Why would they want €300 upfront?

maccydoodies

Why would a certain mobile phone provider want €300 upfront when buying into a 24 month contract @ €49 pm and also paying €149 for an iphone?

The person who is buying this has a clean credit score. Absolutely unscathed. Earns over €100k pa.

Im flummoxed as to why at the very last minute whilst buying a phone they asked for €300. they said that its apple that ask for this extra payment! Really?

Can anybody shed any light on this?

whiterebel

Its not Apple, nothing to do with them. Three do it, Meteor, I think. New customer, €700 worth of phone........

beazee

Is it not refundable after 6 months?

maccydoodies

whiterebel wrote: »

Its not Apple, nothing to do with them. Three do it, Meteor, I think. New customer, €700 worth of phone........

Pigs. They said its not us its apple. I know its €700 worth of a phone but you are also signing a 24 month contract.

Re: Getting it back. Thats not the point , basically they want a loan of €300 off you for 6 months. They can go and ****e.

beazee

If a person earning €100K pa can't afford to lend them €300 at 0% APR for a period of time - my advice would be to look for a more affordable phone.

maximoose

Is this Three you are talking about?

They don't check your ICB history, almost certain the others don't either. Any 'credit rating' they refer to is their own internal rating.

maccydoodies

They done an authorisation thing for €1 and gave in photo id. Came back 30 mins later and said they wanted an extra €300 on top of €149. It's not a question of not being able to afford €300 it's the principle of them looking for roughly 50% of the value of the phone when your tied into a binding contract to pay them €49 per month to use their services. I find it ludicrous .

Greenmachine

Three pulled that kind of stunt on me years ago.
Signed up for a dongle and a bill phone. Told everything was approved. No deposit required. When I went to collect the phone was told the system was now saying a deposit of €200 or €300 was required. Ended up paying it but had to chase them for the deposit back. They denied I had payed it initial but some digging around and I found a document recording the payment. I was well past the 6 months they said they would hold the deposit for. Crazy carry-on.

ScumLord

All you have to do in these situations is say "That's ok, I'll take my business elsewhere".

wilser

^this, or else don't get an iphone;)

whiterebel

maccydoodies wrote: »

Pigs. They said its not us its apple. I know its €700 worth of a phone but you are also signing a 24 month contract.

Re: Getting it back. Thats not the point , basically they want a loan of €300 off you for 6 months. They can go and ****e.

What difference does signing a contract make? If someone is going to do a runner, they'll do it contract or not.

Bob24

They might have some reason (good or bad) to suspect the person will keep the subsidised phone, stop paying bills and disappear. This has been a growing issue in the past years.

Not sure about Ireland as I have been on SIM only plans for a while, but I know from my brother in France that mobile companies there have changed to react to the issue: they are not allways giving the full subsidy for the phone upfront and are sometimes waiting for a few months to pay the remaining balance (once they have made sure the person is a real customer using their simcard and paying bills). The 300 euros deposit might be the same idea ...

sawdoubters

make sure they are not getting the iphone 4 or 4s no 4g
the galaxy 4 might be a better phone and galxy 5 is due out this month,bigger screen iphone is due out october

https://forums.meteor.ie/t5/Bill-Pay-Plans/300-Deposit-for-Birthday-Present/td-p/62702

maccydoodies

The story is it's a parent buying a phone for their teenager. Said parent has a work phone so has never had to sign a phone contract before. We rang the head office and they basically said the reason for the €300 upfront refundable fee was either (1) because they have no history with the company or (2) it's a credit check issue. To get the exact reason you have to go through a rigmarole of writing to the credit checking department and get the reason under the data protection act.

maccydoodies

sawdoubters wrote: »

make sure they are not getting the iphone 4 or 4s no 4g
the galaxy 4 might be a better phone and galxy 5 is due out this month,bigger screen iphone is due out october

https://forums.meteor.ie/t5/Bill-Pay-Plans/300-Deposit-for-Birthday-Present/td-p/62702

It's for an iPhone 5s.

JJJJNR

just buy an iphone 5 on adverts/donedeal for 300 euros job done.

Bob24

JJJJNR wrote: »

just buy an iphone 5 on adverts/donedeal for 300 euros job done.

