Prev: uk.telecom.mobile mini FAQ (weekly posting)
Next: Get special discount on all pay as you go mobile phones
From: Fred on 7 Apr 2010 05:55
Hi,

Looking at some PAYG phones I see that many require you to buy a
top-up at the time of purchase. One site (I can't remember now, sorry)
said the top-up was required "to prevent fraud". If you paid by card
you needed to top-up with just �10 but if you paid by cash, they
wanted a �20 top-up. What is fraudulent about buying a phone and why
is buying it with cash apparently more fraudulent?

Is it to stop you buying a vodafone handset and then putting in an o2
sim? Does the network subsidize the handset?

TIA
From: Steve Terry on 7 Apr 2010 07:20
"Fred" <fred(a)no-email.here.invalid> wrote in message
news:8elor55i66hpf9s7v3estmim5o8q0bqod5(a)4ax.com...
> Hi,
> Looking at some PAYG phones I see that many require you to buy a
> top-up at the time of purchase. One site (I can't remember now, sorry)
> said the top-up was required "to prevent fraud". If you paid by card
> you needed to top-up with just �10 but if you paid by cash, they
> wanted a �20 top-up. What is fraudulent about buying a phone and why
> is buying it with cash apparently more fraudulent?
> Is it to stop you buying a vodafone handset and then putting in an o2
> sim? Does the network subsidize the handset?
> TIA
>
>
It guarantees the dealer gets their very substantial phone subsidy from
the network
If you walk out with an unregistered phone, you could chuck the sim
without the phone ever being registered on the network, the dealer
could lose their phone subsidy.

Steve Terry
--
Get a free Three 3pay Sim with �2 bonus after �10 top up
http://freeagent.three.co.uk/stand/view/id/5276


From: Whiskers on 7 Apr 2010 07:25
On 2010-04-07, Fred <fred(a)no-email.here.invalid> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Looking at some PAYG phones I see that many require you to buy a
> top-up at the time of purchase. One site (I can't remember now, sorry)
> said the top-up was required "to prevent fraud". If you paid by card
> you needed to top-up with just £10 but if you paid by cash, they
> wanted a £20 top-up. What is fraudulent about buying a phone and why
> is buying it with cash apparently more fraudulent?

A debit or credit card is traceable, cash isn't.

> Is it to stop you buying a vodafone handset and then putting in an o2
> sim?

I imagine that's the sort of thing they're concerned about. That is
'fraud' - you're taking the inducement (the cheap or free handset) but
ignoring your side of the contract, which is paying monthly instalments or
buying top-ups.

> Does the network subsidize the handset?

Yes. How else does a handset that costs (say) £100 if bought on its own,
come to be 'free' with a service contract? You'll also notice that 'sim
only' contracts cost a lot less per month than the deals that include a
handset.

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~
From: Fred on 7 Apr 2010 12:20
On Wed, 7 Apr 2010 12:20:19 +0100, "Steve Terry" <gfourwwk(a)tesco.net>
wrote:

>It guarantees the dealer gets their very substantial phone subsidy from
>the network

That's interesting. How much do they get?
From: Fred on 7 Apr 2010 12:36
On Wed, 07 Apr 2010 12:25:00 +0100, Whiskers
<catwheezel(a)operamail.com> wrote:

>A debit or credit card is traceable, cash isn't.

Why do they need to trace it, a top up is a top up?

>I imagine that's the sort of thing they're concerned about. That is
>'fraud' - you're taking the inducement (the cheap or free handset) but
>ignoring your side of the contract, which is paying monthly instalments or
>buying top-ups.

>Yes. How else does a handset that costs (say) £100 if bought on its own,
>come to be 'free' with a service contract? You'll also notice that 'sim
>only' contracts cost a lot less per month than the deals that include a
>handset.

But this wasn't a question about contract phones, it was about PAYG
phones and they can cost anything up to �400, which doesn't give the
impression they are subsidized.

This system only guarantees them that I pay for a �10 top up. I can
still then throw away the sim and put another one in. So if the phones
are subsidized, they are only getting ten pound and still losing the
rest of the value of the phone.

I find it hard to feel sorry for vodafone and o2. As I understand it
asda uses vodafone and tesco uses o2, yet the supermarkets charge a
fraction of their parent networks' costs.
 |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2 3
Prev: uk.telecom.mobile mini FAQ (weekly posting)
Next: Get special discount on all pay as you go mobile phones