Upgrading Mobile Phone Costs ???

Rabies

could anyone tell me why it costs the same price to upgrade your mobile to a newer model and to get a new contract....

i have a nokia 3310 (bill phone) for over a 1.5yrs and i recently taught about getting it changed for a newer model.

it costs the same price to buy just the shell of a new phone with out a sim card as it does to buy a whole new phone and get a new contract.... does this seem stupid to anyone else or is it just me... i'm not looking for a new connection, so why pay the same price. should it not be cheaper??

Also, the salesperson i was talking to told that i would have to upgrade my contract and pay an extra €5 a month. this is because the contract i have was made before the euro and before vodafone bought eircell. my contract type isnt catered for anymore....

Mr E

Seems ridiculous to me.

The funny thing is that the cheapest way to upgrade your phone is to change networks!

How many people pingpong from Digifone/O2 to Eircell/Voda every year just to get a new phone?? I imagine quite a few.......

- Dave.

sceptre

Vodaphone don't really subsididse the handset cost any more

I suppose they're thinking that the market is saturated and it probably doesn't pay them for some connections (or at least takes them a while to break even)

O2 do subsidise still (though in most cases not as much as they used do). Plus they mke a bit of a thing about subsidising an upgrade if you use the phoen to make a lot of calls (it's on a sliding scale).

rabbitinlights

If you were on an old eircell tariff, you can still stay on it for as long as you want, vodafone cant make you change, the euro makes no difference, but a vodafone sales agent makes more commision if he gets you to change to a new vodafone tariff!
go back to the shop and confront him/her.
when doing an upgrade you can still stay on the old eircell tariff!
rabbitinlights

Cond0r

First of all, phones are cheaper when you buy them the first time because the provider(O2/Vodafone) subsidise the price of the handset, thats why when you go to upgrade to a new phone you're going to pay the handset price which is always a lot more than what it would be to get a new contract. You can't "pingpong" between networks every year to get a new phone for cheaper because the subsidised price is subject to a first time connection. So if you've been with O2, are now with Vodafone, you can't go back to O2 and get a subsidised phone.

< Cond0r >

michaelpwilson

I don't think that's quite right, Condor. I was looking to upgrade my phone for the last three months on O2, but as I hadn't been on their network for more than two years, and hadn't racked up over €1000 in phone calls for the last 12 months, I couldn't upgrade until last week.

Prior to upgrading I went round lots of different O2 stores and asked them what the story was on getting a new subsidised phone. The general consensus was that as my one-year contract had ended, if I left the O2 network for a month or so I would afterwards be eligible for a new first-time connection. I was told by one salesperson that it was at the discretion of O2 whether you could get a new first-time connection in such circumstances. However, the overwhelming majority of salespeople I talked to said it wouldn't be a problem to get a new first-time connection after the month had elapsed.

Unless the rules have been changed very recently, it's perfectly possible to change between O2 and Vodafone every two years and receive a new subsidised handset each time.

michaelpwilson

I don't think that's quite right, Condor. I was looking to upgrade my phone for the last three months on O2, but as I hadn't been on their network for more than two years, and hadn't racked up over €1000 in phone calls for the last 12 months, I couldn't upgrade until last week.

Prior to upgrading I went round lots of different O2 stores and asked them what the story was on getting a new subsidised phone. The general consensus was that as my one-year contract had ended, if I left the O2 network for a month or so I would afterwards be eligible for a new first-time connection. I was told by one salesperson that it was at the discretion of O2 whether you could get a new first-time connection in such circumstances. However, the overwhelming majority of salespeople I talked to said it wouldn't be a problem to get a new first-time connection after the month had elapsed.

Unless the rules have been changed very recently, it's perfectly possible to change between O2 and Vodafone every two years and receive a new subsidised handset each time.

Cond0r

Well, I don't know how true that is, I have never asked a salesperson about it, but as far as I know the term "First time connection" is the first time you connect to the network, so if you leave the network and then go to buy a new phone again, thats your second connection. I dunno, maybe the sales people have some way of getting around it for customers.
As for upgrading, yeah you have to have racked up a lot of money to get an upgrade, or have been on the network for 24months. And even then, you get a small subsidie when it comes to buying the handset, because you pay the sim-free price.

< Cond0r >