The end of cashback deals?

Are we coming to the end of the really generous cashback deals? I'm
thinking of the "12 months free on a 12 month contract" ones, in
particular. CPW group seem to have virtually none at the moment,
mobileshop have hardly any, and aren't honouring the ones they sold last
year at the moment, so it only seems to leave the back-street
white-label re-sellers whose terms make Genghis Khan seem a model of
reasonableness.

Shall I prolong the lives of my two old phones with Virgin 6 month
"free" contracts, in the hope that deals will resume, or mourn the
passing of an unsustainably golden era and accept I may have to pay for
my mobile phone instead of making a modest profit (quidco and ebay sale
of handset) each year?



--
Kevin Poole
**Use current month and year to reply (e.g. apr2007@mainbeam.co.uk)***

"Autolycus" <mar2007@mainbeam.co.uk> wrote in message
news:f00638$mt$1@news.freedom2surf.net...
> Are we coming to the end of the really generous cashback deals? I'm
> thinking of the "12 months free on a 12 month contract" ones, in
> particular. CPW group seem to have virtually none at the moment,
> mobileshop have hardly any, and aren't honouring the ones they sold last
> year at the moment, so it only seems to leave the back-street white-label
> re-sellers whose terms make Genghis Khan seem a model of reasonableness.
>
> Shall I prolong the lives of my two old phones with Virgin 6 month "free"
> contracts, in the hope that deals will resume, or mourn the passing of an
> unsustainably golden era and accept I may have to pay for my mobile phone
> instead of making a modest profit (quidco and ebay sale of handset) each
> year?
>
>
>
> --
> Kevin Poole
> **Use current month and year to reply (e.g. apr2007@mainbeam.co.uk)***

Just phoned 3 to end mine (12 months coming up)

I am now on a new 12 month contract with a large credit on the bill, making
it £2.11 for 500 mins 100 txt's per month for the year...

No point of signing up to a new cashback deal with something like that.

Phil wrote:
> "Autolycus" <mar2007@mainbeam.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:f00638$mt$1@news.freedom2surf.net...
>
> Just phoned 3 to end mine (12 months coming up)
>
> I am now on a new 12 month contract with a large credit on the bill, making
> it £2.11 for 500 mins 100 txt's per month for the year...
>
> No point of signing up to a new cashback deal with something like that.
>
>

Yup - I would always recommend checking with your current provider first
to see how low they will go for a renewal. They can sometimes come to
within £50-£100 of the cost of a similar cashback-based deal. I would
wager that many would be happy to pay that little bit extra if it means
no claims have to be submitted.

HtH
Reestit Mutton
--
The UK's only listing of 12 months free contract mobile phone packages
with a built-in price history
http://www.reestitmutton.co.uk/MOBIL...?query=12mfree

"Autolycus" <mar2007@mainbeam.co.uk> wrote:

>Are we coming to the end of the really generous cashback deals? I'm
>thinking of the "12 months free on a 12 month contract" ones, in
>particular. CPW group seem to have virtually none at the moment,
>mobileshop have hardly any, and aren't honouring the ones they sold last
>year at the moment, so it only seems to leave the back-street
>white-label re-sellers whose terms make Genghis Khan seem a model of
>reasonableness.
>

I have nothing but praise for mobileshop; my cashback keeps coming in
when due, 60 days after the claims deadline.

Fred

On Apr 16, 5:08 pm, Reestit Mutton <NOB...@NOWHERE.IN.PARTICULAR>
wrote:
> Phil wrote:
> > "Autolycus" <mar2...@mainbeam.co.uk> wrote in message
> >news:f00638$mt$1@news.freedom2surf.net...
>
> > Just phoned 3 to end mine (12 months coming up)
>
> > I am now on a new 12 month contract with a large credit on the bill, making
> > it £2.11 for 500 mins 100 txt's per month for the year...
>
> > No point of signing up to a new cashback deal with something like that.
>
> Yup - I would always recommend checking with your current provider first
> to see how low they will go for a renewal. They can sometimes come to
> within £50-£100 of the cost of a similar cashback-based deal. I would
> wager that many would be happy to pay that little bit extra if it means
> no claims have to be submitted.

yep - from O2 retentions I got to an 18 month deal for £150, with no
phone.

I compared it to cashback deals of £70 for 12 months or £120 for 18,
with a phone worth about £20, and reckoned if I forgot one of the 6
instalment claims I'd be worse off.

There were some slightly better cashback offers a month or two later,
which was a bit surprising as mid to late January has usually seemed a
good time.

On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:55:05 +0100, "Autolycus"
<mar2007@mainbeam.co.uk> wrote:

>white-label

I see this phrase a lot in connection with mobile phones. What
exactly does it mean?

--
Alasdair.

Alasdair wrote:
> On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:55:05 +0100, "Autolycus"
> <mar2007@mainbeam.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>>white-label
>
>
> I see this phrase a lot in connection with mobile phones. What
> exactly does it mean?
>

It is where a retailer or website allows third parties (affiliates) to
take a ready-made copy of their website and data and promote it as their
own by simply placing their own banner at the top of the page.

When a sale is made, the retailer/website makes a profit and pays a
commission to the affiliate for generating the sale out of this profit.

The only people that really gain anything from this are the affiliate
(who gets a ready-made retail site with potentially profitable content
for free, with absolutely no effort on his part) and the retailer (who
personally profits from every sale his affiliate makes).

The internet and the wider community are much poorer for this system of
promotion as it adds absolutely no new information to the pool and it
has the real potential to add much more noise. You only have to perform
a google search to see the level of duplication resulting from white
label sites these days, despite Google's stated rules banning carbon
copy websites. What's more, in their rush to homogenise the internet
experience for their own profit, white label services actually stifle
innovation on the internet.

My personal view is that those selling white label services only have
their own profit in mind and those who take up the white label service
are too bone-idle lazy to create anything genuinely useful themselves -
they too are in it for a quick and easy buck.

Alas, more often than not, white label services encourage rather dodgy
practices among their affiliates such as indiscriminate spam and domain
name squatting. This is because they are quick, easy and cheap options
for generating traffic to the affiliate's copy of the site (afterall,
the white label affiliate is, more often than not, only interested the
easiest/cheapest route to riches).

I personally think that it's high time that everyone took a stand
against white label affiliate factories if they genuinely want to reduce
the level of white noise (pardon the pun) prevalent on the internet
today and encourage more innovation.

In the case of mobile phones, there are a handful of retailers who offer
white label services (E2Save & Mobileshop to name two well known
examples) and one very well known price comparison site run by a guy who
used to run an illegal pyramid scam who has applied what he learned
during his illegal days to building a lawless army of white label
affiliates for his service who will stop at nothing to earn that extra
buck for themselves. I shan't name his site here as he doesn't deserve
the free PR, but most readers of this NG know exactly who I'm talking about.

Okay...so I'll get off my high horse now...

Reestit Mutton
--
The UK's only listing of 12 months free contract mobile phone packages
with a built-in price history
http://www.reestitmutton.co.uk/MOBIL...?query=12mfree