MSE News: Orange to raise monthly mobile costs

daleski75

dave6779 wrote: »

you're absolutely right mate, he's just trolling. It's about principle but it's also about the law. We are in a contract and orange can't just write a contract that contradicts the law, it's illegal. If he wants to pay an increase like a sap and bend over and take it let him. I'm gna report him, he's not being constructive just a nuisance.

Report me for having an opinion??? And I am not a troll just voicing my opinion on the matter and if people disagree that is there problem not mine.

If Orange raised the price of my contract yes I would be annoyed but I wouldn't threaten to cancel as they give me the best coverage for the places I go etc and it would be far too much hassle than I would be willing to deal with.

And if you cared to read my further post you would see I actually said sorry for coming across like that I was just trying to add some perspective about what £2 equates too per month in reality.

dave6779

daleski75 wrote: »

Not sure I would say it's illegal however it looks highly likely OFCOM will rule that Orange has to let customers leave without penalty for raising the price of the contract mid term.

I am fairly certain they will back down and if they don't people will vote with their feet.

But don't do anything rash or foolish such as ruining your credit history over this small increase.

If they let us go free, which is the legal thing, we won't be ruining our credit history at all. People do need to wait it out like you said and just see what OFCOM says, which will most certainly be that we can all leave without penalty, thereby free.

dave6779

daleski75 wrote: »

Report me for having an opinion??? And I am not a troll just voicing my opinion on the matter and if people disagree that is there problem not mine.

If Orange raised the price of my contract yes I would be annoyed but I wouldn't threaten to cancel as they give me the best coverage for the places I go etc and it would be far too much hassle than I would be willing to deal with.

And if you cared to read my further post you would see I actually said sorry for coming across like that I was just trying to add some perspective about what £2 equates too per month in reality.

I didn't read your further post as you have nearly written an ignorant response to nearly every other post that doesn't agree with yours,that's not just sharing your opinion. And here's urban dictionary's top definition for trolling, which I think a lot of people on here will agree with and understand why I reported you.

Trolling: Being a p***k on the internet because you can. Typically unleashing one or more cynical or sarcastic remarks on an innocent by-stander, because it's the internet and, hey, you can.

As for what £2 equates to in reality, what if your mortgage company had in it's t&c's that they could up their charges but up to 50% every year? Is 50% a lot in reality for the ability to have your own house and home? Is that even really the issue? Orange think they can do what ever they want and bully their customers into higher prices at their whim. Well, they can't because that's illegal. Therefore, we can cancel without penalty, what ever people's reason for that, we can cancel.

Tim3822

Hi everyone, I'm new here so I apologise in advance if I miss anything that has already been mentioned. I tried to read through the thread in its entirety but it's rather large .

I'm a Student Nurse with the University of Nottingham (although I'm at Boston centre not at QMC), I only started my course a few months ago and am already feeling the squeese financially. I have bills that I simply can't get rid of, mainly car insurance and tax etc as I'm expected to travel to all my clinical placements which are all over Lincolnshire. I also have no land line so my mobile phone is extremely important to me. I signed the contract August 2010 and at the time I wasn't even considering going to University! However circumstances changed and I had to reconsider my career plans, so here I am.

Now I'm on a £35 a month contract for my smartphone (a HTC Desire) and although the increase is only about £1.80 my budget is so unbelievably tight I have absolutely no disposable income and this is going to affect me. I contacted Ofcom after reading around online and they confirmed to me that under their rules I should be allowed to exit my contract with Orange as it would be of material detriment to myself. Would like to note that the lady on the phone at Ofcom was very polite! However after contacting Orange (and spending over 40 minutes on the phone!) the general response may as well have been "go climb a tree we don't care". Despite me citing Ofcom rules directly from the website the Customer "Services" rep was adamant that there was nothing I could do and I would have to lump it or pay hundreds of pounds in cancellation fees.

I have a letter written that I will send off as soon as I can, but if I don't get a reply within' 30 days (I saw mentioned on here it could take 1-2 months) does that mean I will have missed the window of opportunity in which to cancel my contract? Should I also complain formally with an e-mail as well as my written letter? I want to try and cover all the bases, the morality of this stinks. I know they're a business, but sometimes the greed of people is shocking. I should imagine come April they will announce pre tax profits totalling in the hundreds of millions. When your essentially living off vouchers and student discounts adding a few quid onto a bill every month really does make a difference! I can't even afford to go out with friends!

