Fatally Flawed Refresh Tariff??

[Anonymous]

I am on a 30Gb refresh deal, but I have missed out on being able to pre-order an iphone 7 plus because I have 20 days left before my 12 month anniversary, which in turn means I may potentially get a handset till late October. How about allowing refresh contract holders to be able to pre-order a handset ready for their upgrade date, a none refundable deposit (say £50) would ensure it wasnt a time wasting exercise. The deposit could then go towards the up front cost of the handset? I know I am going to get further and further behind the iphone release dates as it is from the connection date (last year I pre-ordered on the 12th September but didnt get a handset till 3 October)

[Anonymous]

The main reason for this will most likely be to do with o2 not having enough stock on launch to pre-order devices so far in advance. Apple will only give O2 so many phones for launch, so it would not be fair on other existing customers who are able to upgrade on the launch date or very soon after to make them wait because someone who couldn't upgrade for another month wanted to pre-order so far in advance. If you were in that situation and learnt that was the case then I'm sure you would be equally frustrated. 

[jtuk]

The main reason is o2 squeezes more money out of you as you end up paying more than 12 months before you get the new phone. AND the new contract will be pushed forward by a month or two so they get to keep you longer. I am really disgusted by how refresh customers have been treated - pushed to the back of the queue with no guarantee of any handsets on the date of refresh upgrade! They should have had a dedicated refresh reservation system in place with a phone line you can actually get through to a person. Currently they hang up before you get anywhere. This contract is a big fraud! Avoid!

[Anonymous]

I totally agree, I was told last year when I pre-ordered my iphone 6s plus that when the new iphone came out this year I would be able to swap as soon as it came out. Potentially I may not get hold of a 7 plus till the end of October maybe even into November which means my date in 2017 could well be around 6 weeks after the release of the next handset. I know that no system will ever be fair but as usual with most operators it seems like new connections are more highly thought of than current contract holders.

Add... I was advised by an O2 operator that the best way is to pre-order a brand new connection and handset then port my number over and recycle then cancel my old contract... again showing that new connections are more important than existing ones.

[Anonymous]

How would that squeeze more money out of you when you'd be paying more money for the new phone sooner than if you waited to your upgrade? Aren't all refresh contracts 24 months with a yearly upgrade 'option' for higher data tariffs? 

[jtuk]

You were meant to pay 12 months before returning your old phone and getting a new one on another 24 month contract. This totals monthly payments for 36 months. But now as they did not fulfill their promise you end up paying in the worst case 2 months more before another 24 months begins. This totals 38 months of payments for the 2 phones. On real terms o2 this makes over £60 more out of you. So you are worse off...£60 out of pocket as I don't expect them to compensate you in any way. They benefit and we lose. I am angry at myself for falling for their sales talk as they clearly are not concerned about our loyalty because if they were they would damn well make sure we could pre-order the new phones to be ready on the 25th.