Whats my best option? - Desire General

Hey guys.
I'm currently on a T-Mobile contract for £35 per month with a G1, expires in July. I'm after a HTC Desire. But heres the thing...My G1 broke and I had no insurance so Im stuck with an unlimited internet plan and an old Nokia 6230.
So I was thinking I could buy a Desire from CarPhoneWarehouse on pay as you go and get it unlocked on HTCCode; when my contract runs out I would just get a pay monthly sim with unlimited data bolt on. O2 has one for £20 per month with unlimited texts and internet and some minutes which would be good for me.
If anyone has a good idea which would be best/cheapest option please let me know! I'm sick of this Nokia now and want the Desire asap!

That's only a few months... if you go into carphonewarehouse or phones4u they will probably just buy out your contract and put you on a new one... what they did for me was just give me the money to pay off my existing contract.
I have chosen to keep my old contract til it runs out, as I may be able to drop it down again. So I basically just dropped my contract and took out a new one, but phones4u gave me money. Better option than doing those things myself.

If you go down the CPW pay as you go route you won't need to unlock the phone as all CPW phones come unbranded and unlocked.
I know because that is what I've done. Bought a Desire on Orange PAYG and am using my O2 contract sim without trouble.

I guess i'll have to pop into cpw and ask about both these things you guys said.
If its true that a PAYG phone is actually already unlocked they're offering it for £399.95 - 4p cheaper than Play.com. Haha. I guess it comes with £10 of credit too.

gleepface said:
That's only a few months... if you go into carphonewarehouse or phones4u they will probably just buy out your contract and put you on a new one... what they did for me was just give me the money to pay off my existing contract.
I have chosen to keep my old contract til it runs out, as I may be able to drop it down again. So I basically just dropped my contract and took out a new one, but phones4u gave me money. Better option than doing those things myself.
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carphonewarehouse bought out my contract a few years back they paid for 12months on my 18month contract because my phone had broke maybe you should have tried that a bit earlier.

That is pretty awesome, almost wish I had done this myself, although I was perfectly happy with my phone and contract til I saw the desire was coming out

