Why I am no longer a Vodaphone customer

I just sent this letter to Vodaphone customer services.

Dear Sir,

Having been on one of your pay monthly contracts for over a year I was due to renew my contract and get a new phone.

Now I understand that there's a certain amount of haggling to be done to get the best deal. I find it unpleasant, but it's a fact of life.

I had a specific phone requirement, so I looked around for the best deal I could find. Having found what I wanted, I called your upgrades department and explained what I wanted, and what it would cost me elsewhere. They told me that there was nothing they could do about it, that they only had the deals available to them.

That seemed fair enough, so I went out and got myself a new phone and contract. When I called to cancel my old contract however, I was surprised to be offered a tariff that undercut my new deal. I explained that I had already signed a new contract, and it was suggested to me that I should go back and cancel this contract.

I find this astonishing. The need to haggle is bad enough. It seems to me that if you are genuinely interested in keeping customers, you should simply be offering them the best deal possible up front. A next best to this would be a genuine offer to match other deals when I am up for renewal.

What is outrageous, though is that you are prepared to call my bluff that I won't bother to cancel before you'll offer me a tariff which is clearly available to those who are willing to play this ridiculous game.

I'd be very interested to know your policy on price matching the offers of competing providers. Is my experience standard Vodaphone practice or has something gone wrong?

Yours faithfully




Gareth Simpson