I decided to give 3 a ring, 4 months before my 12 month contract ended, and selected the option "if you are thinking of leaving us, please press X" (which always makes me chuckle).

Anyway I told the friendly lady who answered straight away a little white lie: that P4U had made me an incredible offer and were going to buy me out of my contract unless she could offer me something better.

Which she did - I ended up with a shiny new N73 delivered *6* hours later the same day!

The tariff she offered me was a bespoke one, which she said she had specifically designed for me in order to beat my (fictional) offer from P4U. She also said she could only offer me this as I'd been a customer with them for over 2 years.

Basically, for a £315 commitment over 12 months, I've got the following.

Last 4 months of previous 12 month contract written off
Nokia N73
£180 worth of calls and texts per month
1GB of data per month, including ability to use phone as high speed modem!

The lady told me it isn't an official price plan, instead what they do to retain customers now is offer them a bespoke price plan which is what they've done to me.

I was curious when I got my new handset what it would say when I look on 'My 3' because it says the name of your tariff on there, but it simply says "Bespoke Tariff: £180 Allowance for use on all calls and texts except non-geographic numbers"

I don't know about you guys, but I don't think I've done too badly there! So my advice for anyone on 3 who's fed up with their handset is - ring them up, say P4U have offered you a better deal, and ask for an N73 on X series!!

Or hold out for the N95