Related

Buying a TP2 in the UK

Guys any suggestions, the ones I have narrowed down are:
mobilephonesdirect, vodaphone (bus tariff) or mobiles.co.uk - all offer good mins, free handset, but i was looking for a cheaper tariff (i.e. £25 ish)
I got mine from mobilephonesdirect. I bought the PAY2GO version as it was cheaper than sim free. Then I haggle with my service provider and got a decent monthly rate so in the long run it works out cheaper.
obsydian said:
Guys any suggestions, the ones I have narrowed down are:
mobilephonesdirect, vodaphone (bus tariff) or mobiles.co.uk - all offer good mins, free handset, but i was looking for a cheaper tariff (i.e. £25 ish)
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Ive just got one from mobilephonesdirect... ordered yesterday at lunchtime.. arrived this morning @ 10am.. its at home waiting to be played with now!!
i did origionaly try Vodafone business contract, credit checked ok, but then final check failed - which ive jst found out was a glitch in the system! as that happened, i then went to mobilephonesdirect to get it!
howver - Vodafone business if it works is better - click via quidco and you can get £100 cash back! (feel free to share it for the tip!) - which is why im abit peeved now as if the vodafone one worked i'd be £100 CB better off..... i could sent it back and get the VF one.. but cant be botherd now... it needs to be played with! and would only resuly in more delay if i change now!
Thanks guys.
Did you fail the credit check as your not a business user or do they not check that
obsydian said:
Thanks guys.
Did you fail the credit check as your not a business user or do they not check that
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Credit check was OK - just got an email yesterday - the day i was expecting the phone to arrive.. saying they were unable to complete the order - had a call this morning from Vodafone asking if everything was OK with the new phone! - obviously they dont talk to each other! so was annoyed to here that actualy it was a system glitch and it should have gone through... they said i could cancel the order i have and do it with them.... but when they heard it was a vodafone contract anyway they werent so bothered about me canceling it and switching!
im also porting my number - so didnt want that to get lost in a system some where.
saying that - if you order in the next 50 mins from mobilephonesdirect you will have it to play with all long weekend!
i cant fault the service i recieved from them - it arrived this morning as promised!
I like the quidco and want to get a way from T Mobile.
Sorry does the quicdo only apply from vodaphone direct or can i do this from mobilephoendirect ?
direct as it has to track on their website.
Thanks just ordered the TP2 from Vodaphone with Quidco, so in theory i save £190 (£90 from Vodaphone and £100 from Quidco) nice, now just need to pursuade the Mrs to take on my TD2
£90 from Voda on the 3 monthsfree thing ? on a 24month ?
They are doing the first 3 month line rental from (so thats £90). i took out a 24mth contract (750mins, 250 text and 500MB data). Then hopefully the quidco on top of this (£100).
I set up a wiki with a HUGE list of vendors all over the place including most in the UK. Its got a price comparison list so you can see who's cheapest too. Hope it helps
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=rhodium_vendors
obsydian said:
all offer good mins, free handset, but i was looking for a cheaper tariff (i.e. £25 ish)
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Then you are being hopelessly unrealistic, I'm afraid.
Any SIM-only contract that includes "unlimited Internet" will cost you £20 a month right there. Vodafone give you the phone for free on a £30 a month, 24-month contract, which also included unlimited Interne. That means you are effectively only paying £10 a month for the phone, which means you get the phone for just £240, and that includes two years' interest-free credit thrown in for free. Compare that to the approximately £450 you'd be paying to buy the phone SIM-free. Or, for that matter, compare it to what you would pay if you got an iPhone 3GS on contract from O2. It's actually a very, very good deal. The only reason I didn't opt for that option myself is that Vodafone has an explicit 500MB a month data limit on their "unlimited" Internet deal (and even that isn't bad - Orange is also 500 MB a month, T-mobile is 1GB a month).
Bugger! Didn't know about the Quidco thing
Anyhoo, got mine on the Voda business 30 quid deal. I'm still pleased - unlimited landline is very important to me, and the 500mb data limit is fine for my needs. Plus the 3 month rebate meant I could end my contract with Orange early, without losing the money (still hadx three months to run).
Plus, I've got to say, Voda is a damn fine network. Three times this week I've been with friends on other networks who've lost signal, and Voda;s been rock steady.
The TouchFlo branding's ugly, but that's what XDA's for...
Shasarak said:
Then you are being hopelessly unrealistic, I'm afraid.
Any SIM-only contract that includes "unlimited Internet" will cost you £20 a month right there. Vodafone give you the phone for free on a £30 a month, 24-month contract, which also included unlimited Interne. That means you are effectively only paying £10 a month for the phone, which means you get the phone for just £240, and that includes two years' interest-free credit thrown in for free. Compare that to the approximately £450 you'd be paying to buy the phone SIM-free. Or, for that matter, compare it to what you would pay if you got an iPhone 3GS on contract from O2. It's actually a very, very good deal. The only reason I didn't opt for that option myself is that Vodafone has an explicit 500MB a month data limit on their "unlimited" Internet deal (and even that isn't bad - Orange is also 500 MB a month, T-mobile is 1GB a month).
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Ermm not quite Mr the package in mentioned works out at £26.60 (averaged with discounts), that said the buggers declined my on the credit history

What merchant is offering the Tilt2 for the best price w/o a contract?

