Renewal pricing/offers fiasco

I'm coming to the end of my 12 month contract with BT so have called them a few times to discuss renewing.
If I do not renew they will increase my broadband cost from £8 pm to £18 pm - !!!
Obviously I won't be doing that.

Call 1 - 13/08/2015
Offer was:
- Unlimited broadband £6.85 pm, increasing to £7.30 pm from 20th Sept
This was apparently the "AOP" team, whatever that is.

[the time gap here, I was on holiday!]

Call 2 - 26/08/2015
Called BT customer services. She said she was "cancellations" team.
Offer was:
- Unlimited broadband £13.85 pm
Yes that is double the earlier number
I then pointed out the earlier offer on 13/08
I was put through to the Easy Assist team
They would then honour the earlier offer of £6.85 pm / £7.30 pm

Call 3 - 26/08/2015
Called Retentions 0800 5877216
Offer was:
- Unlimited broadband £5.85 pm increasing to £6.25 from 20th Sept


Seems mad that I keep getting offered different amounts by different people.
Is this standard with BT?
Tempted to just jump ship - talktalk is £0 pm for 18 months.

Yes, common in many areas these days.

Different teams will have different sales/retention targets, so you can get an unheard deal sometimes via retentions.

You want to try Sky! Call 5 people, get 4 offers and 1 no offer

Most organisations will make offers to keep the customer, and no one who can be bothered to haggle goes onto the current standard price at the end of the contract. Mortgages are just the same

However, offers via "retentions" are in my experience good value, hard to beat, and minus the hassle of changing to another provider

I think it's slightly bonkers that they don't just have "an offer" that BT give me.
What if I'd only happened to speak to the team in Call 2? I'd have been paying twice as much.

To simplify the post I left out some information - I also would like an all inclusive calls package and was quoted 3 different prices for that on the three different calls.

I have recently placed an order for BT Infinity unlimited 1, the first two operators said as I was still in contract (had recontracted in March with normal broadband) and also an existing customer they could not offer a better deal than the standard £23 per month.

Another call a day of so later to a different department and got it for £13 per month!

Another call a day of so later to a different department and got it for £13 per month!

Was that the retentions department or something else?

Not just BT. Also, those teams will almost certainly be aware of the previous contacts (as their systems will record all that). I suspect that it all depends on how desperate they are to retain customers how far they will go in the offers. So what might look random is probably not (also, different teams might have authority to offer different deals).

This is not just BT. It's many suppliers. For that matter, it's rife in many industries. Insurance is a good one.

Of course the irony is that all these special offers have to get paid for one way or another, and that's largely through the hike to more "loyal" customers. It's often called the "loyalty penalty".

So the upshot is, if people can be bothered with the hassle, there are often deals to be done. If you want a quiet life you end up paying more.