When to try for upgrade?

thepeted

My 12 month contract with orange is up on March 17th, and I'm planning on going through the usual game of threatening to leave and getting a decent deal and a new phone.

When is the best time to make the call to cust services - I'm thinking on Feb 17th as I need to give a months notice on my contract?

hollie.weimeraner

I don't know what tariff you're on but my wifes on a 100mins and 100texts at £25 month. We got it through OSPS so its cost us £25 for the year. Anyway I rang them to see waht they could offer her in the way of an upgrade and all they would do was offer some really basic phone and the same tariff at the same price.

I rang on a couple more occasions quoting genuine deals from other providers but they wouldn't budge and even gave me the pac code without hesitation. I have rung and cancelled the contract today which they accepted without a word but then rang my wife back a couple of hours later but she was unable to speak with them.

Daft thing is we'll be going back with them via quidco and the orange website and getting the phone we want at a far better price than an upgrade with a £50 call credit, 6 months 1/2 price line rental and a free bluetooth headset.

I pointed this out but only got a response of "that offer is for new customers only" (Something similar to the Nationwide BS ad being run on the telly )

thepeted

My contract is with orange direct, and i'm on a 30 pound a month tarif. normally if i quote a rival package like you do and orange will match it at the least. In the past I think I have done it a few days before my contract arrives, but this year i'm impatient!

-1-

Some networks don't give upgrade quotes until you are out of contract.

You can ring up anytime now and ask for a quote, they will tell you if they have upgrade prices yet or not.

I know Vodafone don't give out quotes until you are out of contract.

Woby_Tide

Orange have got a lot tighter than recent deals, apart from very rare cases(and no doubt someone will post "I was on £15 tarrif and got brand new top range phone") they seem quite happy to churn customers unless on reasonable monthly tarriffs(and at a guess I'd say that seems to be £60+ maybe even more). You'll likely just get standard handsets and the same tarrif, leaving and rejoining is only way to get a deal on low spend tarrifs nowadays in most cases

hollie.weimeraner

Thats what has happened to my wife, however a work colleague managed to get a Samsung D600 from them on her £35 month tariff. They initially offered her some low range phones but gave in on the D600 when she got put through to cancellations.

shelly

I'm with 02 and called a month before my contract ran out incase they didn't offer me anything better than I was on so I could give a months notice. At first I wasn't offered anything better but I called back and spoke to a different operator and got a much better deal.



Looking at another thread on this board orange don't seem particularly bothered to keep their customers though.