On 12/12/2011 18:12, Dave N wrote:

Yes, you've reminded me! Indeed, true to form Tesco will continuously
try to "monetise" their customer base.

You've probably realised that I got the PAYG SIM from them some years
ago as the "Value SIM" package which was superseded by their new and
renamed offerings some while later. I had to request a downgrade to the
new "lite" package after it was introduced, otherwise I would have been
paying significantly higher calling costs given my very low use. I would
have been unaware of the change had I not checked their website very
carefully when I was asked to top-up with 10 pounds per month in order
to get the "best" prices. They didn't exactly tell me about the change
of packaging, they simply offered the "best" prices if I agreed to
regular top-ups.

It wasn't an easy process to downgrade to what I had been getting
previously and my request was queried at every stage, complete with
apparent misunderstandings, by their customer service rep. who wanted to
satisfy himself that I really was getting the best deal!

If you register your SIM via their web site it won't show you what
package you are on and is geared solely to enabling you to pay them some
money for top-ups. The only way to check is to calculate the price from
the cost and timing of each telephone call. If you don't register your
SIM, any change will happen without you ever knowing. A description of
"sleight of hand" is entirely appropriate and presumably taking
advantage of the fact that many (most?) purchasers of their SIM-only
packages don't register.

Although it can be cheap to start with, Tesco do always look for the
opportunity to increase their revenue by re-packaging and re-marketing
something without actually changing the service other than increasing
their prices. They achieve this by abolishing the previous packages and
substituting their "new and improved" offerings. As you noted, if they
keep the old packages (presumably only because of some sort of
regulatory or contractual requirement) they will rename them and bury
them so deep that only the most persistent of searches can find them.

/rant

Perhaps I should also check out the IKEA offering.



Oh, I don't know. They were very upfront in telling me about the Lite
package and offering to switch me over. But only AFTER I had phoned to
request a PAC in order to transfer my number.