Obscene bills, new tariffs, new problems

[Guest Imran_the_Binman]

Hello to all. I'm in need of some help and advice, and know I'll get it here.

The situation is thus: Since January, I've been on the Orange Anytime/Any Network 200 + 200 evening/weekend service plan. Oh, and Orange Care. No text bundle, all in at £35/month. I've been the proud and extremely happy owner of a c500 too. Can't ever see myself going back to a non WM phone now.

My bills, however, for the last three months weigh in at a staggering combined total of £650. £250 in August, £250 in September and £150 in October.

Don't ask how or why, and I know I'm a fool for letting this carry on for three months. What I need now, though, is a new service plan and also to save a shed load of cash please.

I phoned Orange in a panic yesterday, and the rep changed my tariff to the Premier deal with the Text360 bundle. The Premier package allows for 600 xnet/anytime minutes and 100 inclusive texts at £55. Bargain. With the £24 Text360 bundle, I'll get 600 minutes and 460 messages per month for £79. That sounds great to me, although I'm going to be a lot more careful on how/when I use my phone from now on.

I spoke to another chap at orange after finding this, buried deep within their registered login web pages. Amongst other good deals, they were offering 500 minutes + 1000 texts for £55 per month. This deal's available to custers who are the last three months of their contract (i.e. me) and new customers.

Now, the chap (let's call him Craig. Why? Because that was his name, I think!) did not believe me when I told him it was available for existing customers too, saying things like "If I could, I would love to put you on that deal - it's brilliant" and "So many customers ask me about this, but really, I can't". Yeah, yeah, yeah. Imagine my pleasure then in instructing him to read (whilst quoting to him) section 5.1 of his own terms and conditions - something about the offer definitely being available to existing customers. Anyway, he toddled off to ask his manager with the promise of phoning me back.

And phone me back he did. The only catch is that by changing my tariff to this one, I have to take out a new 12 month contract. Oh, and there's no handset upgrade. Unless I take the 18 month contract, in which case I can get a shiny new c550. Now hang on. I've got eyes. I've seen the 550. I know how it looks like Quasimodo's uglier brother, and has dedicated music keys which no-one (I say no-one, I mean "I") won't use. Bla bla bla. I'm not a fan, put it that way. Despite Craig's claims it was (and I quote) "basically a massive mp3 player with a phone built in". Massive? Do me a favour. The poor thing somes with a 512Mb card. Massive indeed. Perhaps it's bigger than my 20GB Sony HD5? Or maybe he's not heard of the 60GB iPod. So despite his best efforts to put the hard sell on me, I remain a non-believer.

I needed time to digest all of this information from Craig. So I asked him to phone me back tonight at 10pm. As I type this, it's 22:06 and no call has been recieved yet. Charming. Not unexpected, however.

I guess, now that you know the story, what I'm asking is this.

What should I say to him when he calls (assuming he does?) - or (and more realistically) what should I say to Orange when I phone them up in a day or so.

Do I...

A) Stay with the Premier/Text260 deal (600xnet+460txt)@ £79/month

;) Take out a new 12 month contract (500xnet/1000txt) @ £55/month but keep my c500 for the next 12 months.

C) Take out a new 18 month contract with a new phone? None appeal until the C600, to be honest (not fussed about lack of Wi-Fi, even though it's a terrible decision by Orange)

D) Change to Premier now, and wait for the c600, then take out a new 12 month contract and upgrade to that

E) Threaten to leave Orange by buying out the rest of my contract today (which might not be too far from the truth) and see what they come back to me with.

F) Actally leave Orange and get an i-Mate SP5. I do like the look of the i-Mate SP5 a lot. Not sure how that fits into the equation but could be very, very tempted by that. Looks great.

But you can't get the SP5 on Orange can you? I think I'd like to stay with Orange though becuase I know they might offer me something special in terms of tariffs due to the amount of money I've been spending with them. They of course, don't need to know that I want to stay, do they? I want to be able to use that to my advantage any way I can.

If you've had any experience of this kind of situation, please let me know. Or if you just have a comment or piece of advice, then please, chip in. The more replies, the better.

Apologies for the length of this post, but I thought you might need to know the full story. If there's anything I've failed to mention or forgotten, please ask.

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply, and thanks in advance for any help/advice offered.

-Steve.

