freakin mobile phone companies......

dam0

Active Member
'it costs on average; 10x more to get a new customer than it does to keep a current one.'

I wish mobile phone companies would actually take the above point seriously when dealing with their customers. I made the mistake of trying to stay with the same phone company today...

I've been with orange for over 2 yrs now and haven't even bothered to upgrade my phone because i was happy with it. It's starting to play up a bit now and i'm spending more than i should be on my current plan so I decided its time to look for a contract thats better suited to my lifestyle. I've been happy with orange thus far so I had a look at their current plans. The dolphin one looked decent enough and it gave me more anytime minutes which is what i'm after. On the website i see a new customer can get just what i want: £25 a month - 150 mins - 600txts - samsung d900 free.

I call up orange with the website information in hand and explain that I'm interested in changing to this new plan. First off it seemed that in the 5minutes i spent perusing the website I had aquired more information about the dolphin contract than the person i was speaking to. Alarm bells struck but I put it down to being late in the afternoon. I started asking a few questions about the plan etc and explained what phone i wanted etc. After him clicking around for a while he said 'ok i've added that to your account'. At this point i thought it was a bit odd that he hadnt asked me to confirm that i wanted to proceed with the deal which is standard practice. Before i had the chance to ask... "That handset comes with a £99.99 upgrade charge." I explained that it should be free with that contract and he went a bit quiet and just said its because the contract is a middle of the range one. I repeated myself and also mentioned that I have selected the same contract on the website and I can get the phone for free. Again he just told me i cant because its a middle range plan.

My brain begins to whir into action as I ask if I cancel my current contract and start a new one with orange will I be able to get the phone for free. "Yes". I asked how orange can justify the additional paperwork etc just for the sake of statistics to which he had no answer. I asked to speak to someone who might be able to save me going through the pain of cancelling and starting a new contract. I was transferred through to someone else and they hadnt been briefed so i had to go through it all again. He took my details and then told me I had a new 18month contract on my account. I explained that this had not been authorised by me. He asked where I purchased it from.... "From your colleague who just transferred me through to you." After a brief discussion ending with me asking to remove this from my account the guy spoke to his supervisor and i had to wait while they messed around to find out who I had spoke to previously. I dont really care who added the phone to my account, they can deal with that in their own time. Eventually the 2nd guy comes back to me and says the best they can do is a 25% discount on the upgrade cost.

With my contract suposedly returned back to normal I decide that if i stick with orange i'll use the website instead.

I know alot of people have had this kind of cr4p happen to them too. Having to cancel the current contract so that they can get the upgrade phone they want. What a ball ache.

I had to get that off my chest because its the first time I've had to deal with the stupidity of a mobile phone company.
 
nah they wanted me to pay 75% so only 25% discount. I told em to cancel the upgrade and i'll arrange it myself online or go elsewhere :(

I hate the excuse they give for the websites discounts as 'you're doing the work for us if you do it online' and refuse to give you the same deal. No.. all i'm doing is entering my details which will get transferred to the same system. 5 minutes on the phone and the same work is done. Its hardly £100 difference in work.
 
I had the same problem with them. They were going to charge me for an upgrade (the cheek). Put the phone down and then called back saying that i'd seen the same phone for free at the carphone warehouse and they immediately said ok then you can have it for free! Blinkin idiots the lot of em! :evil:
 
nah they wanted me to pay 75% so only 25% discount. I told em to cancel the upgrade and i'll arrange it myself online or go elsewhere :(

I hate the way that they use the websites discounts as 'you're doing the work for us'. No.. all i'm doing is entering my details which will get transferred to the same system. 5 minutes on the phone and the same work is done. Its hardly £100 difference in work.

I was going to say under no circumstances ever pay for an upgrade if you're a good loyal customer.

I'm surprised they didn't back down, whenever I've been in similar position after so long they agree to what I want cos at the end of the day they'll know they'll lose my custom if they won't.

I'd be inclined to change network just cos they are being such (unts but then it's all the hassle and whether you can be ar$ed :confused:
 
yeah i was surprised they didnt back down after a while, especially since the trouble i had been through. I may try again at a later date as the only other contract i'm interested in is flex.

Jessy: Might try the carphone warehouse tactic next time 8)
 
yeah i was surprised they didnt back down after a while, especially since the trouble i had been through. I may try again at a later date as the only other contract i'm interested in is flex.

Jessy: Might try the carphone warehouse tactic next time 8)

They weren't going to back down with me until i played the CW card - it just makes me sick that they want to rip off loyal customers! :twisted:
 
with orange say you want to quit, then they'll put you through to a special department called 'retentions'

find an offer elsewhere that is what you want and they'll get as close as they can to matching it. MAKE SURE you have a decent offer from some other company that you want or they'll just try and get the upgrade fee of £100 and give you a **** tariff.
 
