MSE News: Orange to raise monthly mobile costs

disappointedwithorange

daleski75 wrote: »

I think at most contracts will increase by £2 a month so why go to all the hassle of trying to cancel when I am pretty certain an extra £1 or so out of your account each month won't exactly break the bank.

Sorry to sound harsh but it sounds like a lot of people here would use this as an excuse to break the contract so they can get a new phone!

I would have renewed my contract when it expired and got a new phone with Orange: I had been quite happy with them. Until now. As someone else said, it's the principle that counts. Those small extras, multiplied by the millions of the customers they have, amount to a lot of money.

daleski75

From what I can gather Orange's terms and conditions state they can do that and they have already passed this through OFCOM although there is some conflicting information about this if Orange did or didn't consult OFCOM first.

And don't you have to prove the £2 or so extra a month would be detrimental to you in order to have grounds to cancel?

I am not sticking up for Orange whatsoever by the way just voicing my opinion and I did threaten to cancel my t-mobile contract when there was that debacle about downgrading everyone to 500mb of data from 2gb (of which I was an effected customer)

Human_Writes

disappointedwithorange wrote: »

I have spoken with OfCom and Orange Mobile Executive Office this lunchtime.

OfCom are clear that Section 9.6 of the Telecoms Act 2003 is applicable to all charges and that a service provider must give the option to terminate. These are the customer's rights in law, regardless of what Orange Terms and Conditions are. As the news story says, this price rise in materially detrimental and customers should have the option to terminate.

Orange Mobile Executive Office responded by claiming that that clause of the Act does not apply to monthly tariffs. They also said that their rise had been 'run by' OfCom. I put this point back to OfCom, who were clear that it does apply (it applies to all parts of a pricing structure) and that they had not been consulted.

I am awaiting the written reply from Orange before taking this up with the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS), who would adjudicate on the matter.

Read it for yourself: Scroll to Section 9.6 of the Telecoms Act 2003 on OfCom website (I cannot post links yet, as new user).

Call OfCom - the more, the better 020 7981 3040.

James

There is no such act as the Telecoms Act 2003, there is a Communications Act 2003:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/contents


"Part 9 States:

9

Secretary of State’s powers in relation to promptness standards

(1)Where the Secretary of State considers that the statement published by OFCOM under section 8 is not adequate for securing that they meet satisfactory promptness standards, he may give them a notification to that effect.

(2)If the period of three months after the date of the giving of a notification under subsection (1) expires without OFCOM taking steps which the Secretary of State is satisfied remedy the situation, he may give them a direction under this section.

(3)A direction under this section is one requiring OFCOM to issue a new or revised statement under section 8 in accordance with the direction.

(4)Before giving a direction under this section, the Secretary of State must—

(a)give OFCOM an opportunity of making representations to him about his proposed direction; and

(b)have regard to any representations made to him by them.

(5)Where the Secretary of State gives a direction to OFCOM under this section, he must publish a copy of it in such manner as he considers appropriate for bringing it to the attention of persons who, in his opinion, are likely to be affected by OFCOM’s promptness standards.

(6)It shall be the duty of OFCOM to revise their statement under section 8 in accordance with any direction of the Secretary of State under this section.

(7)In this section “promptness standards” means standards of promptness in—

(a)the carrying out by OFCOM of their different functions; and

(b)the transaction by them of business for purposes connected with the carrying out of those functions.

(8)No notification is to be given under subsection (1) at any time in the period of twelve months beginning with the commencement of section 8.

Not sure what Ofcom are telling you there but you may wish to recheck it as that ^^^ seems to have no relevance to what your talking about.

Also the CISAS website says this:

http://www.cisas.org.uk/InfoforCustomers-4_e.html

I have a complaint with a CISAS member, but they say I cannot use CISAS. Why?

• Business decisions a company has made on whether or not to provide a product or service, and the terms under which they will provide a product or service.

thischris1991

Having spoken to an orange representative in Mumbai saying that I wished to cancel my contract and that the price increase for me on a £40 a month tariff was something that I wanted to leave and go to Vodafone who have only increased their prices by a mere 1%. I was told that I had to pay the termination fee of £480.65 and that if I cancelled my contract now I had to pay it. The representative then put me through to the supervisor who was saying that everything is going up and that it was a governement thing that prices were going up.

I proceeded to tell her about the Telecommunications Act 2003 and what OFCOM had said and she said that it didn't matter you still had to pay the fee

daleski75

Ouch thats a lot of money to pay out to cancel your contract!

sarah1972

My tariff is going up less than £2 a month so I think that reasonable really as everything else is going up so why should mobiles be any different.

I havent called Tesco and complained about all the price increases so I wont be doing the same to Orange.

Orange is the best reception in my area and vodafone cant match my tariff so I am just going to swallow the increase.

Before I get a lot of abuse, its only my opinion and I do understand that some people are not able to afford the increase.

thischris1991

daleski75 wrote: »

Ouch thats a lot of money to pay out to cancel your contract!

Sure is. Will try again in a bit and see if I get another rep that has a brain and understands English law without being racist.

Did we managed to establish what OFCOM has said to this about terminating the contract without paying anything??

daleski75

thischris1991 wrote: »

Sure is. Will try again in a bit and see if I get another rep that has a brain and understands English law without being racist.

Did we managed to establish what OFCOM has said to this about terminating the contract without paying anything??

Not read anything yet to state that OFCOM have agreed this is grounds for any cancellation and to be honest you and everyone else here who wants to cancel is going to face an up hill struggle to say the least.

I am paying £46 a month for my orange contract and if I was to get the increase it would go to £48 a month but I would not even think about cancelling as it has zero detriment to my life.

NFH

sarah1972 wrote: »

My tariff is going up less than £2 a month so I think that reasonable really as everything else is going up so why should mobiles be any different.

Because with "everything else", you are not forced into continuing with a contract at a higher price. You can choose to cease receiving the service, or move to another supplier. The problem here is that Orange are increasing prices and attempting to remove the consumer's right to cancel the service.

daleski75

I think we need to wait to see what OFCOM's official response on this or CISAS before anyone here should start bombarding Orange with cancellation requests but good luck anyway!