So, after hearing what must be the 30th radio advert trying to sell broadband/TV/insurance with their best "new customer offer", it reminded me of my last car insurance renewal fight and got me questioning what might be out there that comes with some kind of benefit to keeping signed up. When my last car insurance renewal quote came through from Admiral it was a stonking £4 per month cheaper than the previous year... Funny that, considering when I used a couple of price comparison sites, the Admiral quotes were all coming up at closer to £20 a month cheaper. I gave them a ring and (politely) told them to go choke on their renewal quote, but the sales chap questioned why I was so unhappy about it. I explained that I could get a cheaper premium pretty much everywhere (including through them as a new policy), and considering that I hadn't actually had to use their services and therefore have no basis or positive experience, I had no justification to paying extra. Sensing my immanent departure, Salesbot 5000 quickly went into rententions mode and revealed that I am actually on their "loyalty bonus scheme", and he could match the quotes I found online. I called him out on his ********, and berated him and his organisation for wasting my time and making me jump through hoops for a quote I could have got in 5 minutes online, but agreed to renew. I fully expect them to again forget about this loyalty scheme come January when it's next up... Does anyone have any experience with companies that genuinely reward loyalty? Or is the whole concept just well and truly dead?
There is no reward for loyalty IME. I've no loyalty for car insurance except with the RS - The quotes are withing two or three pounds, it's not worth the hassle of changing. Basically the only thing I'm "loyal" to is my ISP/Phone provider, because the price is good, the support is good, and there's no ******** to go along with it. It's just a phone line and a fibre connection, no frills, no crappy sales emails, nothing. It's perfect. Swap to the cheapest provider whenever it comes to the end of a contract, you'll only get milked if you renew.
I never, ever accept renewal quotes without first checking whether I can get a better deal as a new customer with the same provider. However, I recently had a renewal quote through for my buildings & contents insurance, and when I generated a quote for the same cover with my current provider I was surprised to see that the renewal quote was actually significantly cheaper than a new business quote. I think that's the first time that has happened to me, ever But yeah, there's no loyalty for existing customers, so you have to play the game and be prepared to vote with your feet and wallet. One thing I would say is that price isn't always the best differentiator, as some companies are so truly awful to deal with that I'd happily pay a premium to avoid them.
Sky are the absolute WORST for this. We were paying £130 for full Sky & Fiber in my old flat, which was a joke... so called up and asked for a deal, said they couldnt do it, so cancelled the account.. Got 3x phone calls in the last month we had paid for and the final one was the same package for £85. For these firms, you've just got to call their bluff. Have to say that EE were really quite good for sorting out new deals - As soon as I came off my 2 Year contract, I walked into the shop and they said that all the deals avaliable to new customers were there for me too, but I'd get BT Sport and Apple Music for free for the duration of the contract, not the 6 months the new customers were getting.
Loyalty pah. Look at what the energy providers do when you reach the end of your contract immediately bung you onto the most expensive tariff and it is up to you to do something about it. Loyalty like decent customer service is something for the most part a thing of the past.
Rewarding loyalty is for Rubes, nowadays the business model is to set up a Direct Debit, leave it alone for the shortest time possible then raise it and hope the customer doesn't notice.
I'm loyal to my buildings/contents insurance provider because I'm on a policy that's no longer available, and would pay double for the same cover elsewhere... I suppose that's not really loyalty at all though, now I think about it. If we're talking about an large organisation, they just don't care, as I suspect the reality is a significant majority of customers just tick the renew box without thinking twice? Sky was the worst - was getting phone/internet/TV for ~£40/month, and every year without fail they told me they were increasing it to £90-100 because my super-special one time only offer had expired, and there was nothing they could possibly do about it. I then tell them I'm cancelling, and they put me through to their retention team, who tell me that they can do a bit better, but there's no possible way they can match the deal I'm on. I then tell them I'm still cancelling, and the call ends, and then a few days later get a call that I'm in luck because there's a super special deal and if they do something extra special just for little old me they can match the price if I agree to renew right now. Do people fall for this nonsense? When I finally cancelled for good, I explained to them that if they're able to match my existing price right now I'll renew, but I'm not going to play the game this time, and they assured me there's no possible way they can do that. Lo and behold, a few days later another super special offer came up that meant they could match, and I kindly advised them to insert that super special offer into their super special anus.
Don't mind TBH, we change all insurance and anything that provides anything usually every year. We've had hundreds in cash via the cashback sites over the years.
Yup there is no loyalty reward at all. Even their rebuttals are pathetic now. The last time I remember getting any satisfaction out of a company was Virgin Cable. Basically we had been on it for years paying quite a hefty sum per month. I phoned them and told them that I was leaving for the USA and mum could not afford it on her own. IIRC they dropped the price from something like £28 a month to £7. I guess the way they saw it was it was better to get something out of that address they had run a cable to than nothing. Try telling Sky that, they just try and sign you up into another contract. This is why you need to switch so much. It's a pain and a faff, but the only way you will continually save cash. BT have told me that if I do not cancel my contract before 13 months my bill goes up by £14 a month. Yup, way to f*****g keep me after the first year is up, douchebags.
BT were great when we moved back, 100 quid cashcard and over 100 quid in cashback. This will all go up at the end of 12 months but Virgin have just been laying cables down our street this last week so guess where I'll be heading
I moved over to using what is effectively an insurance broker, been far better than dealing with companies directly. Cuts out all the sales bull ****, cheaper every renewal without asking too. Also Kudos to Three, every other mobile company puts the price of contracts up every year, 4 years no increases so far.
I'll second that as a good option for insurance, we did use one to sort out our landlord insurance while abroad. Easy and, like you say, changed us over at renewal time to an equivalent, but cheaper, deal.
You're better off not showing loyalty to any companies that you pay for a service/product, sadly. Sky only offer existing customers ANY kind of deal when you phone up to cancel: "Oh, there's an offer on your account..." Please! I went through USwitch recently for gas and electric and found a deal that's over £400 a year cheaper, so I phoned my current supplier to see if they were willing to price match or improve their prices - they said they could knock a fiver off, but I should bear in mind their prices are going up next month! Needless to say, I switched and shortly afterwards they called to see if there was anything they could do!?!? BT were same when I moved my call package to my broadband provider. ...as were my home insurance company ...and my mobile provider The list goes on. FUQEMALL
