Orange upgrade / contract help please

browuk

Hi all, i am with orange on talk share 200, bill was averaging on £50/month, The last 5 months my bill has been between £130 and £200 using approx 800mins, is there any plan i can be on with talk share(2 phones) that would offer more inclusive xnet minutes anytime? I have looked at orange tarrifs but it seems that only talk 120/200 and 300 can have talkshare.

also, my upgrade last year was due beggining of april but i didn't do it till may, is there anyway they would upgrade us early without the one off £50 charge, any help on this would be great, been with orange for 4/5 yrs now and starting to get fed up with expense but really dont want to leave...

thanks in advance

p.s great site

YBNB

Hi browuk

Can't help you with the specific talk plan query, but I promise you you'll be able to get them to waive the £50 upgrade charge.

If you've spent over £1,000 in the past 12 month with them, they're making good money out of you, and won't want to lose you. You must be prepared to get a little bit tough with them though - if they say they can upgrade you but you will have to pay, then say you're not happy to do that, isn't there any way they can waive the fee?

If they won't, then you need to say "I'm sorry, I'm not happy, I want to be transferred to disconnections please.

Someone will come on the line and say "So, you want to disconnect. May I ask why?" and will then proceed to do whatever it takes, within reason, to make you stay with Orange. You should then point out how much you've spent over the past 12 months, that you expected a little bit of flexibility from them, and that having not upgraded last time, you resent being asked to pay £50 now.

Trust me, this will work. It goes against my nature (and the nature of lots of Britons) to complain, but force yourself. Don't come across as nasty, be disappointed and frustrated, and I'm positive you'll get results.

My example: I spend around £1200 a year, and the last time they tried to sting me for a charge like this, I kicked a bit of a fuss and got my minutes doubled and 200 extra free texts a month for 6 months, as well as the charge waived. You just gotta be brave!

Hope this helped and good luck!

browuk

thanks YBNB, the only thing i worry about is it backfiring, I really dont want to leave Orange, I just want a better deal, I did get the upgrade last year but it was after the due date ( 13months and not 12 ) so does this years upgrade date pair with when my last contract ended or when i last upgraded? I would guess this year has been a little over £1000 billed when comparing it with 3 tarrif prob less than half that!

anyway thanks guys, oh and what do you think the chances are of getting the nokia 6280 Free?

YBNB

Trust me again. I'm really not the complaining type, and before the first time I did this, I was really worried that they'd just put me through to disconnections and go "Ok, you're disconnected. Bye bye!" It's really not that.

It's almost like a choreographed dance. The people in disconnections are there to deal with people like you and me - they don't want to lose good customers (and you're CERTAINLY a good customer, based on your recent bills). In any case, you will have many opportunities to back out and say "I've changed my mind, I am happy to remain an Orange customer" if you wish, but I really don't think it'll come to that.

Have courage!

The Nokia 6280 is currently listed on the Orange Website as "Coming Soon", so I reckon your chances aren't too good at the moment. In my experience, if you want the most expensive, cutting-edge phone they have, you can expect a discount on the normal upgrade fee, but perhaps not completely free. When I first got a P900 from them, it was something like £199 on upgrade and I got it for £75 after I complained a bit.

browuk

ok thanks for that, just wondered, why are only half of the pay monthly phones listed in the upgrades section and when i sign in to see my "personal" upgrade fee, It cuts another 50% of phones off, basically leaving only 8 or so phones to choose from???

YBNB

browuk wrote:

ok thanks for that, just wondered, why are only half of the pay monthly phones listed in the upgrades section and when i sign in to see my "personal" upgrade fee, It cuts another 50% of phones off, basically leaving only 8 or so phones to choose from???

I'm only speculating, but I guess they'd rather you upgraded to an older phone. Maybe because then you're more likely to want to upgrade again soon? Or maybe they make a better profit on the older handsets

browuk

ok so i call them, worked out a new plan, no special offer just a normal plan that would cut our bill, as for upgrade, spoke to first guy eventually managed to get out of him " call back and go through to disconections and they will be able to waive the charge for you", I call back, trying to go through to disconnections but cant get anywhere - keeps cutting off, so phoned upgrades, the guy was an !!!!!!, told him i wanted to cancell, he said i cant put you through to disconnetions and even if i did there is absolutely no way you can have the charge waived!!!


lol whats next peeps? even told him my phone was not working properly hence needing upgrade, he said well for £30 we can replcae it after me telling him there was no way i was paying and if i had to then i was going over to 3!

Just wasn't interested...

Help and is there a good time of day to talk to disconnections

YBNB

That's terrible! I've wanted to speak to disconnections three times and I've never had any problems.

Bad luck, browuk.... hopefully someone else can maybe give you a better method of getting through to disconnections.

The only other thing I can think of is: when is your 12 month contract up? I suppose that could have an impact on the way they deal with you.

Sorry if I made out it was gonna be easy

browuk

ok no worries, 18th April its due for renewal, are disconnections open 7 days? and are there any time limits or are they 24hrs

oh yea, surely i can put in a request now for disconnection as i was told by them that it needs to be atleast 30 days notice

YBNB

AFAIK, disconnections only work "normal" office hours, which for Orange is probably 9am-6pm mon-fri.

I think you should keep calling, get through to customer services (a real person) then immediately ask to be put through to disconnections.

There MUST be somebody better clued up than me here!

browuk

ok so I've just spoken to disconnections, as we have talkshare (which they no longer offer) we have 2 contracts and will now have to have 2 seperate plans as appose to sharing the minutes of mine ( the primary phone ) he said that there is a loyalty thing on my phone and he can upgrade it free of charge to any phone, some phones may have a small charge but doubtful, by doing this he cant do any deal on talk plan, my wifes phone cannot be upgraded till next month (end of contract)

so my question is, if i push, will they do the upgrade and a deal on talk plan? also, what are the chances of getting my wifes phone upgraded too?

what kind of talk plan for what cost could i expect? i need atleast 600 xnet anytime mins and my wife needs approx 200 xnet anytime mins with say 50 texts.

just want to know how far they will go to keep you...