Orange Upgrades, stupid!

lozza

lozza

lozza

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I'm out of contract with orange now and i can upgrade my hand set to a nokia N70 for £279.99 tying me into a new contract or

I can cancel my contract and signup again on the same price plan and get the N70 for £49.99 - down side i loose my number, but thats no big deal to me.

How the hell does that work! You think they'd look after existing customers!
 
They bank on people wanting to keep their numbers and not wanting the hassle of getting a new contract.

New phones are majorly subsidised - an N70 is worth far, far more than £50. The new contracts get people through the door with cheap phones, and I would think that on average people stay more than just 12 months.
 
Harib0 said:
I'm out of contract with orange now and i can upgrade my hand set to a nokia N70 for £279.99 tying me into a new contract or

I can cancel my contract and signup again on the same price plan and get the N70 for £49.99 - down side i loose my number, but thats no big deal to me.

How the hell does that work! You think they'd look after existing customers!
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it's about time the networks realise that mobile ownership is for all intents and purposes at saturation point.
pretty much everyone that wants one,has one.
WE as current customers should at least be getting the same deals as a new customer after all,to do as you say and cancel then re-sign,someone is going to have to take all your details again,setup payment from your bank and generally process the order.
all this takes up man-hours ie cost.if you're gonna re-sign with the same network then typically your only benefit will be a cheaper handset,while their admin costs will be higher.

seems like madness to me.
 
I just had the same thing with orange, i told could get a better deal with someone else and i would think on it. Before i put the phone down they had sent me the pac code on my mobile, when i rang back and asked why they sent it all i got was if you want to leave we will not stop you. :eek:
 
Same yep got my PAC code shortly after as well, I'm not bothered about keeping the number so i'm going to have a look around to see whats on offer else where
 
Orange upgrades are ace........Just rang them 7 months into my contract and the offered me any phone for £50 apart from the nokia communicator:D
 
Gavin when you say just rung them, you mean like fairly recently?

Do you spend big amounts each month though for them to be offering you such a good deal?

Chris...
 
Harib0 said:
I'm out of contract with orange now and i can upgrade my hand set to a nokia N70 for £279.99 tying me into a new contract or

I can cancel my contract and signup again on the same price plan and get the N70 for £49.99 - down side i loose my number, but thats no big deal to me.

How the hell does that work! You think they'd look after existing customers!
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You sure I didn't serve you earlier? :p Had someone in work today with the exact same predicament. I suggested if their number wasn't a big deal to get a new contract.

Yes it's silly I know :/ I had the same problem when it came to renewing. Worked out a lot cheaper to just get a new contract than stick with the same company.
 
gib786 said:
port the number over to a pay as u go sim, get a new contract and port the number back
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That's what I did. Bit of a hassle. Orange quoted 3 month minimum on PAYG before they'd give you a PAC code. I rang up after a couple of weeks and they gave me it, so they obviously didn't enforce it.
 
Orange seem to have some funny ideas. On my last contract with them I started to have issues with my phone, so called them to ask what it would cost to change phones. For a basic (free to new subscribers) phone they wanted something like £200. When I pointed out that I was 10 months into a 12 month contract and it would be cheaper to buy out my contract, all they did was agree, take the payment, and give me my PAC code.
Granted my bills are pretty low, but I wasn't expecting a phone for free, just to be quoted a sensible price for a replacement which would have tied me into another 12 months.

Shame they forgot that I had two phones on the same account. The second one is a Virgin OVP price match account that my parents use, average bill about 20p a month!!
It now costs them more to send out the bill than they are collecting each month...
 
I hate to break it to some people here, but the bottom line is that customers are not all the same value. The upgrades process takes this into account.

Simply being on the network does not necessarily mean you'll make a company money, especially when the cost of network access, inclusive minutes, customer services and the all important handset subsidy is taken into account.

With a new contract, the networks take a chance at offering good deals to attract new customers. They do this because a certain percentage of those customers will become high spenders, some will be average, and some will be lossmakers, but you can't identify them into these groups at the new customer stage.

When it comes to an upgrade, which of these groups you belong to is clearly identified, they know your spending habits, they know how much money you're going to bring in (or very likely to) and therefore their offer is far more tailored to both the needs of the customer and the needs of the business.

There is no point in handing goods and services hand over fist when you know you're not going to make back the money given over the year. There are people who expect a £400 handset when they spend £200 a year and wonder why they get told they can't have it free.

If you're a high spend customer, you can be pretty confidant of getting the moon on a stick at upgrade time, because for someone spending several thousand a year, the subsidy more than pays for itself in a very short period of time.
 
Is the customer value displayed on the computer screen in front of the CS people on the phone then? So they know whether to try hard to keep you, or just send you your PAC code without even a slight effort?

I suppose someone who pays little per month, likes expensive handsets, and uses all their inclusive minutes ringing people on other networks is less viable than someone who rarely bothers upgrading their phone, goes wildly over their free minutes, and mostly calls Orange-Orange and landlines?
 
Something like that. Call destination doesn't play too much of a part but you've got the idea. And it's not an idea exclusive to Orange by any means, all the networks do the same (the exception certainly until recently was O2 because customer numbers were more important than customer value during the takeover talks)
 
Dolph said:
Something like that. Call destination doesn't play too much of a part but you've got the idea. And it's not an idea exclusive to Orange by any means, all the networks do the same (the exception certainly until recently was O2 because customer numbers were more important than customer value during the takeover talks)
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I only suggested the call destination, as I assume that using 'anytime' minutes for Orange/landline calls is cheaper for Orange than giving away free minutes for other network calls. But maybe the price gap between the two isn't as large as the gap the customers see(!)

On a complete left turn at the traffic lights, I have a brief question: I'm a student, but I failed to notice the student deals when I joined. I rang, and someone told me I could have it. I explained that my student card didn't have an NUS number on, so he told me to go down to the Orange shop and show them my card, and they could do it. The shop tell me it can't be done, and when I rang Orange back, they also told me it couldn't be done. Can it or can't it? It would seem a bit unfair... although I doubt I'd ever get close to using 1000 texts, a few more would be nice!
 
csmager said:
On a complete left turn at the traffic lights, I have a brief question: I'm a student, but I failed to notice the student deals when I joined. I rang, and someone told me I could have it. I explained that my student card didn't have an NUS number on, so he told me to go down to the Orange shop and show them my card, and they could do it. The shop tell me it can't be done, and when I rang Orange back, they also told me it couldn't be done. Can it or can't it? It would seem a bit unfair... although I doubt I'd ever get close to using 1000 texts, a few more would be nice!
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Where did you get the phone from and how long ago? That tends to dictate it. There is a process for unrecognised NUS numbers however I have no idea of the exact details of it, so I couldn't answer your question in all honesty.

When your contract comes up for renewal, if you're still a student, you can probably get it added then.
 
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