Upgrading at the end of my contract

[Guest gavinchappell]

In Nov 04, I signed up with Orange for an 18 month Your Plan 200 (200 mins, 500 texts) contract. Now this has come to an end, they don't seem to do the "Your Plan" stuff any more, it's all animal names. I'm thinking of changing to a "Dolphin" which is the closest match in inclusives and price to what I'm already on. However, this is marked as a web exclusive only.

How do I upgrade my contract through the website? Do I just browse for the package I want, and then I can enter my existing details into the website as part of the checkout process? I can find the link to upgrade my handset easily, but I also need to do something with my contract as now the initial 18 months is over I'm no longer eligible for the 500 free texts (which gave me somewhat of a surprise bill this month!).

Basically I'm concerned that if I do it wrong then I'll end up with two contracts, and it'll be a real nightmare to cancel one and get the number ported over (which I want to keep).

First time I've managed to stay with a contract provider for more than the minimum period so I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to renewals!

Cheers for your help :)

[Guest gavinchappell]

Right, since no one is online yet, I've decided to try what I posted above. I went to the shop for existing customers, onto the latest offers page, then clicked on the offer to change talkplan. I've been through and sorted my options, handset, tariff etc, then on to the checkout. Once I get there, I get a screen like this. I don't have the option to just keep an existing Orange number, is this normal? I can't believe it looks like I'm going to have to phone Orange for a PAC code, in order to transfer my Orange phone number to a new Orange contract? Bloody pointless, and really screws up my desire for seamless, continuous service.

I'm sure I could explain all this to someone on the phone at Orange, however at that point I wouldn't be able to get the web exclusive tariff that I chose, would I?

At this point, I wish T-mobile offered any coverage where I live so I could just sign up with them like most of the posters on here, but after my last completely dismal attempt at a T-mobile contract (which turned out to be unusable in my home for about 9 months of it) I kinda need to stick with Orange as at least I know they work :)

[Guest Swampie]

You've somehow managed to go wrong somewhere.

What you're doing is getting a new phone added to an existing account (ie. 2 phones, 1 bill).

And you cannot use a PAC to transfer an Orange number to an Orange number. PACs only work between different network operators, not within the same one. This is to stop people upgrading by the back door. You could do it by transferring you existing number to Orange PAYG and then back again 3 months later (unless they've removed the time restriction). Or you could PAC your existing number to, say, a Virgin PAYG account, and then 30 days later bring it back again into your new acount. Fastest time for this is 38 days I think.

AFAIK, the way to upgrade online is to go to http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/show/handsets/upgrade/all and then sign in via the button on the right. Once you've done this, you can select your handset, and see what upgrade price they give you.

[Guest gavinchappell]

The reason I did it my way is that it was on a section of the website which purports to be solely for existing customers, so I thought that anything I did in there would upgrade my existing contract.

AFAIK, the way to upgrade online is to go to http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/show/handsets/upgrade/all and then sign in via the button on the right. Once you've done this, you can select your handset, and see what upgrade price they give you.

Yeah, I also looked at that, the handset is 100 quid which is just about fine with me (although the free handset would be better :D). Will this also renew my contract though? The customer services rep said that I won't get my entitlement of 500 texts back until I renew the contract, although they'll quite happily carry on giving me 200 inclusive minutes?

Renewing the contract is the most important thing, a new handset would be nice, but this month I got hit by a 90 quid bill due to being charged for texts. May not sound a lot, but when my usual spend is about 32 quid, it's a bit harsh and I don't really want to repeat it! Whatever I do, I need to make sure I get the inclusive package back.

Cheers for the reply :)

[Guest pd.ryder]

Personally, I'd ring 150 and dump it in their lap :)

[Guest gavinchappell]

I finally figured out that to upgrade my current contract (rather than add a new contract to my Orange account) I had to sign in to the "Your Account" section. When I got there I found the package which matches my now defunct YP200, as a Web Exclusive package. However, I can't sign up for the Web Exclusive package on the web like I can with the others, I have to call 343. Not a problem, but when I call 343 and press "2" to get to the billing query menu, it claims it doesn't recognise my input.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!

Will get it sorted one way or another, I guess :)

edit - I've finally got onto menu 2 by turning on keypad tones on my SPV C500 (does it not send DTMF tones with the keypad tones turned off or something?) but now when I try and select option 4 for upgrades, Mrs Roboto just reads me the whole menu again.

Rant over. For now. :D

[Guest pd.ryder]

I've got fembot keypad tones on my 550 and it still sends DTMF tones properly. Summat's not right there.

[Guest gavinchappell]

Thankfully, eventually, I managed to get through. I now have the same package I've always been on, at the same price, with a new W810i on the way. Due to going for an 18 month contract, I also have a "Magic Number" too, so hopefully that might make things a bit cheaper than before. ?50 for the handset mind, but it's only about 2 quid per month since I'll probably be keeping it for the life of the contract.

I really must remember to ring late at night next time, phoned at 10:30pm, had none of the previous problems I'd had with the automatic menus, and got straight through :)