3 Retention Deals

laptop80

jebervic wrote: »

I got told today by a 3 customer service lady that OFCOM has said that all new handset upgrades have to be 24 months long, is this true?

It's a complete and utter lie.

The main reason that many contracts have grown to 24 months is because the handsets are more expensive and they need to spread the cost over a longer time period to subsidise them.

A lot of deals are still 18 months though, and some are still 12 months (e.g. quite a few of the more budget handsets on Tesco Mobile). All perfectly legally

It'd be quite ironic if you reported what the 3 customer service rep said about OFCOM to OFCOM. Don't think they'd be too impressed.

jebervic

laptop80 wrote: »

It's a complete and utter lie.

The main reason that many contracts have grown to 24 months is because the handsets are more expensive and they need to spread the cost over a longer time period to subsidise them.

A lot of deals are still 18 months though, and some are still 12 months (e.g. quite a few of the more budget handsets on Tesco Mobile). All perfectly legally

It'd be quite ironic if you reported what the 3 customer service rep said about OFCOM to OFCOM. Don't think they'd be too impressed.

I told the woman that it was lie (although I wasn't 100% sure) I took her name and she remained adamant that she was telling the truth, I said I would check the validity of her claim and speak to someone about this.

metaphase

Made a call to Three to see what they could do SIM-only offer-wise (just got an Orange San Francisco for my Mum & debranded/custom ROM'd it ) - got offered:

- £7/mo on a 12 month contract
- 300 mix/match texts
- 3000 3-to-3 minutes
- 2GB data

Seemed quite reasonable so took them up on it! Only downside was they could only make the tariff switch at the next billing date and the old one didn't include any internet bundle, so have had to wait until changeover day until that becomes active. Tried to get them to provide an internet bundle for a week or two, but said they couldn't do that.

MarkBargain

My Mum phoned them yesterday, chose the menu option for cancellations and said she would leave unless they could offer her a deal for £5. They agreed and for her money gave her the following SIM-only deal on a 12-month contract:

- 500 minutes or texts;
- 5000 3-to-3 minutes;
- 2GB internet.

metaphase

Nice job, MarkBargain's Mum! Looks like I could have pushed them a bit harder, but just shows the sort of discounts available for SIM only retention! (although still rather proud of my own T-Mobile deal - 300min/300texts/3GB internet/unlimited landline calls/free WiFi hotspot access (T-Mobile and 300 min/month of BT Openzone) - all at £5/month for 24 months - given they've just reduced those renewing contracts to 500MB I'm pretty pleased I locked it in for longer!)

seon899

I was offered the following when I called to find out my contract end date (I have about 3 months left):

- 500 mix & match
- 2gb internet
- 12 month sim only "flexible contract"
- can start on the next billing date (i.e. finish current contract 2 months early)
- £8/mth

Do you guys think this is a good deal? Does the "flexible contract" allow you to cancel without penalty? Really I don't need so many minutes or internet, but he said he couldn't offer me a smaller package. Wonder if I should wait until I'm in my last month.

MarkBargain

seon899 wrote: »

I was offered the following when I called to find out my contract end date (I have about 3 months left):

- 500 mix & match
- 2gb internet
- 12 month sim only "flexible contract"
- can start on the next billing date (i.e. finish current contract 2 months early)
- £8/mth

Do you guys think this is a good deal? Does the "flexible contract" allow you to cancel without penalty? Really I don't need so many minutes or internet, but he said he couldn't offer me a smaller package. Wonder if I should wait until I'm in my last month.

If you could cancel without penalty it would be a 1-month contract, so I guess you can't leave within the 12-months. I think £8 for what they are offering is a good deal, but it should be possible to get it for £5 (with some 3-to-3 minutes thrown in) if you haggle when you're in or approaching your last month. Good luck.

laptop80

seon899 wrote: »

I was offered the following when I called to find out my contract end date (I have about 3 months left):

- 500 mix & match
- 2gb internet
- 12 month sim only "flexible contract"
- can start on the next billing date (i.e. finish current contract 2 months early)
- £8/mth

Do you guys think this is a good deal? Does the "flexible contract" allow you to cancel without penalty? Really I don't need so many minutes or internet, but he said he couldn't offer me a smaller package. Wonder if I should wait until I'm in my last month.

Sounds OK - much better than the standard £10 contract I was most recently offered. After the initial offer of £25/month for a Desire HD they've offered me nothing at all apart from their regular deals on the website.

After a few frustrating calls with their retentions people I've totally lost patience with them - their call centre operatives have absolutely no hesitation about lieing to you and could patronise for India.

Gave them the opportunity to match a deal on the Dial a Phone site for the *regular* Desire (£15/month + £60 for the phone) and they said the best they can do is £25/month, that Dial a Phone were con artists (though I don't think he'd actually heard of them) and that only 3 can offer enough data for a smartphone. Hear that everyone? If you're not on 3 you can't use a smartphone without going over your data allowance - it's not possible.

I resisted the temptation to tell him where to stick his offer and have now gone with the Dial a Phone deal.

Good luck if you're going to negotiate with them - I think it's very much dependent on who you get. I'd been with them for years, never missed a payment, never had any discounts previously and hardly used any of my minutes, texts or data, so pretty much the ideal customer I'd have thought. Guess not.

apf666

was on 500 mix and match with 300 3 to to 3 mins at £10.50 p/m, just called to give notice to cancel and offered following sim only to start from next billing date of 20th

500 mix and match

5000 3 to 3 calls

2gb internet

£5.00 p/m on flexible 12 month contract

quite pleased with this as i did not need a new phone

:beer:

starM

Hi, I'm on Mix & Match 500 and paying £5.50 pcm. My contract will be over on 20/04/11. I have rang them and they cannot offer me anything - asked if their are any sim only offers - said the most they can do 600 minutes at £15 pcm. My current package excludes internet. I would have been happy if they would have applied 2gb of internet to the account.

Has anyone else been on £5.50 line rental and been offered anything?

MS