other than making phone calls and sending and receiving the odd text - so I don't think I would be dealing with customer services much.

Paul_Varjak

Presumably it is a 'cashback' offer so you have to remember to claim your cashback (probably twice within the contract period).

And for how many months do you pay £4.99p? I guess remainder of contract period will be full price?!

FJSRiDER

Paul_Varjak wrote:

Presumably it is a 'cashback' offer so you have to remember to claim your cashback (probably twice within the contract period).

That is correct, I think the 6th and 12th month. I think it is normally £25/month. Do you think they expect people to forget?

Paul_Varjak wrote:

And for how many months do you pay £4.99p? I guess remainder of contract period will be full price?!

It is £4.99/month for the whole 12 months.

Woby_Tide

it'll be one of the many offers like on the grabbit boards. The £4.99 is an 'average' cost over the contract. Moszt of the deals are something like 1/2 price rental for first 3 months or so then you pay the full monthly tarrif i.e. £25/£30 for remaining months, at month 6 and 6 though you'll be able to claim cashback thereby making it £4.99 per month relative cost for the year. So bear in mind that you'll be paying the rental up front, i.e. £30 a month from month 6 through 12 until you get your money back, also the e616 is a fairly old model now so they are probably just shipping stock out as part of the deal. CPW's website doesn't even offer it, like another poster said e2save you can probably get a similar deal with a slightly newer phone. And e2save is CPW at the end o fthe day anyway

Woby_Tide

FJSRiDER wrote:

That is correct, I think the 6th and 12th month. I think it is normally £25/month. Do you think they expect people to forget?

Thats what they hope, or that you lose the claim documentation you need or that you miss the 'windows' for claiming the cashback, it's the sad downside of what are technically very good deals. OneStopPhoneShop were notorious for using every tactic possible to avoid paying a cashback by punishing people who failed to follow their terms exactly.