MSE News: Orange to raise monthly mobile costs

unique.mo

It doesnt matter how I come across they are not going to give anyone a refund or give the right to cancel yet. In the usual circumstances the one who argues the most is more likely to get what they want. The issue is the Orange Price Hike not the way I do business with other companies!

Although I feel they are stuck with the CSO and ONS clause as it is taking them some time to get back.

kaz2011

Just wondering how my daughter would get around this?
Some months ago she broke her mobile phone and damaged the sim. So she bought herself an i phone 4 from the money she had saved for some time, as she is in full time education.
She asked me to contact Orange which I did as she needed a micro sim.
They wanted to charge her another ten pounds per month. I informed them that she could not afford this ontop of the money she was paying per month for her contract. I also asked what she would be paying extra for. The reply I was given was exactly the same as what she was already paying £25.00 per month for anyway! I informed them they were trying to break contract, and wanted to cancel her contract, which they would not have. I asked for a manager to call me back as I was told pay this extra £10.00 per month or she cannot use her phone I was disgusted.
Needless to say no one rang me back. My daughter is now on o2 with another contract, with another 16 months to run on her orange contract as they locked her in for 24 months. So she will receive no txt to inform of the rise,as she has not even had the phone or orange sim for nearly 6 months. Theres money for nothing!
This will definately cause her material detriment, she only gets a bursary, she has to travel to Hereford hospital from the midlands because this is where she was placed, the train fare costs £175.00 per month, that is due to go up in the new year. She gets this back but has to wait months for this. She only get approx £25.00 per week for everything else. I do help but I am disabled and cannot work so It is very little I can give her, some of her books needed cost £200.00 to enable her to continue with her course. Could she get out of this contract without paying a penalty? Which in my view they should have done in the first instance, was I fobbed off to easily because of me not being in good Health and not knowing my rights?

Please can anyone Help!!

DUTR

kaz2011 wrote: »

Just wondering how my daughter would get around this?
Some months ago she broke her mobile phone and damaged the sim. So she bought herself an i phone 4 from the money she had saved for some time, as she is in full time education.
She asked me to contact Orange which I did as she needed a micro sim.
They wanted to charge her another ten pounds per month. I informed them that she could not afford this ontop of the money she was paying per month for her contract. I also asked what she would be paying extra for. The reply I was given was exactly the same as what she was already paying £25.00 per month for anyway! I informed them they were trying to break contract, which they would not have. I asked for a manager to call me back as I was told pay this extra £10.00 per month or she cannot use her phone I was disgusted.
Needless to say no one rang me back. My daughter is now on o2 with another contract. So she will receive no txt to inform of the rise,
This will definately cause her material detriment, she only gets a bursary, she has to travel to Hereford hospital from the midlands because this is where she was placed, the train fare costs £175.00, that is due to go up in the new year. She gets this back but has to wait months for this she only get approx £25.00 per week for everything else. I do help but I am disabled and cannot work so this is very little I can give her, some of her books needed cost £200.00 to enable her to continue with her course. Could she get out of this contract without paying a penalty? Which in my view they should have done in the first instance, was I fobbed off to easily because of me not being in good Health and not knowing my rights?

Please can anyone Help!!

There are no exceptions for people with iphone 4 or 4s

Daft_Punk

unique.mo wrote: »

And Yes I would rather have them go off script so I take an advantage and get everything refunded as they do not know what to say. I got the line manager to go off script for a few questions to which he had problems answering. Although it may seem I was condescending however im not that kind of a person.

I am not privy to your conversation so have no idea what was said between you and the manager but,

Even if the team manager did go off script I am not sure there is anything they can say that will allow you out of the price increase. The finer points are:

They gave you a months notice,
They have a clause in your contract that they can put the prices up inline with inflation,
They are putting the prices up inline with inflation.

This point you are making about some government office being non existent maybe seem like a way out but I just cannot see it ever happening.

Orange will just say that they use the RPI as a guide for the inflation increase. End of story.

How far are you prepared to take this is the question. Because Orange will never give you your money back or let you out of the contract. You are going to have to go to CISAS and then maybe to court to prove your point.

Are you prepared to do all that when you can just accept it and leave Orange at the end of your contract if you so wish.

