Samsung Galaxy S3

[Nabs]

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dazzz wrote:
Do you work for Vodafone ?

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Nope, though wish I could get a job with them.

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dazzz wrote:
How is anyone asking for something for nothing ? If these phones are £500 odd retail which means Vodafone will get them much cheaper than that . Then they are selling contracts worth £700- 1000 . We arnt asking for something for nothing , Vodafone have plenty of room to negotiate all we are asking is they at least match these smaller companies . And to stop taking existing customers for granted

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A £500 handset I would take a guess wholesales to Vodafone for around £400-450 depending on quantitiy taken. That gives just £50 of margin on a handset.

When selling a contract for £700 You need to take into account the handset costs, assuming £400 leaves you with £300. That money needs to go towards network maintenance, network upgrades, providing the handsets warranty, support staff, retail stores amongst many other costs. 

All in I would guess Vodafone may make around £50 profit on a good contract. As soon as you start discounting, the amount of money left over to cover all the addition costs is reduced.

The 'smaller companies' you mention have no where near as much in teh way of costs as Vodafone do, they have no network to maintain for starters and once the contract has been sold they put very little money/effort into the support/warranty.

[dazzz]

well with the amount they seem to save in apparently not paying tax or making deals with HMRC should go someway towards helping with discounts. there is no way vodafone are only making £50 on a good contract. besides , the phone costs them the same now as it will in a few months time, so IMO their is no valid reason for them to make upgrade customers wait for a "deal" when infact they could be dealt with immediately .

[ado28]

VF have released many statements regarding the Tax issue and they have nothing to hide so that statement buddy is unfounded.

[adam_r]

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Nabs wrote:

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dazzz wrote:
Do you work for Vodafone ?

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Nope, though wish I could get a job with them.

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dazzz wrote:
How is anyone asking for something for nothing ? If these phones are £500 odd retail which means Vodafone will get them much cheaper than that . Then they are selling contracts worth £700- 1000 . We arnt asking for something for nothing , Vodafone have plenty of room to negotiate all we are asking is they at least match these smaller companies . And to stop taking existing customers for granted

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A £500 handset I would take a guess wholesales to Vodafone for around £400-450 depending on quantitiy taken. That gives just £50 of margin on a handset.

When selling a contract for £700 You need to take into account the handset costs, assuming £400 leaves you with £300. That money needs to go towards network maintenance, network upgrades, providing the handsets warranty, support staff, retail stores amongst many other costs. 

All in I would guess Vodafone may make around £50 profit on a good contract. As soon as you start discounting, the amount of money left over to cover all the addition costs is reduced.

The 'smaller companies' you mention have no where near as much in teh way of costs as Vodafone do, they have no network to maintain for starters and once the contract has been sold they put very little money/effort into the support/warranty.

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Nabs, I presume you dont work in retail do you ?

If the SGS3 is being sold for £500 sim free then there is no way that stores are buying it for £450.

Phone retialers and other large order stores will get this phone from about £300, £350 depending on the quantity ordered.

Samsung is probably able to manufacture one of these devices for under £50 and sell it with a 6x profit margin (but this is to recoupe development / manufacture set up costs etc.)

just because a jar of penut butter on a supermarket shelf it £1.50 doesnt mean it costs £1 to the supermarket, it probably cost them around £0.20!

[Stemcsteste]

I used to work in retail, for the company to buy a Samsung gsii to sell on, depending on bulk order because the phones sold where not brannded and were unlocked, was about £475.....

Just sayin'

[adam_r]

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Stemcsteste wrote:

I used to work in retail, for the company to buy a Samsung gsii to sell on, depending on bulk order because the phones sold where not brannded and were unlocked, was about £475.....

Just sayin'

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Hmm i bet your company got them in for a lot less that £475 though!

[jeffkinn]

I'm afraid you are being rather naive. Some retails sectors, like clothing and jewellery, work on very high margins. Consumer electronic products do not and networks have to pay virtually retail price for the high end smart phone handsets, especially iPhones. They are making very little on the hardware and the revenue models is based on a statistic known as an ARPU - average revenue per user. They make money from us using their services. This is where the profit comes from to re-invest in networks. The CEO of AT&T in the US has said he is losing sleep over the introduction of iMessage by Apple as it will reduce SMS traffic. We all enter into contracts of our own free will and then moan when Vodafone either expect us to fulfill our obligations or when they insist on us complying with the terms of the contract. We expect the same from them.

[Nabs]

adam_r,

I do work in electrical retail and I was shocked to find out just how little margin there was on many high end products,

I'm talking brand new £1000 TV's with as little as £50 on them!

There is so much competition in retail just now that margins have been squeezed right down. The manufacturers will still be making healthy profits but as you mentioned they have additional costs to cover.

[Ian_C]

Hi Trif,

Thanks for your post and welcome.