[Guest James]

may i ask how you were spending that amount of cash each month? calls? texts? or data? i can believe it if its data :-)

just curious

[Guest pisquee]

My phone bills are at a similar level - I work for a cruise line, and so for 9 months of the year I am roaming. For a month in Europe I will average £150, and for americas upto £350. But I get paid enough to cover it, and it is my only real expense.

It would be useful, to be able to suggest a more appropriate tariff from Orange or another operator, for you to give us more details of your calling pattern - amounts of call and texts? roaming? etc

With regard to getting the best deal you can from Orange, the people that you need to speak with are the Retentions Dept (the people you get through to if you press the option for "thinking of leaving Orange") It is these people's job to pretty much bend over backwards to keep your business and not loose it to another operator. They are empowered to give you free phones, discounts, and credit on your account. With your level of billing you stand a good chance of getting a good deal. I can see one thing that will count against you is if you haven't been able to pay any of these bills on time - then Orange will see you as a risk, and your 'score/rating level' will go down a point or two. One way for your score to go up a point is to pay by direct debit - this way Orange have a better guarantee of getting their money and on time - if you are not already doing this, then this could be a good bargaining tool to use with retentions.

[Guest Imran_the_Binman]

Thank you chaps for your swift responses.

To answer a few points raised...

James - Alas, it's mainly calls and texts. I just tend to use my phone on a wherever/whenever/whoever/for however long policy without even thinking. From now on, all I'll be thinking is about how much I'm spending and who I can get to phone me back!

For example, in my last bill of £150, £4.50 or so of it was on data. (What I might have accidentally on purpose failed to mention in my original post was that there is a startling and uncanny link between the number of months I've been seeing my girlfriend (3) who's on O2 PAYG and the number of months my bills have been extortionate (also 3). Hmmm. There's a pattern here that I just can't put my finger on...)

Pisquee - Thanks for the advice. Fomr what the chap at Orange said, I'm averagin 700 minutes of calls a month (for the last three months) and 490 texts. There's no roaming, but as I said above, I believe most of it's coming from a) calling another network (the girlfriend's on O2) and having to pay for every text as none are included in my current tariff.

I do pay by direct debit (thankfully) and there's always enough in the account to cover it, so I shouldn't have too much of a problem, by what you're saying, in getting a good deal. I'll give that a go in a day or so. Could do it now, admittedly, but want to see if any other replies are posted. Thanks again.

Cheers,

-Steve.

Edited October 26, 2005 by Imran_the_Binman

[Guest tik]

to give you an idea of what retentions might be able to offer - i wasn't spending obscenely, but last august managed to get 500 xnet, 120 texts, & a free C500 out of them for £25/month. that may be because i sneaked in on their matching a 3 tariff (something i believe they only offered for a couple of months a year or two back); still, if you're out of contract, play polite but firm with them & you should get a good deal.

[Guest Chiz]

But you can't get the SP5 on Orange can you? 

-Steve.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry but I will only answer this bit. No. I think the C600 is the closest you will get to the SP5 on Orange.

Hopefully through a number of replies you might get all the info you need in answer to your post.

Chiz

[Guest rockthespot]

first i would get an specified bill from your phone company.. then i would call craig back.. and ask to talk 2 his supervisor... cous craig can't do s*** before asking hime.. and be straight with the supervisor.. tell hime.. that he better give u a bloody good deal.. or u will go 2 someone that will! refeer him 2 how much money you spend at their carrier, and that they can't afford to lose you as a customer, and tell his supervisor that craig didn't call you back! Be firm with these guys! and if they won't give u a better deal.. tell them you will write a letter 2 the upper management of the company, telling them everything how they won't help you.. belive me this will work!

[Guest Honest John]

There is an option available from T-Mobile which may be attractive and on the face of it can save you a fortune.

1. They can provide a free MDA/SDA phone on a 1000 minute per month tariff with, say, 500 texts for £73 +£20. GPRS 12Mb for another £10.00. That would seem to save you a bundle!

2. You could then keep your existing number, and ensure no bills of £250 per month.

They also have other plans on deals at the moment and I am seriously looking at changing to them, as Orange are slipping a bit. Of course, I don't use the minutes you do and if the good old Onestop have a deal on in January that makes it cheaper to stay with Orange, then I might be persuaded, as the replies to my post about Onestop and cash back seems to be favourable.

Edited November 18, 2005 by Honest John