I've visited eBay and many other online stores that offer the Tilt2 anywhere from $470 to as much as $730 for the same phone. What's the maximum I should pay, and or should I wait till after Jan 1, in hopes that prices will drop? I currently have the AT&T tilt, and after 2 terrific yrs of trying out different cooked ROMs I'm now ready to upgrade to the Tilt2. Your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.
Did you check craigslist.org?
$500 is retail. You should never pay a dime over that.
As to price drops, it's just a question of how much of a hurry you're in. You can play the wait and see game until the phone is obsolete, and in the end, when you do buy it, the price will drop the next day.
The Tilt2 is one of the newest of the TP2 versions, and so far, although the secondary market has seen the TMo version erode in price, even it (the earliest US branded version) hasn't had a real price drop (although it technically retailed at $550 on launch, it was sold at $500 from the start at some retailers). The int'l unlocked version released a few months earlier dropped from $720+ to about $600 after around 4-5 months.
Since there are a number of landscape WVGA winmo devices, it's possible that competition might drag the price down faster than usual, but then again, it might not. Holiday sales might be good, or they might not.
http://walmart.letstalk.com/product/product.htm?prId=35844
free after rebate with 2 year contract.
Nothing is free. With those contract deals you need to pay for a certain plan. Keep this in mind, for every $10 a month your bill goes up, that is $240 over the life of your plan.
I just bought a Tilt2 at an AT&T store for $500. I figured I am going to save money in the long run because the only way I could get the phone on a contract was to increase my monthly bill by a minimum of $15, or $360 over 2 years. + The $200 for the phone = $560.
This way I can also resell my phone and move to another company like T-Mobile when they get the HD2.
To answer the OP, $500 is retail, you can walk into an AT&T store and just say you want to buy the phone as a gift. Do NOT give them your phone # or account. Just say you are not even an AT&T customer and the phone is for a friend/family.
Brickcity said:
Did you check craigslist.org?
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Yes, I have. After you suggested it. But I was surprised to find that of the 5 offers in my local area for this item, 3 were more than the $480 average buy now price listed on ebay. The other 2 were used, and had minor damages to one of them, and the other was without the software CD. Besides, with all the recent negative activity from former craigslist buyers in the news media these days, I'm a bit aprehensive about meeting someone face to face to broker a deal. But good suggestion. Thanks.
Pops_G said:
Nothing is free. With those contract deals you need to pay for a certain plan. Keep this in mind, for every $10 a month your bill goes up, that is $240 over the life of your plan.
I just bought a Tilt2 at an AT&T store for $500. I figured I am going to save money in the long run because the only way I could get the phone on a contract was to increase my monthly bill by a minimum of $15, or $360 over 2 years. + The $200 for the phone = $560.
This way I can also resell my phone and move to another company like T-Mobile when they get the HD2.
To answer the OP, $500 is retail, you can walk into an AT&T store and just say you want to buy the phone as a gift. Do NOT give them your phone # or account. Just say you are not even an AT&T customer and the phone is for a friend/family.
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Your logic is very sound. If I upgrade my current contract it will cost me an additional $22/mo, plus $200 for the phone. If I buy the phone thru them w/o a contract it will cost me $540. After watching the prices that ebay buyers have been paying for this phone over the last 4 days the going rate is from $425 to $460. I would come out better just buying it from ebay and keeping my current contract. Thanks for the tip.
imabored said:
http://walmart.letstalk.com/product/product.htm?prId=35844
free after rebate with 2 year contract.
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I checked out your link, which is thru Walmart Wireless. It is only free if I enter into a new 2yr contract with them. I would have to cancel my current contract and pay the penalties which is rediculous. If I upgrade my current contract the phone would cost me $99 plus the additional increase of $22/mo for 2yr. It's still cheaper to buy the phone thru ebay. Like Pops_G says, " Nothing is free!"

