Anyone on contract with Orange? You can now cancel

Jamey

If anyone here has a mobile contract with Orange then you might be interested to know you can cancel it due to Orange recently changing their terms and conditions.

Story here:
http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/news/294 ... _hike.html

And here:
http://www.bitterwallet.com/orange-incr ... ract/15723

Obviously Orange customer services aren't making it easy and they're doing their utmost to stop people from leaving, even down to telling outright lies so here's a very helpful article on exactly what to say to the customer services rep in response to the typical tactics they'll try to use::
http://www.bitterwallet.com/cancelling- ... uide/15849

Hope this helps people, please re-post this on any other forums you use regularly and let people know about this as they need to cancel soon to stay within the 30-day rule, I think.

Jamey

Extra extra... You can get £60 cashback on iPhones (if that's the reason you're leaving Orange ) if you order through Quidco and use Mobiles.co.uk as the retailer when ordering. Click that link to learn about how Quidco works, read carefully as it might not be for everyone but it is legit if you can be arsed with it.

Jamey

One more thing... O2 lose their iPhone exclusivity deal on the 9th October. Orange and T-Mobile will begin selling the iPhone 3G but not the 3GS.

O2 will retain exclusive rights to the 3GS even after Orange and T-Mobile start selling the older 3G model.

Hope this is all helpful, please spread it around as anyone wanting to cancel with Orange needs to do so fairly soon so there's not much time left.

Cheers.

White Line

Hmm ... I might cancel it if they start to take the wee wee with the internet costs. I need to use mine quite a lot.

I've been longing for my contract to end as my phone is just not as good as I was expecting.

Jamey

Latest update:
http://www.bitterwallet.com/orange-the- ... ions/16465

PS everyone will need to do this by August 15th to be eligible.

Jamey

Another update:
http://www.bitterwallet.com/cancel-your ... ions/16458

Frankly, Orange are behaving shamefully inconsistently over this whole thing.

Jamey

I've finally managed to cancel today.

Here's my full saga in case it helps anyone else:

First and foremost I’d like to say a big thank you to Bitterwallet (and Paul) for bringing this to my attention and helping me out with the right things to say to Orange.

Secondly, here’s my full story (apologies for length) in the hope it might help others and add to the information already out there.

Last week (Thursday 6th/Friday 7th August 2009) I became aware of this whole thing through reading Bitterwallet and decided I wanted to cancel so I called Orange disconnections. I was told that because I hadn’t received the text I could not yet cancel. I ended up taking this call to a supervisor but they were firm and said they would not cancel if I hadn’t received a text - but they said as soon as I had the text I could call and cancel.

I continued trying and asked “if I get confirmation over the phone, will that be enough to cancel?” The guy was very cagey but eventually I got an answer and he indicated that it would be enough. So I asked him “will this affect me?” and he said he couldn’t tell me because it wasn’t on his system. I asked who would be able to inform me and he directed me towards customer services (different dept, apparently).

I called Orange customer services and after the usual “this won’t affect you because you don’t go over your minutes” I finally got confirmation from the lady. I specifically had to ask “Am I exempt from these new charges?” which forced her to say no as she knew full well I wouldn’t be exempt from them and would be opening a can of worms if she said I was.

I promptly called back the disconnections dept.

This time the first chap (Anthony - number 48461) I spoke to was massively rude, sarcastic and unpleasant… “Oh, that’s a legal fact, is it? Lawyer are you? We get geniuses like you all the time, I’ll just go and check…” “Nope, you haven’t had the text so you can’t cancel.” he said, and then took great joy in talking over every single sentence I uttered. I kept asking to speak to a supervisor with him repeatedly talking over me. I think on about the fifth time he finally put me back on hold and I got through to his supervisor.

The supervisor was more polite but equally firm about me needing to receive the text before they could cancel. I tried for ages (this was by far the longest phone call of the day) to argue that me being informed over the phone counts as legally being informed but he wouldn’t budge and used the staggering texts excuse. The one piece of information I got out of him was that I was due to receive ‘the’ text today (Monday 10th August).

