3 Retention Deals

Hermann

loz_the_guru wrote: »

Firstly, is my deal as good as im likely to get? Or should I try to beat them down even further?

Secondly, i'd quite like a second simcard with an identical offer on it. What are my chances of getting this deal twice?

Some people do get offered the £5 deal but I guess it depends on previous spend and also cancelling and then leaving it till the last day.

I asked for a second deal but was told that Dept could only deal with existing accounts and couldn't do anything new. Always worth asking though.

gromituk

Well done Hermann - you're quids in if you can stick to the inclusive minutes!

tappet_rattle

Got a call from retentions today telling me that I can have an upgrade(contract runs out in August). I told them the only phone I was interested in was the SE K850i. he offered to keep me on my present contract £12 a month for 500 mins and 100 texts and for a one off payment of £80 for the phone. Before I had chance to discuss it further the phone cut off and he never rang back, I think theymust have had a problem at their end as my wife was on the phone to them at also and she got cut off.

What do you think good deal? or could I get the phone for free?

Hermann

tappet_rattle wrote: »

What do you think good deal? or could I get the phone for free?

It depends on your previous spend but you should get a much better offer than that.

You won't get a good offer unless you actually phone up and give your thirty days notice (timed to match your end of contract). Also best to ask to revert to PAYG when contract ends.

You then need to refuse the initial offers they make. The best offer won't be available until the last day or two.

I'd be surprised if you didn't get the phone for free plus the 500/100 for £10 a month (or £5 if you've often gone over allowance in the past.)

In short .... cancel and wait until the last day .... that way you can be sure you got the best deal.

ali137

Hermann wrote: »

Just renewed and got the following ...

LG Viewty (Refurb)
500 Mins
100 texts

£5 a month for life (18 Month Min)

Was on 300 mins/1000 texts for £17.50 (18 month half price due to rise to £35)

Gave 30 day notice and also asked to go to PAYG.
Within a few days was offered Viewty/500mins/100texts for £10. Same deal offered over a week of calls which I refused then heard nothing.

On last day of contract I phoned 3 and asked for retentions to call me that day. They phoned back about an hour later and offered the deal for £5 which I took. Phone arrived next day.

I was over the £17.50 most months of the previous contract with one month being £90 odd :eek:
Situations changed now so hoping to keep in the allowance with the extra mins on this deal. Might go over by a few texts some months but should still be a worthwhile deal.

I am cuurently on the £17.50 line renle with 750mins, 50mms, 50 video, £5 downloads, etc and when i gave my 30 days notice after a couple of days they offered me £10 line rentle with 800mins, 4000 skpe calls but crap phones.

I told them today if they can provide me with a Nokia N95 silver referb or LG viewty refurb but the guy will not budge. My contract finishes on 12 August any tips to get a good phone and how did you manage to reduce the line rentle to £5??

planetf1

These deals are so difficult to predict.

I had a call from 3 about 2 1/2 months before end/contract. I had been paying £5 pcm for VT500 (combo of mix, minutes, downloads -- I forget). I don't go much over quota - only 2-8 ukp pcm, although I was paying a regular £ 5 pcm for Xseries
silver. That contract was without a phone - I opted to keep my existing one.

I nearly fell of my chair when they offered me to stay on this tariff for 18m, free viewty, or £30 for a N95 8Gb. I took the latter after spending quite a while checking the deal, but it's all worked out great.

I've had quite a few good deals from 3. I do wonder if some of it was time of year -- ie just before 1/2 year results or something. Or maybe it's because I've had contracts with them since a few months after they launched in the UK. But CS is good, service is good, price is good. Definately get my business over O2, Orange. (not used the otherss).

Oh and with an old SIM I can roam on O2, Orange, 3!

Hermann

ali137 wrote: »

I am cuurently on the £17.50 line renle with 750mins, 50mms, 50 video, £5 downloads, etc and when i gave my 30 days notice after a couple of days they offered me £10 line rentle with 800mins, 4000 skpe calls but crap phones.

I told them today if they can provide me with a Nokia N95 silver referb or LG viewty refurb but the guy will not budge. My contract finishes on 12 August any tips to get a good phone and how did you manage to reduce the line rentle to £5??

I was told there were no offers available to start with, then a different person called with an offer involving basic phones.
Then he phoned again with the £10 offer and said that was the best I could get and that there was no £5 offer available (I'd mentioned that other family members had a £5 deal ). Once I'd refused a couple of times he left me alone. On the last day I had to phone 3 as they hadn't called me back. I had the guys name and asked for him to call me back which he did about 20 mins later. He soon came up with a £5 deal as I "was such a valued customer".

From reading other posts in this thread (thanks to those that posted) I felt it was best to cancel then wait till the last day to see what was offered. After all you have nothing to lose by waiting.

So I guess the only tip I can give is refuse the early offers and speak to them on the last day.

A_Star

This may be a daft question but surely if you cancel and wait for the last day and they don't come up with something better then you loose your phone number if you need to change to a different provider?

I had a text a few days ago saying they would contact me within 2 weeks to offer me a new contract (current contract runs out October 13th)

s12s

A_Star wrote: »

I had a text a few days ago saying they would contact me within 2 weeks to offer me a new contract (current contract runs out October 13th)

I got that as well, then had a call from yet another company passing themselves off as 3! Asked straight out if they were 3 (knowing they were not because i now have a password with them) to be told yes they were and i had been specially selected by 3. I had no bother with these sorts of calls when i was with 3 through another company only since being with 3 direct. If they don't come up with the better end of the deals they have given to others I think i will go elsewhere. Mine is also up in October, would be good to know if you do get a call from 3 and what they offer

Hermann

A_Star wrote: »

This may be a daft question but surely if you cancel and wait for the last day and they don't come up with something better then you loose your phone number if you need to change to a different provider?

I had a text a few days ago saying they would contact me within 2 weeks to offer me a new contract (current contract runs out October 13th)

If you also ask for the number to go PAYG when you give the thirty days notice then you would keep the number if you didn't take the last minute deal. Of course you'd be stuck on PAYG until you organised the alternative and ported the number across (you'd need to check in advance that your new provider and 3 PAYG can port numbers to each other!)

You may also be able to extend your existing contract for one month on the last day of your notice period and then use that month to change providers, not ideal but get you out a hole if you find the offer really is no good.

I looked around the alternative providers and none had a deal that would have interested me. Even the poorer deal offered from 3 was better so if the deal hadn't got any better I could still have taken the £10 one.

I guess if other providers have a deal that would be a good alternative for you then leaving it to the last day could cause some issues, however cancelling and waiting a couple of weeks instead of leaving it to the last day should get you a better deal and still allow time to change providers if you wanted to.

I don't think you'll get the best deal unless you actually give your 30 day notice, how long you leave it after that depends on your own circumstances (ie how essential a continuous contract is to you) and whether other providers have any equivalent offers (unlikely once you get to the £5 / £10 offers with with a viewty, n95 or 850i etc).

I guess its a balance of the risk of a few days PAYG against saving a significant amount. Of course if your mobile is 'business/job critical' then saving a few quid might not be worth the hassle.