There are some deals out there now.
So a 64GB 6s, with 1000 minutes, 2 GB and unlimited texts and EE's double speed (which includes EU roaming) with a £170 upfront cost and £30 per month (i.e. £890 for 24 months) from mobilephonesdirect.co.uk. Given the phone is £619 in John Lewis, that makes it £11 per month for the contract. That's a serious discount. Equivalent SIM only is £16, so that's £120 discount on the phone.
So I rang EE, and said I'd like it direct from you please, and they said "That'll be £140 extra to pay up front, sorry." You do get free wifi calling for that though. (Eh? never felt I've needed that...) So actually that's more expensive than buying from John Lewis, and going sim only.
No thanks! But it turns out I'd have to change my mobile number to take that offer. No thanks to that. So what it means is that I'll have to take one of their Vodafone offers instead.
How is it good business sense to send a direct approach off to an agent, and then to make it so difficult that your customer ends up taking the entire contract to a competitor?
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Can you not move to SIM only with EE and keep your number?
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I bought my 6S from John Lewis. One benefit is the two year warranty...I run on 3 - unlimited data and free roaming in loads of countries - 21.00 per month. Happy with that. Oh an unlimited personal hotspot which I have used a lot.
Last edited by: R.P. on Thu 5 Nov 15 at 18:49
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EE are useless. They must have a customer disincentive department.
Two members of my family changed phones to better deals available from CPW and others on EE but EE would not match them and would not allow the numbers to be ported.
The solution was to buy a cheap £10 pay as you go mobile from another supplier. Port the original number to that one then port it again to the new EE phone.
They seem to prefer to pay commission to some other outfit then offer the same deal to their existing customers and then put obstacles in the way - idiots!
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Why did you ring EE to get a deal from mobilephonesdirect?
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>>How is it good business sense to send a direct approach off to an agent,
I'm sure you know this, but anyway...
EE Cost of Service £10
EE Cost of Retail Sales & Support £10
EE profit £10
Customer Cost £30
EE Cost of Service £10
EE Cost of Trade Sales & Support £2
EE Profit £10
A.N.Other Cost of Sales & Support £1
A.N.Other Profit £5
Customer Cost £28
So more expensive buying direct. And always will be.
As for crap service, well that's a whole 'nother thing.
But why didn't you just take it from mobilephonesdirect? Or did I misunderstand something?
Also, I don't think they can stop you transferring your number, even if you have to do it retrospectively. You certainly cannot stop someone taking a number, maybe you can stop them bringing a number, but its worth a challenge, anyway.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 5 Nov 15 at 18:57
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As stated elsewhere I've just left EE after fifteen years and gone to GiffGaff who run on the O2 network. Seamless transfer including my quite special number.
Have a look at GG cos it's a very good product.
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Nicole has just changed contract from an iPhone 4s to a 5s with O2, she got a 30% discount for being in the NHS.
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>> Have a look at GG cos it's a very good product.
>>
SWMBO & I are both on giffgaff, me using my non-smart DORO and she learning her new MOTO G.
Both are on a simple PAYG pre-pay scheme, but once we see how her usage pans out we might go the giffgaff goody bag route.
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Roger, I think I may have mentioned it before but I know you are budget conscious and like to save money where you can
GIF Gaff PAYG rates.
10 p per minute calls
6p text
Three Rates
3p per minute calls
2p text
1p per GB data
No expiry of credit i.e same as GIF GAFF
That's quite a difference if you are happy with Three network
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>> Roger, I think I may have mentioned it before but I know you are budget
>> conscious and like to save money where you can
Thanks for your interest!
I've looked at Three's rates and they are, indeed, good.
According to their coverage checker we only get acceptable service, at our home address, outside!
I'm not sure if I can try a Three SIM (without cost!) to see if coverage is OK indoors, though.
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I got a 99p SIM from them to try in my phone before I went for a contract.
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It's a quid for the SIM in store. You get it back if you add credit.