Returning my phone

T-mobile are so silly, I really don't want to be stuck with a 35 quid a month price plan after getting my phone unlocked and sticking my o2 sim in it, so asked if it's ok to downgrade whithin the first 7 days, but belive it or not you cannot downgrade on t-mobile untill your last month so for me that would have been 23 months.
I took out the £35 a month plan but shortly realised it's a bit of a con as the 10 quid a month plan comes with unlimited internet and 1 free booster and you just pay 164.00 for the handset then you can just upgrade as and when you want.
So I now have to return the handset and they send out a new one on the new contract as a brand new line. I was happy to keep the phone and just knock it down and pay the 164 but you can't do it.... oh well
Obviously I had 7 days cooling off period anyway, so they are not charging me for returning the handset and are sending the packaging to post it through the post.
that is ridiculous! At least you'll get what you want. I got the £15 deal and have the unlimited free landline booster
Bandare said:
that is ridiculous! At least you'll get what you want. I got the £15 deal and have the unlimited free landline booster
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Yup i am quite happy to keep my phone and downgrade, am I being unreasonable not wanting to get lumbered with a 35 quid a month contract that cannot be downgraded for 23 months?
I was under the impression I could downgrade if i never used my mins anyway, like on o2
ronnyuk said:
T-mobile are so silly, I really don't want to be stuck with a 35 quid a month price plan after getting my phone unlocked and sticking my o2 sim in it, so asked if it's ok to downgrade whithin the first 7 days, but belive it or not you cannot downgrade on t-mobile untill your last month so for me that would have been 23 months.
I took out the £35 a month plan but shortly realised it's a bit of a con as the 10 quid a month plan comes with unlimited internet and 1 free booster and you just pay 164.00 for the handset then you can just upgrade as and when you want.
So I now have to return the handset and they send out a new one on the new contract as a brand new line. I was happy to keep the phone and just knock it down and pay the 164 but you can't do it.... oh well
Obviously I had 7 days cooling off period anyway, so they are not charging me for returning the handset and are sending the packaging to post it through the post.
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order over phone the 18 month £15 plan 100mins unlimited txt internet and phone for 164 but say that your friend got offered it for £124 and they should give you the 40quid discount as I and couple of us from here had
cez10 said:
order over phone the 18 month £15 plan 100mins unlimited txt internet and phone for 164 but say that your friend got offered it for £124 and they should give you the 40quid discount as I and couple of us from here had
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ok thx will try it tonight, I don't want to be without my desire so will do it now.
Hang on, you signed up to an expensive contract so you could get an expensive hanset for free.
Then you're surprised to learn they just wont drastically reduce the price? I need whatever you've been smoking!
You entered into a fixed term contract, they're under no obligation to let you downgrade AT ALL. That they will let you in the last month of your deal is nothing more than goodwill.
Some people want the moon on a stick, I swear
Rusty! said:
Hang on, you signed up to an expensive contract so you could get an expensive hanset for free.
Then you're surprised to learn they just wont drastically reduce the price? I need whatever you've been smoking!
You entered into a fixed term contract, they're under no obligation to let you downgrade AT ALL. That they will let you in the last month of your deal is nothing more than goodwill.
Some people want the moon on a stick, I swear
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I have consumer rights and I only found out I could not downgrade today, I don't want to be locked into a 23 month contract with no downgrade rights or were you well aware of this new policy abiet a year old that T mobile have started doing.
And while your on your high horse, they are quite happy for me to UPGRADE and take my money when times are good, but unable to downgrade when times are bad, does this seem fair to you?
O2 used to allow you to get a high cost contract and then downgrade straight to a lower tariff, however I think they stopped you doing this about 2 years ago as everyone was doing this and they eventually caught on!
I think you can downgrade your tariff on O2 after 6 months. Not 100% sure though.
Will T-Mobile check the Sim-Lock on your phone when it is returned to them?
Perfectly. Again, fixed term contract. If you didn't read all the small print, you can only really blame yourself.
Rusty! said:
Perfectly. Again, fixed term contract. If you didn't read all the small print, you can only really blame yourself.
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The only people to blame here are T-Mobile, I am quite happy to keep the phone and change to another tariff that T mobile offer new customers, it's no different to buying a TV and then seeing it cheaper somewhere else after you have bought it and asking for a refund, or do you want to live in a country that does not offer buyers this protection?
