Wow, what a day... where do I begin...
I decided to day that the deal needed cancelling, so I took it into the store I bought it only to be told "i'm sorry you can't cancel the deal, you only get 24hrs to cancel the contract. I was surprised at this, and said that I thought the cooling off period was 2 weeks. He (the manager) then said "No i'm afraid not sir, hence why the salewoman wrote in pen: no 14 day cancel" at the top of the contract. Now sure enough there was that written in barely legible scrawl... but I was sure that the lady didn't actually explain this to me properly when I signed (she was very hesitant and unsure), which his response to that was :"I doubt she would say otherwise, or i'd sack her". Nice guy.
So I basically ask if there was anything I could do to cance, to which he smigly said "No, unless maybe you pay the rest of your years contract fees off." I asked about calling orange up and he said "You could try, but I doubt it would achieve anything". Now let me just say the guy was being a complete barsteward here, a real smug git. So I left the shop fuming.
However, undeterred, I gave orange a ring to enquire as to the legality of the situation. I chatted to a bloke called David, whop I suspect may have been an angel in human form, and he was very sympathetic, apologising for the behaviour of the manager and saying that it was ver off of the guy to treat me like that, and I should have just been given the cancellation without all of this fuss. He then proceeded to enquire as to whether my phone was faulty, asking specifically if it displayed any symptoms of intermittent flickering, or if the screen would go off by itself etc... I of course replied yes. he put me through to a faults engineer who gave me a fault code and then told me to return the phone under the contract agreement that if the phone is found faulty within 28 days I can simply cancel the whole contract. David spoke to his boss at orange whop then said that if the manager of the orange shop had a problem with t I then went back to the shop and said that if the irange shop manager had a problem with this to ring him personally to have a chat about it. I took phone back, and the git passed me on to a female advisor who promptly confirmed the "fault" and cancelled the contract. Result!
I then went shopping for a new contract and thank god I stumbled into the 3 shop to be greeted by a couple of cool, down-to-earth dudes who eventually bartered me a cracking deal as a new customer... on the talk & text 700 tariff
Which consists of:
*£35/month standard charge
*3 months 1/2 price line rental
*12 months.
*400 minutes.
*250 texts
*25 video minutes
*25 picture or video messages
Not only that... but I managed by sheer charm to barter a Nokia N73 for free, whereas the standard charge would have been £119 for new customers. Did I mention they threw in a free bluetooth headset worth £25? All-told it ends up working up the exact same cost as the lower, inferior £25/month tariff on orange for a much superior deal. LOL, 3 now firmly has my business, what legends!
Soo alls well that ends well... nice to see that
Orange themselves were fully prepared to go the extra 10 miles to help me get out of that nightmare 18-month contract... the guys at the Orange centre didn't have to do what they did, but in doing so they showed that they have real commitment to leaving people satisfied. If I ever see you in the pub Dave, drinks are on me!
Now to start abusing this N73... looks sweet!
