Phone Contracts

[limpid]

I had that once when I had three contracts on the go and added a fourth.

 

IIRC they didn't refund the money, they credited it to my account after three months. That was the last contract I had.

[DeHavilland]

I just had a quick scan of this thread, and I have a O2 sim only deal, along with the Nexus 4 - which I brought outright, at sub £20 per month including 1Gb of data, I find it great value

[Morpheus]

I had that once when I had three contracts on the go and added a fourth.

 

IIRC they didn't refund the money, they credited it to my account after three months. That was the last contract I had.

When you started your contract did you contact the provider to instruct them to refund you rather than crediting your account? After paying the extra £150 deposit Mobiles.co.uk told me to contact O2 to verify how they were going to reimburse the deposit which I did. O2 informed me that when I receive my phone and contact them to activate it I can then specify how I want the deposit to be reimbursed the options being either refunding back into my bank account or crediting my O2 account. Probably best to ask them to confirm in writing that they will refund my bank account.

[legov]

My data usage history (I have a 3GB cap)

Mar '12: 2GB

Apr '12: 1GB

May '12: 1.8GB

Jun '12: 0.9GB

Jul '12: 1.1GB

Aug '12: 0.9GB

Sep '12: 0.9GB

Oct '12: 1.1GB

Nov '12: 0.8GB

Dec '12: 0.6GB

Jan '13: 0.7GB

Feb '13: 0.7GB

Mar '13: 0.6GB

Apr '13: 0.9GB

There isn't much evidence that I should go for a bigger than 3GB cap; this is also with reasonably heavy online radio listening when out and about.

 

Radio? What app do you use?

[limpid]

 

I had that once when I had three contracts on the go and added a fourth.

 

IIRC they didn't refund the money, they credited it to my account after three months. That was the last contract I had.

When you started your contract did you contact the provider to instruct them to refund you rather than crediting your account? After paying the extra £150 deposit Mobiles.co.uk told me to contact O2 to verify how they were going to reimburse the deposit which I did. O2 informed me that when I receive my phone and contact them to activate it I can then specify how I want the deposit to be reimbursed the options being either refunding back into my bank account or crediting my O2 account. Probably best to ask them to confirm in writing that they will refund my bank account.

 

Sorry I don't remember. I remember that it pissed me off though so I suspect I was mislead / misinformed at some point.

[Morpheus]

This is a concern Limpid that i have also been mislead so when i contact O2 to activate my phone i will take the name of the operator and their call centre and ask for something in writing to stipulate that the extra deposit will be transferred back into my bank account when the three month period ends.

 

If they are not willing to do that then under the rules and conditions of my contract i can return the phone to them and go elsewhere.

 

I understand the reasoning behind it especially in the current economic climate but it has taken a little bit of shine off something that i was really looking forward to.

 

I will post again when i receive phone and see what the provider's policy is on this.

[CVByrne]

I had the 150 deposit asked of me when I tried to buy a phone from car phone warehouse a couple of years back. Turned it down and went into the O2 store where I didn't have to place deposit. Which was weird.

Buying phones linked to contracts is just a bad idea period and I wish we could get people off them. Monthly rolling contract is all people should be on.

[mykeyb]

I do wonder how much money they make on phone contracts.

 

My O2 Contract was £30+VAT a month for 200 mins, 500 Texts & 500mb of data, OK I know that had the cost of the handset included (Galaxy S2) but retenetions offered me on a sim only deal unlimited minutes, unlimted texts and 1gb of data for £12.90 a month with 7 months free so effectively £5.38 a month which at the very worst you would expect them to be breaking even on. The equivalent sim deal only deal on their website now is £21.00 a month.

[limpid]

After two years, they will feel that they know your usage pretty accurately and know it's unlikely you will change it significantly. All the current contracts include loosely defined AUPs and get out clauses if they want to break their deal. Calls and texts are almost zero cost to the operators. Off network costs are balanced by incoming termination charges. SMS is carried in a side channel so they only need out-of-service storage.

 

It's more important to retain you as a customer in the hope you'll drop/break your handset and start another contract with them.

[Morpheus]

I had the 150 deposit asked of me when I tried to buy a phone from car phone warehouse a couple of years back. Turned it down and went into the O2 store where I didn't have to place deposit. Which was weird.

