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Why Are There No Returning Customer Deals?


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Old 31-10-2014, 12:27
carnivalist
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As I mentioned elsewhere in this post;

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...3&postcount=33

I was tricked into leaving Orange by the shysters at Virgin Mobile and their Incredible Vanishing "Unlimitacular" promotion of 2012.

I had been very happy with Orange - to my intense and ongoing regret I rejected a very good retention deal in order to switch to Virgin Mobile. (I generally had high bills, so guess they were keen to keep me). In hindsight I would have been stupid to reject it even if Virgin had behaved decently, but as my only experience of data was getting hammered with a massive bill when I accidentally ran up a lot of WAP usage in ye olden days I was paranoid about not getting unlimited data, oblivious to how much I would actually need.

I am now nearly at the end of my contract with the hated Virgin and would normally jump at the chance to rejoin Orange/EE, based on my previous experience. However I seem to be potentially caught in something of a trap.

It is possible that Virgin might offer me a deal to stay - my bills are still quite high (£40-odd per month) and they know from my bitter complaints throughout my time with them that I am serious about leaving and not merely angling for a deal.

Unfortunately I would obviously have to pay the headline price to rejoin Orange. If the disparity between the two deals was too great - say for the sake of argument Virgin offered me the same benefits I would receive as an EE customer for a third of the price - I would then be in something of a dilemma. While I'm very resentful of Virgin Mobile and long to see the back of them, money is money at the end of the day.

If there was a culture of returning customer deals - i.e that customers who had moved to a different network 24 months previously were routinely offered some sort of discount to encourage them back - I would be off like a shot. I'm obviously not talking about receiving something equivalent to retention deals for existing customers - if EE offered me a discount that would simply reduce the gap between a new EE contract and any Virgin mobile retention deal that would be enough.

Of course this is all a bit previous - its just that when my mother tried to leave Virgin Mobile a couple of years ago she was offered the Unlimitacular deal (2500 minutes, Unlimited texts and data, free Galaxy Ace Plus and inclusive insurance) for £13 pcm. That would be difficult to turn down if the alternative was something three times more expensive.

It just seems to me that I can't be the only one in my position who would like to return to a former provider. You would have thought this could be a potential source of new customers. After all, assuming the networks keep archives of former customers accounts for a period they would know what sort of customer they would be getting and could tailor any "Welcome Back" deals accordingly.
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Old 31-10-2014, 12:32
scorpionatthepc
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I stayed with tesco for another 12 month and they offered me an extra 250 mins and an extra 500mb of data at no extra cost.
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Old 31-10-2014, 12:46
carnivalist
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That's not what I mean. You're referring to a retention deal for an EXISTING customer, which is pretty standard - i.e you've never actually left the network. I'm asking why the networks don't offer deals to entice back FORMER customers - i.e those who might have left, but regretted it and were locked into a contract with their new provider which is coming to an end.
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