Phones

[kingandy]

Hmm.

Unless I've misread this, if I were to take out a new contract with T-Mobile (on more or less the same price plan), I'd be able to get a KRZR free.

Conversely, if I show my loyalty, stick with them and ask to upgrade to the same phone, I'd have to pay them £149 for the privilege. In fact, I'd have to pay £30 just to get a new RAZR (the phone I have now). If I stick with the same handset I get all of a £5/month discount.

I'd always assumed the cost of the phone was factored into the line rental and that. Now I am slightly disillusioned. I'll probably stick with it - the lovely Mr nattydreadi's friends and family discount makes it more or less worth it, along with the hassle of changing numbers around - but I was rather looking forward to a shiny new phone. Oh well, easy come.

Comments

[queenbiff.livejournal.com]

as long as you stick to your guns and don't get walked over by them.

[wibblefish.livejournal.com]

or get a decent phone instead...

[kingandy]

Meh, I like that phone. It's functional and stylish!

[wibblefish.livejournal.com]

stylish yes, functional? a little. The os is horrible

[kingandy]

I have no problems with the OS, it makes phone calls and keeps my dates which is what I want a phone to do.

I like the folding clamshell design. It saves me having to lock the keypad or worry about scratching the screen.

[nattydreadi.livejournal.com]

You will probably get your bluff called if you threaten to cancel as you have the 50% mrc discount, basically it is worked out on 3 factors.

Monthly spend - bracketed to £90pm+ £70-90pm, £45-70pm, and ->£45pm.
Payment history - Do you pay on time
Time since last upgrade

Basically if you spend a wodge irrespective of your discounts, pay by DD and upgrade once every 2 years, you will get what you want.
The handset you are being asked to pay £149 for actually retails to the business at £300, you get it halfprice, because we know that if you keep spending as you currently do, we will still make profit off you next year (or maybe the year after)

The business is trying to train Customers as to the real value of handsets at the moment, the market is saturated though, so it is still a buyer's paradise, if you are willing to move custom to a different business.

Regarding upgrading vs a new contract and the costs of the phone, those are decided by retail for new connections, and CS for upgrades, different people with different agendas.

[kingandy]

Yeah that's more or less what I figured. Doing the maths, switching to a new £30pcm contract for 12 months - without the discount - would cost me more than the £150. And I'm already considering downgrading a few notches since I'm not using anywhere near my monthly minutes allowance (though I'm usually just going over on the texts).

but i'd have a shiny new phoooone...

[stsquad.livejournal.com]

Of course if you buy a new shiny un-locked phone you can easily move contracts on a sim-card only contract. You'll never be locked in for the usual 12/18 months.

[kingandy]

.... yes, the problem is not that I want to move contracts. The problem is that they won't give me a free £300 phone. I mean what's up with that?

[ed-fortune.livejournal.com]

They took the one that Tez gave me away from me when I went broke a few years ago. I might try threatening to go else where so I get a decent phone. I'm on the £15 deal though, so I hardly thiunk it matters.

[kingandy]

Oh, fwiw, I always pay on time (DD) and it's been 18 months since I signed up. I'm only paying about £15 per month (after mates rates and self-serve discounts).

That said, I use about 100 of my 300 minutes in a good month, so they're getting a certain amount of free money from me...

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Ring up customer services. Ask for your PAC (or PAK) code. That's the one that lets you transfer your number.

They will almost always ask why you're leaving, so tell 'em. It's very common for them to make you a better offer. How much better depends somewhat on what you're 'customer level' is.

[morningstar-lj.livejournal.com]

Yes. The Port Authorisation Code (PAC) is your nuclear option. They have to give it to you if you ask and it allows you to take your number to another network. Your current network will almost certainly match the new customer deal with an upgrade offer to you. If they dont, take your PAC to other phone shops and wave it under their noses and see who bites.

[kingandy]

It would be hard for them to do me a better deal than the one I'm on right now. Srsly.

[gowhonker.livejournal.com]

I left T-Mobile in August. I really wanted my current phone, but they wouldn't give it to me. They'd give it to a new customer, but not me, a loyal customer of 4ish years.
I rang their customer retention line, who admitted that they woudl do nothing to keep my custom, and if i could get the phone i wanted for free with similar contract terms, i should go for it.

So i did.

Now i'm on O2. I haqve the phone i wanted (i'm v happy with it) and i get 600 hours free talk time to all uk mobiles & landlines, plus every sat, sun 7 mon is free as well.
It's beautiful man.

Changing your number is really easy, but if you don't want any hassle, you can get your old one transferred across fairly cheaply.

Do it. Do it.

[kingandy]

I have half-price line rental forever with T-Mobile.

[kingandy]

Also, 600 hours is like 25 days, how in the world did you get that deal?

[ababyyou.livejournal.com]

Having gone through this palahver recently with Orange, one of the Salesmen I spent countless hours arguing with explained the inner workings of mobile companies, in what I think was a rare moment of honesty (he really was very tired of me, and working on commission):
Apparantly, unless you have a fan-fecking-tastic old-style deal, that you will lose if you swap networks, there is only one way to get good new phones for free.
Pick more than one company. They all offer similar deals now, and have pretty decent coverage, though some are still better in certain areas. Sign up for a 12-month/whatever contract, and at the end of it, take you PAc/K number to another company and swap to theirs. You have to be with a different network to qualify for the "new contract" deals, and most of the good phones are put aside for new business, because almost all of the targets are on acquiring new business. Since you get nothing for being loyal for however many years, you actually get better phones if you keep swapping.

Mental. But there you are.

[gowhonker.livejournal.com]

Sorry, i meant minutes.

Ten hours is still pretty good.

[kingandy]

I thought as much. ;)

I'm sure whatever you're paying for your ten hours is a good deal for you, but it's only a good deal if you use them. At the moment I get 300 minutes every month and I only use about 100 of them. And that's a talkative month. I just don't use my phone all that much...