Upgrading...

[Anonymous]

Why can I get a better deal with O2 through a non-affiliated company (Carphone Warehouse; Phones 4U etc) than I can as an existing customer wishing to upgrade with O2?

Makes no sense from a customer service perspective.

[Bambino]

It depends on what you mean by 'better deal'. With CPW you have to sign a two year contract. You don't have to do that with O2 Refresh, and you can only get Refresh directly from O2.

Third party sellers like CPW also get bigger subsidies from the phone manufacturers than networks do. In the end, the network still gets your money.

If you can get a good deal from Phones4U, you must be a magician.:smileywink:

[Anonymous]

I can get the same phone, with a better bundle (calls, texts and data) for less upfront cost and lower monthly payments. I don't care about contract lengths I have had my current phone c.5 years so 2 years is nothing and I am not for upgrading every time they stick a letter on the end of the number 5 - 5s - 6 - 6s etc...

[Bambino]

If length of contract time doesn't mean anything, and you can get a better deal elsewhere, then that's what you should do. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make?

[Anonymous]

The point I am making is why should I have to go through a 3rd party to get the deal I want with the mobile company I am currently with, it makes absolutely no business sense. Surely O2 must pay the 3rd party a "finders fee" which they can avoid by just offering me the deal directly.

Don't get me wrong I will do it this way if I have to and I may even change supplier as whilst I am there why not look around at other providers. It seems like business suicide by O2, or should I say appears to be the same old "better deal for new customers" rather than for existing loyal customers. :o\

[Anonymous]

---

@Bambino wrote:

It depends on what you mean by 'better deal'. With CPW you have to sign a two year contract. You don't have to do that with O2 Refresh, and you can only get Refresh directly from O2.

Third party sellers like CPW also get bigger subsidies from the phone manufacturers than networks do. In the end, the network still gets your money.

If you can get a good deal from Phones4U, you must be a magician.:smileywink:

---

Or a time traveller lol!

[Bambino]

You can change supplier, stay with O2, or whatever else you want to do. As far as I am aware, O2's policy is the same for new customers and old. Have you spoken to anyone in Customer Service to try and get the deal you're after, or have you just been searching online? Sometimes speaking to Retentions can get you a better deal. It's luck of the draw, though, as far as that's concerned.

[MI5]

If you stayed on the same deal with CPW for 5 years you would pay 10 times more than you would on an o2 refresh contact. After 2 years with o2 you stop paying for the phone, not so with CPW where you would continue paying for the phone for the entire 5 years.

[gindygoo]

Get onto retentions by telling o2 you're leaving them.. You might get the deal you want, you might not but the only way to find out is to go through retentions...

Requesting your PAC will get you put through to the correct dept. Hope you get what u want.

Goods luck.

[Mark_1980]

I know where you're coming from @Anonymous - Just this weekend I spoke with both O2 and CPW about upgrading early. Regardless of who I upgraded with, I'd have to pay £250 in early upgrade fees, but there was quite a difference in the deals I was offered:

In both cases, the contract was the same monthly amount, with the difference being that with O2 I'd have been put on a Refresh tariff, however with CPW it was a regular 24 month contract.

O2 offered me £360 for my phone (iPhone 6 Plus) via O2 Recycle, but because of the way O2 work, they could not take the phone as a trade-in against the new contract. This would essentially mean that I'd have had to have paid £250 there and then to upgrade, plus £60 up front for my new phone. (£310 total, payable on the day). I'd then have to send my old phone back to O2 in order to get the £360 paid to me. So, essentially I'd have been out of pocket for a number of days.

CPW offered me £400 for my phone, which they would take there and then as a trade-in against the new contract. They offered me an extra £30 if I upgraded with them that day, which essentially meant that I'd have walked out of the store with the phone I wanted, on the tariff I wanted, with £120 cash in my back pocket!

I know that the Refresh tariff technically means that I could pay the handset cost off in less than 2 years, but in all honesty I wouldn't have been able to afford to make extra payments, so would have stayed on the tariff for the full duration. This then makes the CPW deal seem much more attractive as it's for the same length of time, at the same cost. O2 like to think that they're competitive, but the above deal from CPW seems like a no-brainer!

I very nearly walked out of the store with a nice gold Galaxy S6 Edge, but then the realisation that I would be tied in for a further 2 years with a phone that would be worth about 40p by the end of the contract made me change my mind..