Blimey – It Worked!
I took out one of those incredibly dodgy-looking “100% cashback” mobile phone deals last year. Much to my surprise – it seems to have worked. £35 a month for a 12-month T-Mobile contract with 200 free any time/any network minutes per month. The handset was free too – a K700i.
I didn’t go over my 200 minute limit, but did spend some money on texts. I think I ended up spending maybe £20 over the year (a couple of mistaken calls to 0800 numbers I think too). I also spent £12 on special delivery postage costs for the cashback claims. The deal was from The Mobile Outlet, who tried to refuse my initial claim after six months on the grounds that I’d not complied with their contract terms. This seems to have been a mix-up though, and a couple of weeks later I get a cheque for £192. Last week, I got the other one for the remaining six.
Now I’m doing it again, this time with Phones 2U on a K750i handset with Vodafone (500 minutes, 200 texts).
As long as these deals are around, I’m not going to use PAYG again and that’s for sure! I wonder how much they make out me?
Good to hear!
I run a comparison website for mobile phones, and Carphone Warehouse have made everyone very edgy of these deals, but if you stick to the agreement they’re honoured fully…
Hopefully the market can recover with stories like this by people who have tried and succeeded!
Take care
Martin
Yes, you have to be prepared to read all the T&Cs in full, and to keep every last scrap of correspondence that you get. I’ve even kept the bag that the phone was delivered in just in case they want some obscure delivery number or something.
One thing I did (which may just be paranoid delusion) was to use Special Delivery for all the cashback claims I posted. The insurance you get with that covers consequential loss up to a few hundred quid. So in theory that might mean if the phone provider says they never got it, I might be able to claim the cashback amount from Royal Mail instead. It costs £4 a shot to send it that way, but I reckoned it was worth it.
Transferring your number is also a potential risk as I see that Phones 2U may require documentation to prove that your number is associated with the contract – so I’m going to have to investigate that before my first claim is due.
BTW I sold the handset on eBay yesterday for £20. This pretty much mopped up the incidental expenses incurred during the life of the contract. So, a free phone with a free connection for 12 months. Could I be any smugger that this?
A group of conned consumers are trying to get together for a class action against the networks to try to claim the money they are owed. If you would like to join them feel free to email them at:
[email protected]
or
[email protected]
You don’t have to be a Phones2udirect victim to contact this group, anyone affected by a Mobile phone cashback scam, like Phoneboxdirect Coolnewmobile Simply3g or The Mobile Outlet can join the group.
To attempt action against the networks on an individual basis would be high-risk and costly. Clearly, in the event of litigation success only those consumers directly participating in the class actions would retrieve their cashback entitlements and costs. Anyone not participating in any action would not recover any of their cashback as a result of this.