Orange and a lost phone.

dindondan

Hello all be kind im new ....im on a monthly contract with Orange and have been for quite a few years now with no problems from me or them until now, I dropped my phone down the toilet( yes stupid i know) .!!
I contacted Orange to tell them of my predicament and was met with the reply i can have a replacement phone if i pay £249 not what i would call a replacement more like me buying a new phone, or i can get a phone myself and they will send me a new sim card not good either
Now then i dont have insurance but surely they can do better than this....what can or should i do??.
Many thanks in advance.

AppleMatt

Welcome to MSE dindondan! :beer:

I'm afraid this is exactly the situation insurance is made for. If you keep at them they may, out of goodwill, give you a better price for the phone but I'm afraid you will more than likely have to put this one down to experience

Sorry it's not better news

Ctub

Have to agree. Insurance job.

Have you completely dried out the phone to see if you can coax it back to life? Can be done sometimes.

irishjohn

Think of it this way - if your bank loaned you £5000 to buy a car and you crashed the car before you had repaid the loan would you expect them to

a. say oops - heres another £5000 to get a new car but you won't have to pay it back just pay the original £5000 and we are happy.

b. say oh dear, now you have no car but you still owe us money so pay up.

or

c. say oh dear - you have no car, never mind - we won't ask you to pay back any more money.

You are paying Orange a monthly fee for a valuable phone and your calls text and internet access - and when they gave you the phone they told you how long the monthly charge would last. When they make this agreement with you they expect you to keep the equipment in good working order until all the monthly fees have been paid. But now the phone is not working, through no fault of Orange, they can only offer a replacement at an additional one off charge. Your other option could be to use the last phone you got from Orange and use the new SIM they are willing to send.

buscape

What phone is it? You might be able to pick one up cheaper than that.

mattyprice4004

Being the case that you lost the phone and now for some reason expect the network to do something about it despite it not being their fault, I hope this is a 'joke' thread.

Anyway, I used to work in customer service for a mobile retailer, and also had a lot of involvement with the insurance services too. I can categorically say they have to do nothing, nada, zilch. You will also be 100% responsible for the remaining cost of the contract, they don't have to offer an early termination discount.

I used to have similar calls a fair amount, but from what I can tell only Orange offer 'emergency insurance' whereas they'll retrospectively insure the handset for a period before the loss, and offer a discounted replacement.

However, they've said no, there's nothing you can do. If you stop paying the contract they'll (rightly so) trash your credit file.

I fail to see how what they've said is 'not good either', they've offered a free replacement SIM card where sometimes they'd charge for it. Instead of trying to shift the blame to Orange I suggest taking responsibility for your mistake, learn not to take your phone to the toilet and move on. No reason Orange should lose money because you can't look after your phone.

prowla

What kind of phone is it?
You can often pick up a perfectly usable handset on a PAYG offer for a lot less than the full retail price.

the-mango

maybe ask if you can retrospectively insure, they offered this for me. Lots cheaper than buying a new phone!