Are Orange really not interested in keeping customers?

[Desmo]

I may very well be a "crap customer" as Desmo puts it p)

I wouldn't worry about it, I'm probably a crap customer for O2 as well

but at least i am a customer!

Trouble is, that's not always a good thing. I know it sounds odd for people that aren't in business but not all customers are worth having. Here at work in the printing trade we're more than happy to turn customers away and even tell some current customers that we don't want their work anymore. Why? Because they take up too much time and resources for not enough money. You can apply it to any industry because it's simple economics.

 

[Alex_L]

but at least i am a customer! I'm now looking at O2 and i dont really want to stay with Orange now out of principle. They wont even offer me a phone upgrade for free (on the model i want, the C600) even though it would be free if i was a new customer! now that is bad imo....

Whilst having you as a customer may increase their turnover, they'll be interested in increasing profit, not just keeping customers for sentimentality.

New customers get better offers, as its a calculated risk by the operators to offer deals that may mean they lose money(free phones have to be paid somehow) over the period of the contract if the customer doesn't spend much, but this is balanced by customers they take on who spend much more during the 12months and are therefore profitable. All because they don't know anything about the customer, whereas when you upgrade they have 12 months of data and can make a decent guess at your habits.

 

[atpbx]

So i'm at the end of my contract with Orange after 2 years with them. My flat mate has just been given a tarriff from O2 which is:

200 mins (xnet any time) and 200 texts = £20 / month

so i called orange to see if i can upgrade my tarriff to get something like this since at the moment im on 120 mins and 90 texts for £19. Orange just don't seem concerned about keeping a customer and tell me they cannot match this tarriff and can't really even get close.

What's the deal with this? Why don't they seem to care? has anyone had any luck haggling with Orange at all?

I called to cancel my contract with O2 today, as they wouldnt give a free upgrade to a N70, ill point out im on £45 a month ATM.
They would offer 500 mins/500 texts for £35 a month + £100 if i stayed.
Or 500/500 for £35 and an N70 for £79.99.

So i said no thanks and asked to cancel, to which they replied fine.

4 hours later i get a "courtesey call" asking what Vodafone were offering, so i told the them the standard £35 350 minute one (i said i was going to sign up with vodafone ), i was then offered 750 xnet mins, 400 texts for £25 a month, but i still had to fork out £79.99 for the N70.
So i figured, im still going to be saving £160 over the year, go for it.

 

[Kappa]

yeah it is a bit pants how it works, but if you think about it this way, say a network was going to sell a free Nokia N70 on a £20 a month tarriff, the phone itself costs the company about £250 I think, and the 20 quid a month adds up to £240, its things like that, obviously if you turn out to spend more then they will want to keep you, if not, its best to take your number to another network but you will be in the same situation at the end of that contract.

 

[Gavin]

check o2 atm, they are doing some great deals, 1000 x net mins and 150 texts for £35 with a samsung phone

Samsung S500i
Free

* Free Bluetooth photo printer
* Free Bluetooth headset worth £49.99
* 1.3 megapixel camera with flash
* Bluetooth
Samsung S400i
Free

* Free Bluetooth photo printer
* Free Bluetooth headset worth £49.99
* Small, sleek, slide phone
* Bluetooth


I know where i will be going after my contract is up with orange....

I Spend over £100 a month every month, but the best they can do is orange premier 600 for £55 a month thats 600 mins and 100 texts

 

[.SJ]

...

 

[v0n]

Orange had no problem matching O2 offer for me last month - I moved after 14 months on YP125 @ £30 to 200 xnet + 150 sms for £20 and free k750i which was equivalent to O2's "online 100" offer. Except O2 tarrif was £25.

 

[G|mp]

I spoke to them nicely a few times about getting an upgrade

In the end i got a k750i, 512 mem card, 200 x-net mins 500 texts

30 squid a month

 

[lozza]

I left orange for vodaphone as they didn't have anything to offer me and basically told me to go else where - but come next renewal i'd still look around and see if i could get a better deal/phone as a new customer and it wouldn't put me off going back to orange.

