Vodafone - cutting contract costs

ti1980

I have been with Vodafone for a few years now and have always been on 12 month contracts.
I seem to upgrade every year to a better phone but it always takes me a while to get used to the new phone and I often wondered why I bothered upgrading.

Anyway, my current Vodafone contract had just ended so I knew I could get an upgrade but I wasn't really bothered about having one. I have a Nokia 6600 and am pretty happy with it. The only features I use on the phone are to make calls and to text. The initial thrill of having my 1st camera phone wore off pretty quickly!

From the last time I got an upgrade, I got my text bundle for free so I was paying £30 a month for 200 cross network mins and 500 texts.

As advised on this site, I called up Vodafone and said I wanted to leave but I wanted to keep my number. The 1st time I did this, the girl on the phone gave me my PAC code straight away and didn't offer me anything.

I waited until my PAC code expired and then rang them up again. This time I got a really helpful guy who asked if he could persuade me to stay with them, I said what could he offer me.

He offered me various deals with more mins and less texts and also 'Stop the Clock' tariffs but I text much more than I phone so I said I want to keep my texts and wasn't bothered about the mins and 'Stop the Clock wouldn't benefit me. He asked me if I wanted a new phone, I said it would be nice but I'm not overly bothered.

Then he said instead of a new phone I could have a reduction of my price plan. I ummed and arred about it and then he said I could have a basic model phone, and use that as a spare phone.
I agreed to this so now I have kept my Nokia 6600, and got a spare handset which is the Nokia 1100, kept my 200 cross network mins and my 500 texts and I'm now going to be paying £19.99 a month instead of £29.99.
If I hadn't phoned them I would still be paying an extra £10 a month.

Sorry for the long post but I just wanted to explain it for anyone else trying it and say thank you to the people who post on here as if it wasn't for this site, I don't think I would have ever phoned them up to barter with them.

To sum it up, don't take the 1st answer you get, bargain as much as you can and good luck! :j

sc0use

nice post but if you would of got 1 of the top of the range mobiles (free) you could of sold that 4 around £200 i know what i would of done

ti1980

I know I could have got a new phone but even though I would have been 'paying' for the free phone via my contract, I would feel really bad about selling the phone that I effectively got for free.
At least this way, I still got my saving and I will be saving close to £200 for the duration of the contract if I include the £120 I save from the reduction I got and also the VAT costs.
I still have a brand new Nokia 1100 which I could sell but I won't anyway. They can't command very much can they?

Darren21

Phone companies make enough money out of people and are more than happy to screw you if you let them! You certainly can't feel bad about selling a phone you've paid for (It's not free that's just the marketing strategy - you pay for it in the line rental!)

punamulta

i'm only on the £16 a month off peak tarrif so had to take it to the wire and actually cancel to get the nokia 9300 i wanted for £80. voda rang as soon as they got the email asking what could they do to keep me. and what deals had i seen , they then beat the 02 offer on the nokia and on just a 12 month contract.

just got to find the gps software etc now.

ti1980

Darren21, I think you misunderstand me. I wouldn't have felt like I had done something bad to Vodafone for selling the phone, its more the person I sold it to.

At the end of the day I do still have a new phone, which I could get some money back for if I wanted but I wouldn't mind keeping it as a back up. I mean, how much would someone pay for the Nokia 1100, not a lot I expect.

ti1980

Every year that I have upgraded I have managed to get a deal that really suits me.

A few years ago I used to make much more calls than now and much fewer texts, now it is the other way round.

Maybe next year I will find a phone that I actually really like and then I will make sure I don't pay a penny on it as an upgrade!