Anyone recently taken out an Orange contract?

[inactionman]

Hmmm... Interesting. I don't want to have to read through that whole thread, to see if this applies to me as my Orange Contract is through Carphonewhorehouse, anyone know?

It would be useful if it did as there's a nice o2 simplicity tariff I'd switch to for £20 a month (600 mins, 1200 texts and unlimited web). Then I'd also be able to call up Be and get a discount on my broadband (which they don't tell people they do if you have an o2 phone contract).

[nath]

I'd imagine it does - it certainly affected people who bought from other retailers like mobiles.co.uk. You'll have a battle on your hands though, they fighting tooth and nail to convince people they're not allowed to cancel their contracts despite it being patently obvious that they can.

[inactionman]

I'm not worrying too much about that, I know enough about the law to scare them! Just talking about material changes of contract, escalating it to OFCOM and the fact that I am recording the call should put paid to any of that!

[Billargh]

Originally Posted by Ch3tan

Orange have been a shocking network for years and years now. I am surprised people bother with them at all. Network performance is soo much better on o2 and voda that I really do wonder why people would use Orange at all.

I'm willing to bet loads of people get an Orange contract simple to use that Orange Wednesdays gimmick.

[ford prefect]

I've never had a problem with orange tbh, and I have never noticed cad coverage or anything. I can understand why people would be annoyed at price changes like that though.

Luckily my phone is actually my works phone, so I get unlimited everything, which with orange works out as 3000 anytime any network minutes, 3000 landline minutes, 250mb of data and 200 texts I think - under their fari wear and tear policy or whatever its called these days. I happen to know work pay £28 (No VAT on top of that - we're NHS) per month for that which also includes a blackberry curve or bold (our choice), so they do pretty good business deals. Certainly better than my partners phone on Three which never has a steady signal anywhere, ever.

[GReaper]

Looks like they're trying to avoid people cancelling their contracts: Orange - the latest gravy in the battle for contract cancellations | BitterWallet

Fight the bastards!

[tris-]

Originally Posted by inactionman

Hmmm... Interesting. I don't want to have to read through that whole thread, to see if this applies to me as my Orange Contract is through Carphonewhorehouse, anyone know?

It would be useful if it did as there's a nice o2 simplicity tariff I'd switch to for £20 a month (600 mins, 1200 texts and unlimited web). Then I'd also be able to call up Be and get a discount on my broadband (which they don't tell people they do if you have an o2 phone contract).

Who you pay the money to is the person the contract is with, in simple terms. That maybe CPW, check if your prices with them has changed. If so, its a change to a fundamental element of the contract. When a term like that changes, the contract is altered to an extent where you have to agree again to it. If you dont want to, you can cancel it.

I havent studied contract law for about 2.5 years, but I am pretty sure I am right. It doesnt even need to be an excessive charge as nath put it, because it is such a main part of the whole contract.

[inactionman]

Wow they really are stonewalling. I gave all the arguements, including the fact that under the Universal Service Directive any change to the contract means I have the right to cancel, and they took none of it. They seem to be working to a script, and told me to get in touch with their legal team, OFCOM or lodge a court case. I told them that this really wasn't the way to get repeat business, but that didn't seem to bother them either.

Some people have got around this with repeat calls, but they will probably have had the time to brief everyone by now, guess I escalate it to the above or their executive office. I'll be sending an email and a letter by recorded delivery stating that I do not accept their new T&C's, and requesting a PAC code as well.

I suspect there's a big fine coming their way because of this. There's rumors that they are expecting anything up to 2 million cancellations from it, and they aren't managing them gracefully that's for sure, but it's not good long term business sense to piss off customers, but hey, who looks at the long term anymore!

[taB]

Tempted to have a go at this just for a laugh. Bloody daft of them tbh.

[tris-]

inactionamn, you dont even need to be quoting directives or anything. It is a basic contract law principle which has been around for at least 100 years

[inactionman]

I tried that, they aren't listening!

[leviathane]

they've pretty much clamped down last day or so apparently in an attempt to keep ahold of some customers.

[tris-]

Originally Posted by inactionman

I tried that, they aren't listening!

that is one of the draw backs though. As it is civil law it is completley up to the consumer to do something.

[nath]

Keep an eye on the link I posted. There's lots of good info there and I expect as soon as there's any concrete information from Orange or Ofcom it'll be posted there.

[leviathane]

apparently there was some meeting not to long ago, where the outcome was that the legal team says to let everyone cancel.
From the link nath posted.