Mobiles, cashback and internet phone shops

[[James]]

Has anyone gone with a contract deal through one of them? I'm talking about the likes of dialaphone.co.uk, themobileoutlet.co.uk, theorder.co.uk and so on.

I was in Phones4u the other day and they were offering a 'cashback' deal, whereby I would initially be responsible for paying the £35/month line rental but would then be refunded by Phones4u on receipt of my bills, bringing the net cost down to £10/month. What's the best deal you've had through one of these shops? How far can you push them?

Further, some internet shops are offering a similar cashback deal on a 12 month contract - i.e. you're eventually refunded the entire 12 months, leaving you with a free phone. Does anyone have any experience of these kinds of deals?

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[spewie]

Stay well clear of Phones4u when it comes to cashback. I was promised £100 'cheque-back' after I provided copies of my bills, and I had to wait for over a year and a half to get anything, also had to write a letter to head office, and speak to the Edinburgh store on a monthly basis.

I think it's a scam to get you in the door and they'll do their damndest to ensure you don't get the money.

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[s]you can have it all if you want to[/s]

[Thalia]

Yeah, my mum had a cashback deal once and it took a lot of persuading to get them to give up the money once they had it

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You've been nothing but an angel every day of your life and now you wonder what it's like to be damned...

[Okocim]

At the end of 2005 my tie-in period with 3 ended and I rang up to finish the contract. However, the guy on the phone was extremely reluctant to let me go and kept offering me deal after deal. I was getting quite fed up with this until I suddenly registered that the final deal he offered me was crazily cheap.

18 month contract - £25 per month
First six months half price
Cashback of £165 in month 13.
Inclusive each month:-
- 200 voice minutes (anytime, any number)
- 100 texts
- 25 video minutes
- 25 photo messages
- £5 download content

Works out at just over £11 per month. The phone is decent, though not terribly robust, and I had to remind them about the cashback deal before they paid. But hey, I think it's been good value overall.

[[James]]

Hmm, it all seems a bit of a mixed bag. The specific deal I was referring to is this:

http://www.themobileoutlet.co.uk/handse ... Tariff=145

It's obvious that the only way this company can profit from this deal is by making the cashback procedure complicated - here are the T&Cs:

If your cash back entitlement is more than £201 for a 12 month contract, you have to claim your money back in a 5 stage process. This cash back offer is conditional upon you complying with the exact terms of this clause. The steps in point 11.1, 11.2 only apply to contracts where the cash back entitlement is £200 or less. To claim cash back in cases where your entitlement is £201 and above you need to comply with the following 5 stages listed below. If you do not comply with the exact terms of each of these stages you will loose your entitlement to your cash back. If any one stage is not complied with, you will loose your entitlement to claim the whole of the cash back. If there have been any late payments made on your account at any time this will result in your application for cash back being void.

It is your responsibility to ensure that the relevant documentation reaches us within the relevant period. The stages of claiming the cash back are:


In month 4 of your contract you will need to forward bills 1through to 4 to us within 21 days of the issue date on bill number 4.
In month 7 of your contract you will need to forward bills 5 through to 7 to us within 21 days of the issue date on bill number 7.
In month 9 of your contract you will need to forward bills 8 & 9 to us within 21 days of the issue date on bill number 9.
In month 11 of your contract you will need to forward bills 10 & 11to us within 21 days of the issue date on bill number 11.
In month 12 of your contract you will need to forward to us bill 12 within 21 days of the issue date on bill number 12.


Has anyone dealt with anything like this?

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[ascii]

I'm on my second cashback deal at the moment. First I got 12 months free on a 12 months contract on from e2save. At the moment I'm midway through an 18 months free on an 18 month contract deal from the Link, and have received all the cashback cheques due so far. However, I've always been wary of recommending deals to friends, since I'd feel bad if they didn't work for them.

http://www.reestitmutton.co.uk/ has a big database of cashback deals you can compare, with affiliate and non-affiliate links to the deals. If you're a member of certain cashback websites you can often get 10 or 20 quid depending on the retailer.

A few other thoughts:

Only take out an offer like this if you are certain you can follow the instructions to the letter. Put the claim dates in your diary, alarms on your mobile, etc so you don't forget.

Some of the companies play games - as you've mentioned the claim processes are convoluted, and you might need to spend some time chasing up your claim. You might need to take it to a small claims court, but if you've followed the instructions, you will win. Whether you can be bothered with the hassle is up to you. Personally, all my claims have arrived within a month of when they should have, requiring at most an email asking where my money was.

Depending on the claim instructions, whether you want to move your number to your next contract, you might end up paying for an extra month at the end of your deal. Having said that, the effective monthly cost of, say £30, spread over 12 months isn't that bad.

I think the most important thing is to choose a company that won't go bankrupt before you get your cashback. Your contract with the mobile network and cashback deal with the retailer are separate. If the retailer disappears, the network will shrug their shoulders and expect you to carry on paying the monthly bills.

So phones4u are a good bet, whatever the previous poster said. If they don't pay up, small claims court them. e2save and onestopphoneshop are owned by the carphonewarehouse, so are a good bet in my opinion as well.

Hope that helps. To conclude, don't sign up if you can't afford to lose the money, but if you chose retailer carefully, follow the instructions properly and are prepared to spend some time writing threatening letters, you should see your money.

[[James]]

Well, I really don't want to sign up for one of these deals if it means I'm going to have to take the company to court at some point during the next 12 months just to get what they promised me in the beginning. Have you had to do this yourself with any of the companies you mentioned? Are there any in particular that are notorious for this sort of behaviour?

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[ascii]

Quoting [James] from 11:31, 12th Feb 2007
Well, I really don't want to sign up for one of these deals if it means I'm going to have to take the company to court at some point during the next 12 months just to get what they promised me in the beginning. Have you had to do this yourself with any of the companies you mentioned? Are there any in particular that are notorious for this sort of behaviour?

[

Personally I've had no problems with e2save and thelink, and my Dad has had successful cashback deals with e2save and mobileshop. I'm aware of people having problems, but I couldn't say which are notorious. You could try searching the uk.telecom.mobile newsgroup. Remember that people who have problems will shout much louder than happy punters.

From what I can make out, the small claims court procedure is fairly straight forward, you can even do it online (in England anyway, not sure about Scotland). At the end of the day it's a personal decision. For me, given the low chance of a big firm going bankrupt and taking my money with them, I think that saving £300 is worth the potential hassle of a few letters. Even if it took me 10 hours, that's a reasonable hourly rate for me.

One other point I should have made last time - send your claims recorded delivery. The firms have the attitude "proof of postage is not proof of delivery".

[[James]]

Thanks for the help. I'm tempted to go with e2save, but I just saw this on the BBC news website!

http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/ ... &edition=d

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[dc]

Couldn't be bothered reading all the replies to this topic but thought I'd let you know that at least I can recommend Dial a Phone for cashback deals.

Their requirements for sending bills are pretty straightforward and indeed every time I've been given a smegload of cash back.

I'd be paying £30 a month for a year if I was on this contract just with O2, but as it stands with Dial a Phone and the money back I am paying little more than £10 a month.

Good luck!