Experience With "Buying Out Contracts" Phones4U

McDaniel · 12 Dec 2008 at 11:59

Hello All,

I have about 6 months left on my current O2 contract and after 4 years they are starting to annoy me with some service issues and the like.

My mate went to pick up a new phone in Phones4U while i was looking at the SE X1 and got talking to the gent who explained they could Buy Out the Contract and start me on another... before he had time to fully explain i had to return to work.

What is invovled in this process, what happens to my current phone would i need to return that? How does it work - and is it reliable... i have heard some bad things about Phones4U

Dan

Maccy · 12 Dec 2008 at 12:34

I was going to do this a month or so ago. They offered to buy out the remaining 3 months for me and trade in my old phone for a new Sony Ericsson C905 and put me onto Vodafone. Was very tempting but in the end I didn't go for it just because of the bad reviews I'd read about Phones4U.

McDaniel · 19 Dec 2008 at 12:03

Anyone else?

McDaniel · 19 Dec 2008 at 13:08

just over £50 (still on a 12month contract with O2 + Insurance + Unlimited Text Bolt On)

Davyb · 19 Dec 2008 at 13:15

I got a buy on my 3 contract 6 months ago.

They give you cash in hand to pay off the reminder of your old contract. So you do all the donkey work of calling for you pak code etc.

You will need to check if they will buy out the whole contract and not just part of it like they tried to do with me. They offered to pay me for 4 months of the 6 i had left.

They sign you up for a new contract there and then.

McDaniel · 19 Dec 2008 at 14:14

So can you guarentee the ability to buy out a contract then - so if i rung O2 and said i want to buy my contract out, they couldnt refuse?

mrochester · 19 Dec 2008 at 20:19

McDaniel said:
So can you guarentee the ability to buy out a contract then - so if i rung O2 and said i want to buy my contract out, they couldnt refuse?

You might have to pay a fee for terminating the contract early, on top of paying all the remaining line rental. When I tried to leave T-Mobile 2 months early they wanted 2 months line rental and another amount on top of that as an early termination fee.

turbotoaster · 20 Dec 2008 at 00:28

i used to work for phones4u head office in outbound sales so i prob know better than most

basically the network will pay p4u a certain amount for each contract, p4u will use some of the money to buy the phone you want.....the cheaper the phone they give you the more money they save, they can then inturn give some of that money to you, or if your a good salesmen like i was you dont.

Now in terms of the buy out thing, basically say on a 35 a month contract on a cheapish phone i might have £100 i can spend on the customer, if the customer is paying 35 a month ill tell them to reduce there line rental to the minimum amount, normally 15-20 for the remaining part of the contract, so say they have 4months left, 4x20=80 so i give them the £80 and sign them up on the new contract

they then run both contracts for the following 4months and 1 month before the old contract is up to send a letter in to cancel it

pretty much that simple, remember tho that if you want the most expensive phones you wont get much cash, maybe £50 if u push, but thats it.

Phones4u are as just as bad as anyone, we are pushed very hard to sell no matter what, in november 2007 i sold the highest net deals of anyone who ever worked for the company and ill admit i screwed a lot of people over but when your under pressure and want the £6k a month your morals go out of the window

Any questions give me a shout, im more than happy to help independantly and not try and sell you a phone lol

rmuir · 20 Dec 2008 at 01:47

turbotoaster said:
Any questions give me a shout, im more than happy to help independantly and not try and sell you a phone lol

i'll take ya up on that offer...

Currently im on a 30ppm O2 contract with an LG Viewty, and in all honesty im sick to the back teeth of the phone.

Whats the best I could hope for on this 'buy out' offer, considering that I've got my eye on an n95/6 or similar?

cheers for the help!

carlazai · 20 Dec 2008 at 14:22

turbotoaster said:
i used to work for phones4u head office in outbound sales so i prob know better than most

basically the network will pay p4u a certain amount for each contract, p4u will use some of the money to buy the phone you want.....the cheaper the phone they give you the more money they save, they can then inturn give some of that money to you, or if your a good salesmen like i was you dont.

Now in terms of the buy out thing, basically say on a 35 a month contract on a cheapish phone i might have £100 i can spend on the customer, if the customer is paying 35 a month ill tell them to reduce there line rental to the minimum amount, normally 15-20 for the remaining part of the contract, so say they have 4months left, 4x20=80 so i give them the £80 and sign them up on the new contract

they then run both contracts for the following 4months and 1 month before the old contract is up to send a letter in to cancel it

pretty much that simple, remember tho that if you want the most expensive phones you wont get much cash, maybe £50 if u push, but thats it.

