Orange rant

[eyetrip]

Ok, sorry to bore you all, but just mad as hell with Orange right now.

About 18 months ago signed up for call plan with 1000 text messages and 100 minutes cause I use more texts than calls.

So anyway, come November they get hold of me to let me know that I am due for renewal/upgrade. I ask if I can just go into the stores on the high street - yeah sure no worries.

So got one of the phones upgraded earlier this month, but as we were not going for more expensive call plan, had to pay for phone. Ok, no worries.

Earlier this week upgraded the other account on high street too. Pay for phone, cool, no worries.

Got myh bill and open it, and am not using anywhere near 1000 texts before we start getting charged for them. Phone up and they tell me that was because the texts was a limited time offer which has now expired....

There was no letter from them stating this offer (which was never sold to us as a limited time offer) has now expired.

I signed up for that call plan specifically because of the number of texts!

Even when we were in store, looking at our phone options, nobody told us the plan details would not be like what we had.

Call them up to complain and they tell me that had I gone direct through Orange, they might have been able to sort something out. What is the Orange store if not a direct part of Orange??? And why was the difference not explained to me when I originally phoned?

Then they tell me, don't worry sir. If you upgrade to one of our more expensive packages you can get more texts. Well if someone had told us that in the first place, we would not have had to pay any money towards our phones!!!

So now our bill is £30 higher than usual. And I can't cancel the first account I upgraded because it is outside the 7 cancellation period.

So I think tomorrow I will be cancelling my other mobile account with them, and go with a new contract with someone else. Will get a cheaper Tarriff, and plus get my phone for free.

Just have to wait 12 months until I can cancel the other one.

All, I wanted was to have the call plan I originally signed on for....

I porbably have not explained very well my situatio and my I am so annoyed with them, but ranting is sometimes good for the soul

 

[gumbald]

Ring them up and speak to someone higher than a monkey. Cancel the other and see if they can reach a compromise on the first one. Have you got some way of proving the initial deal with no expiry date?

 

[Streeteh]

I had the exact same thing happen to me on O2. I wrote to their complaints department and they improved my contract but it still wasn't as good as what i had the year before, my apparent 'upgrade' destroyed my contract.

However this year i basically said to them 'well, you screwed me over last year, so i want something really good this year' which i got.

 

[eyetrip]

Ring them up and speak to someone higher than a monkey. Cancel the other and see if they can reach a compromise on the first one. Have you got some way of proving the initial deal with no expiry date?

The monkeys won't put anyeon else on. They have spoken to their "team leaders" but all they keep saying is, sorry, you have the contract now, so you are stuffed.

I need to dig out my original contract and have a gander at it.....

I had the exact same thing happen to me on O2. I wrote to their complaints department and they improved my contract but it still wasn't as good as what i had the year before, my apparent 'upgrade' destroyed my contract.

However this year i basically said to them 'well, you screwed me over last year, so i want something really good this year' which i got.

I can see this is going to be my only option with the first mobile account.

The best I can get with it is the same cost, but only 300 messages.... will just have to stick with that for 12 months.

As for my other account, the one I can still cancel the "upgrade" on, I am unsure whether I should jsut cancel what I went with earlier this week and then phone up Ornage retentions department, and tell them sort out with good deal or we say goodbye, or to jsut cancel comletely and go with someone else.

 

[kibblerok]

Just have to wait 12 months until I can cancel the other one.

Sounds like you have already given up so im not sure what you are after.

Id check to see what you are signed for, theres plenty of complaints of special offers 'expiring' with Orange despite them being advertised as within the call plan.

There may be scope for you to cancel if you keep on at them depending on what you were told at POS, just because their clause says you can't cancel after x days, does not mean it overrides standard contract law with regards to mis-selling, even if not explicitly written down on your contract/terms.

 

[eyetrip]

One question though, does upgrading the phone mena you are automatically renewing contract for X amount of time? Its just that the guy even asked if we wanted to renew, which would allow us any phone for free, but we just opted to stick with out exising plan (the one with 1000 texts) and pay for phones.

I will definitely dig out the paperwork for when I signed up for these numbers originally, but like I said, there was never any mention of a limited time offer. And we were not notified that this limited time offer had expired, hence the £30 more than usual bill.

I have not given up yet, but so far, where the one mobile is concerned its over 7 days since we upgraded, and everyone is telling me that there is nothing I can do about it now. I either have to buy them out, which is too expensive at £200, or simply stick out a 12 month term - but I am now confused about this 12 month term, in relation to my first question in this post.

 

[Maccy]

The monkeys won't put anyeon else on. They have spoken to their "team leaders" but all they keep saying is, sorry, you have the contract now, so you are stuffed.

You can ask to speak to a manager, I've done it a few times with Orange now. Just have to be firm.

 

[eyetrip]

Well, dug out my contract from about 18 months ago, was a 24 month contract and said nothing about limited time offers.

Rang up again, got hold of someone helpful, stated my case, and within just couple of minutes the girl tells me we have our texts back, and have been issued refund for texts have been charged for under the 1000 limit.

Why couldn't they just do that in the first place? Anyway, at least it sorted

 

[Dolph]

One question though, does upgrading the phone mena you are automatically renewing contract for X amount of time? Its just that the guy even asked if we wanted to renew, which would allow us any phone for free, but we just opted to stick with out exising plan (the one with 1000 texts) and pay for phones.

Upgrading the phone does automatically start the fixed term again, irrespective of whether you change the plan. It also does not automatically renew any time limited offers that were associated with your previous plan.

I will definitely dig out the paperwork for when I signed up for these numbers originally, but like I said, there was never any mention of a limited time offer. And we were not notified that this limited time offer had expired, hence the £30 more than usual bill.

It was all in the terms and conditions at the time, hence it would not have been specifically noted on the form (which states to refer to the T&C's of the offer). The expiry of the texts would have been on your bill (it would have not said you had 1000 free texts for the next period).

I have not given up yet, but so far, where the one mobile is concerned its over 7 days since we upgraded, and everyone is telling me that there is nothing I can do about it now. I either have to buy them out, which is too expensive at £200, or simply stick out a 12 month term - but I am now confused about this 12 month term, in relation to my first question in this post.

If you'd upgraded to most other plans, you'd have taken an 18 month contract term.

The problem here is that, while you think something has gone wrong, from Orange's point of view the billing is fine. Which means that you aren't entitled to anything. That doesn't necessarily mean you won't get anything, but it does change how you have to approach things. Phoning up and making demands rarely works in such a situation.

I can see you've now got it sorted, which is good. As for why they didn't do it the first time around, see above really. Before anyone says anything about inconsistant approaches, the consistant, rule driven approach would be to give nothing

 

[mrochester]

I can see this happening to me when I come to upgrade with T-Mobile. I have Flext35 on a 12 month contract, which gives me £120 of credit PM. However, they have since lowered that to £90 of credit PM. So I'm guessing that if I want to continue on the same Flext 35 for 12 months, I would have to live with £90 credit, which is a massive downgrade, not an upgrade! The deals are supposed to get better the longer you are with them, not worse! Hahaha.