Orange-to-Orange number transfer: broken?

arty · 6 Apr 2006 at 20:49

My 12-month contract with Orange has just finished and I'd like to start a new one with a new handset but keep the same phone number. I've just decided on a handset and new contract on the Orange website but when I get to the 'transfer my number' page and choose Orange Pay-Monthly, it gives me this message:

Because you're already an Orange pay monthly customer you can change your phone and still keep your number by upgrading. See all upgrade phones

You may be charged an upgrade fee depending on how long you've been an Orange customer.

If you would like to continue without transferring your number, choose 'no' from the dropdown and press continue.

If I pressed Continue anyway it gives me an error saying

Because you're already an Orange pay monthly customer you can change your phone and still keep your number by upgrading.

Are they trying to block me from transferring my number to a new contract? I didn't have any problems with this a year ago :confused:

Any help welcome, thanks

arty

james.miller · 6 Apr 2006 at 20:49

ring them.

csmager · 6 Apr 2006 at 20:51

You can't do that. As far as I'm aware, you've never been allowed to do that. New contracts offer phones at incredible discount to lure new customers in - if they offered you that every year, they'd go bust.

Only option is to upgrade and pay what Orange decide to charge you (based on how much money you've spent over the year), or get a PAC code and change network.

arty · 6 Apr 2006 at 20:58

csmager said:
You can't do that. As far as I'm aware, you've never been allowed to do that. New contracts offer phones at incredible discount to lure new customers in - if they offered you that every year, they'd go bust.

Only option is to upgrade and pay what Orange decide to charge you (based on how much money you've spent over the year), or get a PAC code and change network.

That's pretty odd; last year I changed contracts and phones from Orange -> Orange and kept my number without a problem. That time I negotiated it all over the phone, but they messed me around somewhat and I wanted to avoid some of that hassle this time round.

Unfortunately keeping my number is pretty essential as I give it out with business cards professionally. Anyone got any suggestions for good providers / places to get a W810i with ~200 minutes per month @ £25 per month?

arty

csmager · 6 Apr 2006 at 21:01

arty said:
That's pretty odd; last year I changed contracts and phones from Orange -> Orange and kept my number without a problem. That time I negotiated it all over the phone, but they messed me around somewhat and I wanted to avoid some of that hassle this time round.

Unfortunately keeping my number is pretty essential as I give it out with business cards professionally. Anyone got any suggestions for good providers / places to get a W810i with ~200 minutes per month @ £25 per month?

arty

Sounds like you did an upgrade last year. You can change contract - you could have changed your current contract after 3 months, iirc. You can get a new phone too. You just won't get the same deals offered to new customers - but depending on what you spend, you might get a fairly good deal.

Try going the upgrade route on the website, or ring them. Alternatively, take a look round the others.

mark.souness · 7 Apr 2006 at 00:04

I will be in a similar situation in the near future. I was thinking that I could cancel the contract and keep the same number but on pay as you go, (apparantly they just do a sim update thing and your then on pay as you go,) wait a month, and then sign up again as a new customer and transfer the number thus getting the half price line rental for 6months or what ever offer you wouldn't be entitled to as an existing contract customer. Are you saying that this would not be possible as they would still keep me on record as an existing customer. If so i'd be best off just abandoning the number, cancel the contract to payg and leave a answer machine message with the new number for people to find it that way.

conuk · 7 Apr 2006 at 02:03

think i read somewhere that if you went contract > pay as you go .. you had to stay PAUG 3 months was it? ... before going back... could be wrong tho.

Dolph · 7 Apr 2006 at 09:23

You're online trying to set up a brand new connection, you can't transfer your existing number to a brand new connection.

What you want to do (and what you did last year) is a handset upgrade. This keeps the same number, gets you a new phone and signs you in to a new fixed term contract period.

Call them up and choose the upgrade option

csmager · 7 Apr 2006 at 09:57

conuk said:
think i read somewhere that if you went contract > pay as you go .. you had to stay PAUG 3 months was it? ... before going back... could be wrong tho.

Yep, T&C's say 3 months.

mark.souness · 7 Apr 2006 at 17:49

But if you're not bothered about keeping the number it's fine to cancel and re-sign up again even though your address and bank details are still the same?

arty · 7 Apr 2006 at 22:14

Dolph said:
You're online trying to set up a brand new connection, you can't transfer your existing number to a brand new connection.

What you want to do (and what you did last year) is a handset upgrade. This keeps the same number, gets you a new phone and signs you in to a new fixed term contract period.

Call them up and choose the upgrade option

I do want a handset upgrade, but I also want a different contract; the change of contract is more important, in fact. Last year when I rang there was no problem in transferring my number between contracts & handsets which is why I thought it'd be simple

As suggested I'm gonna give them a ring tomorrow when I have time. I'm sure I'll be able to sort something out - and, if not, there's always price-matching by another provider

arty

Dolph · 7 Apr 2006 at 22:19

arty said:
I do want a handset upgrade, but I also want a different contract; the change of contract is more important, in fact. Last year when I rang there was no problem in transferring my number between contracts & handsets which is why I thought it'd be simple

You can change contract when you upgrade, that's no problem at all. Your number wouldn't have been switched between contracts and handsets, your talkplan would have been changed

kibblerok · 7 Apr 2006 at 22:24

port to virgin payg and then back to orange if you must

at present there are far better deals out there than what orange currently offer

arty · 8 Apr 2006 at 10:34

Dolph said:
You can change contract when you upgrade, that's no problem at all. Your number wouldn't have been switched between contracts and handsets, your talkplan would have been changed

Ah right, that makes sense. Sorry for being confused; I've had a busy week and my brain wasn't functioning properly last night

I've just got off the phone from Orange who offered me a 100 minutes / 100 texts / £25 p/m deal but with the W810i for £100, which I thought wasn't that great (£350 over 12 months!). I attempted some negotiation but was (politely) told that I was a Band 2 customer and not worth keeping, basically

So, if I move over to say O2 I'm assuming that I need to ring Orange again, cancel my contract & get a PAC code, then pass that PAC code onto O2. Orange want 30 days' notice so should I phone up today and set up my new phone / contract with O2 in 30 days' time, or can I use the PAC straight away and just have 1 extra month's bill from Orange?

Sorry for all the questions; I've not changed provider before

Thanks again for everyone's help!

EDIT - Never mind, sorted it out myself. I've bought a new phone & contract and have the PAC code from Orange, who claim that once I pass my PAC to my new provider they will automatically cancel my Orange contract. Thanks for the assistance

arty

Tesla · 9 Apr 2006 at 13:24

kibblerok said:
at present there are far better deals out there than what orange currently offer

I couldnt find anything which even came close to my Orange deal.

Last May I got:

Free 6630
300 x-net anytime mins
1000 texts

£30 a month.