Retentions do still exist and do still sometimes call you up however they, like customer services agents you speak to, have virtually no power to actually do anything worthwile anymore. They certainly have no option but to follow the company line in regard to giving extra discount for loyalty.
With the knowledge that Vodafone and O2 share masts, in the last couple of months I've decided to bail and move four lines over to O2 for this exact reason, O2 were happy to negotiate and offered a great deal on those four lines, Vodafone wouldn't budge an inch from the website pricing. Asking Vodafone for four PAC codes certainly got someone's attention because within five minutes of asking I got a call back from retentions wanting to know why.
I pointed out they were not being very flexible or rewarding my loyalty. She asked what it would take to keep my custom so I told her what O2 had offered and asked her to match it. She pointed out the prices on the website are non-negotiable as they are already discounted. I pointed out that the same offer was available last year yet still negotiated a substantial discount on top. This is the reason we ended up with four lines on Vodafone, because the discounts were good. She looked at my bills for the past twelve months, accepted what I had said was correct ,then she apologised stating there is nothing that she can do regarding the prices and wished me well on O2.
The bottom line is yes, they will let you go.
All utility companies now only seem interested in gaining new customers rather than retaining old ones. It no longer pays to be loyal, so I don't show them any anymore. If the only way to secure a good deal is to become a 'new customer' every year then so be it.