 

[sl33pyhead]

So i'm at the end of my contract with Orange after 2 years with them. My flat mate has just been given a tarriff from O2 which is:

200 mins (xnet any time) and 200 texts = £20 / month

so i called orange to see if i can upgrade my tarriff to get something like this since at the moment im on 120 mins and 90 texts for £19. Orange just don't seem concerned about keeping a customer and tell me they cannot match this tarriff and can't really even get close.

What's the deal with this? Why don't they seem to care? has anyone had any luck haggling with Orange at all?

Orange these days seem to care little about keeping any existing customers (and they certainly won't be getting many new ones with their new tarifs either ).
I have been with them since they started in '94 and it is painful to remember what an innovative and truly great company they used to be compared to the FT cash cow they have now become. I object to having to bail out an ailing French state owned monopoly.

You only have to compare their new ludicrously named and unbelievably patronising "animal" tarifs to the competition to see what a poor state of affairs things are with them.

To be honest I can't think of one reason to stay with them - especially now that you can get the voicemail spool working with Vodafone mail, and Three actually offer unrestricted data access plans - two things which have stopped me moving to the only other two networks I'd consider.

As far as getting hold of retentions - they do have a direct 0800 number to get through to them, although they only work normal working hours. Outside these times you end up with normal customer services, as you would if at any stage through the IVR prompts on the phone you choose a "thinking of upgrading" type option.

 

[DiscoKandy]

it's crazy isn't it! sounds like im in the same position as stoofa really. I may very well be a "crap customer" as Desmo puts it p) but at least i am a customer! I'm now looking at O2 and i dont really want to stay with Orange now out of principle. They wont even offer me a phone upgrade for free (on the model i want, the C600) even though it would be free if i was a new customer! now that is bad imo....

Can't you just cancel the contract and open a new customer contract on orange online getting the free phone and better tarrif, or am I missing something ?

 

[sl33pyhead]

Can't you just cancel the contract and open a new customer contract on orange online getting the free phone and better tarrif, or am I missing something ?

You could if you don't mind loosing your number. Orange will not let you port a number between contracts on the same network, although there used to be workarounds by porting out and then back in again, although I'm not sure I'd want a multiple ported number myself - potential for too many problems.

 

[lozza]

You could if you don't mind loosing your number. Orange will not let you port a number between contracts on the same network, although there used to be workarounds by porting out and then back in again, although I'm not sure I'd want a multiple ported number myself - potential for too many problems.

my other half ported from t-mobile to virgin then back to t-mobile to get a good new customer deal, took 2 weeks all told with no problems.....

Virgin must catch onto this soon and start charging or stipulating a minimum period, must cost them a fortune in admin costs

 

[sl33pyhead]

my other half ported from t-mobile to virgin then back to t-mobile to get a good new customer deal, took 2 weeks all told with no problems.....

Ahh yes, but my issue with porting is the in the way it works - your number is never actually really moved to the destination network - it is just routed from its original network. So for example if you ported from Orange to Voda, to O2, any incoming calls are routed through Orange to Voda and finally to O2 - thats three different networks. I know there was an incident in the last few months for example were I think Orange numbers ported to Vodafone were having real issues for a few days (ie unobtainable tones etc.) - and of course nobody wants to admit the problem is theirs with each network blaming each other, and of course your old network aren't interested in talking to you anymore because you are no longer a customer.

In your case it is a bit on an exception since the number never leaves T-Mobile (since Virgin is of course a VMO on T-Mob anyway).

EDIT: Meant to say that the "port out to Virgin" was the workaround for porting out and in to Orange again too.

 

[lozza]

Ahh yes, but my issue with porting is the in the way it works - your number is never actually really moved to the destination network - it is just routed from its original network. So for example if you ported from Orange to Voda, to O2, any incoming calls are routed through Orange to Voda and finally to O2 - thats three different networks. I know there was an incident in the last few months for example were I think Orange numbers ported to Vodafone were having real issues for a few days (ie unobtainable tones etc.) - and of course nobody wants to admit the problem is theirs with each network blaming each other, and of course your old network aren't interested in talking to you anymore because you are no longer a customer.

In your case it is a bit on an exception since the number never leaves T-Mobile (since Virgin is of course a VMO on T-Mob anyway).

EDIT: Meant to say that the "port out to Virgin" was the workaround for porting out and in to Orange again too.

Well you learn something new every day! i didn't know it worked like that