Tied into UK's worst tarriff 'til November!?

spatchcock

Hi All,

I had an Orange account with my wife's and my phones on it, so when I heard about "the Family Plan" (50% extra everything for no extra change) I signed up, assured that there was no catch. Since then I've moved my own phone to a business account, which obviously meant I had to cancel the family plan. "Oh well, I guess my wife will just have to live without the 50% extra minutes then" I thought.

After noticing she'd gone over her minutes (rarely happens) when we got an £80 bill, I realised that she'd been put back on a different plan than she was on before. It turns out that the plan that she was on had been withdrawn since we added the family plan, so they reverted her back to their closest "base plan". Off the top of my head, that means £25 - £30 a month for 100 mins and no texts! I doubt I could find a worst plan in the UK if I tried!

I've tried reasoning with customer services, but they just say they have a right to do that under the terms and conditions. She's likely to use more than 100 mins a month until the contract ends in November, so she might even have to move to an even worse value contract so we don't get any more £80 bills for what is really quite low phone use.

Can anyone offer any suggestions on how to either force Orange to put her onto a normal tarriff (the kind that someone in their right mind would choose) or get out of the contract cheaply. Apparently the tarriff she's on is the cheapest one, so switching to a lower one and not using the phone is not an option.

Thanks!

lovelldr

i can't see how it could be their cheapest tarriff!!!

One thing you could do as a last resort if you can't get out of the contract, is take out one of these "12 month free on a 12 month contract", as you usually get 500 mins or so with them and some texts included...

Then you will just have to wait for orange to finally have the tariff cancelled...

sadiedoll

Find out the email address of the customer care team. CC your email to the name of the most senior person you can find on the orange website or search some online forums for a suitable name.

Tell them that you believe this unilateral change to your call plan constitutes a breach of the T & C and/or is an unfair contract term. Further state that if they are unable to assist you by amending the call plan, can they issue you with a 'deadlock' letter and you will pursue dispute resolution via OFCOM.

That should see some action from their end....!!!

lucky33

how many months is your wife into her contract?

spatchcock

Thanks SadieDoll and LovellDr... useful info. 12 months free would certainly be a good fallback if I can't make them budge.

Lucky33, it's a 12 month contract which ends in October or November.

utilitybroker

An e-mail to the CEO office often works wonders.

executive.office@orange.co.uk

fatboyonadiet

CEO at orange;

[EMAIL="Sanjiv.Ahuja@orange.co.uk"]Sanjiv.Ahuja@orange.co.uk[/EMAIL]

I did the same thing for a problem I had with Voda and got sorted straightaway.

fatboyonadiet

Forgot to say, taken from this website;

http://www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceoemail.html

Might be of future use to people???

lucky33

my advice would be to see what plan she may get if you moved to your business account, its worth a try.