[3GScottishUser]

Yeah....

Clearance time and the old Motorola c975 horror is this weeks special at (Hutchison Owned) Superdrug. Its now just £9.99 including a £30 credit!!

So you can use it and bin it for £10 less than the cost of the top-up!!

The ZTE F866 is also being given away at Argos. Its £29.99 now and also includes a £30 credit pre-loaded.

A bit of a nightmare when a network has to give away a 3G handset just to earn a top-up!!

I still think its a bad idea putting Motorola c975's into the marketplace. I suspect the damage caused to the brand and the reputation of 3 will far outweigh the short term benefits of dumping this dross on customers.

[Ben]

Well, dismal handset or otherwise, the offer gets a thumbs up from me in terms of being cheap - that £30 credit could come in handy.

I do have moral objections to selling mobile phones at that price, though, mostly due to the environmental implications of manufacturing the handset, battery, charger etc for very little gain to anyone.

[3GScottishUser]

Indeed. Just wondering how many folks will work out that it'll be cheaper to get one of these at £10 and use the £30 of credit then bin it rather than top up an existing mobile!!

Even on WePay you would still get 100 mins X/Net or 300 SMS so little different from a regular top-up on other networks minus the loyalty bonuses (free weekends etc etc).

I suspect most woud probably use this as a secondary device and keep their existing PAYG mobile due to the high WePay call costs.

No doubt they will shift a few thousand of these and that should help the stats as once activated they remain live customers for 6 months regardless of whether additional top-ups are purchaced.