Persuaded not to go

After I placed my new broadband order with Vodafone, they immediately got on to Openreach, who in turn notified BT that I was switching. This generated an email that mentioned a number to ring in case I had second thoughts.

For a few days I had no such second thoughts.

But then I wondered whether this number would get me through to somebody at BT with the authority to discuss a new 18 month deal with a greatly reduced monthly payment. I'd tried to reach such a person before, without success. Maybe this was the direct route to them. What might they say?

I had been facing a hike in my monthly BT payments to £50. My switch to Vodafone would cut the cost to only £27. However, I would happily stay with BT if they came anywhere near that £27.

It was worth a go. But I wasn't really expecting a counter-offer that would make me cancel the switch.

I was put through to BT's Loyalty Department at Doncaster, and spoke to a very pleasant man called Luke. He was able, without much preamble, to offer me £35 a month, plus a £50 voucher to stay with BT. It was certainly a big price reduction - £15 a month - but it wasn't close enough to the £27 I'd be paying with Vodafone. So I had to turn that down.

Could he speak with his manager? Of course! He was soon back. She had authorised £30 a month for the unlimited fibre broadband I had now, with the same speed too, plus all the existing extras in my current package, plus that £50 voucher.

Ah! Now this was close enough. I accepted.

I was surprised that BT had foregone as much as £20 a month to keep me, with a useful voucher thrown in as a sweetener, but perhaps it was vital to preserve their market share and not lose customers to competitors. Not on price alone. And I dare say a bleeding customer base was terribly bad for BT's share value.

Luke then put me through to Vodafone, and I spoke with a chap called Richard on their Cancellation Team in Sheffield. An affable fellow. No problem about changing my mind and cancelling. Only, could he offer me 10% off the £27 already agreed...would that stop me cancelling? No, I said, we were now talking about rather small amounts that didn't matter. Sorry, but I still wanted to cancel! So he put me through to Abi, who handled the actual cancellation of my Vodafone order.

Could she do anything else? Yes, I said. My Vodafone phone-purchase agreement was ending on 8th August. I loved my phone (I was talking about Tigerlily) and didn't want to upgrade to another model. What I wanted was to move onto a SIM-only deal, but not in early August - I'd like to do it now, as I'd just noticed a tempting SIM-only deal on Vodafone's website that would suit me, and didn't want to wait. She put me through to Rob on Sales.

Rob was another nice guy. (Everyone was being really, really nice to me) I was easily within three months of my agreement expiring, so yes, I could move onto a SIM-only deal with my existing phone, but not until 24th June. That date was fine with me. Right then, I'd be contacted on the morning of 24th June - hopefully by Rob himself - to sort out exactly which SIM-only deal, and adjust the billing. It might not be the deal I had my eye on: deals came and went rapidly. I knew he wasn't kidding about that. But then, if prices went up again in the next two weeks, I felt that I'd be able to negotiate them back down again without too much effort. (I was getting used to playing these games) 

So there we are. I'm now staying with BT, but with £20 per month off, and a £50 voucher to spend. And I'll be going SIM-only with Vodafone (and thereby slashing my monthly payments a bit sooner than originally scheduled).

I was on the phone for an hour, surely. Was that a good use of creative energy?

Sequel
One month later - no voucher! I phoned BT. They listened to their recording of my discussions with the Loyalty Department. Apparently I'd misheard. The final offer was £29.99 per month, but no voucher. It wasn't what my notes said, and what I understood, but I couldn't see how to challenge it. 

I was still getting a big discount, as the full monthly price for my package, at current rates, was £52.49, and I was to have a £22.50 discount on that for the next 18 months: nearly 43% off.