Orange charging to port numbers out

greigc

Hi There,

this is a business account for work and we have 12 iphones which we have completed the 2 year contract on. There was no charge for the phones initally as we were spending £500/month. SO you can imagine my surprise, after telling them i wish to port the numbers, when a bil for £600 dropped in my inbox. They want £50 per phone to keep them, despite having paid for 27months in total.

In fact they list the depreciation of £18.66/month for the phones and the initial cost being £405....so by my reckoning they owe me money lol

I have emailed them and told them we will not be paying this, however has anyone else had this before?

Just wondering if anyone has any advice about these kind of charges? What infururiates me more is that they want £20 per phone to unlock them on top of this....totally robbing bar stewards....makes me never want to use orange again tbh

spiro

According to OFCOM they can charge for your PAC:

http://ask.ofcom.org.uk/help/telephone/phonoswitch2

chanz4

read your contract, if they advised you in it then you are liable. consumer is different than business

greigc

Thats just it there is nothing in the contract, in fact in their document it states:

Disconnection Charges:
Under the agreement, you are obliged to pay disconnections charges for devices that are disconnected before the end of their Minimum Connection Period.

Equipment Charges:
Under the agreement, you are obliged to return equipment which is not owned by you but which has been supplied by Orange. However, you may elect to keep that equipment, but above charges are payable. The charges are calculated on the basis of a straight line depreciation over the equipment life to a nominal fee.

Airtime & Equipment Charges:
Under the agreement, you are obliged to pay back the pro-rata proportion of the airtime fund if the Agreement is terminated before the expiry of the Minimum Term



All of these dont apply as we are in month 28 of our agreement, we own the phones and have not terminated early.

They are just at it, hoping I will pay and I won't!

I realise there are differences between consumer and business but Orange are plainly taking the pi$$ here!

chanz4

but how much do you value your credit file?

spiro

I would agree about them not being able to ask for any monies for the handsets based on the numbers quoted.

As to the phone numbers they have got you by the b******s, you either pay what they ask or all your staff loose their numbers which loads of your clients may have.

grumbler

I think all charges have to be listed somewhere and to be very easy to find. I would ask them where exactly.
£50 for porting out is outrageous IMO.

greigc

they are adamant about charging us money for the phones, think its ridiculous if you ask me, I'm accepting the charges, reluctantly, so that we can get away from them asap. I will however be following this up with Ofcom and Orange as high as I can take it.

Techhead_2

I have to say, its not at all unusual to have these charges on a corporate or business account.

It would be surprising if they haven't covered themselves in the agreement.