Upgrade offers - why so bad?

[Joel68]

I can't get anyone from O2 to talk to me so I'm hoping somone can shed some light on why my upgrade offers are so bad...

I am on a good SIM only deal since paying off my phone. £16 a month with 6GBdata and free everything else.

I want a new phone (Galaxy S20+) and I get a Blue Light discount on pay monthly contracts so was hopeful.
But the airtime plan on offer is £23 a month for 5GB - so over £250 more over 3 years for a worse plan.
So it is cheaper for me to just buy the phone elsewhere and stick with my plan even with no blue light discount.
Why is this? It seems crazy that they expect anyone to take them up on it.

[MI5]

@Joel68 

There is no reason. 
The costs are visible to everyone so you should do what's best for you. 

[MKChas21]

The upgrade options are awful and expensive. After 17 years with O2 I feel they are stretching customer loyalty a bit far. I will be looking at alternative suppliers. So disappointing as I was previously happy with O2

[gmarkj]

You could always sign up with a 3rd party (affordable mobiles, mobilephonesdirect) and get o2 to move your number across?

[Anonymous]

@Joel68 It’s the same with EE.. so I’ve bought my handset & stayed sim only.. i totted it up & I saved about £170 by doing it..
I guess they have you over a barrel if you can’t afford to buy a phone / need credit.

They’re in business because they mean business!

[Joel68]

Well in this case it meant that they lost out hugely.

Samsung offered me a 15% discount on the handset, so I took them up on that.  My wife will probably do a similar thing and buy elsewhere from a company that actually means it when they offer a discount to key workers.  Then we will both claim the blue light discount on our existing SIM-only contract (£16 versus the £23 they wanted us to sign up for with an undiscounted new phone).

They may "mean business" but frankly, they suck at it.

[Anonymous]

Glad you got a good deal @Joel68 but they can’t that bad at business.. they’re still in it!!