I read this comment posted this morning by David of Hotxt.
Link: SMS Text News » Archives » O2 drop non-geo from bundles
Interesting. So I received an SMS from Carphone Warehouse who manage my O2 account telling me that I am due for a handset upgrade and to call them on 0800 0490490. So I click to call and hear †Access to this number is not free of charge. Please redial without the first zero.†I know I think, there is bound to be a free customer service number for O2. I will check their Web site. There it is 08705214000!
It got me thinking. It really must be a total arse when o2 get a phone call from Carphone Warehouse:
“Hello! We’ve got your customer here, they want an upgrade…”
It would have been far more profitable for o2 if David hadn’t been reminded that he was due a handset upgrade. Obviously it’s in the interests of Carphone Warehouse to get David into the store so they can sign him up to another o2 contract… or, as is far more prevalent with some independent retailers, try and hard-sell him a competing NEW contract (more bounty for the retailer) on say Orange or T-Mobile.
I sometimes wonder if consumers shouldn’t be made more aware of the motivations of the independent retailers they go to ’seek independent advice’. Not often have I been given truly independent advice. It can’t be independent. Churning customers is far more profitable for the retailers — rather than admitting ‘actually, your price plan is fine Sir’.
When normobs — normal mobile users — go hunting for advice, I doubt they’re aware that the retailer gets a huge, huge bounty for churning you to a competitor’s network. Too often I’ve met normobs who tell me that their handset and price plan was more or less thrust upon them by a gelled sales assistant. Arse.
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Danlane on 
Comment by David Whitewood on 8 September 2007:
A couple of points: 1 - CPW run my account including billing and support etc for O2, 2 - O2 willl pay CPW a commission for a contract renewal, but read on!
I love my Nokia N73 and really don’t need a new handset. “What else can you do for me?”
“If don’t want a new handset I can offer you £240 worth of rebates?” Sounds good I said but I am still trying to claim the last £75 rebate that you offered me (rebates are a clever retailer tactic common in the US that actually work because of “breakage” i..e. only a small percent ever claim, thus a retailer thus a $100 may only cost them $10). Is there anyway that I can get the rebate on my account today?”
The result - a whopping £240 credit on my account in return for a 12 month £40 per month contract plus £10 for 20Mb of data offer. This is the equivalent of. 400 minutes and 500 texts for £20 a month on a network with great coverage.
I had heard that operators were getting out of the handset subsidy business. That is good news for consumers and bad news for the handset manufacturers and of course you Ewan in your efforts to report on what kind of mobile that cool chick on the late train to Billericay has !