Orange Early Upgrade - Bartering down the price of HTC Hero?

James_H_2

Hi all,

First off a little background info. We have two contracts with Orange, both tied to the same account, totalling about a £90/month average spend.

One of the accounts (actually the lower price contract of the two - Raccoon 35 @ £30/mo) has just hit into the final 3 months of the contract so is eligible for a free upgrade. The problem is (online at least) the HTC Hero remains firmly as a paid-for upgrade (£97.50 regardless of which plan or contract duration I choose). Ideally I want it for nowt!

We've had at least one phone contract with Orange (the other one on this account) for about 5 or so years, does that give me any leverage?

Do I have any leeway with Orange regarding this? I'm aware that because I've still got 3 months left to run of the contract I might not be in as good a position as I would be if I tried this again in January.

Would Orange take into account the other account for their "spending bands" or whatever they're called? I know it would probably be easier to just call them up now but I'd like to prepare for their likely responses before I do so.

Thanks for any advice!
James.

Jon_01

You'll never get as good an offer if you not out of contract, plus they'll add the remaining months to the end of the new one. So if you upgrade 3 months early with an 18 month contract it'll actually run 21 months...

James_H_2

Jon_01 wrote: »

You'll never get as good an offer if you not out of contract, plus they'll add the remaining months to the end of the new one. So if you upgrade 3 months early with an 18 month contract it'll actually run 21 months...

Thanks for the quick reply, I'm aware they add the months onto the end, I don't really mind that too much.

If I'm honest I'm just sick of my current phone and its problems (actually onto my third one) and want a new one ASAP!

Jon_01

If they've change the phone 3 time for the same fault they should be able to offer you a DMR (different model replacement) on the fourth (same) fault. So you may be able to get a new handset, sell that and off set the price of an upgrade.
One thing though, you don't get to pick the handset, they offer you 3 and you can have anyone of them...

James_H_2

Jon_01 wrote: »

If they've change the phone 3 time for the same fault they should be able to offer you a DMR (different model replacement) on the fourth (same) fault. So you may be able to get a new handset, sell that and off set the price of an upgrade.
One thing though, you don't get to pick the handset, they offer you 3 and you can have anyone of them...

Amusingly, it's been a different fault each time! (Sony Ericsson C905 if you're interested)

The first time the screen completely failed.
The second time it just refused to charge, saying "Charging error, stop charging!"

And now the back button is broken! As they're all different faults though I guess that means I'm not eligible for that for a model replacement?

James.

tek-monkey

I was looking for a cheap HTC Hero, but gonna wait for the new Motorola Milestone instead now. I suspect once this hits the shops, the older android phones should come down a bit. May be wrong, but its only a few weeks to wait for them to hit the UK (I hope!).

mluton

Have you olooked at the orange iPhone deals, you would get them free on your current spend.

Sorry if your not an iPhone fan.