UNMENTIONED Orange early upgrade fee- even after paying old contract off!

kell_belle

Hi everyone,

As a loyal customer to Orange over the past few years, they were my first choice when my contract BlackBerry decided to pack in and I needed a new phone. I was just under 6 months until the end of my contract, and when I would due an upgrade.
After trawling the Orange website for anything relating to an early upgrade, I went along to my local shop at the beginning of January and upgraded to a 24 month iPhone 4S contract, paying off the balance on my existing contract (£100) and paying a further £100 for my iPhone handset. At this point, I was lead to believe that this would be the end of any extra payment and that my contract was to start and then carry on as normal.
I happily went home with my shiny new phone and life was good until this months (February) bill when I find a £75 "early upgrade fee" added onto it.
There was no mention of an early upgrade fee on their website, and certainly no mention of one whilst I was actually upgrading in the shop, so what on earth do Orange think they're playing at by springing this wholly nasty fee onto my bill?

Can anyone shed some light on the situation please, as my attempts to deal with Orange myself have ultimately failed thanks to their inept customer service!!

Thanks in advance x

Buzby

It may have been mis-applied, but you need to assert you bought out your contract to its natural contract termination date - and paid £100 to do this.

There is a possibility that there has been an error in the calculation, but it might be better to put your complaint in writing, outlining the arrangement and the revised deal - this may result in a credit to your account and the resolution of the problem, but until they look into this, it is impossible to advise.