Hidden charges with Orange's Virgin OVP

dangermoose

I've been checking out some of the call-through companies in one of the main articles.

Using various 0844 xxx and 0871 xxx numbers the BT call rate varies from 0.5p per minute at weekends to 10p per minute.

Virgin charges 15p per minute for all these numbers and some O2 contracts include them in free minutes.

Orange add on their own surcharge but refuse to say how much it is!
The only way I have found to find the cost of an 0844 or 0871 call with Orange on their Virgin OVP plan is to make a call and wait for the bill.

Orange know how much their own surcharge is. After all they add it on to the bill at the end of the month. Yet they refuse to say what it will cost.

Can this be legal?

matrix999

Orange should be matching the Virgin price plan exactly as Virgin.

Ask to speak to a Supervisor if you get no joy

andy88_2

I spent over an hour talking to them about rates for these calls, and about 40 minutes to Virgin. I intend to talk to them about it again, as at the moment the word was that the highly unusual price of 43p per minute applies...

pin

From the Orange website:

Orange Value Promise offers the Orange equivalent of selected tariffs and promotions, available to individual Pay Monthly customers, from O2, Vodafone & T Mobile retail stores only. Terms & Conditions apply

Pricing and payment information
Orange Value Promise

scope
OVP applies to Competitors' tariffs for voice, answerphone, standard wap and standard person to person text messaging on other UK digital networks. It includes standard data calls at 9.6kb per second. OVP excludes High Speed Data at 28.8kb per second and GPRS calls.

Services will provide generally the same functionality of the Competitor's product but specifications may differ. Competitor's own branded e-commerce and Orange Additional Services are not offered with OVP.

For a list of current OVP tariffs please visit http://www.orange.co.uk/cgi-bin/ovp/costs.pl.

Once our Competitors close an OVP equivalent tariff for new connections, we may at our choice withdraw the OVP Plan for new connections and close the Service Plan to customers switching Service Plan.

We reserve the right to discontinue a currently available or a 'closed' OVP Plan and move existing customers to the nearest equivalent currently available Service Plan. We will write to the account holder to notify such changes.

OVP Plans are not available on Orange Line 2.

OVP does not apply to pay as you go, pay up front or shared tariffs.

OVP does not offer discounted rates or schemes for calls between nominated or frequently called numbers.

OVP does not apply to Competitor's promotional tariffs but we reserve the right to offer a competitor's promotional tariff and may, from time to time, offer our own promotional variants of OVP Plans.

We reserve the right not to offer any Competitor tariff containing elements of services or functions that the Orange Network does not currently offer or to omit those elements of services or functions.

charges
We will make reasonable endeavours to ensure that OVP Plan charges are the equivalent of the Competitor tariff published charges.

In the event that a Competitor makes any changes to a Competitor tariff, subject to the provisions of these terms and conditions we will make reasonable endeavours to implement any published changes to existing OVP Plans as soon as is reasonably practical.

If you are connecting to Orange on an OVP Plan you will be charged the equivalent of the Competitor's standard connection charge.

We reserve the right to apply Competitor's charges for changing OVP Service Plan.

Subject to the above, you may switch between OVP Service Plans, Orange Talk Plans or other Orange Service Plans.

You may switch between OVP Plans or to an Orange Talk Plan by giving us at least five days notice before your Monthly Billing Date.

OVP Plans will replicate the charging structure and minimum call charges of the Competitor's tariff including, but not limited to, service charges for itemised billing, non-direct debit payment, access charges for short message service, and charges for calls to Customer Service.

International direct dialled and roaming calls will be charged at standard Orange rates.

charges for mobile to mobile calls
OVP Plan charges, for calls entirely on the Orange Network, will be the equivalent of the Competitor's tariff charges for calls made entirely on their network, subject to the above. These are known as 'On Net calls'.

OVP Plan charges, for calls made to phones on the Competitor's network, will be the equivalent of the Competitor tariff charges for calls made from their Network to phones on the Orange Network, subject to point 2.8 above. These are known as 'Mobile to Mobile Off Net calls'. For example, if 'Y tariff', on 'network X', charges 25p per minute to call another mobile phone on its network and charges 50p per minute to call a mobile phone on any other network, the OVP equivalent Plan will charge 25p per minute to call another Orange phone and 50p per minute to call a mobile phone on 'network X' or any other mobile network.

other benefits
OVP offers roll over on minutes and text messages on all OVP Plans with an inclusive bundle where the competitor tariff offers roll over on minutes or text messages. Roll over on minutes or text messages is not available on Service Plans with an inclusive value bundle. Unused inclusive minutes and/or text messages from one month may be rolled over for use in the next. If the rolled over minutes and/or text messages are not used in that month they will be lost. We reserve the right to offer roll over as a promotion on certain OVP plans where roll over is not offered by the competition.

The Orange Network Performance Promise applies to OVP Plans, subject to its Terms and Conditions.