orange "buyback" trade-in on your old handset

jasonwatkins

bit of an obscure question but i thought i'd post it in case anyone has experienced the same.

last august i took out a 24 month orange contract. the plan was £25 a month, and the store took my handset as a 'buyback' and gave me £100 credit on it on my orange account (even though it was only a ratty V3X ). this was to be divided by the length of the contract and X amount would be taken off my bill each month to bring the monthly cost down to £20.83.

in feb this year, i had to apply for a temporary disconnection which was processed and went through.

i've reconnected today and they told me they have no record of the £100 being applied to the account, even though i've got my original contract and the form signed by the store manager agreeing to the £100 sum.

I'm wondering ..

Because I disconnected temporarily, would this mean i've basically lost that £100 sum against the account ?

I'm hoping it's not the case and that it was a screw up, but just wondered if anyone had done something similar ?

No worries if you haven't - i'm off to the store in question tomorrow to talk to the guy about it

iceburn

It wasnt this £100 cashback thing you are talking about but I did once put a contract of Orange into the 3 month suspension which I think is what you are talking about. And when it came out of it, I think it was the Equity points it lost. After a few calls did get it back on.

macman

When I took out an 18m Orange contract about 2 years ago, I got £90 credit back on the old phone, (which was a low-end Nokia, probably worth no more than £40 2nd hand) which was credited to the next bill. So for about 3 months I was paying nothing, as the a/c was still in credit.
At the time of buying I thought this was too good to be true and there must be a catch-but there wasn't.

jasonwatkins

it's all sorted now anyway, thanks. popped into the store today and he checked my account and said the £100 sum was applied to the account and once I get my first bill, it'll just continue from that point on.

Phew!

diamonds

Cool a store manager who knows what the hell to do : thats rare, you usually get palmed off to 150 from stores. Well done your Orange shop manager ! Care to share with MSE what Orange branch ? I'm sure MSE'ers nearby will be glad to use a Orange store where the rarity of a manager is proactive about customer care.....

Cheetah

jasonwatkins wrote: »

Because I disconnected temporarily, would this mean i've basically lost that £100 sum against the account ?

What do you mean by temporary disconnection?

...also, which store?

jasonwatkins

Cheetah wrote: »

What do you mean by temporary disconnection?

...also, which store?

Well apparently orange offer a facility whereby you can temporarily disconnect your contract phone for a maximum of 6 months. they told me it's usually for people who go out of the country and won't be using the phone, but want it when they get back.

once i explained my situation to them back when i took out the contract about having a contract with 3 as well, they actually advised me of the temporary disconnection. i worked out that if i disconnected in february, then 6 months down the line my 3 contract would have expired and I could reconnect to orange and just have the one contract.

just so happens that i managed to cancel my 3 contract yesterday so i reconnected 3 months early.

and it was the orange store in the lakeside shopping centre in essex.

Cheetah

Ah right, I'm with you....so you suspended your account before your first bill.

jasonwatkins

Cheetah wrote: »

Ah right, I'm with you....so you suspended your account before your first bill.

Not quite, i had the orange phone for 6 months before i suspended the account.