UK Orange and my upgrade saga

[Dizzie20vt]

I've had my eye on an iphone for a long time now, but been stuck in the middle of my Dolphin 15 contract which tied by hands a bit unless I rustled up the dosh for a sim free phone. I don't really have a spare £499/599 under my bed at the moment lol.

So as the month's rolled on I decided to give them a little call probably about 3 weeks ago to talk to them... (My upgrade date was Christmas day). Spoke to CS#1. He told me nothing was concrete because things change. I said I just wanted to get an idea of what deals were on the table for me. I assumed because I was upgrading I might get a cheaper phone or more minutes or something. He told me the contracts closest to mine were either £35 with 600mins/unlimited text/unlimited data or £30 with 150mins/unlimited/unlimited. Prices of the phone were either 16gb for £39 or 32gb for £69. Great I thought. The prices are cheaper than listed for new contracts.

Upgrade date passes so I call them again and talk to CS#2. Told again £69 for the 32gb, but she wasn't sure about my loyalty discount so she'd have to put me through to retentions. CS#3. can't take my discount with me because it's an iphone thing. This left me a bit disheartened. I'd been with Orange for 12-13 years now. I thought the least they could do was bump my min's up for the £30 deal. I told him I'd have to have a think about it as this was making the deal sour somewhat. Also the 32gb is out of stock so I'd have to call back in the new year or go into a shop.

so today (12hrs after my last call) I call them back. Basically to confirm if I did go into a shop would I still get the same deal. CS#4 tells me the deals are the same, but I have no loyalty discount and I apparently surrendered this 18 months ago when I started my current contract... He also tells me if I wanted either of those bundles I said above the cost of the phone would be £229 . 12hrs ago the cost of the phone was £69! Some arguing later and he's not budging an inch. If I wanted my phone for £69 I would have to go upto £45/50 a month line rental. I've been spending £20 a month for like forever. why would anyone think I would jump over double my line rental

Conveniently none of the 3 previous people I had spoken to had logged any calls on their system...

He then repeatedly tells me Apple set these tariffs and Orange can't change them. If that is honestly the case why do Apple give Orange the worst tariffs out there? example: (24mth £35/month)

Orange: 400 mins / unlimited text (or 3000 fair use) / 500mb data - phone cost £219
Three: 2000 mins / 5000 text / unlimited data - phone cost £159

Basically I pay £50 more for my phone and get 1/5th of the minutes

Does anyone else have any madness like this?

if I decide to move to Three can I port my current number to the iphone and the remainder of my Orange contract gets a new number?

 

[jellybean]

I worked for Orange until recently. The phone CS reps know very little about the retail operation's policies which often differ to theirs quite a bit, leading to a huge amount of disinformation given by phone reps regarding what can and can't be done in store.
Unfortunately, the iPhone plans are separate to all the other Orange plans and any loyalty discounts you had before would be lost if you were to upgrade. The price you'll pay for your iPhone and tariff will be exactly the same as what's being offered to new customers, regardless of if you're upgrading or not. It sucks.

If you threaten to leave, they may be able to offer you a better deal or price as an incentive to stay, but only the phone CS reps have the power to do this, not in store.

If you take out an iPhone on a plan with Three and then ask Orange for your PAC code so you can move the number over to Three, upon doing this it will terminate your Orange plan and you'll be billed for the remainder of your contract, and as far as I know Orange won't be able to provide your plan with an alternative number in the meantime.

But sadly, the best deals or options available to you are only offered when you threaten to leave for a different network, which sucks I think.

Me personally, I bought my iPhone outright using a 0% for x months credit card, and each month I pay £15 for my phone bill and a monthly chunk onto the card. Works out about the same price as a phone contract over time but with the flexibility of being able to switch to a different carrier or even prepay if I want, without being tied into a contract.
If there's one thing I've learnt from working for two different phone companies and the industry in general: they're all vampires!

 

[Lukeyy19]

i have been on a £40 a month with a £10 a month discount contract with orange since may 09, for a Samsung i8910HD, but i started to get really sick of it's hopelessness, it didn't live up to its hype at all, and i started looking at the iphone.

Because i still had 6 months left of my contact, Orange refused to offer me anything saying it would cost me the £40x6months if i wanted to cancel, plus the cost of a brand new iphone contract, so i figured i was buggered and would have to wait it out, a few days later i read online i could reduce my contract instead of cancelling it, so i called up orange, this time the guy i spoke to was really helpful, told me i could drop my contract down to the £15 a month one, and still get my £10 discount, paying only £5 a month for the last 6 months! a saving of £150!

Great, i was straight on Three's website and ordered my new iphone 4 on the £35 a month contract with £100 cashback through Quidco (making it cheaper than the £30 a month) and i get totally unlimited 3G (with tethering)

i called orange again, who told me that the only way to get a PAC code to transfer my number, is to cancel my contract with them, which would cost me the £15 a month (-VAT) times the 6 months. i'm not sure if this is true, or if they are just being cruel, but i decided not to bother arguing and just use this new number for 6 months, then switch it to my old one if i don't get used to it.

the moral of the story is, you probably won't be able to swap your number until your contract runs out.

 

[chriscl]

You can always swap your number over, using a PAC code - but - you will have to pay up the balance of your original contract.

When you sign up for a contract, the phone company hold you to it. They will often allow an upgrade before the end of the contract period, as long as you remain with them.

To the OP; those prices quoted by Rep No.4 are correct; Orange currently list the iPhone 4 in the UK at £169 for the 16GB, on their lowest tariff (the £30/month one); as that is the deal I have with my iPhone 4 (which I got in November).

For what it's worth for anyone else considering Orange, the "cheapest" tariff (the £30/month one) works out as the cheapest total cost over a 24 month contract; even though the iPhone (16GB) costs £169 with that tariff, over the two years you pay less in total, than if you were to take one of the more expensive monthly tariffs, even though that lowers the 'up front' cost of the iPhone.

Also note that if you are on a "Pay as you go" Orange contract, they will, if you ask nicely, credit your first month's bill on your new contract with the balance of your PAYG account (up to a maximum of £15 I think) - they did that for me, and I had something around £10 left on my PAYG handset.

If you are a "light" voice user and don't use many texts, the basic Orange £30 tariff (150 minutes, 250 text and 500MB data) could be worth a look, if you are on Orange already!

 

[archipellago]

OP, far better to move to 3 as 3 'fails over' to the Orange network for 2g data and voice coverage anyway, once out of the 3 range.

You are effectively getting the best of both worlds.

Orange 3g in my experience is dreadful too, worst of all the carriers.

 

[Dizzie20vt]

I visited an orange shop the other day and they pretty much confirmed everything. I still can't believe 3 can offer much better plans than orange can.

The rep in the orange shop said I would be better off talking to retentions and negotiating a sim only contract. tell them about my dongle which I've paid £5 a month for for nothing. It doesn't work with Snow Leopard. I had to download new drivers and fiddle with it loads to finally get it to work. Then I got a free upgrade from my c2d MBP to a i7 MBP through work (a little bonus instead of cash) and it wouldn't work again. It worked a bit on the Mrs's leopard MB, but not mine. He said they might even offer me a 200 mins, unlimited sim only contract for £10 a month or something.

I'd just have to stump up for the £599 for the phone, but at least I can move around freely then.

Or a 3rd option would be to upgrade to a non-iphone phone for free on a decent tariff and sell it to fund the iphone 4 I guess