MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Daughter is looking for a new mobile deal. Cheapest by far are these rebate deals - 24 month contract - get a refund of most of the cost for after 6, 12, 18 months. Brings the cost down from £15 to £5/month How does that work? or is there a catch?
The catch is that the terms and conditions are pretty strict and complex, so on average the firm make a profit. And if the retailer goes bust, so does your cashback. If you're confident that you will remember every caveat, they're ok.
Personally, I know I'll forget and just negotiate with cancellations.
Typed on a Galaxy S2 that came with a 10 quid bill credit, on panther 36 for 26 quid a month. Courtesy of Orange's retention department.
There is no catch as such but you have to remember to send the right bits of information off at the right time. It'll be a statement and some other bits normally and has to be done in a couple of weeks. The money is made by people getting it wrong or forgetting altogether!
I've had them before and all was fine, money took a little while to come back but that was about it.
I've just applied for my 1st of 5 rebate in December. I got an email on 16/12/11 saying cheque issued will take 10 -14 days to arrive, it didn't. Had to chase on 3rd Jan to be told I will have cheque by 12th. Followed by a new version of the original email on 6th Jan, saying same, cheque issued 10 to 14 days. Having checked my online account I can see that the cheque has now been issued. I have written to complain that they are failing to uphold their end of the contract. They have phoned me once in response that I missed and I am not prepared to pay to ring them up.
I am happy that I will eventually get the money my contract states but I do believe that it will be a pain in the bottom.
You have to submit a very specific dated bill within a specific time period at each refund point. The system works for them knowing that these days a lot of people will forget to apply at the right time (I have the schedule on my Google and phone calender with reminder set) or when it becomes a hassle they won't chase.
I got mine from Dial A Phone.
If you are prepared to work for your refunds and wait, go for it.
Thanks for that. I am not sure I can rely on myself to be that organised! Looks like she will have to settle for a cheaper phone!
My suspicion is the intermediary is the one obliged to make the refund and as above they will just mess you about as much as possible and make it as difficult as possible. If they do end up with loads of requests for payment they could just wind up the company!
I would not go near it with a barge pole.
To be fair to Dial a Phone they do seem to be a long standing company ( they are local to me so get some feed back off the street (as it were)) so I don't think they are a company who will just wait until they have a massive back log of refund requests then disappear.
I think the model that they work to is just to hang on to as much cash for as long as possible/make it such a pain that folk will give up. I have to say as well though that in my experience this is the way a lot of people run their lives these days. I have seen a lot of examples of people I know missing out on money by not being able, organised or interested enough to stay on top of things. The trick is to make it a relatively small amount. I am scheduled to get £38 back every 5 months over the 24 month contract (spot the mistake). This is a reasonable amount but the sort of figure that IMO a lot of people would not get too hot and bothered about losing, and I'm not talking land owning Tories I'm talking normal, run of the mill folk. To many people they already have too much hassle in their lives. Now if the contract run in a rebate of £190 at the end of the 24 months I strongly suspect that a lot more folk would chase that amount up.
I can't recommend Dial a Phone as I think this is a poor way to run a business. On the other hand though I'm not going to totally slag them off as I went in to the deal expecting the service that I have received. I am chasing them and complaining as IMO they are failing to meet their part of the contract, but I am doing it in the knowledge that I walked in to the mess with open arms and eyes.
You have to send your bill off within 30/60/XX days of the x months contract.
I had all mine at the first attempt from www.mobiles.co.uk. I just setup reminders, downloaded a digital copy of the bill and emailed it. Dead simple and easy.
Currently with buymobilephones.net and not quite at my first rebate yet.
As said, you only lose if you forget or they go bust.