3 Retention Deals

the_tired_one

Spikey wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm on 3 at the moment with 1000 text and 300 x-net mins paying £15 a month.

Contract expires in a month and they have offered to keep me on the same plan for £19.

Can this be beaten?

Are there any better offers out there?

Some one please help me through this minefield.

TIA

Spikey

1st step would be to ring up and hand in your 30 day notice.

Then wait - if you keep rejecting their weekly offers when they call you to stay with them, eventually in the final week, they will give you something you wont be able to turn down.

If they dont - then you can chose to continue with your present deal, or look elsewhere.

Nothing to lose.

jebervic

Just got offered a very poor deal, £15 a month for 500 mins and a 100 texts, asked for a deal equivalent to last year,i.e. no upgrade 500 mins and 100 txts for about £5 a month after cashbacks and free line rental- they didn't want to know.

told them to accept 30 days notice and transfer the phone to PAYG

wbafanclub12

But no guarantees.

You can normally start the haggling procedure 2mts before end of contracts. There are tremendous offers out there, but for some reason not everybody gets these. However, there does appear to be a certain pattern developing to the people who do. The most important thing is not what everybody else has got, but what you are happy to be paying. There are people who have got £5.00 a month for 500min 100txt with cash back which means they pay nothing for the first 12mth of an 18mth contract but with no phone. I personally got it for £10.00 a month with n95 which I was more than happy with as I was paying £30 before. Some people get similar, and for some reason some people get offered worse deals than before.

So the first stage is to call up 333. You need to select the department that deals with you wanting to leave. This is where you make your first choice.
1. Say you want to leave and cancel your contract. or
2. Say you are moving to another network and need a PAC code. This is a code which lets you move your phone number to another network.

If you chose 1, you give a months notice and you are automatically cut off at the end of the month. If you chose 2, you have 28 days to move your number or your contract continues. Now personally, I would chose 2. The reason for this is that if your bluff is called your contract continues so you get another attempt at all this. Also, the people at three will also know that they have a limited time to get in contact with you because one you change you are very unlikely to go back to them.

Now this is where the fun starts. Try to enjoy the chat with them. They are polite and friendly normally, perhaps too much so. Normally at this point they will say they are sorry to see you going but they may have a 'deal' with you. This deal in my experience has been poor. It can be worse than deals you get off the website or it may be slightly better. Unless it is great just refuse. When they ask you why, say you are looking for something cheaper. Use 'Virgin' as a tool saying that they are offering you 300min and 300txt for £10.00. Now they have a choice. They can either offer you similar or just accept your notice or PAC request. The best I got at this stage was a sony ericcson k800i 200min and 100txt for £10.00. I refused but if this is good for you then take it. If you refuse they may offer you something else but eventually you will come to a time where you will agree a new contract or agree to cancel or PAC. Be prepared, you may hear some funny reasons why you should take the deal.
This is the time to sweat. I waited three days for my call back. Other people have waited 27 days and some people have not received it at all. The call will actually come from 3 but will be from a special department. Do not bother asking customer services for this or trying to find it through their phone system. They will not admit it exists. This is when the better deals will come and will normally take the following forms. £5.00 a month or £10.00 a month with phone 500min 100 text for life. You either accept or refuse. If you refuse you may get cash back as well but you may not and people have lost the offer completely. Even without the cashback you are left wondering how they are making a profit at all and it is rediculously less than what you could hope to get elsewhere.
I have already found the 3 customer services polite and respectful and normally helpful. Always chose to use the feedback option as I feel if they know you are using this they will try harder to help you. And, they are human, if they like you they are more likely to try and help you. Only natural.

Finally, you dont get the phone call, dont despair cos you can get great deals through the web site if you use quidco to get cashback(up to £70) combined with refer a friend (£30 each) . Before this go to website and speak to customer services on there and ask if they can give you a voucher code for freebies with the phone, i.e bluetooth headset, car charges etc. Still cheaper than other networks.

Anon

Stil getting poor offers, still not had "the call" (or rather, missed a call from them as they spoke to my wife - called them back many times and get on their held in a queue line - eventually thought I got through mid-week and someone picked up the phone and put it down ... on 3 occassions!).

It is definitely 3 as it has that nice young ladies voice and states that they recently called about an offer that I may be interested in and to hold for the next operator.

Getting fed up of waiting now - may just use my PAC and get a new deal elsehwere (I have had 4 successful cashback deals so far but realise that you have to watch them like a hawk - paying a nominal amount to Three to avoid this hassle would be worth it!).

Anon

plzhelpmesave!

hiya. my 3 contract ends this month and hubbys next months. Have called them and so far only been offered the standard £15 a month deals that are available on website. They keep ringing me but i have been ignoring their calls as they kept saying they could do no better. After reading this, will pick it up - if there is a next time.

GunJack

The biggest thing to remember is that you have to invest the time to talk to them if you're going to get the best deals. £5 a month for 500+100 for life is proof.....

Old_Gold

My wife when coming to the end of her contract was not offered as good as deal as she thought she could get according to some that are given out. They eventually offered her 500 mins for a tenner but no phone. There was a little time left so she waited as it sounded as if they would come back with a better deal. With a few days to go she tried to get in touch with someone to accept the deal only to find they reneged on it and would only offer her website terms at best. In effect they were calling her a liar about the £10 deal. She even wrote to the CEO and was contacted by someone supposedly from his office but again would offer nothing at all.
In general with the phone industry their customer relations stinks and one day hopefully it will come back and bite them on the bum. This can happen because the Government are in effect allowing the phone companies to run a cartel. Ofcom are useless and so we are stuck with the poor service we get.

Old_Gold

GunJack wrote: »

The biggest thing to remember is that you have to invest the time to talk to them if you're going to get the best deals. £5 a month for 500+100 for life is proof.....

I think my wife invested a hell of a lot of time being jerked around by them. It seems like it is just pot luck as to whether you get offered a deal. could you imagine going to Tescos and finding it is at he descretion of the cashier as to how much you are charged. No, if there are any offers it is open for all to see.

bantamfan

I have 2 contracts that have been on a retention tariff for the last 8 months (12 month contract). I rang them as both phones had stopped working and we were having to use really old handsets. I was offered a continuation of the deal for another 12 months + the 4 outstanding months of the current contract.

300 anytime any net minutes
25 video minutes
150 texts
25 multimedia texts
£5 to spend on music / game downloads etc

Still for £5 on month each with free Nokia N73's (not sure if new or refurb but not worried). I rang up initially for a PAC code and was told to ring back in a week for an upgrade. Was phoned that night and offered this.

(I went through to the "thinking of leaving us" option on customer service phone number (333))

I never go over the limit but do have a £5 internet add-on on one of the phones. It seems to be luck as to what you get!

gazza975526570

Old_Gold wrote: »

In general with the phone industry their customer relations stinks and one day hopefully it will come back and bite them on the bum. .

Do you think? Ive always found three's customer service to be excellent. ALways call you back when they say they will. Always polite, professional and friendly.

Just because you didnt get what you wanted doesnt mean otherwise.