So here’s whats happened so far…

I want a HTC S710 or operator variant, however until recently Vodafone haven’t had it available. A few weeks back it appears as a business phone and so I get all excited. I rang Vodafone and spoke to a representative about an upgrade, the rep told me that the S710 or v1415 as Vodafone call it, is unavailable on a ‘consumer’ contract.

I was annoyed at Vodafones ignorance with this attitude. Just because the corporate take up would be the majority of v1415′s doesn’t mean that the everyday consumer user wouldn’t use or need the features presented in this device. This coupled with the fact there is no such thing as a data tariff with Vodafone left me bitter.

So me and the wife are in York doing some shopping, we decide to call in at the Vodafone shop as Anita is also due an upgrade. The person behind the counter was useless and only interested in offering one phone which Anita could have free on her upgrade, this was not the phone Anita wanted nor did it have the features she uses the most. My wife instead wanted a Sony Ericsson W880i in silver, to our horror this phone, available free on a new contract would cost us £100. We promptly walked out…

We decided perhaps it was time to look at some other suppliers and called in at T-Mobile, we got a good deal on two handsets, a W880i with Flext 25 and a MDA Vario II with Flext 25 and web’n'walk. This is not the handset I want and is too big but will have a good resale value which will fund me for the S710. All signed up we left the shop happy.

Anita called Vodafone today to ask for the PAC codes so we can keep our numbers, only to be bombarded with offers from Vodafone. They all of a sudden can allow me to have the v1415 (aka S710) and offer me a newer better deal than the one I’m on, even adding a 120MB per month data bundle. Anita can also have the phone she wants free of charge… I’m to be honest boiling with anger, I can’t believe they would happily loose a customer right up until the last moment and then decide they want to keep you when you show them your serious about leaving. Its disgraceful and unfortunately happens far too much in modern business. Anita wants to stay with Vodafone because it would cost us to cancel her contract earlier, however I’m torn, yes I can get the phone I want and a better deal but the data offering isn’t as good as the T-Mobile web’n'walk and I’m angry about not being offered the deal I want until I threaten to leave.

I’m sure you’ve all had this situation and I would like to know your thoughts.

To be honest what happens next will probably depend on my wife.

Heres a pic of York and the boat: