Orange Upgrade Issue

charliefunkuk

Good afternoon,

In December 2009 I received a call from Orange customer services asking me if i would like to upgrade to there recently launched Orange 3GS. I was only 4 months into a contract on a Nokia 6500c. They knew that and said I could still upgrade on a new 18 month contract with the iphone. I paid an amount for the iphone (I believe about £80) and took delivery couple of days later.

Now fast forward to now (September 2011), which is 18 months after receiving my iphone. Orange have told me that they are locking me into the contract until September 2012, because they are rolling over the remaining time I had on the Nokia phone and 3 months I had upgraded previously on a phone before that. This means I will be having this 3GS for almost 3 years before I can upgrade. AT NO POINT in the call from Orange customer services asking me if I would like to upgrade did they advise me that the old contract would be added to the new 18 months contract. I was only made aware of this when I tried to upgrade.

Also I have been a customer of Orange since 1995 and never missed a bill payment and had some bills in excess of £900 in one month (when working abroad). Customer services are no help at all and they just work to a script and set of rules. Any deviation from that and they are flustered so basically tell me "like it or lump it".

I am now in a situation of having to have a fairly battered Iphone 3GS for another 12 months with a provider who has quite frankly annoyed me. I also have 2 other contracts for my business with Orange.

Does anyone know if Orange can force this extended contract or are they just trying there luck with me. Unquestionably I will be leaving Orange in Sep 2012 in favour of O2 and see if they are glad of my business. Orange seem to think they are doing me a favour by me being a customer of theres!

Look forward to any advice.

Neil

grumbler

It is a norm for all networks to add the remaining months to to the new contract when upgrading early.

http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/support/personal/200819

Don't know if they have this in the T&C that you accepted when taking the original contract, but you can ask Orange to point you.
A basic common sense suggests that it makes no sense to offer you a new handset just after 4 months on other terms.

A lesson to learn is never to accept anything that any company offer you when they call you. With extremely rare exceptions you can find a better dial by searching yourself. That's why they are calling you.
In your case it looked too good to be true and it was. At least you should have asked them to call you later and do some research meanwhile.