There contracts state you have 7 days to inform us if you are not happy with the phone or contract, I have informed them that i am not happy so have to return the phone and take out "another" contract.
http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/resources/sites/TMOBILE/content/live/DOCUMENTS/0/DO117/en_GB/MC25257%20Terms&Conditions56.pdf
Section 2 / 2.7 (Page 3) said:
2.7. We don’t have to allow You to change Price Plan.
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Therefore they are totally within their rights to not allow you to change tariff.
I would have thought they would have allowed you to downgrade to the lower tariff if you were willing to part with the £169 that it will cost you? But thats up to them I am afraid.
StuMcBill said:
http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/resources/sites/TMOBILE/content/live/DOCUMENTS/0/DO117/en_GB/MC25257%20Terms&Conditions56.pdf
Therefore they are totally within their rights to not allow you to change tariff.
I would have thought they would have allowed you to downgrade to the lower tariff if you were willing to part with the £169 that it will cost you? But thats up to them I am afraid.
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I know they are within their rights lol but I have to return my phone and order a brand new one even though I want to pay the 170 quid up front.
That's the silly part.
Ok my order has been accepted I didn't bother haggling with price just went for the £10.00 a month deal £164 up front, for the sake of a manager to just drop the price plan all this could have been avoided, and yes i know i should have ordered the correct deal in the first place, but if we all had hindsight then there would be no need for the 7 day cooling of period.
StuMcBill said:
I think you can downgrade your tariff on O2 after 6 months. Not 100% sure though.
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Taken from the o2 website
If you Pay Monthly, you can choose a lower tariff nine months after you joined us – or after you last upgraded your phone. You can increase your tariff any time the first 30 days of connection.
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@Rusty
Sorry but your assumptions are incorrect not all Networks operate the same way at all for instance i got my TG01 for free on a 18month £35pm contract which included free Internet and Unlimited landline calls. After 6 months Orange Best Plan option kicks in so i down graded to a £20pm plan with £5 for the Internet pack and still have the Unlimited Landline calls for free. Which saves me £120 over the last year of the contract so it has reduced the overall cost of ownership and running my TG01. It's one of the things that makes Orange a better choice for me as i hate paying for my phones especially on a 18 month contract and the ability to down grade my plan after 6 months saves me money i have more incoming calls then out going and never use all my minutes.
VodaFone on the other hand only let you downgrade your plan after 12 months and it appears T-Mobile in the last month only so as long as you know this you can make the right cost choice for your needs. As always there are so many variables as to what makes the best deal and as individuals what suits some of us won't all but choice is good for the consumer.
Marc
I was informed by T-Mobile that their policy states that after half of the full contract term has passed, I'm allowed to downgrade my contract.. But when you downgrade, you're only allowed to go one price plan down. So from £35 to £30, etc.
jamiepyrite said:
I was informed by T-Mobile that their policy states that after half of the full contract term has passed, I'm allowed to downgrade my contract.. But when you downgrade, you're only allowed to go one price plan down. So from £35 to £30, etc.
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thats what happend with o2 when i wanted downgrade couple months ago. only 1 plan down
ronnyuk said:
T-mobile are so silly, I really don't want to be stuck with a 35 quid a month price plan after getting my phone unlocked and sticking my o2 sim in it, so asked if it's ok to downgrade whithin the first 7 days, but belive it or not you cannot downgrade on t-mobile untill your last month so for me that would have been 23 months.
I took out the £35 a month plan but shortly realised it's a bit of a con as the 10 quid a month plan comes with unlimited internet and 1 free booster and you just pay 164.00 for the handset then you can just upgrade as and when you want.
So I now have to return the handset and they send out a new one on the new contract as a brand new line. I was happy to keep the phone and just knock it down and pay the 164 but you can't do it.... oh well
Obviously I had 7 days cooling off period anyway, so they are not charging me for returning the handset and are sending the packaging to post it through the post.
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Ronny...you had me worried for a minute. I thought that something was wrong with the phone
Sounds like a bit of a whinge to me......It's a contract, that is up to your to read all the fine print. Assumptions from other carriers is just stupid. Neway you should be happy they are at least changing it for you.
Close thread lol
redrazr7791 said:
Ronny...you had me worried for a minute. I thought that something was wrong with the phone
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Nothing wrong with the phone, love it still

