Once upon a time commercial concerns wanted, and rewarded, loyalty. The world has changed. We had an insurance renewal notice for £488. In years gone by, we would have renewed. I phoned Churchill (for it is they) - first having looked up their 0800 number on the excellent 'saynoto0870' website - and said that we were looking at competitors. I was then offered a "loyalty discount" of £166. Just like that. For one phone call.
Using comparison websites, I've just bought better insurance for £230 less, and Churchill has lost another disgruntled customer.
The problem with this evolving state of affairs is that I am taken for a sucker or I have to spend time and effort monitoring all relationships with service providers to make sure that they are not benefiting from the inertia effect. I suppose that I'm just being old-fashioned, but I seem to spend inordinate chunks of time avoiding being ripped off. I suppose that it's the way things work nowadays, and it's saddening.