Martins tip for a mobile upgrade...

natasha79_2

I followed Martins tip to improve my tarrif etc and had absolutely no joy. I am an O2 online contract customer, and yesterday I telephoned them THREE times to try and get a better deal. All they offered me was a new (publicly) available tarrif. When it got to the crunch about disconnecting, I was simply told that I could buy my way out of the contract and take my number with me elsewhere!

Am I a bit crap or are O2 tight? Or both?! Anymore ideas please as my phone bill is CRIPPLING me!

Smartasss

The tip won't work whilst you are still in contract.

As you are still in a minimum contract with them, then they don't have any reason to "bribe" you to stay!

Wait till you can give them notice to quit your contract and try again.

In the meantime you'll just have to try and get your mates to ring you!

natasha79_2

Boo, hiss and grrrrrrrr!

Reestit_Mutton

There are possibly FOUR things I can say about this:

(1) From what you say ("buy my way out of the contract") it sounds like you are still within your 12 month minimum term. If this is the case, Martin's tips do not apply as the networks will hold you to this term or make you pay the equivalent upfront to leave, which is FREE money for them.

If you are outside your 12 months (or coming up to your anniversary) the following points apply:

(2) It seems that only Orange and Vodafone are playing the negotiation game - from experience and anecdotal evidence, O2 and TMobile don't seem nearly as interested in keeping you regardless of the cost.

(3) One thing that Martion neglected to mention in his article was the magic words "Porting Authorisation Code" (or PAC for short). This magic phrase allows you to take your number with you, is free to request (Singlepoint will charge you £20 if you choose to use it though) and is valid for up to 30 days after - you pass it to your new network and they do all the legwork to request your old number to be ported across and your old contract cancels automagically as a result. Your old network is obliged to give you this code within 5 days of requesting it so it's far quicker than giving teh usual 30 days notice to quit. What's more, it demonstrates to your old network that, not only do you know what you're doing, you are also very serious about doing it. From experience, the best deals only ever come out of teh draw once the PAC is requested. In some cases, if you are a reasonably high monthly spender, if you just request your PAC and leave it at that you might even receive a call from their disconnections department who want to bend over backwards to see what it will take to keep you.

(4) IIRC, Martin did mention that he used a 3 deal that he was looking at as his justification for moving - however, it's important to note that it is specifically the 3 network that Orange and Vodafone seem to be running scared of at the moment. You will only get the deal that Martin advertised (500 or 750 XNET mins for £25 or £35 per month) if you cite 3 as your choice of new network. These tariffs are specifically held in reserve by Voda and Orange as a final resort to prevent you moving to 3 (although Voda only offers 400 mins for £25/month - but it's their way of trying to match one of the 3 tariffs).

Basically, think of it this way...why should any business throw more money away than they really have to to keep your custom? If you don't ask you won't get and if you don't hold them over a proverbial barrel you won't get quite as much as if you do.

Incidentally...if your monthly spend is very low, none of the above is likely to apply as no network is particularly interested in the low spenders these days. e.g. my partner is on a £9.99/month off peak deal (now increased to £11.99 without any notice - thanks Voda!) - following the same process with her contract yielded absolutely nothing...not even a free handset upgrade. Not surprising when her annual spend is not much more than £100!

Sorry this was so long...but I felt it necessary to explain the ins and outs of the renewal process and give some background as to why and how it works for everyones benefit.

HtH
RM

natasha79_2

Thank you very much, I shall try that! My monthly spend is usually in excess of £150, so they should be looking to keep hold of me!

Cheers for the info, I shall phone them now...

allthatmularky

One other point - that I don't think has been covered ( just quickly scanned this post) - it may be worth reducing your contract to the lowest available tariff. You can do this at post month 6 with O2 - say 100 xnet mins at £15 and getting a better contract elsewhere.

Woby_Tide

also be aware that they make a note on your details that you've been phoning up to cancel so the next person knows what you've been offered. The more times you ring up the more they realise you are just blagging them to get a discount.

tin

..... doesn't work ;D

I phoned orange and confidently said i'd like PAC codes for my two (one 6 month and one 2 year out of contract) phones.....

They said OK and texted me the codes. End of.

Now I will have to either move or eat humble pie and quietly stay, upon which Orange will know I am a mug. Damn..... :-[

simon_hzero

..... doesn't work  ;D

I phoned orange and confidently said i'd like PAC codes for my two (one 6 month and one 2 year out of contract) phones.....

They said OK and texted me the codes. End of.

Now I will have to either move or eat humble pie and quietly stay, upon which Orange will know I am a mug. Damn.....  :-[

Port out to a PAYG like Virgin, and port back into Orange 30days later to the phone & tariff deal that you wanted.

Check Reestit Mutton's website to see what sort of deals you can get (e.g. 12 months half price, etc)

http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~lauriem/bargain_basement.html

Reestit_Mutton

..... doesn't work ;D

I phoned orange and confidently said i'd like PAC codes for my two (one 6 month and one 2 year out of contract) phones.....

They said OK and texted me the codes. End of.

Now I will have to either move or eat humble pie and quietly stay, upon which Orange will know I am a mug. Damn..... :-[

With Orange, if you spend less than £30/month (ON EACH PHONE) they are less interested in keeping you. - You will have to pay a £50 charge for an upgrade if you ask for one. If you spend more than that on average over the past 3 months they will waive that charge.

Once you have the PAC codes, ring back up and ask to speak to the disconnections department and tell them that you are about to port it onto a 3 deal you are thinking of buying - ask what they might be able to offer before you make your decision. Say something like "I just thought I'd check whether you can offer me the same deal with an XXX before I finally take my number elsewhere as customer services told me that I should ring you first".

(where, for XXX, insert the phone of your choice - but be reasonable. An SE K700i or a Nokia 6230 aren't out of the question, but a P910i probably is)

See what happens. They DO offer good copy tariffs of some of the 3 deals if you're willing to pay £25/£35 a month. I know this because I've just been emailed by a friend of the family who I had advised similarly and he's just been able to get one of thase tariffs off them.

I myself have done the same thing on Vodafone recently as well (although Voda only offer 400 mins for £25 when pushed - i.e. half their normal price).

HtH
RM

natasha79_2

Hello again, I phoned O2 online and requested my PAC code and they said they'd be happy to give it to me...once I'd paid the remainder of my contract off, which was £192!

So instead I picked a more expensive tariff, but one which gives me more minutes and texts, and a roaming discount, which should reduce my phone bill...hopefully.

A few hours after doing all this I received a phone call from O2, but just as the fella introduced himself for making the "courtesy call", my signal went and he never called back! I telephoned O2 to ask why someone called me, but they didn't know and I still don't know either!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!