Orange Why the decision to start charging for things which used to be free?

bendtoy_2

Orange users read this.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/20/orange_charges/

heymylastnameislewis

tell me about it, 1.50 for bills is to much ive complained if that does not get me any where im off to o2!

DontDoDebtKids

Hang on, would this constitute a change in the terms and conditions of your contract? If so, can we cancel our contracts and just move?

heymylastnameislewis

ha yeh ive been trying that with the itemised billing thing (thred on here from while back) got a phone call telling me i cant cancel so makeing an offical complaint about it, i doubtthey will let u, im so annoyed about it im going to buy my self out next month and never use orange again!

DontDoDebtKids

how have we been notified? was it in very small print in our last bills or will we be finding out this month in our bills?

heymylastnameislewis wrote:

ha yeh ive been trying that with the itemised billing thing (thred on here from while back) got a phone call telling me i cant cancel so makeing an offical complaint about it, i doubtthey will let u, im so annoyed about it im going to buy my self out next month and never use orange again!

what have they said exactly?

i'm going to have a go at them when they notify me (i assume in my bill) and i should be able to dig out my contract and check sometime soon.

C_Ronaldo

there was a note on one of the previous months bills, i remember reading it

nej

I know this isn't the point, but you can opt to not receive the itemised bill, and still access it online for free.

heymylastnameislewis

DontDoDebtKids wrote:

how have we been notified? was it in very small print in our last bills or will we be finding out this month in our bills?



what have they said exactly?

i'm going to have a go at them when they notify me (i assume in my bill) and i should be able to dig out my contract and check sometime soon.

i had a phone call saying that because i complained they would refund the cost of itemised billing 4 the rest of my contract, i said i did not agree with this as they had breached the contract and so i was going to write an offical letter of complaint and take it up with the external body who deals with this, waitin on a reply from this

heymylastnameislewis

nej wrote:

I know this isn't the point, but you can opt to not receive the itemised bill, and still access it online for free.

what about those who dont have net access? what about the fact that it was free b4 so y charge me 1/2 way through my contract what about the point that 1.50 is just another way 4 orange to raise money as they are a bunch of penny pincin g*ts!

nej

Totally agree - that's why I said it's not the point, I was just pointing out that you could cancel it and still see the itemised stuff if you needed to.

Still doesn't excuse their actions though.

hbl_2

I've been using Orange for 5 years or so and I've never had a problem. I gave them a call today to see if I was out of contract yet (I am) and while I was going through my recent bills to get an idea of my actual usage (as opposed to the parameters I'm paying for) I spotted the notice on last month's bill.

I immediately text BILL to 2018 to request the 'invoice' rather than the itemised bill.

Here's a few observations of mine:

(i) £1.50 is far to much to charge for an itemised bill - surely an incentive to switch from that to an invoice would have made better sense rather than just gouging for something which was prevoiusly free
(ii) the notice on the bill wasn't big enough, clear enough or had enough attention drawn to it. If it was, I would have noticed it, which I didnt
(iii) the assumption is that you want the itemised bill, so therefore £1.50 is levied without any confirmation from yourself. Orange have some cheek to assume people will just want to pay another £18 a year
(iv) if I get charged £1.50 for an itemised bill I didn't want, considering I am out of contract, be assured they will get an angry phone call from me (free minutes). Even if they dont refund me, I'll make sure I cost them £1.50 in administration (which might be as simple as complaining) as a call centre guy paid £6 an hour just needs to talk to me being angry for, oh 15 Minutes. I've got the time

What a pain.