Call me!

In life we’re rewarded for our loyalty. If it’s to our friends, we’re rewarded with love and support and fun. If it’s to a supermarket we’re rewarded with 10p off vouchers or ‘loyalty cards’ whereby we accumulate points which can be redeemed against ‘great stuff we really want’ (AKA- stuff the supermarkets have over-ordered and can’t get rid of). If we’re loyal to a particular service, such as a doctor or a hairdresser, we’re rewarded with a comforting sense of familiarity- ‘I trust this person because they know how difficult my hair can be’ (GP- it fell out when I was on antidepressants) or ‘I’ve been here since I was 10 and he knows my patient history inside out’ (hairdressers often get given the low down on all things unrelated to hair. Hi-lights take a LONG time).

This however was not the case with my mobile phone provider. Over the years I have been loyal and faithful to Vodafone. My first mobile phone was an Ericsson in 1998 and since then, every year I’ve had an upgrade, re-visited my tariffs and stuck by Vodafone’s side.

Recently however, I’ve sensed that perhaps I’m being strung along, like a desperate girlfriend whose man has started to stray. My bills have been on the up (my calculations are that over the years, I’ve earnt Vodafone around £11K) and my head has been turned by sparkly adverts from other providers promising the moon and the stars AND unlimited text messaging, all for less than half of what I’m paying now.

The icing on the cake is that my yearly upgrades have now been reduced to every 18 months, and my phone was close to knackers yard territory. Feeling unloved and taken for granted I wrote a rather emotional letter claiming that as a loyal customer I was disappointed I was being fleeced and would be taking my lovely business elsewhere. Stick that in your network.

A day later I was called by Ahmed of the client retention team. I was a little sulky and he soothed my moodiness with talk of sending me my PAC code and cancelling my contract straight away. He then gently enquired into my reasons for vodabandonment. Rather haughtily, I said that I didn’t feel very appreciated and was being taken for granted. Ahmed smoothed my ruffled feathers with talk of fancy upgrades, next day delivery, ‘top of the range’ Samsungs and various other perks. I weakened. I crumbled. I was actually grateful and excited at the prospect of nothing more than fair treatment. I now feel like someone who has taken back a cheating partner after being given a cheap bracelet from Elizabeth Duke. But for about a week, I have the best phone of all my friends and what’s more important?