Upgrade upfront cost to expensive

[Bobster81]

Ive been a EE customer for over 10 years, and worked for EE before it came EE back when it was orange and went thought all the change over with T-Mobile for 13 years, my phone bill is about £200 a month, thats including 3 phone lines and a tablet, im due an upgrade, and its a bit of a moan really because over the years my line retail has gone up, and never really paid up front for a phone but last couple of times ive paid maybe £30 or £50 upfront, and now I want to upgrade to the Samsung fold 7, and bloody hell they want to change me nearly £100 a month line rental and was £250, but now £300 upfront for the phone what a joke, and there is no loyalty like before when they would discount upfront cost not all but a little bit. So feel disappointed by EE. And customer service seem not bothered to help.

[Northerner]

Hi @Bobster81 

Your must appreciate the Fold 7 is Samsung newest handset and retails for  £1800 -£2150 depending on the storage size. I suggest if you want a better deal on such an expensive device you explore buying it separately from Samsung on one of their finance deals and a SIM only plan. 

EE separates the phone and service plan, which is different from maybe how you upgraded in the past. 

Brand loyalty is overrated these days.

Thanks 

[bristolian]

I'd question the terminology "due an upgrade" - there's plenty of scenarios where it's valid, but the requirement to get the latest & greatest every 2 years will usually have cost implications.

If you find yourself changing phones for the sake of it, a SIM-only "upgrade" is an alternative worth considering.

[Matt_124]

Important to point out that some customers still do not have Flex Pay available to them, sometimes not meeting the internal criteria for it to even be offered as an option.

They are instead limited to upgrading to 24-month bundled price plans (old-style contracts) which can lead to more seemingly more expensive prices, especially when comparing on a monthly cost basis to other providers who offer device finance and longer payment terms in the headline. Coupled with an account's monthly max spend, this can lead to showing price plans with a large amount of money upfront to fit the monthly cost into that limit.

I would imagine eventually Flex Pay will be the only route available on EE, as it has now become the default for eligible customers, but they haven't yet taken the action to move everyone towards these types of plans unless they meet the internal criteria.