Transfer Orange business account to personal

ShornRider

Hi all.

I've searched the forums and can't find an answer to my specific problem so am making a debut post;

I'm a director of a very small business that we are unfortunately going to wind up imminently. We have two mobile phones on Orange business tariffs, 24 month contracts with 20 months remaining. Both my colleague and I would like to keep our numbers when the company does cease trading, but we need to transfer them onto a private pay monthly contract in my case and a PAYG in his. My understanding is that the contract will die with the company and I assume that we would simply hand back the handsets - if we liquidate there will be nothing or nobody to sue for early termination fees.

From this point forward the advice I have been given and read conflicts.

Firstly, I've been told that we can transfer our numbers and handsets to a pay monthly contract of equivalent value, but my colleague wants to transfer to PAYG. The implication is that he will lose his number unless he goes with pay monthly.

My own preference is to take out a new contract with a new phone (actually the one I have my eye on is at greater monthly cost than my current business one) before the end of our current billing period (i.e. so that we don't actually owe Orange a monthly payment) and transfer my number to that, but my local phone shop says that if they were to do that for me then they would have the cost of the new handset "clawed back" once Orange realised that we had defaulted on the 24 month business contract. As a second option I would be happy to simply transfer my business tariff to an equivalent value private one for the remaining 20 months, BUT I have also been advised by a couple of sources on the net AND a guy at Carphone Warehouse that Orange won't do this. As a last resort I dug out an 0800 number for Orange Business and spoke to a girl there for confirmation (anonymously) who told me that I just needed to take out a new private contract, new phone etc, then transfer my business number to it at which point my business handset will be allocated a new number. Even when I explained that the business was going bust and would be defaulting on the contract she said they would do it. Now this option is utterly ideal but, sceptic that I am (a quick scan of these forums proves that customer service reps don't always give correct information), I confess that this seems suspiciously easy and rather too weighted to the customer's benefit for me too swallow at face value. However, if true it's ideal and enables us to both get the deal we want. In this case Orange get a couple of 4 months old handsets back (I assume they want them back) but keep at least one customer on a higher tariff for 2 years.

My main question to the knowledgeable folk on this forum is simply whether this is too good to be true and is there any way of resolving this issue and enabling us to transfer our numbers from a defaulted business account to private ones?

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks,

Steve.

NFH

I'd just transfer the accounts into another business name before the company is wound up. Orange will be happy to do this, even if the new business is some kind of self-employed personal status. You're better off having a business account anyway, as the customer service is infinitely better. This way everyone is happy.

Techhead_2

You need to seek the advice of your account manager. Business contracts operate in a different way to consumer contracts. Depending on your contract there may be charges for porting your number and it may not be possible to do this at all so early in the contract.

So speak to your account manager at your service provider, as any advice given here is likely to relate to consumer rights.

It's also worth considering that depending on the structure of the company and how it's wound up, you may not be able to take the numbers out of the company.

Jon_01

As far as I'm aware, you can't port a number out (even on a business contact) AND leave the acc open. The process that ports the number closes the acc, so you'd have to pay off the remaining time on the contract before they'd give you the pac.
So the comment from the agent that 'transfer my business number to it at which point my business handset will be allocated a new number.' I'm sure isn't right, sorry.

J_B

As someone said - keep a 'business' contract - at least the Geordies are easier to understand than the Indians

We closed our business and I just transferred it to my 'one man band' business a/c, which was seamless.
Not sure about going to payg - sorry

ShornRider

Thanks for the input all, I think I'll just tell the shop I use to sort it whatever it takes.

NFH

J_B wrote: »

As someone said - keep a 'business' contract - at least the Geordies are easier to understand than the Indians

Very true. The other thing I've noticed about Orange's Geordies is the stronger their accent, the more helpful they are.

Techhead_2

Jon_01 wrote: »

As far as I'm aware, you can't port a number out (even on a business contact) AND leave the acc open. The process that ports the number closes the acc, so you'd have to pay off the remaining time on the contract before they'd give you the pac.
So the comment from the agent that 'transfer my business number to it at which point my business handset will be allocated a new number.' I'm sure isn't right, sorry.

Some business contracts do allow porting and a ' fresh' number.

( As the relationship between number, line and account is not 1:1 as it would be for a consumer contract - but as I said this varies so, especially given the circumstances, the OP needs to speak to their account manager)