At around this time I saw the updated post on Bitterwallet saying that staggering texts ‘may be’ a legitimate tactic so I decided to wait until I had the text.

Fast forward to today and I saw more updates here stating that Orange are preventing people from cancelling if they don’t go over. So I went to the ‘your account’ section of their website and downloaded my last six bills (to be on the safe side) and noted down the amounts for each one, together with the durations of non-inclusive called and specifically noting the date and time of every 08 number I had called.

Then I called Ofcom to complain, got a reference number and called Orange’s Executive Team (Ofcom guy gave me their number). The Ofcom guy was a bit flippant on the phone tbh but the woman I spoke to on Orange’s Exec Team (Jamie, she was called) was very nice, although she couldn’t do anything apart from confirm I was going to receive the text today. She also said if I had called any 08 numbers I *should* be eligible (she didn’t have my information on screen so wouldn’t confirm) and she told me that if I called disconnections after getting the text and they couldn’t see confirmation of me receiving it to call her back tomorrow and she’d let them know I’d had the text through.

By this point there had been more updates on Bitterwallet advising people to put everything in writing so I did just that - to two email addresses and three ‘real’ addresses by recorded delivery.

All of that was this morning. This afternoon the text came through. I gave it 10 minutes and called disconnections.

Another rude CSR, this time a woman, took the call. She ‘went away to check’ and came back saying because I didn’t make more than five 08 calls per month I wasn’t eligible. I said I used my phone for business and one of my clients had just set up new 0845 call centres so my usage would be going up, I backed this up with increasing numbers of non-inclusive calls over my last three bills. She wouldn’t budge. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told “a supervisor will not take this call as they can only do the same as us.”

I said “so there’s no way for me to escalate this at all?” and she said no. I pushed a bit more with a few “really? Absolutely no way to escalate this further at all?” questions and finally she gave me the address for the complaints dept and said I’d have to complain in writing.

I finished the call and called the Exec team straight back, asking to speak to Jamie, who’d been nice to me earlier. She’d finished work so I talked to the chap that took the call, he said he’d put me back through to disconnections for the to re-assess and he said if I wasn’t happy a supervisor would then take the call.

Transferred to disconnections and a bloke answered, he said nothing about needing to make five 08 calls per month to qualify, just that I need to make some and he went to ‘check’ my account. When he came back he said that because I didn’t go over my minutes regularly I couldn’t cancel over the phone but I could still cancel if I put it in writing to the complaints dept.

I asked a few more questions, tried a bit more and finally asked him “what’s the difference between calling you and putting it in writing to the complaints dept? How come I can cancel one way but not the other?” He went away to do another check and this time when he came back he said “right, you can cancel today, it’s a good job I checked for you, eh?”

So I’ve requested a PAC which should be with me in five days and he’s cancelled my contract. I asked for confirmation of my contract being cancelled in writing and he said I’ll get it. I asked how long it would take but he wasn’t sure.

My three recorded delivery letters will land on Orange’s doormats tomorrow morning. Even though I’ve now cancelled I did make a specific complaint about Anthony’s telephone manner which will hopefully be investigated. I’d urge anyone else who has been on the receiving end of the rudeness to do the same.

Hope this helps someone.
Jamey

Captain Fagor

One of my pals canceled his Orange contract a couple of weeks ago, after they changed the CoC. It was only about two months into an eighteen month contract in which he received a good handset and a laptop as an introductory sweetener!!

Cressers

Orange have increased the cost of calling non-geographic numbers and 'free' 0800 calls for their pre-pay customers as well. I've had enough, when my credit is used I'm porting my number. ASDA mobile, using the VodaOUCH! network seems to be the best deal at the moment...

Jamey

Orange have U-turned and abandoned the changes to their T&Cs so nobody else can cancel their contracts anymore. Anybody who has already cancelled will still be ok.

Story here:
http://www.bitterwallet.com/bitterwa...-charges/16612

Official statement here:
http://www.bitterwallet.com/orange-c...tatement/16638

MattC59

Why would anyone take out a phone contract with a mountain bike manufacturer from Halifax ?? :?