Orange VAT adjustment

nfp20

I received a text message this morning from Orange saying the following:

Hi From Orange. From 11 Feb, every £10 top-up gets you £1 towards a new phone with Orange Phone Fund. This replaces the VAT adjustment. See www.orange.co.uk/fund

The link then tells you that you can have a max in an account of £200 (an actual tops up spend of £2000 per year) to go towards a new phone.

I don't want a new phone I was quite happy getting my refund on the VAT in the form of additional credit that I can use in real terms now. I certainly don't want a new phone, can't afford it and my old one is working fine has done for years. I always buy second hand as they are much cheaper than buying a new one from any of the companies.

Are Orange o the fiddle??? Can they do this when there has been a government reduction on VAT isn't this supposed to be passed on to the customer at POS (point of Sale) ????

In their terms and conditions it states that any phone funds not used within 12 months will expire and that if you don't use or top up your phone in 6 months it will also expire.

They also reserve the right to vary/amend/cancel the PROMOTION within 30 days notice. If cancelled then the phone fund has to be used within 2 months or it will again expire.

IS THIS VAT FRAUD and just a sly way of putting up the prices along with making sure they have customer retention????? Can Orange keep the VAT adjustment given by the Government in this way as a form of profit???

I am a 'Pay As You Go' Orange Customer.

Meepster

The reduction on VAT is not compulsory. No company can be forced to pass the saving on, it's at their discression unfortunately.

A few companies are offering other "offers" intead of knocking the VAT down.

Sorry

proplusplus

The reduction in VAT doesn't have to be passed onto the consumer. so long as Orange are paying 15% VAT to the taxman, then there's no problem.

The offer would appear to be beneficial to people who use top-ups more as i think you were only getting 50p extra credit ( i appreciate this isn't better for you as an individual though.)

There's no fraud happening, and it's not a dodgy deal as they've advised you of the change.

The thing with PAYG is that they can change the T&Cs whenever really, and i guess if you don't like it, then you don't have to stay with the network. (not being rude, just it's not like a contract where you're tied-in.)

I know this may not be beneficial to you, due to the cost, but if you top-up £50 in one go, you get £5 bonus each time. (check with CS first as this may have changed.) your credit doesn't expire until you use it - so there's a 10% bonus (better than the 5% of 50p/£10 top-up.)

I think there's also some sort of 10% offer on direct-debit top-ups (perhaps only for the first one, but might be recurring.)

proplusplus

nfp20

So yet another profit making scheme that was supposed to help customers that is only going in the back pockets of companies from abroad... in all honesty I don't know why the government bother rather than helping this country and its inhabitants they are going to bankrupt us and leave us with an enormous bill that none of us can afford to pay.

Thanks for the update on spending £50 but to be honest I am a disable student on very limited funds spend as little as possible on my phone calls use mainly texts leave calls for emergencies so £50 is a lot to me to suddenly come up with especially to leave in the credit of someone else. I was on a student rate of £10 top for unlimited texts offer but this also seems to have gone out of the window recently.

proplusplus

apologies - the extra top-up was only 25p for every £10. (2.5% extra).

check out some stores like superdrug - they sometimes have promotons where they have 10% off top-ups. have seen a few of these in local tesco stores too.

ask about the direct debit option, it may be beneficial?

SIM-only - http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/paymsim - offers £14.68 for 200mins, unlimited SMS. (as an existing PAYG customer they may offer you a loyalty discount for upgrading to sim-only? - always worth asking!)

PAYG: http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/sim/payg_sim?WT.svl=205

you get top-up rewards depending on what tariff you're on.(you can ask customer services to put you on whichever plan).

i know this doesn't change the extra 25p rule, but just offering options for cheaper alternatives.

might be worth looking at other networks such as IKEA or ASDA who offer sims with calls from 8p/min and SMS at 4p - this is ideal for low-users (they often have deals where you get a free sim + £5/£10 credit?) you'd need your phone to be unlocked most likely though.

otherwise, check for free-sim giveaways - especially Orange ones (usually come with free £1 registrations credit.) not ideal as your number will change when using the free credit, but hey, free credit's free credit!


proplusplus

Thea

I agree that this is a total rip off.

I'm in debt and cant get a contract sim of any sort. Im not that fussed about getting abit of extra top up but this phone fund is silly. I haven't even had my new payg phone a year and have no intention of buying one. So really, it is a con. You would have to top up by £500 in one year to get £50 back to buy a new phone. Aka Orange are basically telling payg customers to get lost. Il never be topping up by that amount and wont be buying another phone in the next 12 months. So much for VAT rebate. Why dont they just say we're not giving to you.

gemmalegs11

I too am annoyed and surprised that Orange have decided to replace the VAT adjustment by what is essentially encouraging people to buy new phones. I think that this shows not only a lack of understanding of their customers needs, particularly in the current economic climate. Not only this but whatever happened to 'Make do and mend?' If it's going to work, they need to change the terms and conditions to get rid of the 12 month reset period, perhap they're planning on scrapping the offer after a year and hope we forget about the VAT. Tut Tut Orange.

proplusplus

gemmalegs11 wrote: »

If it's going to work, they need to change the terms and conditions to get rid of the 12 month reset period, perhap they're planning on scrapping the offer after a year and hope we forget about the VAT. Tut Tut Orange.

which, by the way, is when the VAT rate-cut is ending:rolleyes:

proplusplus

grimlea

thats a rubbish offer from orange

virgin give u the extra airtime for each top up & they already have crave, which gives you £10 off a new phone for every £100 you spend - equates to the same as orange - but you still get the airtime for topping up

diamonds

legally speaking if you are being charged 17.5% you could sue as any company that then only pass 15% on - thus are only allowed to charge 15%, the going VAT rate as set by government

grimlea

diamonds wrote: »

legally speaking if you are being charged 17.5% you could sue as any company that then only pass 15% on - thus are only allowed to charge 15%, the going VAT rate as set by government

would depend if the company had had a price increase of 2.5%