Orange or Vodafone for monthly contract?

[Urei1620]

Hi all,

This is my first post here and I am sure it won't be my last. I am sure I will be able to find the answers for any future queries I may have regarding the Nokia N95 8GB phone.

I am at a crossroads at the moment with what network to proceed with. I am currently with Vodafone, however, I have verbally cancelled my contract and requested my code (the code to keep the same number?) from them. The reason I cancelled with Vodafone is due to recent bad customer service when trying to upgrade my phone and monthly plan deal. Anyway, I have been offered a better deal from Orange which includes the Nokia N95 8GB phone, 600 x net mins, Unlimited texts and the unlimited internet package and all for £30 a month. I am due to have this phone arrive with me on Friday.

Vodafone called me again today to try and keep me as a customer. They have offered me nearly the same deal (free N95 8GB, 600 x net mins, unlimited texts and unlimited internet) with the add on on unlimited uk landline mins and vodafone passort and possibly something else. They have offered this to me for £34.50.

The guy I spoke to at Vodafone also told me that their internet is better than Orange's....is this true?

I would appreciate if you could help me with my decision as after looking at this forum tonight I now realise that I didn't think this through properly....e.g branded phone problems with different networks etc.

I beleive I have 2 weeks to cancel my contact with Orange if I do not wish to proceed with them. Is this true.

I hope you can help.

Thanks

:)

[gavinguinness]

For me it depends on coverage and in my area, it only leaves me with a few options.

But if you have coverage from all the networks, I guess you can really shop round and in this case, I suppose it would depend on what you want.

Firstly though, look at the contract length. If it's 18 or 24 months, then you are paying this "good" deal for a long time and over the course, it might not work out so cheap.

In my experience you shoud pay no more than £50 above the sim-free phone price for the entire length of your contract. Anything over this and the network are quids in.

T-Mobile are advertising the most minutes for £30 on TV at present, which is pretty bold and perhaps worth looking at...

Orange phones are locked up to the hilt and crippled with branding and missing features, so I personally would go near them, but obviously many swear by them, so they must be doing something right, their tariffs do seem easy to understand and I gather that if you port your number in you can get 10% off the monthly contract price.

I've no experience of Vodafone high street. But I do use them at work on a corporate account and I can't complain at all with their customer services. That said, we do spend thousands each month with them!

My personal favourite is O2. Their phones are unlocked and branding is minimal. You always get a good deal at renewal time and returning customers get the O2 treats which is a small free bolt-on package of minutes or texts.

It's not unusual for any contract to have a 14 day "cooling off" period inside which you can cancel.

That's my contribution to your query mate.

[Urei1620]

Originally Posted by gavinguinness

For me it depends on coverage and in my area, it only leaves me with a few options.

But if you have coverage from all the networks, I guess you can really shop round and in this case, I suppose it would depend on what you want.

Firstly though, look at the contract length. If it's 18 or 24 months, then you are paying this "good" deal for a long time and over the course, it might not work out so cheap.

In my experience you shoud pay no more than £50 above the sim-free phone price for the entire length of your contract. Anything over this and the network are quids in.

T-Mobile are advertising the most minutes for £30 on TV at present, which is pretty bold and perhaps worth looking at...

Orange phones are locked up to the hilt and crippled with branding and missing features, so I personally would go near them, but obviously many swear by them, so they must be doing something right, their tariffs do seem easy to understand and I gather that if you port your number in you can get 10% off the monthly contract price.

I've no experience of Vodafone high street. But I do use them at work on a corporate account and I can't complain at all with their customer services. That said, we do spend thousands each month with them!

My personal favourite is O2. Their phones are unlocked and branding is minimal. You always get a good deal at renewal time and returning customers get the O2 treats which is a small free bolt-on package of minutes or texts.

It's not unusual for any contract to have a 14 day "cooling off" period inside which you can cancel.

That's my contribution to your query mate.

Thanks for your help...much appreciated.

[IJM]

I can only echo Gavin's comments.

o2 is by far the best operator I have come across in all honesty.

Vodafone may say their internet is better, but seeing as it's only a small data connection it's not going to vastity different.

Read your small print as well, as Gav said, the conract length, if the minutes are anytime / any network.