It’s disappointing to hear about your experience.

As we’ve previously mentioned, pre orders for the new Samsung Galaxy S III are now live; however we’re happy to call customers on launch day.

I’ve sent you a PM and if you’d like us to call just follow those instructions.

Let me take this opportunity to show you how Vodafone like to say thank you; take a look at VIP.

Thanks

Ian

[Stemcsteste]

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adam_r wrote:

Hmm i bet your company got them in for a lot less that £475 though!

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No that was the wholesale price... we then sold it for £499 when new

[adam_r]

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Stemcsteste wrote:

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adam_r wrote:

Hmm i bet your company got them in for a lot less that £475 though!

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No that was the wholesale price... we then sold it for £499 when new

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Interesting...

I work in the elctrical / RF industry. although somewhat more specialised than simple Mobile phones but im honestly amazed that margins are so small .

[philbert1987]

I agree with you, i have been with vodafone for over 10 years, i have 5 contracts with them ( i am not a business, just for myself and my family members), i spend £200 per month on these contracts and vodafone cannot and will not beat 3! 2000 MINS TO ANY NETWORK, 5000 3-TO-3 MINS, 5000 TEXTS, AND ALL YOU CAN EAT DATA (UNLIMITED INTERNET USAGE!!!) for £34 per month! CHEAPER THAN VODAFONE AND A HELL OF A LOT MOREFOR YOUR MONEY!!!!!! THINK ITS TIME TO LEAVE MY COMFORT ZONE AND TRY SOME SMALLER COMPETITORS!

[Stemcsteste]

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adam_r wrote:

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Stemcsteste wrote:

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adam_r wrote:

Hmm i bet your company got them in for a lot less that £475 though!

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No that was the wholesale price... we then sold it for £499 when new

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Interesting...

I work in the elctrical / RF industry. although somewhat more specialised than simple Mobile phones but im honestly amazed that margins are so small .

Welcome to the high street mobile world!!

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[dcarmi]

Of the main mobile manufacturers in Q1 this year:

Nokia, Sony, Motorola,LG and RIM all made losses.

HTC, Apple and Samsung made profits, though HTCs was pretty small. Apple and Samsung account for 99% of the total profits in the sector.

Apple has about 2/3s of the total profits and makes about 30% profit on each device it ships, which is an impressive margin.

[Nabs]

The manufacturers keep most of the profit for themselves.

The 'man in the middle' i.e. Vodafone or any other retailer are left with very little for themselves.

I could have the numbers wrong but i remember reading somewhere that an iPhone costs about £120 to manufacture and ship, Apple put 400% on that for themselves meaning retailers are buying them at £480, doesn't leave much when they sell them at £499!

[wolverine]

I ghink we are going a bit off topic here. How come the 3 is able to afford it? And FYI i pay vodafone in excess of 200 gbp a month yet they wont take a hit of 50 pounds during tbe course of 2 years. This had been my 6th renewal but thanks to the wise guys at vodafone i am off somewhere else. There are ways of explainjng things and i am not an idiot go continue in thea same way like a petulant child. Had the apologised and explained its not possible for them to pricr matxh i would have understood but it was thevery cold and almost offensive manner in which they dealt with me is what ticks me off. And this is not the first time it has happened. I dont know why i have stayed with Vodafone for almost 8 years

[adam_r]

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wolverine wrote:
I ghink we are going a bit off topic here. How come the 3 is able to afford it?

because their call centers suck, they are not clear with contracts, sell you rubbish phones.. care for me to continue ?

My parents are running away from 3 this month as they have had the worst year of customer service with them its not even funny. 

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[Nabs]

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wolverine wrote:
I ghink we are going a bit off topic here. How come the 3 is able to afford it?

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They can't hence why they are a loss making subsiduary of the company hutchison.

[thesoupdragon]

The 3 Network...  Good luck getting a signal. 

Nuff said...

[ado28]

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thesoupdragon wrote:

The 3 Network...  Good luck getting a signal. 

Nuff said...

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I was with Three once and the signal was terrible. I was driving trucks all over the country and as soon as I left the big cities the signal was dead. Anywhere north of Dundee was a NO GO signal wise. Everytime I contacted three to complain I got put through to an Indian call centre, I would struggle to understand them and they would offer me a sweetener (or so I thought) but the following month there would be an extra £10 added to the bill. The breaking point came when my truck broke down in Aberdeenshire and I had to walk miles to find a payphone to call for assistance. After the truck was fixed and when I was south of Dundee I called three to cancel my contract. I was that ###### off with them I threw my phone out of the truck window into the sea while crossing the Forth road bridge. I paid the remainder of the month then cancelled my direct debit. 6 years later they defaulted me! I would NEVER EVER go with three mobile again. I switched to VF and have traveled to all corners of the UK and never lost my signal once!!!