Upgrade Fee Advice

[Guest Jazz_UK]

Hi,

I contact Orange when the c500 came out and was quoted a £100 upgrade + phone costs. After the great reviews I decided to go for it last month.

When phoning orange they quoted £100 upgrade + phone cost but then told me if I upgraded to the 120min tarriff they would wave the phone cost. They change the tarriff and I had to wait until 26th Sept to upgrade

I phone today and was quoted £200 upgrade fee!! Spoke to a supervisor and he said there was nothing they could do, the system tells them the price!! There were no notes on my account detailing the initial calls.

Can anyone suggest how I proceed?

Thanks

Jazz

PS My contract is due up March 2005!

[Guest flashback]

Orange are idiots when it comes to upgrades. I was quoted 5 different prices for upgrading my handset.

The best way to make them take you seriously is to give them "30 days notice" in other words, tell them you want to end the contract. You will shortly then recieve a letter from Orange confirming that you want to leave Orange. However, on that letter is a phone number for you to call a special line which deals with "getting back" orange customers. Phone it and make any deal you want, ie tariff, free handset, optional extras and haggle them like hell!. It worked for me :) and the person will be a lot more willing to help you than the upgrades staff.

PS I got my handet free and the upgrade fee waivered!

[Guest Jazz_UK]

Spoke to Orange again today, and got through to a helpful person called Denis.

Told him the full story and he spoke with his supervisor who agreed to charge only £100 upgrade!!

Also got 10 free video messages for 1 month

Jazz

[Guest Confucious]

*Only* £100 to upgrade? Why not take out a new contract and get the phone for £80 on the £15/month tariff or (I believe) free on the more expensive tarrifs?

[Guest carphead]

Do what I've done...

1 - Get a new C500 on Contract

2 - Divert the old phone to it.

3 - Get a PAC (Port Code)

4 - Port to Virgin (keep it diverted)

5 - Wait a while then port it back.

Simple and I'll save £100

[Guest Saracen]

But are you sure you can port a number in mid-contract? As far as I have been told you can only porta number when you first connect.

[Guest carphead]

I was told you can port at any time during a contract. I ported from Voda to Orange 11 months ago and I was about three months in.

[Guest pisquee]

The computer system, gives an idea of what customer services can offer you - based on your length of time with orange, your monthly tariff, your average monthly spend, time since last handset subsidy.

To make life simpler, ring up and get put through to "retentions dept" before cancelling and getting letters, tell them you are thinking about leaving. These are the people who can make the deals.

[Guest Dave Abrey]

To make life simpler, ring up and get put through to "retentions dept" before cancelling and getting letters, tell them you are thinking about leaving.  These are the people who can make the deals.

Tried that, no luck :). They wouldn't budge on the £125 they quoted me. I guess I'll have to wait for another two months.

Dave.

[Guest the_ugly_north]

Or do what I have done....

I had an average bill of £23 so I added Orange care and text message bundles with some calls which meant that in two months I had pushed my average bill upto £32 (over three months the period O use). This means that I don't have to pay the £80 for the phone. I had 2 months and one week left on my contract so I waited until 1 month and 30 days and called O.

Their normal customer service staff *can* upgrade you for free after 11 months but it is totally at their discretion. Be nice people and they can help. However, I was not inside the one month (hence £100 upgrade fee) so I kindly asked to cancel my contract (pleaded ignorance on how to so this. They seem to have gotten wise to people asking for their PAC code straight away as a threat). Spoke to retentions and told them I want to leave as I could get a similar tarrif and phone elsewhere. I asked how to do this and they basically said that they would waive the upgrade fee.

A little bit of patience, common courtesy and feigned ignorance helps :wink:

And I am on Everyday 50 still, which is nice.....

[Guest peekie]

Over here ( orange NL ) is seems to be easier to get an upgrades they are always willing to extend the contract by a year , and if the phone is too expensive then you can choose to pay the xtra or so many months you pay a higher amount, the easy way i find if i was in the same boat as the uk members would be to get a second contract and cancel the old one , ok you will have to pay double in a couple of months but it would be cheaper than the costs involved doing it the other way :wink: :wink: :wink:

[Guest Dave Abrey]

The only problem with taking out a new contract to get a C500 is that I'll end up with a new number, and I'm too lazy to tell every one and learn it myself :).

Dave.

[Guest Jazz_UK]

My problem is that I have a line 2 used for business which I have been informed that I cannot port to another network or other Orange SIM

[Guest the_ugly_north]

Can you not terminate the original number Line 1 (if over 12 months) thus your line 2 becomes line 1 and then port that?

[Guest Jazz_UK]

Can you not terminate the original number Line 1 (if over 12 months) thus your line 2 becomes line 1 and then port that?

I have been told if I terminate line 1 then line 2 goes into an obsolete list for 9 months or so then is reallocated.

Unless someone who works for orange can tell me something different!

Jazz

[Guest spv_user]

I have upgraded was told £79 fee would be charged on the next bill this is my 8th phone on orange had the account 9yrs. 4 with one phone and 5 with 2 phones on the account. The fee has yet to be charged two bills on ? (I am not going to tell them! ;-> ) :)