Any ideas on how to cancel Orange Mobile Contract early

tsam19

Hello

I signed up for a 24 month (Dolphin) Orange mobile phone contract this year - March 2010.

The deal was through carphone warehouse & the the tariff i signed for was £30 a month (reduced from£40) for unlimited txt,unlimited landline/mobile etc plus 500mb of internet usage.

I was told in the shop by the manager the internet usage was unlimited & if I happened to go over the limit (500mb) I wouldn't be charged because of the 'fair usage policy'

On that note I signed up, 3 months down the line I haven't had a bill for anywhere near £30.

The bills are near to £50 every time!

As far as the unlimited txts go I send a few a month that are within the contract, but there are a few txts I get charged for when receiving from Orange telling me of deals etc ( the sending party is from 6 numbers)

The calls I make are again within the limits & seem to get charged for all the 0870/0800/0845 numbers, again I thought it was unlimited to landlines etc.

I have gone over the internet usage slightly, but was told initially I wouldn't get charged for it.

I've phone orange, who told me to contact carphone warehouse, who now deny telling me about the fair usage policy & that I have to watch what I'm using!

I thought '3' was bad.

Anyone know how I can end this contract early without incurring any costs?

I thought i covered every angle whilst shopping & discussing with the shop manager before signing the contract.

Has anyone else experienced this & what can I do?

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated, thanks.


:beer:

talkalot

What tariff are you on ? Some of them do have unlimited data (FUP 750mb) some have a cap of 500MB. As for calls to 08 numbers these are all chargeable numbers on Orange as the unlimited landline calls are only to 01/02/03 numbers. Yes you can cancel your contract if you pay the remaining amount of months left on it.
The problem would seem to be with what CPW told you and not Orange. As they sold you the contract you would have to take it up with them.

purplerose

tsam19 wrote: »

I was told in the shop by the manager the internet usage was unlimited & if I happened to go over the limit (500mb) I wouldn't be charged because of the 'fair usage policy'

On that note I signed up, 3 months down the line I haven't had a bill for anywhere near £30.

The bills are near to £50 every time!

As far as the unlimited txts go I send a few a month that are within the contract, but there are a few txts I get charged for when receiving from Orange telling me of deals etc ( the sending party is from 6 numbers)

The calls I make are again within the limits & seem to get charged for all the 0870/0800/0845 numbers, again I thought it was unlimited to landlines etc.

Sorry, no idea how to cancel the contract. If you don't have what the guy in the shop said in writing then I don't think you have a leg to stand on by saying you were told about a fair usage policy. Also, if you try to cancel saying it is costing more than anticipated they will just tell you that to have a £30 bill you have to stick to your limits. Having a look at my own Orange account I can add a 500mb bundle for £5 or unlimited browsing for £10 and it's the unlimited one that says a fair usage policy applies.

However, to minimise your costs - I got my first smartphone from Orange in March and almost fell over when I seen the bill from using the internet. I now keep the mobile internet turned off and have it enabled to pick up free wifi only. If I really need to get online with no wifi available then I will turn on the mobile internet for as long as it takes to check something. Doing that a £20 internet bill went down to around £1.50-£2 per month.

You should be able to call landlines and other mobiles ok but 0800/0870/0845 will be charged (usually a lot more than if you called from a landline) unless it specifically says otherwise in your contract somewhere. This is the case with the majority of mobile phones.

If you are being charged for alert messages from Orange then turn these off. I've never had any from Orange so I don't know how to do it but usually there are instructions in the text on how to stop them. Failing that, call customer services and ask them how to stop it.

You can also keep an eye on your usage since your last bill if you sign up to the Orange website. This way you'll have a good idea when you start getting charged then that's time to put a cap on it for that month.

Another thing is if you are paying insurance - unless you are prone to losing/damaging phones, there is the question of whether you really need this or not. I don't know how much it is now but when I had it, it was another £6 on top of my contract.

So yeah, if you are stuck with the phone, look at minimising your costs and staying within your free minutes/texts/internet amounts.

baxgttdi

I was told in the shop by the manager the internet usage was unlimited & if I happened to go over the limit (500mb) I wouldn't be charged because of the 'fair usage policy' <-- It is classed as "unlimited" but a fair usage policy is a line that they can decide. Meaning, if you go over the 500mb ou've been allocated by a few MB they probably won't bother but if you're consistently over then they'll flag it up, anything over 500mb is at their discretion as to whether thery charge you for it.