Does that not seem like the most sensible option?

unique.mo

Yes which is why I stated that I discovered he had no authority to give any refund and so wanted to speak to the manager himself who wasnt available.

Indeed it is a sensible option to switch or to go on payg. A few contracts are ending soon then they will find out what has hit them. Although I do not need to take it to court to get my money back; I found another way as to how I can retrieve money from them legitimately as I once did.

CISAS will consider CSO arguement but if Orange were definately sure about that it then surely they would have given us a reply regarding it.

Il leave it open for suggestion because I cannot say if they will definately give a refund or a right to cancel.

grumbler

kaz2011 wrote: »

Just wondering how my daughter would get around this?
Some months ago she broke her mobile phone and damaged the sim. So she bought herself an i phone 4 from the money she had saved for some time, as she is in full time education.
She asked me to contact Orange which I did as she needed a micro sim.
They wanted to charge her another ten pounds per month. I informed them that she could not afford this ontop of the money she was paying per month for her contract. I also asked what she would be paying extra for. The reply I was given was exactly the same as what she was already paying £25.00 per month for anyway! I informed them they were trying to break contract, and wanted to cancel her contract, which they would not have. I asked for a manager to call me back as I was told pay this extra £10.00 per month or she cannot use her phone I was disgusted.
Needless to say no one rang me back. My daughter is now on o2 with another contract, with another 16 months to run on her orange contract as they locked her in for 24 months. So she will receive no txt to inform of the rise,as she has not even had the phone or orange sim for nearly 6 months. Theres money for nothing!
This will definately cause her material detriment, she only gets a bursary, she has to travel to Hereford hospital from the midlands because this is where she was placed, the train fare costs £175.00 per month, that is due to go up in the new year. She gets this back but has to wait months for this. She only get approx £25.00 per week for everything else. I do help but I am disabled and cannot work so It is very little I can give her, some of her books needed cost £200.00 to enable her to continue with her course. Could she get out of this contract without paying a penalty? Which in my view they should have done in the first instance, was I fobbed off to easily because of me not being in good Health and not knowing my rights?

Please can anyone Help!!

You should have asked earlier, before your daughter bought pointless contract with O2. She should have requested a normal replacement sim and cut it to a micro size. Easy DIY job.
That said, IMHO, a person capable of buying a new iPhone and paying for two contracts is not in a position to say that she cannot afford paying extra £1 per month.

Ste_C

grumbler wrote: »

You should have asked earlier, before your daughter bought pointless contract with O2. She should have requested a normal replacement sim and cut it to a micro size. Easy DIY job.
That said, IMHO, a person capable of buying a new iPhone and paying for two contracts is not in a position to say that she cannot afford paying extra £1 per month.

Indeed. And if money is so tight, buying a notoriously expensive iPhone isn't the greatest idea is it?

thischris1991

It seems to me that the executive office need to grow up. Got a standard email saying that the legal team wouldn't be lookin into thos matter further. I kindly sent one back sayin I'm not surprised they don't want to get involved as they have realised what a mess this is causing and as a company orange needs to reply to customer complaints on a personal basis and not copy and paste job. I also sent them a letter explaining I would get the BBC watchdog involved and see how they fend off the bad publicity as it won't be the first time they been on the show.

DUTR

thischris1991 wrote: »

It seems to me that the executive office need to grow up. Got a standard email saying that the legal team wouldn't be lookin into thos matter further. I kindly sent one back sayin I'm not surprised they don't want to get involved as they have realised what a mess this is causing and as a company orange needs to reply to customer complaints on a personal basis and not copy and paste job. I also sent them a letter explaining I would get the BBC watchdog involved and see how they fend off the bad publicity as it won't be the first time they been on the show.

How are you going to get watchdog to entertain or run an article on the subject?

jimkenyon

Orange state that they have to raise their prices due to inflation. This is a false argument as the majority of a contract is taken up by the cost of the handset. Consequently, given that the ongoing costs are the price of calls, text, etc then Orange are increasing the cost beyond the RPI. as these are only a small part of the contract. Effectively, Orange are asking us to pay more for the handset that we have already received at what must be a fixed cost to Orange.