In message , at 11:27:57 on Tue,
23 Jul 2019, Natalie Amery remarked:
(Incidentally, if the two are the same, who on earth would any sane
person sign up to the 12-month minimum version?)

When we got the first three last year the 12-month minimum version
was £1 pcm cheaper (so we took it); but when I got the fourth one a
couple of months ago the prices were identical and the staff member
flat out told us that they could see no reason why you'd take the
12-month.

I can only assume they are softening up their users to have a rather too
fuzzy impression of what the term "contract" means, and wean them off
the idea of "PAYG". They have form for throwing their less lucrative
customers under the bus (which is not surprising as the most B2B
orientated of the networks).
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry Wrote in message:
When we got the first three last year the 12-month minimum version
was £1 pcm cheaper (so we took it); but when I got the fourth one a
couple of months ago the prices were identical and the staff member
flat out told us that they could see no reason why you'd take the
12-month.
I can only assume they are softening up their users to have a rather too fuzzy impression of what the term "contract" means, and wean them off the idea of "PAYG".

Since I always buy my phones unlocked, with cash, I have had this
type of contract (30-day) from Vodafone for *at least* 7 years,
probably more like a decade. If they're "softening up" their
users, they're taking a ****ing long time over it.

The only person making this complicated is you. It's really very
simple - they have two fundamental offers - Contract (post-pay)
and Pay As You Go (pre-pay).

The contract offering comes with a variety of minimum terms, from
30 days (for SIM only) to 2 or more years (if you also want a
phone subsidy). The choice of minimum term does not change the
nature of the contract. (I just checked, and the name of the APN
for my Voda 30-day SIM - automatically configured by push config
message when you put the SIM in a new phone - is even "Vodafone
Contract Internet".)

(Equally, setting up a monthly automated top-up on pre-pay doesn't
suddenly turn that into a contract, any more than my monthly
scheduled bank credit to Funda?ia Conservation*Carpathia means I
have a contract with them.)


--

In message , at 18:59:17 on Tue, 23 Jul
2019, Clank remarked:
Roland Perry Wrote in message:
When we got the first three last year the 12-month minimum version
was £1 pcm cheaper (so we took it); but when I got the fourth one a
couple of months ago the prices were identical and the staff member
flat out told us that they could see no reason why you'd take the
12-month.
I can only assume they are softening up their users to have a rather
too fuzzy impression of what the term "contract" means, and wean them
off the idea of "PAYG".

Since I always buy my phones unlocked, with cash, I have had this
type of contract (30-day) from Vodafone for *at least* 7 years,
probably more like a decade. If they're "softening up" their
users, they're taking a ****ing long time over it.

Have they always called it a "contract", despite being only for 30days?

The only person making this complicated is you. It's really very
simple - they have two fundamental offers - Contract (post-pay)
and Pay As You Go (pre-pay).

And then there's the hybrid deals which are a bit of both, but mainly
PAYG (post-pay).

--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry Wrote in message:
Since I always buy my phones unlocked, with cash, I have had this
type of contract (30-day) from Vodafone for *at least* 7 years,
probably more like a decade. If they're "softening up" their
users, they're taking a ****ing long time over it.
Have they always called it a "contract", despite being only for 30days?

Yes.

As an aside, actually you have just prompted me to consider
extending the term to 12 months though, in the interests of
"locking in" the set of free-roaming countries for a year at
least before Brexit... Emergency roaming data is the only reason
I keep that SIM (that and an irrational attachment to a phone
number that's been mine for a couple of decades,) and Vodafone's
roaming deals are actually pretty decent.

The only person making this complicated is you. It's really very
simple - they have two fundamental offers - Contract (post-pay)
and Pay As You Go (pre-pay).
And then there's the hybrid deals which are a bit of both, but mainly PAYG (post-pay).

Please can you provide an example of one of these "hybrid" deals
then? Because I've yet to see one that wasn't just a 30-day
contract.

--

In message , at 09:13:10 on Wed, 24 Jul
2019, Clank remarked:

Please can you provide an example of one of these "hybrid" deals
then?

