Somehow O2's website is suggesting that existing non-iPhone O2 customers would have to wait until the end of their 12/18/24 months contract before they can "upgrade"? 
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WTH, Existing non-iPhone O2 Customers Wait til the END OF CONTRACT?????
- Thread starter billandy
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Am I missing something here because my first reaction is 'yeah duh!'
A NON O2 customer has to wait till their contract is up, fair enough but if they want 2 contracts with different networks they can but O2 are just saying they won't bail you out of your existing contract. Don't know if anyones ever had a network do that for them I just know I haven't.
Am just glad that iPhone is the first mobile I've had in the last 6 years I'm not bored of after 6 months - dont think it's worth the £99 upgrade at leats with currently announced features, but never know come July 11th I might be hitting the upgrade button anyway...
A NON O2 customer has to wait till their contract is up, fair enough but if they want 2 contracts with different networks they can but O2 are just saying they won't bail you out of your existing contract. Don't know if anyones ever had a network do that for them I just know I haven't.
Am just glad that iPhone is the first mobile I've had in the last 6 years I'm not bored of after 6 months - dont think it's worth the £99 upgrade at leats with currently announced features, but never know come July 11th I might be hitting the upgrade button anyway...
Yeh I'm worried about this too. It says "We'll contact you when you're eligible for an upgrade" for existing customer on the website. Better not be right
I don't understand it, when people sign up to a phone contract with O2 (or any other network), don't they realise they will have to see the contract through to it's end.
The offer to allow iPhone owners to upgrade early is only because they bought their phones without any subsidies. Other phones on contract with O2 would be subsidised, hence the requirement for the contract to run for it's full length.
The offer to allow iPhone owners to upgrade early is only because they bought their phones without any subsidies. Other phones on contract with O2 would be subsidised, hence the requirement for the contract to run for it's full length.
Not quite sure what you're so p*ssed about here... you're on an O2 contract, and you're obliged to see it through to the last monthly payment, or alternatively pay a hefty buy-out fee. Ever wonder why you got your current handset very cheap / free? Because you're paying for it in your monthly bill!
Quit the whining!
Ed
Quit the whining!
Ed
Not quite sure what you're so p*ssed about here... you're on an O2 contract, and you're obliged to see it through to the last monthly payment, or alternatively pay a hefty buy-out fee. Ever wonder why you got your current handset very cheap / free? Because you're paying for it in your monthly bill!
Quit the whining!
Ed
well put
next they will be moaning about the price 
yes you are all missing something the original post states....
NON IPHONE existing O2 customers.... ie they are with O2 but dont have an iphone!
i think you're a bit off the point here. the 1st iphone users didn't receive any subsidy, but o2 shared a hefty proportion of the revenue with apple, i can't tell which one's even worse. and as you may not recall the "existing contract customers" then was given a free upgrade option so long as they agree to a sign up its new 18-month iphone contracts. why not this time as well?
Actually it's not such a stupid question so don't treat us like idiots. When the last iPhone was brought out, o2 allowed you to cancel your current contract in order to buy the new iphone. Therefore it is completely reasonable that they would do the same for the new iphone 3g, as at&t are doing this too. After all if they've got a device which is going to wanted by many current o2 customers, you would have thought their would be something to accomodate these people.
i see what your saying - they offered it before to existing o2 contract customers but not this time.
Maybe o2 have clocked on that there will be a shortage of iPhone in July/Aug so they are looking to maximize there profiits by selling to current iphone users and brand new contracts first ?
anyway if i was you i'd phone up o2 and ask them to switch you over to a new iphone contract when released and see what they offer you
http://www.o2.co.uk/iphone/existingiphonecustomers
have a look here guys, looks like us exsisting iPhone owners can upgrade for free to the 8gb version. all you got to do is register your interest and they will contact you in early july, i have and will be getting me a new one!
Simon
have a look here guys, looks like us exsisting iPhone owners can upgrade for free to the 8gb version. all you got to do is register your interest and they will contact you in early july, i have and will be getting me a new one!
Simon
They did do this first time round and I took advantage of it. I guess they're looking at if differently this time round though and thinking that if people didn't take it then, why should they give them another opportunity when they won't make as much money of the handset this time around.
To be clear, I don't like this - just wondering if that's the thinking behind it.
http://www.o2.co.uk/iphone/existingiphonecustomers
have a look here guys, looks like us exsisting iPhone owners can upgrade for free to the 8gb version. all you got to do is register your interest and they will contact you in early july, i have and will be getting me a new one!
Simon
Depending what tariff you're on. Only free if you're on the £45 or £75 per month tariffs.
As other's have stated the reason why it has changed is because things are different now. O2 is now paying for essentially half the phone, in exchange for the contract. On the original iPhone they were paying for none of the phone, so they did not really care about extending your contract much beyond your last phone, or making it onerous, becuase it did not matter. They were not trying to collect back money they invested into the phone.
AT&T will be the same way this time. I previously had a phone under contract with them. They did not care. They just started a new window for 2 years and let me get the phone. Were I wanting to do this again with a non-iphone, they would not let me do it this time. Because I still owe them money on the last phone, and will owe them money on the new phone.
http://www.o2.co.uk/iphone/existingiphonecustomers
have a look here guys, looks like us exsisting iPhone owners can upgrade for free to the 8gb version. all you got to do is register your interest and they will contact you in early july, i have and will be getting me a new one!