If it is ok with him great, but a brand new latest generation phone is not the same as a second hand previous generation (especially if the goal is to keep it for 2 years or more)

coolbeans

What company is it?

White Heart Loon

Just go and buy a new iPhone 5s online and then you'll be able to bargain with all mobile operators for the best deal without being tied to an overpriced 24 month contract, it'll work out cheaper in the long run
http://store.apple.com/ie/iphone
(how it's worth 700 quid is beyond me, you can get a better phone for hundreds less)

lfc2000

maccydoodies wrote: »

Why would a certain mobile phone provider want €300 upfront when buying into a 24 month contract @ €49 pm and also paying €149 for an iphone?

The person who is buying this has a clean credit score. Absolutely unscathed. Earns over €100k pa.

Im flummoxed as to why at the very last minute whilst buying a phone they asked for €300. they said that its apple that ask for this extra payment! Really?

Can anybody shed any light on this?

That sounds very shady to me. Sure when u pay 149 Euro upfront and then 49 a month after that the 2 year bill will pay for said phone and calls etc. After 2 years u will have paid around 1350 Euro. Go and buy the pay as u go moto g on meteor for 149.99 or even private. Class phone as good as any. I don't know if the changed tis but u don't have to use a meteor SIM. It only locks to the first SIM that goes in. So use the SIM of choice.

wheresmybeaver

Direct Debit rules changed at the start of this month so that any consumer can no-questions-asked get a refund on all DDs that hit their bank account in the last 8 weeks. Companies are therefore now looking for deposits upfront for certain customer segments. ie. customers they don't know or who have a bad credit score. Otherwise they risk a loss if someone pays for a phone by DD, uses it for 2 months, gets everything for those 2 months refunded by their bank then disappears off to Australia.

maximoose

This practice has been in place looooooooong before SEPA arrived.

mitosis

It could still be a credit check issue. That you are earning 100k per annum is only partially relevant. You could be spending 101k per annum. It's just the company doing some risk management. They don't actually have to take your business any more than you have to do business with them.

irishgrover

if I worked for Apple, and what you say happened, I would be unimpressed with a mobile provider misleading/lying to members of the public, claiming that "apple are asking for the extra payment". Apple are obviously much more brand conscious then most, but I think any company would be unhappy with this type of misrepresentation....

wheresmybeaver

maximoose wrote: »

This practice has been in place looooooooong before SEPA arrived.

yeah companies have always looked for deposits from certain customers. And while it has always been possible to get a refund on a DD from your bank if you could prove it was fraudulent or a mistake, there is now no need to prove it. You simply apply for the refund and you get it, no questions asked.

Yggr of Asgard

maximoose wrote: »

Is this Three you are talking about?

They don't check your ICB history, almost certain the others don't either. Any 'credit rating' they refer to is their own internal rating.

Three is actually getting an external credit reference from Experian, once you get to sign the contract you can see the reference number.

Ctrl Alt Del

I've wanted the new Lumia phone 1520 and i decided to port from Tesco to Vodafone on my 086 numbers.
I saw an official paper that said if client porting from Tesco / Lyca networks to Vodafone they are required to pay €400 deposit up-front.
Not any other networks are required to pay up-front !!!

My brother ported from O2 to Vodafone and he got business plan and latest phone with €0 up-front payment !
My application went from €400 then €800 deposit before been canceled with no explanation !

So, it could be sum arses up-there deciding rubbish and thinking that they are still in Celtic Tiger times..

Read in Business & Entrepreneurial section here on boards that some people can afford to filter incoming phone calls,actual potential clients ...based on the originating phone number and/or network !

World gone mad...

Dyr

Emobile did this to me recently, went to sign up for an 18 month plan and then was told I'd need to put down a 7 month 300 euro deposit on a phone that worth 150 brand new

needless to say, they didnt get my business

My credit rating is okay as far as I know, bank were happy enough with it recently anyway

biko

Let the teen buy their own phone on adverts/donedeal for a certain amount. They can then have a prepay account and top up themselves.

SpaceTime

Well, you could always run it past Apple and see if they've asked for a deposit. They're pretty tough about how their resellers represent them.

https://www.apple.com/ie/contact/