Other Devices (Nokia, Blackberry, etc)

[fantasista1]

Hi there,

Here's the deal. I'd like to upgrade my girlfriend to an iPhone 3GS, but she has only recently upgraded to a Blackberry 8520. If she'd upgraded to an iPhone in the first place she'd be paying the monthly tariff she is paying now, but would have paid £89 up front for the iPhone handset. It appears the only way to give her an iPhone as a gift would be to fork out £440 for a pay and go handset and put her contract sim in that? Could I simply not pay for the Blackberry handset then pay the upgrade cost to an iPhone? It seems ludicrous that there is no room for flexibility on this considering the monthly fees would be identical and all I want to do is change the handset. Any help would be appreciated?

[prking]

Well, its her decision what to do. She could have sent the Blackberry back and changed to an iPhone during the cooling off period. Even if you bought her an iPhone, I don't know whether she would be allowed to change tariff.

[fantasista1]

It just seems so illogical. I know she would like an iPhone, I'll be giving o2 a hell of a lot more money than they would get if they don't do this for me, yet they say I have no other option but to buy out the entire two year contract she has. Is there no way around this at all?

[fantasista1]

And the tariff itself would be exactly the same amount per month as it is now. I don't see why I couldn't purchase a handset and put her on it, but I'm trying not to fork out that colossal amount of money when she could have upgraded to an iPhone for under 100 just a month ago.

[prking]

I can't think of any provider that would allow you to use something for a month, return the now secondhand items (with all the costs involved) and get a brand new item in return.
Then there is the issue of the tariff, although they may be the same cost per month the current one includes a Blackberry subscription and the new one would need to be an iPhone tariff with Visual voicemail, iPhone data etc etc.

[fantasista1]

That's why I am willing to pay for the Blackberry handset outright and pay the extra to amend the contract to an iPhone tariff. Would this still be an unworkable solution? I don't see why they wouldn't do it - they make a hell of a lot more money this way than if she runs down the contract as it is for two years then leaves for another network.

[canwefixit]

The blunt answer is that no, this isn't possible. o2 would rather you pay the £440 for the iphone up front to then use it with the existing sim card. For good reason.

The blackberry only costs £180 so that plus the £89 that you want to pay for the iphone is £269.

Hence why o2 don't have a process to change things about after the initial 14 day cooling off period. I don't think the other networks do either.

[fantasista1]

Thanks so much for the replies. I understand that they don't have a policy in place and that they would like me to pay more for the iPhone handset, but in the interests of customer service and making a customer happy (if they are actually concerned about this and future revenue) I really don't see why there can't be some room for negotiation especially considering I'm willing to pay over the odds anyway. And if I instead decided to go and purchase an unlocked iPhone not through o2, wouldn't it make sense for them to come to some sort of fair agreement with me?

I'm personally on Vodafone and have never had any problems with this sort of thing before.

[fantasista1]

The other issue is that under the conditions of my business plan with Vodafone, I may be able to get an iPhone. If I unlocked this and gave this as a gift, would it be possible to amend her contract accordingly?