Simon
as far as i am aware, the term "upgrade" is used in uk only upon the completion of a customer's contract. gave them a call, the girl wasn't even aware that the new one's just out and told me "the iphone has been discontinued"...
anywhere in the world now the old revenue-sharing model is gone with the new version. no one has officially revealed how much they were paying off their customer's revenue to the iphone. i reckon it should be more than £100 that they're subsidising, somewhere i read it's actually about £200. i don't see how operators work out the maths. why don't they give their existing non-iphone customers an upgrade option at non-subsidised £269, they'd make more £££ in the end
I could well be wrong, but the way I saw it with the first iPhone was that as you were buying it outright, O2 wasn't subsidising anything... If you moved onto an iPhone contract from another contract with them, you were still 'paying off' your original phone with the new contract.
And now because they are subsidising the iPhone, it doesn't make sense that they would let you get away with TWO subsidised phones...
And now because they are subsidising the iPhone, it doesn't make sense that they would let you get away with TWO subsidised phones...
I'll be waiting till the end of my existing iPhone contract. I bought 2 iPhones in December one for me one and one for my daughter, we are both on the £35 tariff, and the phones in total cost us £500. Going by the new prices if I upgrade both these phones just to 8gb versions of the 3g iPhone I'll have to pay £200. If I wait till this time next year my 18 month contract will have expired and probably a new iphone will be due out, and if the pricing structure is similar I will be able to probably get a 3rd generation iPhone at the same or better price.( albeit I have to live without 3g for a year.
What I dont get though is if I walk in off the street I can buy a 3g iPhone for the same price and deal that the existing £35 a month customers can, it doesn't really reward loyal customers does it ?
What I dont get though is if I walk in off the street I can buy a 3g iPhone for the same price and deal that the existing £35 a month customers can, it doesn't really reward loyal customers does it ?
No, it doesn't reward loyal customers but that's pretty much the mobile market over here. I've been with Orange, O2 and Vodafone over the last 10 years and even when staying with one provider from contract to contract I've been better off by signing up as a new customer rather than upgrading as an existing customer.
I'm another person on an existing O2 contract, and emailed them to make sure I couldn't persuade them to break it early. The answer was (unsurprisingly) no, and they said that...
"If you don't want to wait until your contract expires, you've the following 2 options:
1. You can enter into a second Pay Monthly contract while keeping your existing contract.
2. Start a new contract by paying a one-off transfer charge of £219.00 including VAT (Value Added Tax) instead of the remaining monthly charges on your existing contract."
Thankfully they also let me know that my contract actually expires on 30th June, so I shouldn't have any problems anyway.
"If you don't want to wait until your contract expires, you've the following 2 options:
1. You can enter into a second Pay Monthly contract while keeping your existing contract.
2. Start a new contract by paying a one-off transfer charge of £219.00 including VAT (Value Added Tax) instead of the remaining monthly charges on your existing contract."
Thankfully they also let me know that my contract actually expires on 30th June, so I shouldn't have any problems anyway.
the £219 early termination fee should be the terms for the 1st gen iphone , in particular for those who signed up a contract with o2 after the official announcement. hope they're gonna do the same this time to allow those who signed a contract before last night upgrade simply by extending the contract for another 18 months. o2 call centre doesn't seem to be aware of the introduction of the new iphone yet. just popped in to the new apple store here. obviously staff well trained, they took away all the iphones from the stands last night and only displaying ipod touch now. when asked they know exactly how much it would cost at what particular price plan, very well trained and i'm deeply impressed...
O2's Prepurchase FAQ section confirms this
http://www.o2.co.uk/iphone/frequentlyaskedquestions/prepurchase
My guess is as stated before, that they obviously dont want people to get out of their contracts when units are limited in favour of new customers. but £219!!! I have 6 months left on my contract @ £20 so only £120 for me to just continue with that (but would have to get a new number for the iphone contact then), and although i want one i dont think i can justify "wasting" £120.
6 months down the line they will probably be free too. so maybe i will just have to make do with my touch for now. But is really annoying as i asked when i upgraded if i could switch to iphone at a later date (with rumors of 3G flying around then), and the O2 guy said yes thats not a problem. but obviously if i was to quote this they would say that it only applied to the 1st gen iphone
http://www.o2.co.uk/iphone/frequentlyaskedquestions/prepurchase
My guess is as stated before, that they obviously dont want people to get out of their contracts when units are limited in favour of new customers. but £219!!! I have 6 months left on my contract @ £20 so only £120 for me to just continue with that (but would have to get a new number for the iphone contact then), and although i want one i dont think i can justify "wasting" £120.
6 months down the line they will probably be free too. so maybe i will just have to make do with my touch for now. But is really annoying as i asked when i upgraded if i could switch to iphone at a later date (with rumors of 3G flying around then), and the O2 guy said yes thats not a problem. but obviously if i was to quote this they would say that it only applied to the 1st gen iphone
so basically existing non-iphone customers are being neglected, there is bound to be people in same situation that would love to get a iphone 3G and extend there current contacts for a further 18months. its not like we wanna move providers and go away from 02 all together.
o2 would be getting MORE of my money if they allowed me to switch to an iPhone package. If not I am just going to pay for the early cancelation fee and have it over and done with.