Orange bill getting out of hand.

tinyuna

I have been a loyal orange customer for about 4 years now, and have renewed contracts with them every time they've come up. I have had 2 phones since I joined them, 1 for me and 1 for my wife.

However, I renewed my contract in 2009 on my own phone, upgrading to an LG Arena at the same time. 3 months later, the screen started playing up, often going black for several minutes, of flashing up random blocks of colour. I contacted Orange about this, and was told that as I didn't have Orange Care, I had 3 options:

1) Pay £160 for a new LG Arena

2) Pay £60 to join Orange Care, and agree to a minimum of 6 months at £16 a month

3) Take out a new contract, and wait for the other to run out, before cancelling it.

I went for option 3, after reading a lot of complaints that the same had happened to other Arena owners, not to mention the fact that I really didn't like the Arena. So, I took out a 24 month contract on an iPhone. All well and good.

Since then, my financial situation has changed, and I'm now on disability benefits. Obviously I can't afford to keep up the payments on 3 mobiles. For the last 6 months or so, all my payments have been late. I usually manage to get all the money together just as another bill comes out, so am getting cut off a lot. I'd say that about 75% of the last 6 months my phone has been barred from outgoing calls.

What I'd like to know, is what are my options at present? I'm not looking to worm out of the contract, as I agreed to it, signed them, and so will honour them. But do I have any option of either a) taking a payment break, or B, cancelling the unusable Arena contract, and having the remaining months added to one of the other phones?

Sorry for the long post. Any advice would be appreciated.

P.S. I know the obvious is to approach Orange, but I have an outstanding bill at present, and from what I've read, they won't deal with my situation until my payments are up to date. I'd really like to know my options ready for when I phone them to pay the current balance.

Jon_01

Call the billing team and explain whats happened. They'll help if they can, its not in their interest to drive you into debt.

I suggest calling weekdays, there are more staff in and they can take more time with you. At weekends/evening they're always against the clock as there are fewer staff in and they need to clear calls as quickly as they can.

Good luck.

Silk

tinyuna wrote: »

However, I renewed my contract in 2009 on my own phone, upgrading to an LG Arena at the same time. 3 months later, the screen started playing up, often going black for several minutes, of flashing up random blocks of colour. I contacted Orange about this, and was told that as I didn't have Orange Care, I had 3 options:

If it was only 3 months old it's covered under guarantee and has nothing to do with any care plan ...so why didn't you send it back for repair ????

tinyuna

Silk wrote: »

If it was only 3 months old it's covered under guarantee and has nothing to do with any care plan ...so why didn't you send it back for repair ????

Guilty as charged... Never occured to me at the time, and wasn't mentioned by Orange support.

Silk

tinyuna wrote: »

Guilty as charged... Never occured to me at the time, and wasn't mentioned by Orange support.

I don't follow the logic ???

If you bought a new car and it broke after 3months you wouldn't scrap it and buy another surely ???

DUTR

Silk wrote: »

I don't follow the logic ???

If you bought a new car and it broke after 3months you wouldn't scrap it and buy another surely ???

Silk you, I and a few others are the mad ones in society, my 1st thought when I read the post is that the handset is under warranty

xbrenx

Even if you went down the new phone route, wouldn't it have been better to use the original contract and just replace the phone?

Anyway, as suggested before, give Orange a ring, they'll help, it could be that you can reduce the unused contract right down.

Good luck

drbesty

After 3 months Orange should have just swapped the handset over, they cover the phones for the first 6 months

tinyuna

Thanks for all the replys. Looking back, I know I should have realised that the phone would be under warranty (But still think the fault there also lies with Orange CS... They should have known - But then again, they don't get commision for replacing faulty phones), but can't change that now.

Phoned Orange last night, and have had my account frozen for 4 months, while I make reduced payments to cover the current bill, after which they'll reduce the tariff on all 3 phones, until the oldest one can be cancelled.