Planetarion Forums

Androme · 4 Jul 2007, 00:12

Hello people, I need some advice on a situation.

I'm with Orange pay monthly - £45 a month, 900 minutes, 300 texts + 3000 texts = 3300 texts (well they call it unlimited texts but this is only 3000 - I can either get unltd texts/unltd free calls to all orange numbers or unltd landline minutes) + 1 Magic number.

Anyway, I'm 3 months into my 18 months contract and they said I can only downgrade after 9 months and I can ONLY downgrade to a £40 a month contract and NO LOWER.

Can I oppose this? What gift of the gab can I say to make them lower it? Can I request to downgrade before this 9 month period?

Thanks guys.

Phil^ · 4 Jul 2007, 00:28

What are the contract early termination charges and would it be cheaper to pay those, and go with a cheaper contract - even with another provider?
you might want to casually mention you were thinking about it as a last resort and see what offer they come back to you with

roadrunner_0 · 4 Jul 2007, 00:33

most phone contracts make you pay what left on the contract to buy it out... so thats not really an option here.

Tietäjä · 4 Jul 2007, 04:57

40£ a month is awfully much for a phone bill. It doesn't include a phone, does it now? There are no open-ended schemes in UK? (Ie. I'm paying 0.069e per month, plus 0.069e per minute, plus 0.069e per text, with no fixed costs other than the 0.069 monthly).

Travler · 4 Jul 2007, 06:29

I have read the terms for Orange and the best you can get is the 1000 minutes plus 1 "Unlimited" item for the same £45 a month you are paying.

If you cancel they will charge you £45 a month for each remaining month on your contract. Basically they have you by the balls.

roadrunner_0 · 4 Jul 2007, 09:57

basically why the hell did you take out a contract for that much?

Tomkat · 4 Jul 2007, 10:36

Contracts don't exist so you can change them halfway down the line, sorry

Androme · 4 Jul 2007, 10:48

Cheers guys. Guess I'm in the shits then!

Androme · 4 Jul 2007, 10:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tietäjä

40£ a month is awfully much for a phone bill. It doesn't include a phone, does it now? There are no open-ended schemes in UK? (Ie. I'm paying 0.069e per month, plus 0.069e per minute, plus 0.069e per text, with no fixed costs other than the 0.069 monthly).

It does - N95 and the price I'm paying covers insurance.

PureviL · 4 Jul 2007, 11:17

How can you expect to downgrade your contract so soon if you get a free phone with it?

You know the reason you got the free phone is because you are paying way to much every month..

Tietäjä · 4 Jul 2007, 11:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by PureviL

You know the reason you got the free phone is because you are paying way to much every month..

I guess it depends. In here, the contracts are minimum 24 months, appears in UK you can get them on shorter contracts too. I'd suppose even on a 24 month contract you might get it cheaper if the minutes and text counts fit your needs. Otherwise, you probably get ripped. Plus, the phones are usually SIM-locked if you get them with a contract (here at least), so the resale value is way lower.

Phang · 4 Jul 2007, 12:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tietäjä

I guess it depends. In here, the contracts are minimum 24 months, appears in UK you can get them on shorter contracts too. I'd suppose even on a 24 month contract you might get it cheaper if the minutes and text counts fit your needs. Otherwise, you probably get ripped. Plus, the phones are usually SIM-locked if you get them with a contract (here at least), so the resale value is way lower.

i like Finnish society. It seems to be a little bit, you know. Stupid.

Blastoderm · 4 Jul 2007, 16:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androme2

Anyway, I'm 3 months into my 18 months contract and they said I can only downgrade after 9 months and I can ONLY downgrade to a £40 a month contract and NO LOWER.

Can I oppose this? What gift of the gab can I say to make them lower it? Can I request to downgrade before this 9 month period?

Thanks guys.

Basically, no, nothing and no.

It's stated in the terms & conditions that you can only downgrade after the 9 months period.

Whether it says that you can't go lower than £40 a month is something I do not know. They should have made it clear to you at the beginning prior to agreeing on the contract IF it is part of the deal/T&C of that particular deal/handset. If they didn't tell you that then, by common law (I think), you have a broken contract on their behalf.

Handsets are so expensive nowadays that networks don't allow tariff downward migration until a certain point (in which case, 9 months or above) simply to cover for the cost of the "free" handset.

Count yourself lucky. Three don't allow you to downgrade at all. If you insisted, you'd have to pay £25 one tariff step down at a time (every month).

Androme · 4 Jul 2007, 21:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blastoderm

Basically

Cheers Blast0 for the detailed explanation.

Btw, you heard about the massive Phones4u scam?

Blastoderm · 5 Jul 2007, 16:32

You're so late Androme. That scam existed forever.

It's really quiet now though. A lot of people either got sacked or they resigned because they knew they were going to be sacked.

You Are Gay · 5 Jul 2007, 18:01

What was the scam?

Allfather · 5 Jul 2007, 18:04

UK people are pwned

Here they are not allowed to give contracts longer then 12 months on mobiles, and you can cancel it for a onetimefee.

Androme · 5 Jul 2007, 22:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blastoderm

That scam existed forever.

Oh. I've only just started making my money on it. Heh.

Blastoderm · 8 Jul 2007, 00:20

Androme, I'm not sure the full details about downgrading your tariff but I think you can do it one tariff step down every month.

So one month, it'll be £40, the next month it'll be £35, etc.

I'll confirm it with a mate who works in the Orange shop.

pig · 8 Jul 2007, 18:43

I probably use 300 minutes and 300 texts up in a quiet week.