Haggle and get both networks offering your the same thing, then see if you can get one or both to reduce the line rental, or "credit" your account with £50 or something. Least it will count to one month free line rental and a bit more.

Haggle all day with them, phones and plans are so cheap for them, all the money is in line rental for them. So they will do anything to keep your custom.

[radiowave]

you would be better off keeping the contract for a year - 24 months get a nice free phone then after a year - 24 months cancel the contract and keep the free phone.

[radiowave]

you always get bad customer service over the phone beacuse the customer service reps are allways under paid you would do better going back to the shop where you signed up and let them help you but you must be nice regardless of the problem otherwise you will get nowere...

Originally Posted by Urei1620

Hi all,

This is my first post here and I am sure it won't be my last. I am sure I will be able to find the answers for any future queries I may have regarding the Nokia N95 8GB phone.

I am at a crossroads at the moment with what network to proceed with. I am currently with Vodafone, however, I have verbally cancelled my contract and requested my code (the code to keep the same number?) from them. The reason I cancelled with Vodafone is due to recent bad customer service when trying to upgrade my phone and monthly plan deal. Anyway, I have been offered a better deal from Orange which includes the Nokia N95 8GB phone, 600 x net mins, Unlimited texts and the unlimited internet package and all for £30 a month. I am due to have this phone arrive with me on Friday.

Vodafone called me again today to try and keep me as a customer. They have offered me nearly the same deal (free N95 8GB, 600 x net mins, unlimited texts and unlimited internet) with the add on on unlimited uk landline mins and vodafone passort and possibly something else. They have offered this to me for £34.50.

The guy I spoke to at Vodafone also told me that their internet is better than Orange's....is this true?

I would appreciate if you could help me with my decision as after looking at this forum tonight I now realise that I didn't think this through properly....e.g branded phone problems with different networks etc.

I beleive I have 2 weeks to cancel my contact with Orange if I do not wish to proceed with them. Is this true.

I hope you can help.

Thanks

:)

[Urei1620]

Thanks for the feedback all.

Is £30 a month (Dolphin 18 month package) a good deal for what I am getting?

Also, is the N95 better in terms of usability and battery life on some networks compared to others?

I am due to receive my phone tomorrow. :)

Thanks again.

[gavinguinness]

It would be nice to say all N95's are the same, but we all know the build quality is varied. That said, I don't think any one network carries better stock.

Now, in terms of performance, that depends on the firmware and as O2 are now running v21, this has to be the best.

We all know that Nokia have introduced several battery saving and memory saving features in the last few versions so if your network is still running a pre v20 firmware, I would say those phones may not perform as well.

[Urei1620]

Originally Posted by gavinguinness

It would be nice to say all N95's are the same, but we all know the build quality is varied. That said, I don't think any one network carries better stock.

Now, in terms of performance, that depends on the firmware and as O2 are now running v21, this has to be the best.

We all know that Nokia have introduced several battery saving and memory saving features in the last few versions so if your network is still running a pre v20 firmware, I would say those phones may not perform as well.

Thanks again for the info.

I didn't know anything about firmware until I found this forum. Can the firmware be updated on the phone?

Could the 8GB version have the older firmware?

I didn't realise there is so many technical aspects to consider when choosing a phone and provider.

I will def be using this forum more often.

Thanks again.

[gavinguinness]

Loads of resource here. There's a thread somewhere here that shows the latest firmware for Each model on Each Network. I can't find it at the moment (anyone?) I think one of the mods has it in their sig...

To update the firmware, you just install PC Suite, plug in the phone and press the update button. It's not technical at all and Nokia provide the software Free for you to do this. They actually encourage it.

Each network has their own branded firmware and your N95 has a code on the circuit board that tells the Nokia updater which firmware you are allowed.

Now, you can remove this code and put in a "sim free" code instead which will allow you to put on the very latest firmware, but unfortunately, doing this invalidates your warrenty and can sometimer, very rarely, damage your phone.

But updating the firmware via the PC suite software is perfectly harmless.

Also, when I talk abot N95's and firmware, I generally reference my phone, the N95-1 which is currently running v21.

I don't know what N95 you have. It would be a good idea to edit your profile and add in the details so we can all see. But say you have an N95 8GB, I think the latest firmware for that is v15 or something? (anyone?)

Anyway, let us know how you get on. and welcome to the forum.