Any help on this will be greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Tim

Guys_Dad

dave6779 wrote: »

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, .

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

Really helpful post - potentially. Now, any chance of getting OFCOM to put that officially in writing? If not, then, regrettably, although I do not doubt your word, it's pretty worthless as a weapon against Orange.

Guys_Dad

Further to my previous post, has anyone actually used OFCOM's question site to get a written reply?

If not, here you are - http://ask.ofcom.org.uk/

That will put them on the spot! Their written reply would be most enlightening.

daleski75

dave6779 wrote: »

I didn't read your further post as you have nearly written an ignorant response to nearly every other post that doesn't agree with yours,that's not just sharing your opinion. And here's urban dictionary's top definition for trolling, which I think a lot of people on here will agree with and understand why I reported you.




As for what £2 equates to in reality, what if your mortgage company had in it's t&c's that they could up their charges but up to 50% every year? Is 50% a lot in reality for the ability to have your own house and home? Is that even really the issue? Orange think they can do what ever they want and bully their customers into higher prices at their whim. Well, they can't because that's illegal. Therefore, we can cancel without penalty, what ever people's reason for that, we can cancel.

It's your prerogative to report me and I think I have done nothing wrong and in a lot of posts I have been very helpful and if you took the time to look around this forum you would end up reporting a lot more people than just me.

And too be honest £2 in reality is no where near comparable to a 50% increase in mortgage prices and if that happened which it won't I would look at my options but if it increased by £2 a month I would't even notice.

dave6779

Guys_Dad wrote: »

Really helpful post - potentially. Now, any chance of getting OFCOM to put that officially in writing? If not, then, regrettably, although I do not doubt your word, it's pretty worthless as a weapon against Orange.

Thanks mate. The guy I spoke to at OFCOM said they if you complain to orange mentioning the section 9.6 thing and that their contract is in violation of that but in writing or email and they reject that complaint then you raise this with the ombudsman, OFCOM will get involved and hopefully kick oranges !!!! lets hope eh? Otherwise it'll just be the word of some guy on the internet lol. Hey orange, dave6779 says . . .

Hope everything works out for you! If I here any more info I'll try and post it on here.

daleski75

Tim3822 wrote: »

Hi everyone, I'm new here so I apologise in advance if I miss anything that has already been mentioned. I tried to read through the thread in its entirety but it's rather large .

I'm a Student Nurse with the University of Nottingham (although I'm at Boston centre not at QMC), I only started my course a few months ago and am already feeling the squeese financially. I have bills that I simply can't get rid of, mainly car insurance and tax etc as I'm expected to travel to all my clinical placements which are all over Lincolnshire. I also have no land line so my mobile phone is extremely important to me. I signed the contract August 2010 and at the time I wasn't even considering going to University! However circumstances changed and I had to reconsider my career plans, so here I am.

Now I'm on a £35 a month contract for my smartphone (a HTC Desire) and although the increase is only about £1.80 my budget is so unbelievably tight I have absolutely no disposable income and this is going to affect me. I contacted Ofcom after reading around online and they confirmed to me that under their rules I should be allowed to exit my contract with Orange as it would be of material detriment to myself. Would like to note that the lady on the phone at Ofcom was very polite! However after contacting Orange (and spending over 40 minutes on the phone!) the general response may as well have been "go climb a tree we don't care". Despite me citing Ofcom rules directly from the website the Customer "Services" rep was adamant that there was nothing I could do and I would have to lump it or pay hundreds of pounds in cancellation fees.

I have a letter written that I will send off as soon as I can, but if I don't get a reply within' 30 days (I saw mentioned on here it could take 1-2 months) does that mean I will have missed the window of opportunity in which to cancel my contract? Should I also complain formally with an e-mail as well as my written letter? I want to try and cover all the bases, the morality of this stinks. I know they're a business, but sometimes the greed of people is shocking. I should imagine come April they will announce pre tax profits totalling in the hundreds of millions. When your essentially living off vouchers and student discounts adding a few quid onto a bill every month really does make a difference! I can't even afford to go out with friends!

Any help on this will be greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Tim

Speak nicely to a CS from Orange and maybe like others you could get them to give you a discount to offset the increase?

Tim3822

daleski75 wrote: »

Speak nicely to a CS from Orange and maybe like others you could get them to give you a discount to offset the increase?

They looked at my tariff whilst I was on the phone and I use EVERYTHING lol, all my minutes, all my data. He said there was nothing he could reduce. Said there was no way for me to offset the increase.