iPhone 4

Well my Vodafone Mobile Contract is finally up for renewal.
I’ve written a couple of blogs about Tethering which have proven to be quite popular, so hopefully this article will help advise other Vodafone customers (and those of other networks) about renewing their contract.

Contract Renewal Date – Put it in your Diary!

The first thing of note is that Vodafone, like many other Mobile Phone companies don’t really go out of their way to tell you that your contract is about to expire – sure they’ll tell you when you’re signing up and they’ll tell you if you ring and ask – but don’t expect any kind of pro-active notification, they’ll just let it expire, then roll over to the next month (beware your services and pricing may change once your contract is expired)

So my first tip is to make a note in your diary of the contract expiry date, and also put in another reminder 3-4 weeks before it’s up to give you time to sort things out.

Do Your Homework

First Have a look round on the web and see what the competitors are offering – generally I find that Three, Orange, Tesco and GiffGaff tend to offer good deals that will push Vodafone (don’t forget O2, although I find that they do tend to be quite similar to Vodafone in pricing)

Ask local friends on those other networks what the reception/coverage is like and ask them what kind of deals they get!

Next have a good look at your Vodafone account, recent bills and see what you actually use currently.
Don’t forget, if your contract originally included a handset, then you can always keep using that handset – which will now is paid for as soon as your contract is up, so your monthly cost should come down!

See What They’ll Offer You

3-4 weeks before your contract is up, get in touch with Customer Services (191 on your Vodafone handset)

The automated service will ask you to enter your PIN

Then choose option 3 for “Upgrades or Anything Else”

Then choose option 2 “If you’re thinking about leaving us” (not option 1 for “upgrades”)
I think this is kind of critical – the assumption is that you’re going to leave, not that you want to carry on and upgrade.

The Vodafone Call Centre rep will ask you some more security questions (if you ask me, this is overkill, as even my bank only asks for my card and PIN, Vodafone knows its you from your mobile number already, asks for a PIN and then for some reason asks further security questions!!) then you can actually get down to business…

Negotiate

These Call Centre People are nice enough and will do their best for you, but do push them a bit by using the information you’ve gathered on your homework.

They generally don’t offer much different from the prices displayed on the web site, but they will try for you
Please keep in mind that at this level, these people can only do so much, and they do have a job to do, so don’t be rude to them if you don’t get the deal you want!

NEVER ACCEPT THEIR FIRST OFFER

This is the crux, whatever they offer, tell them that it’s not as good as you’ve got elsewhere (ideally your homework in the previous steps will back this up)
And ask them for your PAC code.

Your PAC code is a unique code that allows you to transfer your number to another network, it’ll take a couple of days for them to generate the code and then the PAC code is valid for 3o days.
Note: If you don’t use your PAC code then nothing will change!!

Then Just Wait (don’t forget you’ve got 3-4 weeks before your contract is up!)

This is the stage I’m at, at the moment, so from here on it’s speculation based on previous experience!…

From previous experience, it seems that requesting a PAC code starts some kind of escalation procedure within Vodafone and before long somebody from Vodafone calls your mobile (I’ve know their number show up in caller line ID as 0808 002 4636 It might be worth putting that 0808 number into your contact list, so if they call you, then you’ll be prepared and know what to expect!) to ask why you’re leaving and to see if they can do a better deal.

At this point put on your very best negotiation skills and squeeze them hard – baby!

I’ve also seen that the same procedure of escalation and calls from a retention department after requesting a PAC works with Three, I’d imagine other networks will be similar.

What to do Next?

So far, every time they’ve called me, they’ve been in a position to offer a better deal than than I could get when calling customer services.

In the past I’ve known the “Retentions Department” Rep offer a better deal and say that this is a one-time deal that you have to take here and now – to me this is a bit like high pressure sales.

Up to now I’ve always given in with Vodafone Rep who’s offered me a better deal, but it’s up to you if you want to take the money and run and try your luck for an even better deal still!
This is where your homework will come in handy again, know what deals you can get from competitors, so that you’ve always got a worst case scenario to fall back on even if you leave your current provider.
The only counter arguments they’ll have to that is that their network offers clearer reception or more coverage – which may be true, but you’ll know this if you’ve asked your friends on those other networks – and don’t forget, you can always counter that argument by telling them that you spend a lot of time in an area where you KNOW that a competitor offers better reception than they do – say at work or something!

Having said that I’ve given up at that second step with Vodafone, I’ve had the same thing with Three, but at that stage I declined their “Retentions Department” one-time-offer
And I can tell you that it was followed up a few days later by another call (let’s call them the “Super-Retentions Department”) who offered an even better deal still.
To be fair to Three, that deal was pretty amazing, and the poor chap tried so hard- and I would have taken his offer had Three’s reception not been so poor in the area at the time!

Summary (So Far)

Well, I’m in the middle of this experience, so it’s not over yet, and I’ll be posting updates as things progress.

What I can say is that I’m a little disappointed with both Vodafone and Three – the fact that they have “Retentions Departments” and the fact that you have to go through this process means that most of the time, unless you follow these steps, you’re not getting the best deal from them that you could – which means that you’re being ripped off and they know it!
As a loyal Vodafone Customer for over a decade now I’m a little annoyed by this, but I’ll play the game one more time – maybe this year it’s time for a change!

One more point of note – it’s rumoured that a new iPhonewill be announced next week (whether this is true or not, and whether it’ll be the iPhone 4s or iPhone 5 remains to be seen). If it is announced, then no doubt it’ll be a while before it reaches the UK – but this may will come into my negotiations

Keep Tuned for updates which will be posted below

Update 1: the following morning (Thursday)
Shock, horror, just missed a call from that same 0808 number. They didn’t leave a message!

Update 2: Thursday afternoon:
Another call from the 0808 number – asked why I was leaving and sure enough said they would check with their manager then came back with a much better deal than Customer Services could do.  As I explained, unfortunately I wasn’t able to take that offer at the time as I didn’t have my notes with the deal from Three, so wasn’t sure if it was better or not.  Sure enough true to form, the nice lady couldn’t keep the deal and explained that she couldn’t ring me back because apparently their calling system was automated, and if they had to call back every customer they’d only get through half as many – a nice honest touch I think!

So this is a soft kind of  high pressure sales.  Sadly I had to decline the offer, and “hoped” they would find a chance to call me back.  So, I might have blown it here, but let’s just see if Vodafone is as persistent as Three were!