T-mobile UK has left a bitter taste in my mouth...

I couldn’t be more chuffed with my Desire and the deal I got with T-mobile UK as a new customer.
However I just tried to upgrade my mums contract as she is well overdue for a new contract and phone... near 30 or so months when she had a 18 month contract.
Anyway. I call them up from her phone to get the desire. But I found myself faced with unhelpful and indifferent retention blokes who 1 issues insanely bad deals and 2 wouldn’t make any deals...
When I got my phone I managed to get the phone at 89 quid on a 20 quid a month 24 month contract. 600 minutes 500 texts 3gb data and a booster.
I was expecting to at least be able to get something similar for my mum... ohhhh but no.
They wanted to give the phone for free but only on a 35 quid a month contract. I managed to talk them down to a 30 quid a month contract.
But if I wanted the contract like mine at 20 quid a month they wanted to charge 380 pounds for the phone.
380... that’s 19 quid shy of the full retail price of the phone.
They were in no way willing to budge. I tried to explain to them how odd it was that I was able to get such a great deal and my mum not. And that the price they where asking was just short of full retail price. But they didn’t care.
I remember when the desire came out some one here managed to get the phone for free on 15 quid a month with a similar contract to what I had...
Gone are those days. T-mobile seem to be back at screwing over there current customers. Which was why I left them in the first place years ago.
Anyone else had any trouble?
Anyone know ways of getting around this? I rather keep my mum with T-mobile as she needs the good dataplan…
Nutsy
Did you call the upgrade team? They are usually pretty useless. Call (if you already didnt) T-mobile choose the option you are 'leaving them'. You will then be in touch with people who normally can do decent deals as they dont want you (or your mom) to leave.
I think thats who the retension team is... at least thats what they called themselves when i asked them
Well i just tried to cancel... it went to the same retentions department as before i even spoke to the same person i spoke to before...
This time there now denying the 380 pound figure... But are willing to sell the phone at 240 quid on the 20 a month contract and 140 on the 25...
I honestly think there just randomly choosing numbers.
Anyway got a PAC code. We might still take up the 30 quid a month deal but one of the main reason for the 20 deal was we wanted to bring our costs down.
Ill just have to look around for a bit… Got 30 days to do it.
Go to a store - they have commission to earn.
Do you have any rival deals you can quote to them? When I was renewing my contract I got the best deal by quoting various deals I'd seen online and I ended up getting the phone for free and the price plan a couple of quid cheaper a month than anywhere else I'd seen. Didn't have to press to hard.
where you a returning customer?
Also what deals have you found online... Orange done seem to have the phone yet. And Voda dont seem to have any good deals and not selling the phone for under 30 quid a month.
I had exactly the same experience with them!
They just weren't willing to budge at all and would only offer me the phone on a £30 or more contract so I cancelled and have ordered from elsewhere!
Phil
Upgrade through mobilephonesdirect or mobiles.co.uk, they offer great deals like 20 quid a month etc etc, that is what I did
Yeah I had Vodafone 18month contract in its last month with my Touch HD. Tried to get upgrade with them for the desire and got very similar results as NutsyUK. So decided to get it from www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk on T-mobile for £25 p/m on a 24 month contract.
The best part was I got 900 mins, unlimited texts, and full unrestricted web n walk data package as my booster. I would just take out a new contract with www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk and just port your number over
NutsyUK said:
Well i just tried to cancel... it went to the same retentions department as before i even spoke to the same person i spoke to before...
This time there now denying the 380 pound figure... But are willing to sell the phone at 240 quid on the 20 a month contract and 140 on the 25...
I honestly think there just randomly choosing numbers.
Anyway got a PAC code. We might still take up the 30 quid a month deal but one of the main reason for the 20 deal was we wanted to bring our costs down.
Ill just have to look around for a bit… Got 30 days to do it.
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Vodafone were asking for £100 with £25 per month, or £50 with £30 per month when I tried my local shop!
It's their iPhone. Which makes it very difficult to get a good deal.
Personally I'd never sign up for 24 months and pay a fee towards handset.
You're better off actually signing up to voda for an iPhone, or t mobiles next best phone free on 18 month. Put it straight on ebay and buy sim free desire. You might even make a profit
I'd rather stick with tmobile than go to voda... vodas has terrible data... 500mb a month thats it...
tmobiles data with androids is 3gb... i think there standerd data plan thats given to retailers is 1gb
You can get it from somewhere like Mobile Phones Direct on an TMobile contract.
jfran said:
Vodafone were asking for £100 with £25 per month, or £50 with £30 per month when I tried my local shop!
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That sucks, I got offered £20 per month and no charge for the phone.
Have just got Vodafone deal (did the deal over the phone - this is a discounted £35 / month tariff) - New Customer - Free HTC Desire, 18 month contract, £25.50 / month for 15 months, £35 / month for 3 x months, 600 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data (500 mb - but apparently not chargeable unless Gbs over your allowance regularly).
2 x weeks ago (over phone) was offered T-Mobile deal, new customer, 18 month contract, £20 / month, £107 for HTC Desire, 300 minutes, 300 texts, unlimited internet plus free Bolton: i.e. choice of free t mobile calls, landline or unlimited texts.
If T-mobile are charging such a ridiculous amount for the phone now either wait until the prices settle down again (maybe they have hiked the price due to the shortages? Or go elsewhere.
Clearly they are not offering a competitive deal.
http://www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/Brands/HTC/b509/n443/p31043.aspx
it sounds like T-Mobile have changed in the last month.
on 30th March i just called the upgrade team and got the phone for £40 on a £15 a month contract.
Going back to the OP's comments, as you said it was an upgrade, it would also depend on you Mothers history with T-mobile. How much she spent a month, how much her previous handset was worth and of course T-mobile offset the cost of this in with the monthly payment. Add on to this (not that I am suggesting anything) her credit worthiness, has she always paid on time, ever missed a payment, is she a high user - in that does she generate profit for T-mobile.
No operator gives handsets away for free, especially when so new and in such demand from those willing to pay. They also tier the pricing dependant on the customers usage and how much they will rake back in, length of contract etc. It is never so cut and dried between 2 different users as they both have different profiles from the operators perspective.
She was with them for 26 months on a 18 month contract. She always paid on time. I think there was one time a credit card wasnt updated so one payment was missed but that was quickly fixed...
she had a diamond before.
I would say this would be a fair a normal upgrade... but it seems this no desire for contracts under 30 quid is a new thing. blanket across the board...