Virgin pay-monthly.

Because I've yet to see one that wasn't just a 30-day contract.
And therein lies your denial about the terminology.
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry Wrote in message:
In message , at 09:13:10 on Wed, 24 Jul 2019, Clank remarked:
Please can you provide an example of one of these "hybrid" deals then?
Virgin pay-monthly.

Huh? What's hybrid about that? I've just checked their site,
it's a bog standard contract. Actually, two contracts, one for
the phone and one for the call plan which is - drumroll - a 30
day contract.

It even says it on their own site FFS. "Our flexible Freestyle
contracts have two parts... One contract for your phone (24 or
36 month) + one contract for your minutes, texts and data (30-day
rolling.)"



(I suspect that separating the phone subsidy loan quite so clearly
from the mobile service contract is Virgin being one step in
front of Ofcom making it mandatory to do so at some point - the
inertia-marketing scam of making customers carry on paying for a
handset long after the actual subsidy was paid off is one of the
unattractive features of the UK mobile market.)

--

In message , at 19:31:53 on Wed, 24 Jul
2019, Clank remarked:
Roland Perry Wrote in message:
In message , at 09:13:10 on Wed, 24 Jul
2019, Clank remarked:
Please can you provide an example of one of these "hybrid" deals then?
Virgin pay-monthly.

Huh? What's hybrid about that? I've just checked their site,
it's a bog standard contract.
Actually, two contracts, one for
the phone and one for the call plan which is - drumroll - a 30
day contract.

In that case they've changed it. The plan used to be disjoint from
hardware and therefore a pay-in-arrears PAYG monthly rolling thing.

The "hook" (compared with a regular PAYG SIM) was that international
roaming was available, and a very attractive set of prices. Of course,
as time went on that price advantage rotted away... (Until EU roaming
kicked in, but that was much later).

I moved to Giff-Gaff, who have a different kind of hybrid deal which
involves an underlying PAYG-in-Advance where the credit rolls over, but
you need to buy special top-up packages (which you can set up to
auto-topup monthly) for loadsa data/calls/txts.
--
Roland Perry

On 23/07/2019 20:07, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 18:59:17 on Tue, 23 Jul
2019, Clank remarked:
Roland Perry Wrote in message:
When we got the first three last year the 12-month minimum version
was £1 pcm cheaper (so we took it); but when I got the fourth one a
couple of months ago the prices were identical and the staff member
flat out told us that they could see no reason why you'd take the
12-month.
I can only assume they are softening up their users to have a rather
too fuzzy impression of what the term "contract" means, and wean them
off the idea of "PAYG".

Since I always buy my phones unlocked, with cash, I have had this
type of contract (30-day) from Vodafone for *at least* 7 years,
probably more like a decade.Â* If they're "softening up" their
users, they're taking a ****ing long time over it.

Have they always called it a "contract", despite being only for 30days?
You still have a paid agreement with them no matter what you or they
call it.

The only person making this complicated is you.Â* It's really very
simple - they have two fundamental offers - Contract (post-pay)
and Pay As You Go (pre-pay).

And then there's the hybrid deals which are a bit of both, but mainly
PAYG (post-pay).

In message , at 08:39:21 on Wed, 24 Jul
2019, remarked:

Have they always called it a "contract", despite being only for
30days?

You still have a paid agreement with them no matter what you or they
call it.

That's never been in dispute. It's the wording used which is confusing
people.

If I buy a first class stamp, I have a legal contract with the Post
Office (to deliver one letter). But when they talk about 'contracts'
they mean long term high volume business.
--
Roland Perry

In article ,
Roland Perry wrote:
If I buy a first class stamp, I have a legal contract with the Post
Office (to deliver one letter). But when they talk about 'contracts'
they mean long term high volume business.

Actually, you don't have a legal contract with the _Royal Mail_ until
you post the stamp; all you have is an offer to treat.

And you bought the stamp from the Post Office with a contract of sale.

--
Natalie Amery. yo-yo, n.:
##### Something that is occasionally up
#######__o but normally down.
#######'/ (see also Computer).