[jeffster]

Hi all,

Just been offered the following by 3 :

The "Personalised Plan", giving me £180 a month to spend on :

900 anytime any network minutes

1,800 texts a month

900 MMS

Or any combination thereof...

This "Flext - a - like" plan would normally cost £35 a month, but as a "valued customer", I would be entitled to a 20% discount, making it £28 a month, plus I could have a free upgrade from my current Nokia 6630 to the likes of a Nokia 6233, SE K800i, etc...

As much as I had decided I was going to leave 3 when my contract ends on October 23rd, this does give me a tough decision...

If only I knew what the new "Flext Killer" that Virgin Mobile are supposed to be unveling offered by way of inclusive minutes, etc., I would have more info with which to make my decision....

[miffed]

Hmmm , I'll bet a sherbert dip that if you decide to take this up , there wil be no record of the original offer :rolleyes:

I hate being this cynical :D

[miffed]

If only I knew what the new "Flext Killer" that Virgin Mobile are supposed to be unveling offered by way of inclusive minutes, etc., I would have more info with which to make my decision....


I can envisage (although probably not just yet) a "dream tarriff" where a high-end line rental will give you absolutely unlimited use (voice and text )

you may roll your eyes and think it is ridiculous now - but it is a simple equation for an accounts team work out a price that will keep all parties happy & cover costs and keep margins up - and I reckon we'll see just that soon

[Hands0n]

Yes, the cost of the network build is sunk and not expected to be recouped in any short period - and why should it, its going to be there for a decade or more. If we can get used to 25 year mortgage paybacks then the ROI on a network can be factored in more than 3 years surely!

That leaves the networks oodles of capacity at not very much cost to simply "give" away - as miffed says, the only thing the accountants want is money to the balance sheet. If they've written the network down then everything else is cold hard profit!

Expect the "eat all you can" in the next 12 - 18 months I'd say.

[getti]

Thats what really pi$$es me off. I have spent a fortune on 3 and they have lied to me 3 times. I guess i am not a 'valued customer'.

Il tell them where they can stick their contract tomorrow

[3GScottishUser]

It's a shame that customers have to leave to get a deal with 3. Many who signed up over the last 3 years or so have put up with levels of service that were (and continue to be) far less than other operators provide. I think 3 should be a little generous and provide those who have been loyal something worthwhile as a payback. Sadly they are now under immense pressure to make money now and improve their ARPU's - so they have a huge dilemma.

As ever upgrades have to be considered with caution. Looking in the Metro (free newspaper) you can get Flext deals direct from T-Mobile with a 20% discount and soon Vodafone will also have new deals. The key £30-£35 contract commitment will buy just about 'all you can eat' from just about any network nowadays with all the usual conditional stuff like on-net, off-peak etc restrictions. It's well worth looking at the other benefits now appearing like free broadband and cheaper home phone calls etc.

With consolodation it's becoming less transparent in terms of pricing but sadly 3 appear the least well placed to offer the most attractive deals.

My advice would be to check out www.mobdeal.com to check the total cost of any contract deal for all of the latest handsets available. You can take your number to any network now (except Vodafone on-line deals), so when considering any upgrade offer it's best to check all the alternatives available.

[3g-g]

I can envisage (although probably not just yet) a "dream tarriff" where a high-end line rental will give you absolutely unlimited use (voice and text )


Expect the "eat all you can" in the next 12 - 18 months I'd say.

Surely we're on the road to this already, and I've only picked Orange as I saw a billboard advertising it tonight! (these are 18 month contracts mind) On Fish £35 it's unlimited texts and a good 9 hours of calls, on Beaver £35 it's again a good 9 hours of included talk time and unlimited landline calls, on Parrot £40 it's again a good 9 hours of inclusive talk time as well as unlimited Orange and weekend minutes (I'm not quite sure about that one) and on Tiger £75 there's nearly 27 hours of included talk time, unlimited texts and unlimited off peak (why?!) interent browsing, which, once hooked up to your laptop if you were away from home could prove useful I suppose!

So just what would you pay a month to have unlimited calls and text?

[Hands0n]

As much as I had decided I was going to leave 3 when my contract ends on October 23rd, this does give me a tough decision...



My suggestion is for you to stay with 3 a while longer and go out of contract, do not renew, just tell 3 that you are considering your options and you will let them know when you are good and ready. That is what I did earlier in the year, and it was a good thing too because had I gone [back] with 3 when my contract expired I would have missed out on T-Mobile's Flext - I have long been completely agnostic of T-Mobile ever since they stopped being One2One! But Flext just blew me away, especially when they offered the 25% discount for life. I had to have it, and it has been of tremendous value to me as my voice/text ratio is never stable and I was forever going over my allowances with 3. Flext is saving me a bundle!

If you allow yourself to go out of contract with 3 you will remain at status quo; no better or worse off than you are right now, while you wait for Virgin and the others to head off Flext (if indeed they do).

Consider also, October is the beginning of Q4 when the Christmas deals are being put out to market - I believe that it will really pay you to play the waiting game at least until December which is not so long to go now.

Of course, you could wait forever. The deals are only going to get better and better each month or so. Eventually you're going to have to bang your stake into the ground and make a decision :D

[jeffster]

EDIT :

With regard to my original post, I rang 3 back, tempted by a Nokia N80, but although I could sign up for the tariff NOW, and get the Nokia N80 on Monday, the "Personalised Plan" wouldnt kick in until 23rd October, so its back to the waiting game for me....

[Hands0n]

on Beaver £35 it's again a good 9 hours of included talk time and unlimited landline calls


Hmmmmmmmmm .............. nice Beaver :D :D :D :D ................ Sorry ...... couldn't resist that :)





So just what would you pay a month to have unlimited calls and text?

Me, personally, I'd be up for £35pcm for unlimited calls, text and bundled Internet Data (unwalled, unfettered, unf*cked). I really do not think that such a package has to be anymore expensive than that. The sunk costs are part and parcel of having a network and so we shouldn't be expected to pay up front for them. Besides which, the competition in the UKs saturated market won't allow the prices to be much higher anyway.

[Ben]

EDIT :

With regard to my original post, I rang 3 back, tempted by a Nokia N80, but although I could sign up for the tariff NOW, and get the Nokia N80 on Monday, the "Personalised Plan" wouldnt kick in until 23rd October, so its back to the waiting game for me....
I'm with Hands0n here. Go out of contract and wait it out. So long as you're out of contract when you threaten to leave they'll, theoretically, bring out the big guns.

Unfortunately for getti he's finding out the hard way that once you're under contract the network expects you to stick to it and wont bend over backwards to keep you happy knowing that you're locked in anyway.