How to Get a Vibrant for $350: The Hard Way

Hello everyone,
I have one hell of a story to tell about one boy, two phones (the htc hd2 and the samsung vibrant), and one freakin' committed customer service team (T-Mobile's). OK, so I'll begin my story of how I ended up with a brand-new Vibrant for essentially 350 bucks. Bear with me here, it's a bit long. So, I originally purchased an htc hd2 way back in mid-June for 300 bucks on Craigslist. The phone ended up being defective because of a hardware issue, and because it happened to be under the "buyer's remorse" period, at least the way T-Mobile saw it, I was able to return it by mail for a brand new one for free. I was surprised when I called to learn that T-Mobile didn't require a single piece of information to verify that I was the original owner of the phone, all they saw was that an htc hd2 had magically been activated on such and such a date. So, I returned that hd2 and recieved a new one in a couple of days, which ended up being just as buggy as the last one, so I decided to abandon the hd2 altogether in exchange for the Samsung Vibrant. I called T-Mobile customer service today to setup the exchange for the vibrant, which would cost me 50 bucks since the hd2 cost 450 and the vibrant costs 500, and I was FINALLY told that they had no record of me ever buying an hd2 (I wonder why, lol). I then explained to them that I wasn't the original owner of the phone and that I had bought it from the original owner, but that the phone had been purchased only a few days before they sold it to me. They told me at first that I would have contact the original owner and get the 450 bucks credited back to there account. The only problem was that I had no way of contacting the original owner, and that they had switched carriers almost immediately after purchasing the hd2. After about four hours, and many many phone calls later, I called t-mobile one last time to explain my situation, keep in mind that I was totally honest the entire time, I reached a very nice customer service rep, and after explaining what had happened to me, and after speaking to her supervisor for over ten minutes, she told me that even though they almost never do this, that they would "take my word for it" and send the vibrant, no questions asked, for basically 50 bucks. I was over the moon considering that less than 5 minutes ago I had thought that I had thrown away 300 dollars. I would like to give some major props to T-Mobile's customer support, never in a million years would I have expected a customer service team work so hard to keep a a customer happy. Talk about going the distance. Well, that's my story. Tell me what you think, and what your experiences with them have been like.
Peace, bobofosho12
I got mine for $164 and i wasnt even due for a full upgrade. Got my phone around august. Even my sister which is due for a full upgrade has to pay more. So i think im super lucky except for the tax and all that
Alex530 said:
I got mine for $164 and i wasnt even due for a full upgrade. Got my phone around august. Even my sister which is due for a full upgrade has to pay more. So i think im super lucky except for the tax and all that
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Yeah, its an online Special. However i Would Suggest your sister to call T-mobile and ask to be transfered to the Loyalty Department to get hers. because she will get a good deal as her contract is up...... They will give it to her at full Discount and provide her with a data plan of $24.99 a month. instead of $30.00 like you got... and she wont have to pay no upgrade fee's whatsoever.
Alex530 said:
I got mine for $164 and i wasnt even due for a full upgrade. Got my phone around august. Even my sister which is due for a full upgrade has to pay more. So i think im super lucky except for the tax and all that
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Same here. I renewed my contract last year, so did my GF. We both are eligible for full discount so I jump on it right away.
I hate buying ANYTHING with a contract, I know that even though I might pay through the nose up front, i'm saving tons more than I would if I had a contract for two years. I just generally buy an "almost" brand new phone on someplace like Craigslist and then I return it to T-mobile and get a brand new one for free, hence what I did with the hd2. Just my strategy though.
minogue said:
Yeah, its an online Special. However i Would Suggest your sister to call T-mobile and ask to be transfered to the Loyalty Department to get hers. because she will get a good deal as her contract is up...... They will give it to her at full Discount and provide her with a data plan of $24.99 a month. instead of $30.00 like you got... and she wont have to pay no upgrade fee's whatsoever.
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Click to collapse
I have the 24.99 data plan and i will thanks for the info
my story on getting the vibrant new WITHOUT a contract for $133. Please note, this cannot be duplicated anymore as the "loop hole" has been caught and closed. I noticed this post on slickdeals.net the 2nd day it had been posted:
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2132124
So basically costco has the cell phone kiosk's which sell tmobile and a few other carriers. as we know, T-mobile offers and "even more plus" program with is NO contract. also as we know that if we went to tmobile and got a vibrant with this even more plus program is $500.
BUT for the first 3 or 4 days that costco sold the vibrant they were selling it for $250 with the "even more plus" plan or $99 with contract. EDIT( this $250 price was a wholesale price they were offering)
so went there and bought 2 samsung vibrants for 250$ each plus tax. ended up being about $540 by opening 2 new lines on the "even more plus" plan. note that this is different then the "even more" plan which is a contract. Even though "even more plus" is not a contract, costco would not sell the phone without an actual plan but thats ok because this "even more plus plan is no contract because normally you pay full price for the phone.
so then because the "even more plus" plan is not a contract, I called t mobile and told them that I want to cancel the even more plus plan and that I paid full price for the phone. (which i did pay costco's full price). they canceled the plans over the phone on the first try without any hassel (some people had a little trouble canceling)
So then i sold 1 on ebay for $485 including shipping and kept one for myself. After paying shipping, ebay listing fees, selling fees, and paypal fees. I came out basically paying the difference which is only about $130 for my new, NON contract vibrant
keep in mind I already have a tmobile contract from my mytouch, so i just put the sim card in the new vibrant and was good to go.
Costco and Tmobile both caught on to this within days, and now it went from 250 to 479 the day after i got mine.
so i basically ended up paying $130 for a New Vibrant, not subsidized, and non contract even less then if I had signed a new 2 year contract.
If so many people had not ONLY gotten this deal just to sell all the phones on ebay and craigslist, the deal probably would have lasted a little longer. (i just sold 1 to offset the cost of buying one for myself)
so keep in mind, this deal is now dead, and no one has had success trying to replicate it since the price change because costco and tmobile had caught on quickly.
Im still under contract with tmobile for another year because i bought mytouch last year. Wife's phone is still eligible for an upgrade I can use later this year
I got mine for $100 after $50 mail in rebate. I bought mine at Costco warehouse . It included the car charger, a carrying case and a Bluetooth headset.
still cant beleive you guys didnt just spam these forums spreading the good news on the price. so sad.
well thankfully, i got mine on bing cashback and so the phone might end up being $350 for me.
oh what i could have done with $100 extra, sigh
by the way did you need to be a costco member to get that price or could anyone get it?
I actually got mine for free, but in an extremely roundabout and lucky sort of way.
Got a Samsung Behold II with a new contract at the beginning of June for free from Letstalk.com. I won't rehash all the ridiculous problems I had with the phone, as it's fairly legendary at this point.
Had even more problems after the now infamous 1.6 OTA update, took my problems to T-Mobile corporate, and after 2 weeks worth of emails and phonecalls with their director of customer relations they basically convinced Samsung to toss me a Vibrant to make me happy enough to go away and leave them alone.
I sort of rode out the "perfect storm" here and was just in the right place at the right time. Still, this is the best free phone I've ever had!
Got mine for the same price as Alex.
i got mine for $534 after tax!

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