Batter down your mobile contract cost

System

Further to my message above I did not give up. The key to this is getting past the gatekeeper. I did research on the Orange Value Promise, and chose a deal through T-Mobile. When I called Orange and told them I wanted to do this - they immediately put me through to the Value Promise Helpdesk. Bingo!

They gave me details of the T-Mobile tariff. I then started to ask about the Three deal. I was then transferred to Customer Retention. I am not eligible for an upgraded phone until November. Upgrading the handset is the only way that they can match the Three tariff.

I now am on a better Orange tariff of £25 per month for 120 crossover minutes but still only tied in until November. And get this - they have given me a freephone number direct to the Customer Retention Unit to ring in November. The operator told me 'only speak to us because we have more flexibility than the people on the helpdesk.'

Roll on November.

Could you possibly give out that freephone number for Orange...er...NOW please??! I'm sure that many people, myself included, would like to get hold of it!!

System

Everyone is getting excited about the deals you can get by threatening to leave, but the deals on new phones are incredible anyway!

Off some websites you can get a new three phone, with half price line rental for six months (or three months with a bluetooth headset). So you can get 500 crossnet minutes for £17.50 a month!!!

Or if you stay with Orange, a get a low-spec phone on £30 or £50 per month contract you get free gifts like free playstations or Xbox's or even £200 cash!!!

How can you lose?

ps I'm talking about onestopphoneshop but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say and I'm sure there are loads of others....

gazman_2

I have just contacted orange Customer services by e-mail - customer.services@orange.co.uk and told them that I want to change my Talk 200 which cost £30/month (200 cross network minutes and no texts) to Orange Select 500 (No - I never heard of it either untill I read another moneysavers comments, but found more details on - http://www.mobileshop.org/costs/orangevaluepromise.htm.

My contract started in Feb 04 (been with orange 8 years) Just upgraded in Feb - I`II let you know how I go on....

System

Phoned Orange this morning, gave them the same story, they want you to do your homework though by giving them an alternative tariff to match. The disconnections department doesn't open until 9am so I've asked them to call me back - I'll keep you posted.

Doodle_2

As promised Orange rang me back, but disconnections just said:

"we'll disconnect your phone in 14 days"

At which point I panicked and asked them for the options, apparently my usage is fairly low so they were happy to disconnect me.

"the only option would be to pay for an upgrade or increase usage to match a competitor tariff"

Only a Nokia 6100 would be a free upgrade for me.

I left it that I would look into the handsets available.

I'd advise you to know what handset and tariff you need before phoning and don't let them intimidate you.

Was worth a try though.

heleen

Got a handspring Treo upgrade for £19.90 instead of £119.90 by saying I wanted to leave.

Then sold the Treo on eBay for £260!

Net profit about £235.

System

I have been with Orange for about 5 years. 4 years were on a PAYG phone and about 8 months on a contract (90 mins & 31 texts for £21 - bill comes to just under £30 usually).

Should I wait 4 months until my upgrade time to ask for an upgrade, or give it a go just now? ???

System

Can also report a similar success with Orange. Unfortuately was not offered such an expensive phone.

bertha

I've been with O2 for several years and was paying £25 less £5 loyalty discount per month for 100 minutes of calls (any time, any network) and 100 text messages - quite a good deal I thought.

I upgraded my phone in December 2003 then noticed that the £5 discount hadn't been deducted for a couple of months. When I phoned Customer Services, they said that they no longer gave loyalty discounts.

I said that I would cancel my contract and they replied that with the phone upgrade, I'd agreed to continue until December 2004.

Any ideas what I should do?

sockospice

I thought this would be common knowledge.

I've been with vodafone for about 4 years, I've had a new phone out of them every year for free, 2 years free line rental, cracking contract deals. i don't mind staying with them because their customer service is ace.

It's got to the stage now, this last time I called them, they said 'what would it take for us to persuade you to stay?"!!!