It's that time of the 18 month cycle again.  I would say 'time of the year',
but the current trend is 18 month contracts isn't it? :)

Incoming rant! :)

Last time it was new contract time, I was obsessed with the Sony Ericsson
S700i.  At the time, it seemed to only be available on Vodafone and O2, so I
went into the Vodafone shop where I was pleasantly surprised by their
helpfulness and commitment to getting me a contract that really suited my
needs - they mixed and match some old and new contract bits and pieces to
get me something quite nifty, so I was happy.

Renewal time.

I fancy the K800 now, as a die-hard Sony Ericsson fan since I got my first,
so I called up to ask about an upgrade.  £20.

For a returned one.

Forgive me for not being especially enthused by this idea.  Perhaps I'm too
fussy, and I was told it was the sort of phone that would have 'gone out to
the wrong customer' when, having worked in retail, my guess is more along
the lines of 'they decided they didn't like it', but that could just be the
cynic in me.

I pointed out that there were new contracts and offers, with half price line
rental and things like that, which appealed more to me.  It's the age old
story of new customers getting better deals. And then he started.

Exaggerating wildly, he told me it would cost me 'at least £40 to leave'
(twisting the fact that I still have 3 weeks left on my current contract
which I would effectively be paying either way).  I made the mistake of
mentioning that I since bought a K750i (yeah, gadgethead :)) which is
unlocked and then he said they'd give me £49 for it, so before I knew it, I
was 'throwing away £100 if I left Vodafone' - well, sorry, I'd quite like to
hang onto the K750 too or sell it to a friend in need.  He didn't seem to
understand this, either.

I'm not quite sure what happened next, but soon the figure was up to £200,
because of no doubt the charge I would pay on a new handset in a new
contract, or maybe that some of the contracts I mentioned to him that
appealed were slightly more expensive.  (Had he looked at my spending, he
would see that I frequently go over my allotted minutes/texts etc, spending
£40-£60/month instead of £17....)  By this time my brain had shut off.  I
wonder if he was trying to confuse me with numbers, or underestimated my
researching and pegged me for a 'silly female' because we can't possibly
know about phones? :)

It just amazed me that someone who is meant to try and sell people things,
or encourage their custom, could make them feel so annoyed :P  Or indeed
refuse to listen to a word I was saying.  I redialled the cancellation dept.
and have now sent in my letter... it's off to Orange I go where
international calling/texting is actually considerably cheaper, and I have a
shiny fun new contract called a 'dolphin' :)

So yes, I do still have the remainder of my Voda contract to use up (but
grr, they make it hard to leave, sending a letter with 30 days notice, I'm
sure other providers have let me do it over the phone and it's been a
shorter period), but I don't actually give Orange any money until December
which is nice :P

Rant over :D