Upgrade annoyance

[Anonymous]

I upgraded my phone a few days ago to the Samsung Galaxy SII, along with the deal where i get 200 minutes, unlimited texts and also 100mb internet for the price of £18.50, plus the handset cost of £104.
I recieved the phone today, played around with it and generally enjoyed it, but because i was in this 14 day cooling off period i figured i could check and see what other deals where around via competitors, just out of curiosity.
Sure enough i did find a deal through Phones4u on Vodafone, which seemed more cost effective (300minutes, 3000texts, 250mb internet and £49.99 for the phone). I figured this was a much better deal than what i was getting, and only cost £2 more per month.
I phoned the retention department within O2, i started off by saying "I got a phone a few days ago..." before i knew it, i was passed through to the returns department for the mobile phone.
I spoke to them, i merely explained i didn't want to leave O2, i just wanted to see if they could match, or better, the deal which i found through Phones4u/Vodafone.
They wasn't interested. Instead they said they have to get the phone back which i recieved today, and then they MIGHT offer a deal when speaking with retentions, but there was no dice until i returned the phone.
That is completely ridiculous in all seriousness. Why send a phone back, then potentially agree to a new deal and then send me a brand new phone back, if i have to do that i will most likely just get my PAC code - but then i guess i'd have to send the phone back first.

[Anonymous]

No network will EVER just change a deal after you have received the phone it was supplied on. The only options you have, with any network, are to carry on as you are, under the terms you agreed to accept, or cancel the deal and send it back. The fact that you are sending the phone back also has no bearing on whether you will get a better deal or not, though I would bet you won't. The deals are the deals, take it or leave it is the outlook.
All the customer can do is choose the deal they are happiest with.

[Anonymous]

Been with O2 about 10 years and have a Nokia 6303 ( i think that's what it is anyway!), and am very happy with it. I've been able to upgrade last couple of months and decided to take the plunge yesterday. Only had 4 phones available for me, which i was quite surprised about, Galaxy,iphone, and 2 HTC. I ended up going for the HTC Desire S, and the contract was actually £8 cheaper than what i'm currently paying. Happy with that then. Until i looked today to see how much i'm saving...how much the same package would cost me if i was a new customer. Well, it's exactly the same! I looked at the other phones and packages, and from what i could remember they were just the same price too. Surely this can't be right? Surely the whole point of an upgrade is to reward you for your loyalty, and to give you some sort of better deal than if you were a new customer?
I think i'll be writing a pretty strong email! Anyone else experienced this?

[Anonymous]

Everyone gets the same. At one time existing customers paid more than new customers: this was considered unfair.
Now existing customers get the same they want it cheaper than new customers!
This is business - you enter into a contract for £X for X months and when it comes to an end you can take out another or seek a better contract elsewhere.
The networks cannot keep giving cheap deals on which they make little money and improve coverage at the same time.

[Anonymous]

So why only offer me the 4 phones then? This is what i don't understand. Why not just say, 'ok, choose any phone and package you like from our shop page'? Which i probably would've done if i'd known beforehand!

[Anonymous]

If you called up and didn't have a phone in mind, then the upgrades advisor will usually offer you a selection of what's popular.
Also, as others have said, if you call up and just ask to upgrade, you'll be given the normal upgrade price which is usually the same as joining as a new customer.
If you call and state you're leaving for a deal with a different network, then you'll be passed to retentions, who will see if o2 can offer a better price, but if the business won't make any gain from retaining you, then they'll let you go and issue a PAC if required, there are always new customers willing to pay the published price. All the big networks now operate in the same fashion, apart from 3 in some cases who is newer to the market and still trying to build a customer base.
The word 'loyalty' is thrown about in the wrong context far too much these days.