In reply to a post by trolleybus:

These price increases generally apply even if you are in a contract period, nor are they a "get me out of the contract card without penalty".

This is one of my biggest bugbears with these suppliers, all I want is a fixed monthly price for the whole contract term, I appreciate the price won't be as cheap as it is currently at the beginning but at least you will be able to easily compare the true cost with other providers over the contract period which is not the case currently.

Edited by deleted (Fri 21-Jan-22 22:06:57)

My better half phoned EE the other day to try and get her mobile phone bill down.
She's paying £19.50 a month for a very normal usage - some phone calls, some texts, some WhatsUp, and email. There is no high usage at all.

Tried to use a comparison to my bill, also with EE, which is £12.50 a month. Again, very low usage all round.

They refused point blank to even discuss a reduction.
I suspect this is emblematic of a hardening all round in the industry towards consumer pricing. I suspect the companies know they will get away with increasing prices, with no government intervention.

We will be looking at alternative providers. But one issue is that EE reception here is good, we don't want to change and find reception for a different provider is poor. Want to stick with the "real" networks, and not one of the subcontracted types.

As I found out to my cost few years back that Three (and im sure others) when I signed up to a £30pm mobile broadband deal (which was very good at the time), the "actual" price was £60 with £30 off, so when the annual increase came they used the £60 to work out the increase - I left as soon as contract was up obviously.

Edited by Rolandrat (Sat 22-Jan-22 10:22:07)

Is this rise high enough to break anyone out of contract?

Edited by BuckleZ (Sat 22-Jan-22 10:23:17)

I've been with Three now for over three years on phone, and almost exactly three years on mobile broadband.

Unlimited everything on my phone, bought separately, and unlimited data on the broadband.

Currently paying just under £19pm on the phone contract which was re-contracted at £18pm a couple of years ago and has had one annual hike, (the bill varies a few pence depending on the occasional chargeable 03 numbers), and £22pm for the 4G+ Mobile broadband.

Some time last year was when I re-contracted on the mobile broadband. I was offered £15pm for the same unlimited data retaining my old B311 router but opted for their offer at the time of £22 with the much better ZTE and a free Smart TV. That going as a surprise present for my niece's daughter's bedroom.

Very pleased with both .

In reply to a post by pluralist:

Very pleased with both .

I suspect even Three will put prices up this year, due to the cost of the electricity they need to power their network and masts increasing a large amount.

Three are trying to escape their "underdog" status, explains the massive deployment of random new transmitter mono-poles, but the strategy is still not contiguous. They don't compete on nationwide coverage with either Vodafone or EE, or even O2. The customer services is legendary awful (and also located in India), and they don't support eSIM or the cellular smart watches.

It is very strange for a network owned by CK Hutchison Holdings, one of the planets wealthiest companies.

I've contacted CS several times about retention prices or upgrade deals since late 2018 and had no trouble at all with the reps. Often English accents and always very pleasant and helpful. Perhaps you are seeing just the usual; the unfortunate people who have had a bad experience maybe long ago and post about it.

Take the poster here I just replied to. I suspect it was many years ago on the old unlimited product that was withdrawn long before 2018. I did read many complaints about that before I swapped from my expensive out of contract EE phone service. The current product does not have the end of minimum term high price clause.

You may remember my very long thread when I ditched my AAISP landline and several others decided to go with the same service as I. I think I've only seen one, maybe two, on here regretting it. Which isn't to say they haven't moved to a higher priced product from another supplier for other reasons having validated the principle cheaply.

In reply to a post by pluralist:

I've contacted CS several times about retention prices or upgrade deals since late 2018 and had no trouble at all with the reps. Often English accents and always very pleasant and helpful. Perhaps you are seeing just the usual; the unfortunate people who have had a bad experience maybe long ago and post about it.

Hi,
I have had an experience of three 5 years ago, customer service was awful, I had to call Three this week, offshore and didn't know what was going on in the slightest.
They transferred me 5 Times for a basic request.

In reply to a post by BuckleZ:

Is this rise high enough to break anyone out of contract?

Nope. They are raising it the highest they are allowed without having to let you leave.

They are allowed to raise prices by CPI (5.4%) plus 3.9%. So it's a 9.3% rise.

Edited by j0hn83 (Sat 22-Jan-22 12:51:22)

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

In reply to a post by BuckleZ:

Is this rise high enough to break anyone out of contract?

Nope. They are raising it the highest they are allowed without having to let you leave.

They are allowed to raise prices by CPI (5.4%) plus 3.9%. So it's a 9.3% rise.

Crafty, not that I was going to, but I'm sure a lot will be looking to1