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Three SIMs are free online. Got one for use in Israel during the recent cruise, but it didn't work in most other countries (Cyprus, Crete, Turkey and Greece - nor do they work in Germany where I was recently).. £10 top up gave goodly amount of minutes & texts and 500mb data. It also allowed tethering but unfortunately SWMBOs phone downloaded a 300mb update, using 3/5 of my data allowance without me noticing, so we ran out of data.
Anyway, get one for free here then you can see how much signal you have without paying a penny. It'll arrive in 2/3 days. www.three.co.uk/Support/Free_SIM/Order
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FWIW Talkmobile are currently doing a 1GB, 1000 mins + 5000 texts SIM-only 12 month contract for £7.50pm.
talkmobile.co.uk/shop/sim-only
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>>But why didn't you just take it from mobilephonesdirect?
Reduction of faff? All EE have to do is to send out a new handset as I already have a relationship with them. With the other lot I'll have to fill in endless forms and provide proofs of address. For this reason, I'll probably just go with EE anyway...
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It seems counter-intuitive but it's quite common for sales channels to offer better deals than the networks themselves. My O2 4S came from Carphone Warehouse at a lower rate than O2 could offer (I checked.) The contract and everything else are direct from O2.
The channel buys - or agrees to shift - a job lot of devices and airtime, and because its staff and other overheads are lower than the network's own, it can sell at a lower margin and still make money.
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Indeed. See my post above.
Do try and keep up.
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Blooming long-haired hippy.
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>>Not uncommon...
The thing with contracts that roll from year to year is that it's not just a one-off purchase. I've been with EE for 15 years, I realise. If I swap to another network, they possibly will never see me again.
As for 3, a contract from EE is a bit cheaper than an equivalent contract from 3 if you go through topcashback; why bother with the pants reception?
What's surprising me is that there isn't really a penalty for not buying the phone up front and being SIM only.
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Fri 6 Nov 15 at 15:35
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>> The thing with contracts that roll from year to year is that it's not just
>> a one-off purchase. I've been with EE for 15 years, I realise. If I swap
>> to another network, they possibly will never see me again.
Given the way you have tried to force them to give you a discount that applies to a completely different retailer, and dissed them repeatedly on the internet, they will probably be glad to see the back of you.
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>> What's surprising me is that there isn't really a penalty for not buying the phone up front and being SIM only.
The price for some phones say at Carphonewarehouse on a 24 month contract work out cheaper for new customers than for upgrades. I can only think it's because they get more money from the network for finding new customers.
For say a Galaxy S6 64GB on a 24-month 2GB/month plan on Vodafone, an upgrade tariff would work out at £1066 over the 2 years! Or you could get the phone SIM free from say £430 (£499 at CPW) and then at the moment a 2GB/month SIM only tariff for £15.30 a month (12 month contract with a discount that expires in a few days). Over 2 years that's about £800.
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tinyurl.com/o5xazxx
Last edited by: Roger. on Tue 10 Nov 15 at 13:35
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Was issued with my new 6 at work this week. It's fantastically fast and clear but it is also ENORMOUS! No doubt I'll get used to the size but I do miss the neatness and easy pocketability of my old 4S. Makes me think my next step for a personal contract will be the best data deal I can get on an end of line 5S.
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>> I do miss the neatness and easy pocketability of my old 4S.
That's why I'm still umming and ahing over upgrading, as I think it's more a retrograde. You'll never go back to a 5S once you've tried a 6 though, I'm told.
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I've had it nearly a month now. I think if I'd upgraded from something more sophisticated than a 4S I'd be annoyed by the increased size. However, as the hardware (and indeed software) is such an improvement over what went before, I'm quite happy to forgive it.
It's costing me less than £10 per month more than I was paying before (which says something about the one-month rolling contract I was on), and £75 for the phone.
Some really good deals here: techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/iphone-6s-de
als-1304297
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6S - Manatee