Phones4u are as just as bad as anyone, we are pushed very hard to sell no matter what, in november 2007 i sold the highest net deals of anyone who ever worked for the company and ill admit i screwed a lot of people over but when your under pressure and want the £6k a month your morals go out of the window

Any questions give me a shout, im more than happy to help independantly and not try and sell you a phone lol

A very informative post. I now know how the system works. Thanks

PMKeates · 20 Dec 2008 at 16:21

turbotoaster said:
Phones4u are as just as bad as anyone

I don't think that's fair to say. Phones4u push harder and **** over a lot more than, say, Virgin do. You only have to walk through the door of the typical Phones4u store and you'll see the dodgy-looking folk hovering around in cheap suits peddling nonsense. Walk through the doors of the typical Virgin store and it'll be a bunch of students in red shirts playing kiss chase

hiroofheroes · 21 Dec 2008 at 14:54

When I got my phone earlier in the month, orange upgrades offered me a far better deal than any of the retailers, quite different to in previous years.

SE C902 with 300 minutes and unlimited texts every month on an eighteen month contract for £10 a month.

turbotoaster · 21 Dec 2008 at 20:34

rmuir said:
i'll take ya up on that offer...

Currently im on a 30ppm O2 contract with an LG Viewty, and in all honesty im sick to the back teeth of the phone.

Whats the best I could hope for on this 'buy out' offer, considering that I've got my eye on an n95/6 or similar?

cheers for the help!

well it depends on a couple of things really

do you ever go over on your minutes and texts currently, as yes you may have a contract of £30 a month but if your bills are £60 then your not on the right package.

Do you need to keep your number?

How have O2 been for you, good bad?

N95 prob 100, n96 depends how much you wanna spend a month.

The most important thing is be honest, remember im not selling so saying you use 10 mins and 10 texts a month will not help lol

Airax · 22 Dec 2008 at 09:27

PMKeates said:
I don't think that's fair to say. Phones4u push harder and **** over a lot more than, say, Virgin do. You only have to walk through the door of the typical Phones4u store and you'll see the dodgy-looking folk hovering around in cheap suits peddling nonsense. Walk through the doors of the typical Virgin store and it'll be a bunch of students in red shirts playing kiss chase

Actually phones4U got their knuckles rapped by Staffordshire trading standards for miss selling, ec, etc. Also their CS is apalling, I've had to help a friend get this phone repaired, and they just didn't want to know.
If you want to do a deal then they are fine, but don't expect any help afterwards once you've walked from the door.

jhmaeng · 22 Dec 2008 at 15:39

P4U are the most abominable of the mobile phone stores- - extremely pushy, generally no idea about what they are selling, and some advisors that could barely write let alone communicate effectively. CPW is not much better. Of course, there are exceptions but the overwhelming feeling I walk away from them with is really not good.

I don't worry about getting screwed over because I know enough about mobiles not to be conned, but I hate to imagine the things they do to unsuspecting punters...

PS. The "buy-out" option is definitely not "free" - they need to divert the money to buy you out from somewhere else, which normally means you get an old and unpopular handset because anything better would cost too much for the handset and would not leave enough money for the buy-out.

matt100 · 22 Dec 2008 at 20:12

They're really no worse than anyone else, I work very closely with them and I know from a HO level they are trying incredibly hard to improve their CS levels, the service I got when my K850 broke was miles in front of anything I had received from carphone in the past, I even got a text asking me to complain if anything was wrong with the service I had received.

Alternatively I used to actually work for carphone and saw (and in some instances gave tbh) shocking service.

There's no black and white, one is competently branded as cute and fluffy and the other is well known for trying to sell you things, there's no satan/jesus divide.

Frankly the amount of staff I had at CPW who'd been brainwashed with the whole cuddly thing to the extent they didn't want to close a sale was ludicrous and often irritated customers, half of them are order takers.

Except for when you get to insurance and 4U haven't got a look in with the aggression there.

Its worth noting that 4U have been INVESTIGATED AND CLEARED of mis-selling, carphone have been FINED for mis-selling.

On the buyout issue, I've never had a network refuse me a buyout, they sometimes want £35 or some other random amount to let you do it but more often than not they will let you.

In fact, if you ask for your PAC code that normally does the trick and once you use it to move numbers you get a settlement bill from your previous provider.