Buying phones linked to contracts is just a bad idea period and I wish we could get people off them. Monthly rolling contract is all people should be on.

I wish i could have done that CVByrne but none of the stores could get anywhere near my internet deal. Mobiles.co.uk did give me the option of trying another provider but the only other provider who would give me the same quality of coverage in my area was Vodafone who on a contract were more expensive than O2 for the same phone.

[leviramsey]

My data usage history (I have a 3GB cap)

Mar '12: 2GB

Apr '12: 1GB

May '12: 1.8GB

Jun '12: 0.9GB

Jul '12: 1.1GB

Aug '12: 0.9GB

Sep '12: 0.9GB

Oct '12: 1.1GB

Nov '12: 0.8GB

Dec '12: 0.6GB

Jan '13: 0.7GB

Feb '13: 0.7GB

Mar '13: 0.6GB

Apr '13: 0.9GB

There isn't much evidence that I should go for a bigger than 3GB cap; this is also with reasonably heavy online radio listening when out and about.

 

Radio? What app do you use?

Sirius XM (internet + satellite radio comes to $230-ish a year for me... well worth it for Stern, the sports, Deep Tracks (with Tom Petty's and Bob Dylan's shows), and Underground Garage)

[Stevo985]

You pay $230 a year to listen to the radio?!

Edited May 13, 2013 by Stevo985

[mykeyb]

Well my "Three" sim arrived yesterday so before I swapped it in I ran the Speedtest app on my Gnex.

 

Fastest on O2 was 4.9 down and 1.9 up

 

Fastest on 3 was 4.9 down and 2.3 up.

 

Now I have swapped to Three for when I replace my Gnex with a Nexus 4 or 5 which will be dc hspa+ and much faster (in theory)

[CVByrne]

Now compare that to the rubbish speeds I get with giffgaff (O2 network). 1427k down 68k up.

Joke those speeds. In two weeks I'll be off this shambolic network and onto 3. I get about same up / down as you on my samba sim (3 network)

[limpid]

My speeds on giffgaff are similar to mykeyb's. However there are some areas I go where giffgaff (and O2) barely move packets at all.

 

I don't remember you complaining about the performance before they stopped you breaching their t*Cs.

[CVByrne]

Ignorance is bliss. I assumed that all 3G speeds and random loss of connection was like this in London. But when I got samba mobile sim I experienced the 3 network and seen how in central London it's vastly superior.

All my problems with giffgaff were to do with needing to get a bet on or needing access to betfair and being without Internet for five minutes. This happened often enough and like anyone else I had enough.

I hadn't posted on vt for about half a year, as normal during the racing season. So of course you never remember complaining as I was not here.

You clearly have an affiliation with giffgaff. But fact of the matter is in my area the O2 network or giffgaff piggy back is terrible. As such I'm moving to a network which performs considerably better.

It's that simple.

[limpid]

You clearly have an affiliation with giffgaff. But fact of the matter is in my area the O2 network or giffgaff piggy back is terrible. As such I'm moving to a network which performs considerably better.

It's that simple.

I'm on three. I do have giffgaff SIMs too.

[The_Lions_Roar]

Threes a brilliant network I moved to them about 7 years ago when they did some fantastic contracts. My contract with them is only £18 a month and gives me exactly what I need. However when it runs out in a couple of months, I'll be switching to one of their rolling contracts.

[CVByrne]

Yeah it's a simple fact of O2 network problems in my area of work. At home my 3G speeds are good. But I'd be on wifi at home.

3 also have the benefit of letting me use my allowance in Ireland for no extra cost which is great.

[SteveMac]

FYI my speed tests on my N4 were;

17,411kbps download and 2,337kbps upload at home

6,010kbps download and 2,344kbps upload at work

 

Currently with T-Mobile/EE. Thinking of changing to 3 purely on price, but need to get a sim to test signal/speeds before I make a decision.

 

Just checked and I used 1.1gb of data last month and 0.98gb the previous month, but I never use wifi, so that includes all app updates etc. I could use wifi when at home/work but at home my 3g speeds are faster than my wifi speeds!!

 

Oh and just as an update, loving the N4, so much of an improvement over my S1 in every department. Also amazing how better Android 4.2 is over 2.3 etc.

Edited May 17, 2013 by SteveMac