The tao of Claire must be "if you find something you want you can always get it cheaper!" and so began my quest for a mobile phone.

In a very "anorak-ish" kind of way my boyfriend (now my husband) and I spent a very long and boring Saturday constructing an Excel spreadsheet into which we plugged a plethora of information regarding mobile phone tariffs in a vain attempt to establish which mobile phone tariff would be best for us at the time. I do not recommend doing this without a cold towel by your side as attempting to quantify "three months free", "50 mins free minutes anytime", "500 free off-peak minutes", "£5.00 free calls" and "£100 cash-back" into meaningful spreadsheet figures was a nightmare! In the end (and it was a close run thing) we scientifically (!) determined that the BT Cellnet Pay in Advance package was the one for us.

Off we went to the BT Cellnet shop (two in fact) and duly purchased a phone each. Credit, where credit is due, the BT shop did impress at first. I had been misquoted a price for the package (and luckily had the price in writing on a leaflet) and BT honoured the quote so I picked up a Nokia 5110 phone for £99.99 (instead of £139.99). The package included 12 months line rental on the My Time tariff (now Talk 600 - or similar) and £5.00 worth of off-peak calls for a month.

I had a number of run-ins with BT at the start of the contract as part of the offer which had induced us to take up the contract with BT was the promise of free calls to two landline numbers and a calling circle reduction (rather like friends and family). None of these were ever credited and in the end I settled for a £20 credit on my account as, in BTs words "a good will gesture!".

At the end of the first year I was given the option of renewing the contract with BT. About two months prior to the renewal date I received a letter saying that it would cost me £129.99 to renew and that I had 14 days in which to accept. If I did not then my contract would revert to a monthly contract from the renewal date and I would be charged £17.99 a month with 500 free minutes included. Not only was this more than I had paid for the phone in the first place (and had I had a different make of phone I could have got the package for £89.99) but they had also unilaterally changed the tariff that I was on if I did not renew in time.

I called BT and explained the situation and was told that this was the price, take it or leave it! Having seen SIM only deals advertised on the web I told them politely where they could stick their contract and went away to investigate the SIM only deals. Upon investigation of the SIM deals I was told that you could not pre-order a SIM, I would have to approach the SIM companies nearer the time for renewal. So I waited.

A couple of weeks before my contract with BT was due to end I visited the SIM only sites again with a view to ordering a SIM card for the pay-up-front package that I was currently on. Not so fast Claire….. BT had withdrawn the sale of their SIM cards and it was not known when supplies would be available again, if ever. I was using my phone to talk to my now husband on a daily basis and as I often work strange and long hours the mobile was an asset. I was faced with having to cough up £129.99 to BT just because they had used their power and size to prevent the sale of their SIM cards. To make matters worse I could not change providers as my husband had (rather stupidly) agreed to stay with BT for two years to benefit from a call discount and thus we would end up making mobile to mobile calls outside of the network if I changed - a very costly exercise. The pay-in-advance package had also been removed from the market.

I called BT to be told "as a privileged customer we will offer you the deal for £99.99 but we can go no lower." Even after I had explained that £99.99 would have bought me the package and the phone and that since I had already got the phone this was not offering me value for money they still refused to budge on the price and so, rather grudgingly, I accepted and paid by credit card.

Meanwhile, my now husband was going through a similar thing with BT only his renewal letter, received after mine, offered renewal at £99.99. He spoke to BT and managed to get the price down to £79.99 and signed up again. Furious, I was back on the phone to BT and explained. I requested that I speak to a manager and was put through to a very helpful lady who agreed the price reduction and told me that I was entitled to a new phone. She also agreed to pay me the £20 I had been promised but had not received for the failure by BT to ever credit my free landline calls. A refund to my credit card was made. Eventually a good deal.

The manager to whom I eventually ended up speaking to informed me that it was BT policy to keep prices as high as possible as people feel like they have to accept them. If you keep pushing you will get the prices down. I feel that this is despicable behaviour on the part of BT. They ride on their reputation as the nations' telecom provider and exploit that reputation by ripping their customers off. They should be rewarding loyalty and not discriminating against you because they have effectively tied you into a contract.

@@@@ Lessons Learned @@@@

1 Do not accept the first price you are given - BT can and will go lower.

2 Do not let yourself get tied into a pay-in-advance package for longer than the paid period through signing up to extra discount schemes. The extra discounts offered for loyalty-in-advance schemes often amount to mere pence per month unless you are a heavy user.

3 Be very aware that you may have to change provider at the end of the paid for period to get the best deal - customer loyalty and product longevity are not guaranteed.

4 Shop around for the best deals in the first place but be prepared to do it all again after a year. Packages vary in terms of phone, tariff and incentive and getting all of the information to make an informed decision is very difficult.

5 Don't rely on BT to be honest and credit your account with any discounts offered. Check your bill (not easy) and shout if they have it wrong.

6 Try to get any compensation paid by way of cheque unless you use the phone a lot - it could take you forever to use it if you only ever pay for itemised billing each month.

7 Don't give in to monied might!

I would not recommend BT under any circumstances although currently they still offer the cheapest package for my own personal needs. They abuse their position as a market leader in telecoms to their own advantage and customer care is a foreign concept!

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Update

I'm having another run-in with BT. They want to tie me to a new 12 month contract because I need to change my name to my married name so that the bank account details match. I would only consider this if they considered putting me on the new tarrifs that are available now - my current tarrif has been suspended- but no they want the best of both world's as usual - a new contract at the old rate... and our survey says "nah-uh"

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