This month I was elligible for my next phone/contract ‘upgrade’ from Vodafone. Currently I was paying £36 a month for unlimited texts, 600 minutes and 500mb of data. The monthly bill was so high due to having to upgrade early 2 years ago because of a damaged phone that Vodafone wouldn’t fix (even it I paid for it).

As you can probably tell, my main concern was lowering my monthly bill to something more reasonable. I already have an iPhone 3GS so wasn’t bothered about upgrading my phone just yet – it still works and I am happy with it. I had seen price plans from Tesco Mobile and the Utility Warehouse that were comparable but a lot cheaper.

I finally managed to speak to someone at the Vodafone Customer Service and explained to the agent that I wanted to keep my phone and lower my monthly fee (which seemed a simple enough request). After a few minutes the agent came back and informed that she couldn’t do anything because she couldn’t see that I regularly paid my bills on time (despite them being direct debits that have always been collected) and that I wasn’t a loyal Vodafone customer (I’ve been with them around 10 years). I pointed out the error, to which I was told that she could over-ride the system and reduce my payments from £36 to £30 a month.

In no way was this acceptable. I queried why Tesco Mobile and the Utility Warehouse could offer much better deals? The agent put me on hold for a few minutes and then advised that she was passing me over to someone in the upgrades team who may be able to help me. Once again I said I wanted the same package as what I was currently on, to keep my phone and lower my bill.

Without any hesitation he reduced my bill from £36 a month to £10.50 per month!

Why couldn’t this be done by the first person which would have saved me half an hour on the phone? My wife also had a similar experience with O2 a few weeks ago. If the main mobile phone companies are so worried about loosing customers to the likes of Tesco Mobile and Utility Warehouse, why do they persist in messing about loyal customers and risking loosing them to their rivals?