Avoid the Orange Price Increase

Daft_Punk

Hello Everyone.

I am going to play devils advocate for a second.

Orange is a business not a charity. They have to make a profit to keep their shareholders happy and have announced a price increase for customers on "Legacy" (older) tariffs.

Yes, it's not nice but it's not something Orange have ever done before and are not likely to do again anytime soon.

It is our duty as customers to get the best deal we can from them and therefore we have two options:

1)Scream blue murder, escalate a complaint through Orange>Regulators>Court and waste a whole load of time and money to escape (in most cases) a £1 a month increase.

Or

2)Calmly ring Orange and see if you are eligible (you must be halfway through your current contract normally but they might switch you early because of the price increase as a goodwill gesture) to move on their current tariffs which will not be increasing in January.

Example:

You are on a Dolphin 25 which is going to increase.
If you switch onto the current Dolphin 25 the price is 25p more and you get 100 extra mins and no increase in Jan!

To summarise:

Old Dolphin 25 = £25.75 with VAT going up to £26.99 in Jan
New Dolphin 25 = £26 with VAT plus 100 extra mins and no price increase in Jan.

It's even better if you are on old Panther plan as the new Panther plans come with swapables which means you can choose to add services on to your plan like Sky Sports channels (a service that normally costs £6 per month) for free!!

So yes, we can all go crazy on how we are being robbed by Orange and claim its all about the principle of the matter or we can be smart and get the best deal we can with our current contract.

adios muchachos.

munky99

Fair point, but bear in mind this will lock you into a new long term contract.
Best to look around first and see if it's worth waiting til your current contract ends (on an extra quid or so a month) and then moving to another provider (and telling orange the reason for your leaving is that you were unhappy with a price rise on a fixed contract).

Daft_Punk

munky99 wrote: »

Fair point, but bear in mind this will lock you into a new long term contract.
Best to look around first and see if it's worth waiting til your current contract ends (on an extra quid or so a month) and then moving to another provider (and telling orange the reason for your leaving is that you were unhappy with a price rise on a fixed contract).

No it wont.

Changing your talkplan does not alter your contract dates.

If you have 9 months left on your contract then your contract will still end in 9 months.

premierfella

And the impact on cashback claims of moving to a "current" tariff (which no doubt affects many)?

I would also take issue with the presumption that they wouldn't increase the price again any time soon. I would expect them to do it every year from now on given, as you say, they are a business and not a charity, unless they lose significant numbers of customers to any rival that comes out in the future and promises not to pull this small print trick.

Daft_Punk

premierfella wrote: »

And the impact on cashback claims of moving to a "current" tariff (which no doubt affects many)?

I would also take issue with the presumption that they wouldn't increase the price again any time soon. I would expect them to do it every year from now on given, as you say, they are a business and not a charity, unless they lose significant numbers of customers to any rival that comes out in the future and promises not to pull this small print trick.

They have NEVER EVER done this before.

If you really think they are going to do this every year you must be bonkers. They would have no customers left.

They have done this as they feel it is justifiable doing it every year would in no way be justifiable to anyone.

Also I am not sure what you mean by cashback claims?

kenskyblueuk

Daft_Punk wrote: »

They have NEVER EVER done this before.

If you really think they are going to do this every year you must be bonkers. They would have no customers left.

They have done this as they feel it is justifiable doing it every year would in no way be justifiable to anyone.

Also I am not sure what you mean by cashback claims?

If they are allowed to do it this year next year could be a bigger increase

Daft_Punk

kenskyblueuk wrote: »

If they are allowed to do it this year next year could be a bigger increase

Look at the backlash from customers because of this price increase.

I guarantee you that they will not increase prices again next year. If they did EVERYONE would leave them.

23rdspiral

I spoke to them today and yes I could get a new contract BUT my existing contract is so 'tweaked' after several contract re-news with bonus this and extra that, that i wouldn't get anywhere near to it with a new one.

so if you're a long term customer like me, then don't ditch to a new contract lightly.

simax

The new tariffs are already priced a quid higher, so it would be Dolphin 26, 31, 36 etc......

In 17 years, it has never been done before, and to be fair, Orange can do this once every year should they want to.

However, remember that there are things like electricity bills Orange have to pay etc and they are subject to inflation too. Just how much can a network absorb price rises? After 17 years, and with inflation so high, it has to be done.

Remember, O2 and Vodafone have put their prices up by approx a quid a month each, and Three have done it on their dongle plans. Orange are not the only baddies here.

gsax

SO I tried option 1 - nicely.

It is clear they said two things - My contract started Oct 2010 - they have change all new contracts to include this going forward - post-April 2011. I'm still unclear what the difference is between the two contracts. They justified it to me by - O2, Vodaphone and BT etc have not yet told their customers - all will be following their lead.. kinda worrying
They also stated if the CPI goes up to 15% - they will increase it by the same.

I feel they broke my contract and they wanted me to sign me up to a new tariff. It is the only company that said they re-wrote contracts in April then clasp to "you didn't read contract in Nov2010 small print did you?"
"The mobile phone industry have bred this attitude into the British" and this is the customers fault? :eek:

Feels like I signed for a fixed rate mortgage and the bank swapped it to variable half way through - oh yes and you got to pay it in full to get out of it..

Thinking about it- they can stick their prices up from June for July,Aug,Sept and get their extra £4.50 from a huge contract. I will return all that bad will ~ Hundreds fold ~ I spoke to them for quite a while wasting whatever gain they made ~ no new contract Orange (wave) bye I want an honest provider ~ it is customer service stupidity :T

DUTR

gsax wrote: »

SO I tried option 1 - nicely.

It is clear they said two things - My contract started Oct 2010 - they have change all new contracts to include this going forward - post-April 2011. I'm still unclear what the difference is between the two contracts. They justified it to me by - O2, Vodaphone and BT etc have not yet told their customers - all will be following their lead.. kinda worrying
They also stated if the CPI goes up to 15% - they will increase it by the same.

I feel they broke my contract and they wanted me to sign me up to a new tariff. It is the only company that said they re-wrote contracts in April then clasp to "you didn't read contract in Nov2010 small print did you?"
"The mobile phone industry have bred this attitude into the British" and this is the customers fault? :eek:

Feels like I signed for a fixed rate mortgage and the bank swapped it to variable half way through - oh yes and you got to pay it in full to get out of it..

Thinking about it- they can stick their prices up from June for July,Aug,Sept and get their extra £4.50 from a huge contract. I will return all that bad will ~ Hundreds fold ~ I spoke to them for quite a while wasting whatever gain they made ~ no new contract Orange (wave) bye I want an honest provider ~ it is customer service stupidity :T

Somehow that bit does not ring true, the CS rep can only tell you about what is current today and what is available from them not other networks.