I have been in the same boat, I have always thought Orange were a good company, I have been with them years and never had any trouble, I have had about 4 upgrades too and all of them have been free, I dont have an excessive talk plan either so its not like I would be "entitiled" to a free one.

But I have found the last few times I have needed to speak to them I either cant get through, so am on hold for what seems days on end, in the end i had to hang up and try another day. And then when I did get through I was spoken to so rudely I felt like hanging up the phone once again.

They pi55ed me off because I traded in my old handset for a new one as I was promised £50 off my next bill, lets face it they get more then enough money from me as I usually go over my free calls etc, not by much but go over, anyway they STILL havent done it. I know its only £50 but it was a decent Sony Ericsson which I could have either tried to sell or give to my sister as her one has packed up and I know she would appreciate it, she even asked for it from me.

I have sent emails as refused to be on hold once again, faxed them proof of stuff and all I got was a phonecall from Head Office telling me to go back to the shop where I did it all. How helpful. And I can only get to the shop at weekends and at weekends its full of idiots working in there.

I was always impressed with Orange as heard stories of O2 being a*holes to my friend but am not so impressed anymore. There is other things too but cant waffle on forever! :twisted:

What fun!
 
I have been in the same boat, I have always thought Orange were a good company, I have been with them years and never had any trouble, I have had about 4 upgrades too and all of them have been free, I dont have an excessive talk plan either so its not like I would be "entitiled" to a free one.

But I have found the last few times I have needed to speak to them I either cant get through, so am on hold for what seems days on end, in the end i had to hang up and try another day. And then when I did get through I was spoken to so rudely I felt like hanging up the phone once again.

They pi55ed me off because I traded in my old handset for a new one as I was promised £50 off my next bill, lets face it they get more then enough money from me as I usually go over my free calls etc, not by much but go over, anyway they STILL havent done it. I know its only £50 but it was a decent Sony Ericsson which I could have either tried to sell or give to my sister as her one has packed up and I know she would appreciate it, she even asked for it from me.

I have sent emails as refused to be on hold once again, faxed them proof of stuff and all I got was a phonecall from Head Office telling me to go back to the shop where I did it all. How helpful. And I can only get to the shop at weekends and at weekends its full of idiots working in there.

I was always impressed with Orange as heard stories of O2 being a*holes to my friend but am not so impressed anymore. There is other things too but cant waffle on forever! :twisted:

What fun!


best solution, contact OFFCOM. Carphone Warehouse (O2) were messing about in giving me my PAC number to port my number to 3.... said i had to request a form to fill and send back... 4 weeks later and 2 form requests later, still nothing, emailed offcom, and within 3 hrs i got a call from CPW (O2) to give me the PAC Number... and he didnt even apologise... :spank:
 
My phone contract had run out

Wanted the Nokia N80 and to stay with vodafone

Vodafone were asking silly money to upgrade - shopped around and the Carphone warehouse were doing 6 months half price contract (as opposed to Vodafones 3 month deal)

Meant that for an 18month contract i was paying less for N80 than i had for previous phone (as phone cost to purchase in deal)

BUT..... vodafone wouldn't let me take out a new deal with CPWH while on my then current deal

they wanted me to cancel my Vodafone contract, wait the month and then take out the CPWH one - by which time the deal would be no longer avaliable!!!

CPWH rep on the phone was going tonto at this - had to take it out in Lauras name in order to get the new phone

Argggggggggg!
 
some good deals on that site thanks chew. Will use that as my bargaining tool as well as CW.

As macdonsj has proved, all the phone companies seem to have this mentality that they would rather you cancel and re-join than just stay on and upgrade. A friend on O2 has the same problem every year and he always cancels and re applies to the same contract now but gets discounts etc.

emma: it might be worth emailing offcom about that as chew mentioned. A quick email for is worth £50 as well as the pride you get from finally getting your money back from the bastids :lol:
 
some good deals on that site thanks chew. Will use that as my bargaining tool as well as CW.

each new connection is worth about £400 to the place selling the contract, which is why the online places can afford to give away freebies.

the way i look at it, id be getting an xbox on 12 months interest free credit, but have a free mobile phone.

8)
 
in my case - i made the point to the Vodafone guy that for 1 month i would be paying 2 vodafone bills

still, they wouldn't budge - apparently its company policy that a customer cannot have 2 accounts with Vodafone! Why? who cares if you do!
 
Back
Top