3 Retention Deals

Bogof_Babe

I have a £13 a month contract, with unlimited data and more than enough other stuff, that finishes next month. I couldn't get on with the Samsung phone that came with the deal (was too small) so I sold that 'as new' privately and bought from 3 a Nokia keyboard phone.

However I don't much like the Nokia (it is now a second phone as I also have an iPhone, also on 3 contract), so was thinking of keeping the £13 contract running and buying a different unlocked phone (not sure what yet) to put the sim in.

However a bit of googling would seem to indicate that I have to buy a new phone from 3 if I want to continue to use data, as 3 uses some sort of coding that means non-3 phones won't be any good for Internet access.

Seems too cheap a contract not to continue even if I hardly ever use it, but must I buy a replacement phone from 3? (Or continue with the Nokia that I'm not keen on?)

cifpower

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

I have a £13 a month contract, with unlimited data and more than enough other stuff, that finishes next month. I couldn't get on with the Samsung phone that came with the deal (was too small) so I sold that 'as new' privately and bought from 3 a Nokia keyboard phone.

However I don't much like the Nokia (it is now a second phone as I also have an iPhone, also on 3 contract), so was thinking of keeping the £13 contract running and buying a different unlocked phone (not sure what yet) to put the sim in.

However a bit of googling would seem to indicate that I have to buy a new phone from 3 if I want to continue to use data, as 3 uses some sort of coding that means non-3 phones won't be any good for Internet access.

Seems too cheap a contract not to continue even if I hardly ever use it, but must I buy a replacement phone from 3? (Or continue with the Nokia that I'm not keen on?)

No. Any phone will work with a 3 contract. You'll just have to set up the data settings

http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBISAPI.DLL?Command=New,Kb=Mobile,Ts=Mobile,T=Article,varset_cat=payasyougo,varset_subcat=4125,Case=obj%284091%29

Bogof_Babe

Thanks cifpower. Think I can cope with that .

However I've just had another thought... I've also got mobile broadband on contract with 3, and the Huawei wifi thingy they sold me has started to play up occasionally (lost connections etc.), so the other day I bought a replacement one from Amazon. I haven't swapped my sim into it yet, as sod's law the old one has been behaving since it arrived.

Just thinking now though, will I have a similar situation when I want to start using a non-3 mobile wifi 'dongle' (not sure what the ones that don't connect through a USB port are called)? Or will the 3 sim (I've checked and it is the same size) just pop in and work straight away?


ETA: And another thing - on the 3 website there doesn't seem to be any indication of a price for just buying the phone, although I suppose the PAYG options would cover this?

davethorp

madonion wrote: »

I upgraded from a blackberry so I was told that although I'll be keeping the same number I would need a new micro sim card for the iphone.

If you have a 3store near you pop into one of them and they should be able to sort you out with a correctly sized sim card

madonion

Thanks but they told me over the phone that I would need photo id to do that which I don't have so it looks like I'll just need to wait the 5 days.

KTF

madonion wrote: »

Thanks but they told me over the phone that I would need photo id to do that which I don't have so it looks like I'll just need to wait the 5 days.

That is absolute rubbish. You can do a SIM swap by going to a store, they just pull up your account details from the system to confirm who you are.

ZhugeEX

madonion wrote: »

quite disappointed that they refused to give me a deal despite me having been a customer for six years.

I would be interested to know if anyone else has managed to get a better deal from them on the iphone.

All you have to do is look at this thread. The last 50 pages span over 4 years. Where as the 50 pages before that span over 1 year.

It's clear by looking at this thread and other retention threads that loyalty is not rewarded as much as it was in the past. Networks no longer undercut competitors anymore or have amazing loyalty deals.

Yes retention deals still exist but not to the extent they used to.

soullessfire

Called Three a couple of times as I'm due for an upgrade. Was offered a couple of low end phones which I didn't want. All the deals offered to me were deals already available to new customers.

I even tried haggling a bit on reducing minutes to increase data - nothing. They're more than happy to throw in all you can eat minutes and texts or 3 to 3 minutes, but data wasn't moving. I use 0-10 minutes a month and maybe 10-50 texts a month so it was really a pointless waste of 2 hours of my life.

Ended up really getting fed up of hearing the operators opinions on deals I mentioned with other providers and just cancelled.

More than a little miffed that after 2 years with them on phone and 7 years on broadband that they wouldn't be remotely flexible.

Oh well, I guess there are plenty of companies out there.

soullessfire

Sorry, double post...

chris_yo

ZhugeEX wrote: »

It's clear by looking at this thread and other retention threads that loyalty is not rewarded as much as it was in the past. Networks no longer undercut competitors anymore or have amazing loyalty deals.

Yes retention deals still exist but not to the extent they used to.

The point of a retention deal was to maximise profit by giving an upfront "deal" to someone in exchange for long term profits. It is only worth it for the company if the customer is profitable and not likely to demand a new deal in 12 months time. But customers who are careful with money, and demand the best deal repeatedly, are less likely to return profits over the long term, so you won't get a deal.

The mobile market has changed significantly in the last few years. Many contract users would save money by ditching their contract and switching to PAYG 321, and just buying a new phone outright when they need one. Lots of consumers have already switched. The days of the British people overpaying £5 billion a year on contract deals are rightfully coming to an end.