MSE News: Orange to raise monthly mobile costs

snigehere

Shiggaddi wrote: »

I've just read briefly the last few lines, but this is my situation.

If I argue with Orange and can leave, I am in a cashback situation with E2save, where I signed up to a 24 month contract back in April, and they pay cashback to me in equal installments at 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 months. I claimed my first casbback payment with the September bill, and will be claiming when the bill for this month arrives via e-mail.

However, if I argue with Orange and can cancel, then I will lose my entitlement to cashback for the remainder of the term. I know we're only talking about a quid or so a month for my £26 a month contract, but this contract is now going to cost about £15 more than I had signed up for over the term, simply because Orange can put up it's prices mid contract.

Oh, it's nice to know that my call and text charges won't change. Really handy, since I have inclusive minutes and texts, and don't ever go above the limit.

I just hope Orange get enough negative publicity over this, that they lose the goodwill from customers. I shall certainly be mentioning this to the retentions team when I cancel at the end. Pity the cashback situation means I'd be far worse off cancelling now.

Not sure what your worry is .... If you do cancel then you can take a new cashback contract with e2save ....

dave6779

Ok guys, i've tried to read as much of the above comments as possible but there are a lot so I apologise if i've missed someone saying what i'm about to say.

I've just contacted Ofcom, and their response was,

"This is not legal and you are allowed to break contract with Orange/Everything everywhere under section 9.6 of the communications act"

.

Under section 9.6 the communications act (the most recent amended version of sept 13 2011)

"9.6 The Communications Provider shall: (a) give its Subscribers adequate notice not shorter than one month of any modifications likely to be of material detriment to that Subscriber; (b) allow its Subscribers to withdraw from their contract without penalty upon such notice; and
(c) at the same time as giving the notice in condition 9.6 (a) above, shall inform the Subscriber of its ability to terminate the contract without penalty if the proposed modification is not acceptable to the Subscriber."

This means that Orange's terms and conditions do state that they can at any point change their terms and conditions and that they can increase their charges, however the law states they cannot do it where this is not of financial detriment to the customer and they can not have a contract which conflicts with the law as this is an unfair term of contract.

The gentleman i spoke to from ofcom (Gareth) said that we can cancel but we need to do it in writing not by phone as they are unlikely to let you cancel by phone. If you do it in writing and they refuse the request to cancel, it also gets automatically reviewed by the ombusman and they will override the refusal because they have broken the law. I have just spoken to orange and they obviously refuse to let me break contract, which i was expecting them to say, the lady on the phone did advise that I should email in not write in as letters currently are taking 1-2 months to be responded. To email use the orange contact us link on their site. (at the bottom of the page) then click pay monthly then reason for contact is complaint.

daleski75

jasonwatkins wrote: »

So you're advocating people default on their contracts to get a PAYG phone ? Fantastic advice.

Not advocating that at all and I did not mention anywhere that people should default on their contracts to do so.

If they had pay and go then they could control how much they pay per month with no sudden increases.

Mhadf

Just to add to Dave's point about emailing in.
They will send you back a cut and paste tough luck letter no matter what you write (tested with me and a couple of other people), stating 4.3.1 so go away.
So make sure that you have a 2nd email ready to fire off.
[EMAIL="Executive.office@orange.co.uk"]Executive.office@orange.co.uk[/EMAIL] is a good place to email

CSales

I've been quite happy with Orange since 2004. Just recently upgraded to iPhone 4S in October, on the same plan I've been on (iPhone 45 - £45 per month before the VAT went up to 20%). it cost me £200 (which they added VAT to my bill - without telling me grrrr) and I recycled my old iPhone with them to pay for the upgrade fee.

The text I got tells me that they are waiving the extra charge for the first six months because I recently upgraded, but to be honest i'm none to happy at having to fork out

Price plan is £38.30 before VAT. So after the price increase it goes to £39.95. A difference of £1.65. So in my case, an extra £19.80 over the twelve months they'll charge me the extra charge for (assuming I dont upgrade to iPhone 5 next year lol).

Add on the 20% VAT (£7.99) and my charge will be 47.94). I haven't had a pay increase and effectively have had a pay cut due to the inflation going up... surely I should be able to take some form of action on this?

Anything I can do?

daleski75

A friend of mine got the text from Orange so her tariff will also increase but she doesn't seem bothered about it whatsoever so I guess all of this is down to the principal of the matter and the fact that Orange are not letting anyone leave without penalty yet.

And too be honest I think Orange will back down just like T-Mobile did when they tried to downgrade data allowances from 3gb to 500mb.

However if Orange get away with it then it won't be long before O2, Vodafone etc will do exactly the same and with MTR rates going down and roaming caps and other restrictions placed on each provider they will only seek other ways to recoup their money.

I may come across as a bit harsh on this thread just wanted to add some perspective about how little £1-2 a month really is and I am sorry if I came across as ignorant.

hurumph

I just spoke with Orange Mobile Executive Office. I was told that buying myself out of the contract would not cause me material detriment. Um, how do they know that? How is material detriment judged and by whom? They also said that the price hike would not cause me material detriment. I'm told this judgment is linked to the retail price index. Surely if my budget is calculated in line with the original contract tariff then any rise not caused by myself, would cause material detriment?
Have I missed something about what spending money means?

Mhadf

Daleski, for me it's the principal of the matter as I buy my own phones from elsewhere.
If I'd been told upfront about RPI increases or even if it was in bold on my contract then that's my problem and the OFT would say so too.

However as this price increase term was hidden in an unrelated section (terminations) it would appear to be illegal as it is against the good faith of signing the contract.

trouserleg

I am wondering when the Terms and Conditions got written, or altered, as there is no date. Have Orange altered their T & C for this price rise to take effect. If so, it is not what I signed up to. Did anybody read the T & C before this went public ??

Shiggaddi

snigehere wrote: »

Not sure what your worry is .... If you do cancel then you can take a new cashback contract with e2save ....

I'm well aware that I can take a new contract.

My worry is that the cashback that I've accumulated my rights for, and that I've already paid out in line rental to Orange will be stopped if I cancel my contract early.

Assuming I'm allowed to cancel my contract early in February, and assuming my cashback claim in December goes through, then I'll have received 2/5 of my cashback to cover the 24 month contract, so the cashback to date would be for about 9 and a half months rental.

It is just marginal as I would have stayed with Orange for about 10 months when I cancel, so this is definitely worth looking into. Will make sure I get my bill for December first, so E2save can see an account that is fully up to date. Just hope Orange can let me keep my number on PAYG, rather than carry out their rights to terminate the number, as this is my main mobile number.