As far as the unlimited txts go I send a few a month that are within the contract, but there are a few txts I get charged for when receiving from Orange telling me of deals etc ( the sending party is from 6 numbers) <- are you sure these "deals" are from Orange? I've personalyl never been charged for anything like that that I'm aware of, although you are often charged for receiving texts from other companies

The calls I make are again within the limits & seem to get charged for all the 0870/0800/0845 numbers, again I thought it was unlimited to landlines etc.<-- 0845/0870 numbers are not classed as standard landlines and that applies to all networks as they are not location specific. To be my knowledge unless psecifically stated in T&C every network charges for those although I believe some do deals on 0800 numbers.


It sounds like you've had a misleading salesman but aren't alot of them, after all they're just after a sale. With regards to cancelling your contract, sorry you don't have a leg to stand on as they haven't broken any rules and all the information you're questioning here is written in the terms and conditions of the contract you signed. Your only way out really is to pay off the remaining months of the contract. They may give you a slight discount (up to 25% sometimes) but that's as good as you're gonna get. Hope this helps.

flyingscotno1

Would you want to cancel or some operators will be only too happy to change the contract to a slightly more expensive one- but it could be one that meets your needs better and you pay £35 instead of random bills of £50.

tsam19

I signed up for £30 a month only (no more) on the understanding between myself & the salesman before I signed the contract that I wouldn't expect to pay any more.

I asked about the calls, texting & internet usage thoroughly & was lead to believe the salesman.

With the tariff & deal of unlimited calls, unlimited text & unlimited internet.

Which was a total crock of S*** because the last 3 bills have been for £48,£45 & £43

Basically if someone says we have a deal on:

unlimited text,unlimited calls & unlimited internet with a fair usage policy all the above for NO more than £30 a month guaranteed.

Then I expect to pay £30 a month & NOT a penny more!


It seems to be that the phone sales people are liars & will tell you anything to get your signature & I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Jon_01

There's no way you're going to getting unlimited calls for £30 a month. None of the network do it for that little (if at all).

It should say on your bill what plan you're on ?

Exhortation

If they weren't going to charge you for going beyond the limit set in the fair usage policy then there wouldn't be much point in having one, would there? There is no way that you will get unlimited x-net calls for £30 a month. What you will get on Orange is Magic Numbers and you might get unlimited same network calls but, again, these will be subject to a fair usage policy.

The only way I see you getting out of your contract is to pay up what you owe (i.e. number of months remaining x £30). There's an old adage that sums your situation up nicely: if something seems too good to be true it probably is. Personally, I think you've either been very naive (in which case you've just learnt a rather harsh life lesson) or you're trying it on. For your sake, I hope it's the latter.

drbesty

If you call an 0870/0845/0800 number it even says something along the lines of 'calls to this number are chargable' before the call is connected, also I've never heard of Orange charging people to recieve SMS unless that SMS is from a third party eg football results or something similar

[Deleted User]

tsam19 wrote: »

there are a few txts I get charged for when receiving from Orange telling me of deals etc ( the sending party is from 6 numbers)

...

seem to get charged for all the 0870/0800/0845 numbers, again I thought it was unlimited to landlines etc.

Texts from orange are always free, except for ones from 2412 for orange wednesdays, which are 35p when you request them. 6xxxx numbers are usually subscription services you've signed up to. Try texting STOP ALL to the 6xxxx number(s) in question.

And yes, calls to landlines beginning 01, 02, and 03 will be free. (Read your contract ), but 08xx numbers aren't landlines. They're revenueshare numbers.

tsam19

I spoke to Orange earlier yesterday & I have 1200 mins, unlimited text & 500mb internet usage.

Again the salesperson at carphone warehouse worded everything completely different.

I have basically added an 'extra bundle' onto my plan which for an extra £5 I will get an extra 500mb data usage with a total of 1gb, which IS covered by the fair usage policy.

The only thing I have to watch out for is the 0800/0870 numbers.

There is an APP for the iphone called 0870 by Simon Maddox - which basically finds alternative number for you to use.


Is there anyhing like this for the Nokia brand?