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Bargain Phone Thread |
Daedalus85
Joined: Apr 23, 2007
Posts: > 500
From: Suffolk, UK
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On 2008-03-06 21:05:00, Seanyb2 wrote:
Yes thats the only annoying thing about Carphone. If you go into their stores and do a pay as you go upgrade you cant do it on same number you have to still do the bloody 10 quid top up on a new sim which i find stupid. Its only contract customers these places care about really gets to me. So that ten quid goes on a new number you wont use.
There's a good reason for them making you buy top up Sean.
It's to try and crack down on box breaking, the act of purchasing one or more (or often several) pay as you go phones from a retailer, unlocking them and selling them abroad.
In order to try and recoup some of the loss, the retailer makes you buy £10 of credit to 1) deter them from trying to buy it and 2) to reclaim some of the lost money.
But hold on, you might be thinking, surely these greedy bastards make a fortune of the phone anyway? Not nessecarily true. Ever wondered why sim free phones always cost more? Pay as you go phones are subsidised by the retailer as they get some money back the more a customer uses the phone with that network. The network pays the retail store commission (not the kind salespeople get, different kind of commission).
However, if the phone is 'box broken' and the network doesn't get any money from the customer, the retailer doesn't get paid and they loose out on money from the handset.
Basically, the make the phones cheaper on pay as you go so you can buy them for less, as they get money back from the networks to counter act that cost.
My opinions on this forum are that of my own and not of the company I work for. |
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Seanyb2
Joined: Jan 26, 2007
Posts: > 500
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Yes i understand what your saying but why then when i last bought a K800i from Carphone on pay as you go and it was unlocked. Sold at 79.99. The shop staff before have told me they are networke locked but they are not they just sell the phones with a seperate sim. That i dont mind i now have a 6300 from O2 shop on pay as you go and its locked. Wish i had gone to Carphone as i now want to use another sim in it. Oh well.
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Daedalus85
Joined: Apr 23, 2007
Posts: > 500
From: Suffolk, UK
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CPW get them cheaper if their unlocked.
Reason being, network stores only have one network to sell, so if they get 10,000 6300's for example locked to O2, their not loosing any money, cause they're all going to be sold on the same network.
CPW on the other hand, have to sell 6 or more networks, so if they bought say, 2,000 of each network, they might run out of one, or have over bought on another. Also bear in mind some networks charge more than others for CPW to buy their phones from them.
So whats cheaper for them to do, is buy 10,000 unlocked phones direct from the manufacturer (or their distributers) and bung a sim card for the relevant network in it.
In turn, CPW control the price of the handset on different networks to push sales towards the network that is offering them the most money/commission that month per handset.
Now, they still need to show the network that their money is being well spent in CPW by making all customers buy the £10 top up.
If you're already with said network, some let you top up your existing phone, so long as an upgrade process is in place to verify to the network that they're already getting money from you.
O2 for example give you an upgrade reward on pay as you go, so CPW can notify them that you're already with them and then the £10 top up can go on the exisiting phone, which helps counter act the price of the phone a bit.
My opinions on this forum are that of my own and not of the company I work for. |
MWEB
Joined: Feb 13, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: somewhere nicer than you
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MY CPW insists upon putting top up credits bought with new phones on NEW sims, i spend half my life registering various sims and then getting the network operater to transfer said credit on to my existing sims.
Funny how places like argos, currys, woolworths etc dont FORCE you to pay for a top up when you buy a phone from them.
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PeterKay
Joined: Jul 08, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: The Ummah
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@mweb, my CPW does exactly the same but great customer service 
any more bargains?
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Daedalus85
Joined: Apr 23, 2007
Posts: > 500
From: Suffolk, UK
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mweb: possibly because they might be a little naive when it comes to phones, and as its not their main practice they don't sell them in huge quantities, like dedicated mobile phone shops.
They should enforce it, but it's easier to them not and, as they have an 'in and out again' system when it comes to sales. Same goes for faulty phones, it's a case of 'replace and repair it later'.
My opinions on this forum are that of my own and not of the company I work for. |
bearcub24
Joined: Aug 11, 2006
Posts: 227
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Although paying CPW a £10 premium for the credit on a new sim surely has to be worth it if your getting a vanilla handset? |
Daedalus85
Joined: Apr 23, 2007
Posts: > 500
From: Suffolk, UK
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There is that 
And their often the cheapest even then.
My opinions on this forum are that of my own and not of the company I work for. |
bearcub24
Joined: Aug 11, 2006
Posts: 227
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Very true, I've found buying sim-free also helps with future OTA firmware updates as they are always the first available. |
faultymonkey
Joined: Sep 17, 2005
Posts: 29
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I got myself a BNIB w960i off ebay for £220. I think thats quite a bargain when the RRP is £400! Cant wait for it to come!
(__/) (o.O ) (>0<  this is a rabbit with a hand grenade, copy him into your sig to dominate the world! |
PeterKay
Joined: Jul 08, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: The Ummah
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On 2008-03-09 21:39:53, faultymonkey wrote:
I got myself a BNIB w960i off ebay for £220. I think thats quite a bargain when the RRP is £400! Cant wait for it to come!
They seem a bargain at around £200, not bad for a 8gb 
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Seanyb2
Joined: Jan 26, 2007
Posts: > 500
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Sorry people we should stick to bargains on this thread i started something so i should finish it. Enough about top ups now i get everyones point.
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5nak3
Joined: Oct 22, 2007
Posts: 364
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Gonna try and hit the town tomorrow and look for that samsung e590, but just wanted to find out if anyone know about the CPW's trade in policy, can you trade in any phone with its charger and mannual, or do they have a specific list of phones they accept?
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PeterKay
Joined: Jul 08, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: The Ummah
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Reconditioned P990i £89.99 in stock!!!
Bargain 
Plenty of other reconditioned phones from Orange
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Seanyb2
Joined: Jan 26, 2007
Posts: > 500
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You can trade in any phone. I was told a K800i was 20 quid trade in.
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Posted: 2008-03-09 10:57
