Orange incompetence

benjus

My partner has been on a monthly rolling SIM-only contract with Orange for several years.

She recently found a deal she liked with Phones4U for a 2 year Orange contract with a new handset.

Before ordering I spoke to them on her behalf and they said that transferring the number wouldn't be a problem, she just had to tell them to consider the new contract an upgrade.

When the new phone and SIM card arrived, I spoke to them again. Of course, this time they had a different story - the system won't let them transfer a number from one contract to another - so she would have to change her existing contract to PAYG, then move the number to the new contract. The guy I spoke to was unfamiliar with this himself and thought it was stupid. Anyway, he did it and said the new PAYG SIM was in the post.

Several days later and no sign of any SIM card. So she called them, and has now been told that they can't change her contract to PAYG until the end of the current month, so she now has to wait almost a month just to transfer her phone number to the new contract.

Any advice on how to deal with this bunch of incompetents?

(by the way - for some unknown reason her new handset doesn't work well with her current SIM card, while it's quite happy with my T-Mobile SIM card - so she can't even use the new handset yet)

NFH

Try temporarily porting the number to PAYG on a different network, e.g. Vodafone.

grumbler

benjus wrote: »

Before ordering I spoke to them on her behalf and they said that transferring the number wouldn't be a problem, she just had to tell them to consider the new contract an upgrade.

Why do p4u have a separate 'UPGRADES' section on their website then if there is no difference between the new contracts and upgrades?

Any advice on how to deal with this bunch of incompetents?

Never rely on anything a salesperson says you. Check the website and read the T&C yourself.
can I keep my number and tariff on PAYG when I get a new phone and new SIM card?

Your old T&C clearly tell you that you have to give 30 days notice to cancel/change the contract.

BTW, consider yourself lucky. At many other networks is is impossible at all to transfer the number within the network and you have to port the number out to another network first, then back to the original one.

NFH wrote: »

Try temporarily porting the number to PAYG on a different network, e.g. Vodafone.

How is this simpler than switching to PAYG at Orange?

NFH

grumbler wrote: »

How is this simpler than switching to PAYG at Orange?

Because Orange often make porting more difficult from one Orange account to another than porting to another network.

benjus

*sigh* well, I guess we should have used the Upgrades section of Phones4U - to be honest I hadn't spotted it, as the handset was a direct link from HotUKDeals. Neither of us has ever had a contract handset before, just SIM-only contracts.

I really don't understand why they make things so complicated and inflexible. She's not asking to be let out of her rolling contract early... she'd be happy if they could just swap the phone numbers associated with the two contracts and cancel the rolling one as soon as possible.

Anyway, rant over... I suggested she try moving the number to a different network and back again, but she's tried moving networks before and always finds it a struggle to get a PAC code out of them.

grumbler

benjus wrote: »

*sigh* well, I guess we should have used the Upgrades section of Phones4U - to be honest I hadn't spotted it, as the handset was a direct link from HotUKDeals.

In the future don't expect to find the same deals in the Upgrades section. Deals for the new or the 'new' customers are always better, but for the 'new' customers do come with extra trouble of transferring the old number.

Buzby

New Contracts are priced differently from upgrades (the pricing is usually better), so any same-network customer will be seen as trying to get a better deal as a new customer, when they really should be upgrading. There's no incompetence, all the networks do this - they call it 'revenue protection'.

Incidentally, same network number transfers are called migrations, not porting, and as such, OFCOMs advice on porting rules do not apply.

robbies_gal

i got my phone through upgrades on p4u was much easier and i got the same deal as a new contract

gjchester

benjus wrote: »

My partner has been on a monthly rolling SIM-only contract with Orange for several years.

She recently found a deal she liked with Phones4U for a 2 year Orange contract with a new handset.

Before ordering I spoke to them on her behalf and they said that transferring the number wouldn't be a problem, she just had to tell them to consider the new contract an upgrade.

...

Any advice on how to deal with this bunch of incompetents?

Orange are not at fault here, what you have done (albeit by acciident) is called a backdoor upgrade and not permitted on any network, you almsot always need to port out and back if you want to get the deal as a new customer but on an existing number.

Phones 4 U who you dealt with should have told you this would not be a direct swap, they are the ones who caused the issue not Orange..

benjus

I still think Orange are incompetent - not because of their policies, which they are of course free to have - but because nobody in Orange customer services seems to know what the policies are, how they are implemented and what can be done to resolve the situation. After being told yesterday that she'd have to wait a month for the PAYG SIM card, what was waiting in the post last night? An Orange PAYG SIM card, of course. Albeit one that doesn't work, but I'm hoping it just needs to be activated.