Change of tactics by mobile companies?

Toxteth_O'Grady

I rang in to cancel my EE contract with 30 days remaining on the contract and was expecting to be offered all sorts of deals to stay (not an issue as I was never going to remain) but I was not offered any retention incentives, just provided the expiry date and a PAC number . A couple of weeks later same thing happened to my Uncle who is with O2.
I just wonder if this a bit of a fluke or a change in tactics now so many of us are wise to their retention offers?

Castle

EE have never been the cheapest so I wouldn't be surprised at their lack of better deals.
(Great username; you must be a "Young Ones" fan!)

mikegahan

A national trend - Three mobile are doing similar tactics, when super cheasp deals are coming to an end they are offering much more expensive ones. Partly because soon there will be less competition, as O2 is being taken over by Three and I think EE are being taken over by BT mobile
:mad:

20aday

Given BT have acquired EE and Three are in the process of purchasing o2 I'd imagine "retention" deals will be far and few between to offset the money required to buy the business(es).

It's fair to say loyalty counts for nothing these days!

parttimeskint

20aday wrote: »

Given BT have acquired EE and Three are in the process of purchasing o2 I'd imagine "retention" deals will be far and few between to offset the money required to buy the business(es).

It's fair to say loyalty counts for nothing these days!

Your right, loyalty does count for nothing. Calling to cancel in the hope of getting a better deal isn't exactly showing loyalty though. These days you are better asking what they can do with the cost rather than threaten to cancel straight off. As soon as you mention cancel you have started down that road and most companies now will process your cancellation on the second request to cancel. E.g

Customer. It's too expensive, I want to cancel.
Adviser. Sorry to hear that, I can reduce it by £5 a month for you?
Customer. No still too expensive, I think cancelling would be better.
Adviser. Ok, I will place notice on your account now.

What people continually fail to realise is that, with all the complaints about long retentions conversations to OFCOM, justified or not, the companies are now operating under much stricter guidelines to avoid large fines. It's much better to say goodbye to you than risk upsetting you, getting yet another complaint, and risking 10% of their yearly profit.

As such, this is a situation created by the consumers, us, not the suppliers. But yes, the situation has certainly changed now from previous years.

d123

I got a retentions deal from EE about 2 weeks ago, I actually rang with the intention of getting my PAC and didn't even try and haggle, told the csa I wasn't interested and just wanted my PAC. Later that afternoon I got a call from someone at retentions offering just over 50% discount on a sim only plan. £11.99 for a 4GB/unlimited minutes and texts on a 30 day plan seemed like a good deal so I accepted.

RavingMad

My wife rang Three for her PAC code a couple of weeks ago, to move over to ID Mobile. They've reduced her current £10 package or £7pm, rolling one month contract. Had to refuse the initial offer until she was given her PAC code and they rang back a week later.