Three retentions

harz99

Just a heads up, I recently spent 40 odd minutes on the phone with three trying the old can I have a PAC number game to get a better sim only deal than currently.


Upshot being, all they would offer is the deals currently available to new customers, no sweeteners for loyalty.


May save anyone having to decipher Indian English for a lengthy call to no avail. Lol.


Of course if you really are moving away, please accept my sympathies in having to deal with offshore CS.

pmduk

The only way to deal with Three retentions is to continually say please give me my PAC.

tommygirl3

Agree, been with Three for over 10 years on and off. I ported over to iD Mobile on 11 Jan. Had the half hour call with the retentions team at Three in Dec, before they put me through to the disconnections team for my PAC. The deals offered at the retentions team were the same as what's on their website. However the disconnection team was able to offer me for £7/mth 12 months contract unlimited minutes/unlimited texts & 4Gb.


I was so livid by the way I was spoken to at the retention stage, I just asked for my PAC. I rarely use my phone for calls (averaging 15-20mins a month), use around 500mb of data and no texts. So iD Mobile is still a cheaper deal at £5 for 250mins/5k text/2.25Gb, without changing my phone usage habit.


By the by, iD Mobile is part of Carphonewarehouse and piggyback off the Three network. I've found no change in service on a day to day basis - same signal strength and marginally faster download speed while commuting to work on the train.

Raxiel

I called them earlier in the month to request my PAC, although at the time I actually was intending to use it.

After much "we're so great full for your custom" and two reps, they did agree to send it, after offering me the 'best' deal they could at the time.

The deal they offered was good enough to make me hold off and consider my options for a bit.
When I called them back a couple of weeks later to take them up on it, I was told the offer they made me wasn't available any more, and they could only offer me something worse for the same cost or something better that was a little more expensive that I went with in the end.

So if you can't get a good deal out of them, try again week or so later as what's on offer seems to change frequently

For those interested:
I was on: Unlimited SMS, 200 Minutes (went over and got extra charges a few months), Unlimited 4G data (using 10-11GB a month on average) £17/m
I was considering: EE Unlimited SMS & Calls, and 15GB 4G data, £38/m for 24m with a Pixel 2 for 'free'
Three countered with: Unlimited SMS & Calls, and 30GB 4G data for £15/m for 12m
When I called back they could only offer 12GB for £15, or 100GB! for £20/m for 12m

I bought the handset outright and stuck it on a 24m 0% card, then went for the massive data allowance on three because I'll be shooting all my video in 4k and like my instant cloud backups, so I expect my usage will go up.

Richardflair

I read this thread first and called Three with little hope of a decent upgrade offer. I came out pleasantly surprised!

iPhone SE 24mth AYCE Everything plan came to an end mid-May. Called to cancel/be offered a deal to upgrade. Explained I was particularly interested in the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus. I was then offered the phone with unltd calls/texts and 30GB data for £56/month. I explained EE had the same deal for £48/month.

Two minutes later, I was offered £49/mth. The guy refused to budge from £49/mth as Three offers free data for Netflix, Snapchat, etc as well as the Wuntu app. He does have a point. My wife & I would use the discounted cinema/Dominos vouchers.

It seems that with some research, there are better deals available than on the website.

harz99

richardflair wrote: »

I read this thread first and called Three with little hope of a decent upgrade offer. I came out pleasantly surprised!

iPhone SE 24mth AYCE Everything plan came to an end mid-May. Called to cancel/be offered a deal to upgrade. Explained I was particularly interested in the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus. I was then offered the phone with unltd calls/texts and 30GB data for £56/month. I explained EE had the same deal for £48/month.

Two minutes later, I was offered £49/mth. The guy refused to budge from £49/mth as Three offers free data for Netflix, Snapchat, etc as well as the Wuntu app. He does have a point. My wife & I would use the discounted cinema/Dominos vouchers.

It seems that with some research, there are better deals available than on the website.

I would think the difference in your case is that you were wiling to throw a substantial amount of dosh at them for a new phone, whereas the rest of us were looking to reduce our sim only plan costs and give them less not more!

matty_b

@richardflair, as @harz99 said, yes, you had success because you wanted to throw more money at them..

Likewise, I had a similar success, upgrading from legacy SIMO 600,Unltd,12gb advanced plan (£14)..

I wanted the S8, 64gb, but found a better offering on EE through a reseller (no upfront, £31 p/m + £20 auto-cashback) ... (Three were wanting 49 upfront + 38 p/m, as an upgrade rate)

Three immediately countered with unltd,unltd,12gb advanced plan,
No upfront, 28 p/m.

Deal was struck through upgrades, rather than retentions, on me rejecting the Three standard proposition for SIMO >> Handset, and telling them about the deal online in front of me

zaffi

matty_b wrote: »

@richardflair, as @harz99 said, yes, you had success because you wanted to throw more money at them..

Likewise, I had a similar success, upgrading from legacy SIMO 600,Unltd,12gb advanced plan (£14)..

I wanted the S8, 64gb, but found a better offering on EE through a reseller (no upfront, £31 p/m + £20 auto-cashback) ... (Three were wanting 49 upfront + 38 p/m, as an upgrade rate)

Three immediately countered with unltd,unltd,12gb advanced plan,
No upfront, 28 p/m.

Deal was struck through upgrades, rather than retentions, on me rejecting the Three standard proposition for SIMO >> Handset, and telling them about the deal online in front of me

I had the same SIMO plan as you and was able to get a decent deal, but it wasn't easy, then it was!

I spent almost an hour on the phone and we had agreed on S9, 30gb, no upfront cost for £40pm. Issue came from them not able/willing to deliver to a store.

Lots of back forth ended up with me requesting a pac code, they finally offered S9+ with same deal but still wouldn't budge on delivery.

Few days later I went into the store, told them what happened and 10 minutes later I had the S9+ on the same terms.

colinicky

Personally I have been on sim only with 3 for years since before the "One Plan" & have always had good CS from them & have always come away with good sim only deals. Talked to them a few weeks ago & came away with unlimited mins & texts with 30GB data all for £14 a month which was identical to my old 8gb plan !
guess I have been lucky

Frozen_up_north

I have only ever been SIM only, the SIM only deals with Three come and go, but generally the value for money gets better, especially for the 30/100GB data and unlimited call SIMs.



It has been said many times by those on here, by Martin himself and others too, that buying your phone separately and going SIM only gives you better value and more choice. Still there are those who just can't resist and say "I am due an upgrade" :rotfl:

pmduk

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

Still there are those who just can't resist and say "I am due an upgrade"

It's like saying I'm due to be mugged!