MSE News: Orange to raise monthly mobile costs

Doc_N

DUTR wrote: »

It's the idiots that sign the petition, the company has made their mind up, and won't backtrack on it .

Not quite right, I'm afraid. They're already backtracking on it in individual cases. Credits to accounts to equate to the increase.

unique.mo

The idiots are those who just sit back and act as if it doesnt matter; if it didnt affect you then wouldnt be posting here. Everyone is obviously fuming and wants something to be done. It takes what less than a minute to sign a petition and if you cant sign a simple petition then I take it that you probably didnt ring or email Orange up as those procedures take more time.

My point is if you dont care about the price increase then you wouldnt be posting here. Simples!

Guys_Dad

unique.mo wrote: »

The idiots are those who just sit back and act as if it doesnt matter; if it didnt affect you then wouldnt be posting here. Everyone is obviously fuming and wants something to be done. It takes what less than a minute to sign a petition and if you cant sign a simple petition then I take it that you probably didnt ring or email Orange up as those procedures take more time.

My point is if you dont care about the price increase then you wouldnt be posting here. Simples!

Ok, let's project ahead.

The petition gets huge support - say 500,000 supporters. So what would you expect he government to do? Pass a law to outlaw mid-contract increases? And then apply it retrospectively? For how many years back in time?

If their own QUANGO Ofcom are not prepared to step in - and they are the correct body to do so, then do you really think that anything is likely to happen?

In the meantime, you can always sit around singing "Hey Jude", as we all know what patron saint St Jude is.

It's peanut money, something that Orange said could happen when they asked you to agree their t&c. There are so many much more important things going on to get petitions for, not commercial trivia such as this.

Move on.

gjchester

unique.mo wrote: »

Everyone is obviously fuming and wants something to be done.
My point is if you dont care about the price increase then you wouldnt be posting here. Simples!

No, many people are annoyed but accept it. Many people will accept this regardless of if they are fuming and only a small majority will complain.

This thread may be long but it's by no means an indication of the annoyance of Orange customers, only the Orange customers on here and the ones who are annoyed, and together it's not a large number for a company who have million plus subscribers.

Steve__M_3

The petition gets huge support - say 500,000 supporters. So what would you expect he government to do? Pass a law to outlaw mid-contract increases? And then apply it retrospectively? For how many years back in time?

If their own QUANGO Ofcom are not prepared to step in - and they are the correct body to do so, then do you really think that anything is likely to happen?

Complain to Orange. Then complain to Ofcom. Then sign the petition. The last bit is easy.

If Ofcom claim they don't get enough responses to justify action, but the petition gets a lot of signatures, then Ofcom are either shown to be lying or are put under public pressure by the support in the petition.

The whole point of consumer campaigns is to keep momentum going to continually remind people what sort of company Orange are such that Orange share of the market falls.

If Orange succeed then all the telecoms companies will know that they can get away with tying people into 24 month contracts which can vary to the detriment of the customer.

If enough people call Orange then it puts their call centre under pressure causing costs for overtime, loss of service to other customers, and therefore loss of business.

Del_Astra

Blue_nexus wrote: »

Hi Folks,

I feel it would be well worth signing this petition -

http: //epetitions.direct.gov.uk /petitions /2489

(remove spaces)

Stop mobile phone companies making changes to plan rates

Responsible department: Department for Culture, Media and Sport

If a customer wishes to make changes to their contract, in most cases, they will have to pay a large sum to do so. However, Orange have announced to their customers (via text message) that they are raising their plan prices by 4.34% in January 2012. The petitioners wish to end this as when entering into a written contract, the details should remain the same for the duration of the contract. It is unfair that the mobile phone companies are allowed to change the details of a contract without consulting the customer who is tied into the contract, yet if a customer wishes to change the details, it will involve paying a sum of money, or will simply be denied.

Only 62 signatures, unfortunately I can't see this one progressing.

Mike_Holden

I sent a complaint to Orange explaining that contract law is clear, a party can't change a contract to the other party's material detriment without the party having the right to cancel. It doesn't matter that it's a few quid, or a few pence, no company should be able to ignore the law. And the stupid thing is that if they'd said customers could leave if they wanted - how many people would have taken the trouble?

They even replied with an arrogant response saying that in their opinion the increase is "reasonable" so it doesn't affect customers materially! When many people have had wage freezes for the last year - of course it does! They're simply misrepresenting on their big ads what they're actually doing. Fixed-price should mean just that.

We're all on here complaining, and it's no effort to complain straight to Orange :-

help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/support/personal/contacting-us/paym

And to OFCOM :-

stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/switched-without-permission

(I reckon this comes under mis-selling, which is the link I've provided, but there may be a better area. I can't see one about unfair terms on a contract. There's a link to complain about items on your bill, but it's the same link).

Apathy is the problem here, if people can't be bothered to complain then (all) the phone companies will start doing this regularly, just like the utilities do, and by inaction we'll have accepted it as the norm.

Guys_Dad

Mike_Holden wrote: »

I sent a complaint to Orange explaining that contract law is clear, a party can't change a contract to the other party's material detriment without the party having the right to cancel. It doesn't matter that it's a few quid, or a few pence, no company should be able to ignore the law. And the stupid thing is that if they'd said customers could leave if they wanted - how many people would have taken the trouble?

They even replied with an arrogant response saying that in their opinion the increase is "reasonable" so it doesn't affect customers materially! When many people have had wage freezes for the last year - of course it does! They're simply misrepresenting on their big ads what they're actually doing. Fixed-price should mean just that.

We're all on here complaining, and it's no effort to complain straight to Orange :-

help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/support/personal/contacting-us/paym

And to OFCOM :-

stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/switched-without-permission

(I reckon this comes under mis-selling, which is the link I've provided, but there may be a better area. I can't see one about unfair terms on a contract. There's a link to complain about items on your bill, but it's the same link).

Apathy is the problem here, if people can't be bothered to complain then (all) the phone companies will start doing this regularly, just like the utilities do, and by inaction we'll have accepted it as the norm.

950 posts so far on this thread and you call it apathy??? Have you bothered to read some of the posts??

Although as I have already said a few times here that I am not bothered myself - not when I compare it with the increased price of petrol over the last 12 months (Now that's a worthwhile petition ) - but there a lots of contributors who have complained to Orange and OFCOM and got nowhere, with a few getting changes in their tariff and reductions.

Suggest you do a bit of reading on this thread before you castigate the many who have done just as you belatedly propose.

CSales

still awaiting my response... 17 days and counting LOL

CSales

anyone know if there's a specific timescale they should be responding or replying to me by? Should my next point of contact be Ofcom if I've not had a response after say, 4 weeks?