Originally Posted by Polonius:
“I took out my contract with 3 with a Sony Ericcson K800i in January this year for 18 months. So it's finished in July 09. There's not a cat in hell's chance Three will offer me an early upgrade is there?
I'd quite like - okay I'd really like - a new phone (my one's old and a bit broken) but I think they're going to make me wait till July. Do they offer early upgrades?
Failing this, I could cancel my contract early and pay off what would be my remaining time left (which would be £100ish) then move to another network with a better package and a free phone.
Has anyone got any advice?”
They will not offer you anything for free earlier than 15 months. They will gladly sell you a new handset at (I believe) a reduced price, although the reduction is nothing spectacular. For that privelege, I believe you have to start a new contract period at that point too.
If you call 3 Customer Services, they'll give you the specific date that you can upgrade as of- but you will only be able to do it on the phone for the first week. You will then be able to upgrade in store after that time. They will do next day delivery though, so the impatient would still be better off doing it on the phone at the first available date.
Bear in mind that upgrading at 15 months doesn't start you off immediately on a new contract period- you still have to see out the remaining 3 months of the initial contract and THEN start on your new 12/18 month contract- which means you can't upgrade again till 18 months later (if you've re-signed on an 18 month).
They're also bloody stingy with their upgrade offers. Back in September, I called them up on the day I was able to upgrade. I specifically wanted an N95 8GB (well actually I wanted an N96 and would have waited, except that this person told me that the N96 was absolutely 100% definitely not coming to 3- a lie which I'm extremely peed off about) and had prior to this been on a contract of £20 per month for 500 mins/100 texts. They would only let me have the N95 8GB on that tarriff if I paid £149.99 on the phone, at which point I told them to jog on (not in those words) and that I'd just change network 3 months later. She then said I could have it for free if I moved up to Mix & Match 700 for £30 a month (with a load of Skype minutes too, whoop-dee-f'ing-doo). The impatient fool in me however, actually took them up on that offer.
As it turns out, I realised that my K800i served me just fine and that I was better off selling my N95 8GB, which I did last weekend. So besides being £200 better off, I'm now stuck on an expensive tarriff for the next 19 months.
Be strong, don't let them take the piss out of you.
Originally Posted by TheBigM:
“3 direct sales do upgrades at the 15 month mark as well as at the end of a contract.
Given we are in November you have approx 9 months left on your contract so if you are paying £100ish then you can't be paying much - like £12 a month so you won't get a vastly better phone for similar money anywhere else. You could just buy a phone or try to negotiate with them to upgrade to a higher tariff and pay rental on the phone then they could let you stay.”
Paying that kind of money per month? They're only going to offer you the most basic handsets, or the ones they can't get rid of. If the OP is looking for a flashy feature-laden new handset, they'll be forced to up their tarriff.
Originally Posted by frailfury:
“My 15mths is jan 2009 - they will let me upgrade then. Do you think theyd do it a bit earlier if I agreed to a 18mth contract?”
Nope, they definitely wont. There's no budging in that respect unless you pay for your upgrade. You've only got a couple of months left, just hold out.
I've only had it a few months and wish I'd sent it back straight away but of course you have to use these things for a few weeks before you realise just how awful they are. 
