No Orange Signal - Breach Of Contract?

[discoian]

Hello,

Having previously enjoyed 4yrs of service on Vodafone, I was sold an Orange airtime agreement by a nice man in Phones 4U in December last year. I was put on an 18mo contract which at the time was perfect and was better value than any Voda tariff at the time. I also moved my Wife over from O2 onto Orange so we could enjoy free calls between us.

Since then, I have had to put up with HELL. Dropped calls, zero signal, Even SMS' I sent some never arrived.

I rang Orange a few weeks back to complain. They told me that both of our handsets were faulty and that we should return them to Phones 4U to be fixed. I argued the point that our phones were not faulty, the chances of that happening are less an 0.1% possibly, especially across two different manufacturers (LG & Nokia in this case).

I feel annoyed and felt that I have let myself and my Wife down by ever agreeing to go on Orange, it's quite possibly the worst thing i've ever done.

I've even investigated ways of moving back to Voda on half-price deals and running two contracts side by side, but the worst thing is is my number. I NEED to keep my number, which is now with Orange. Even if I took out a Voda contract, they tell me that even in 13mo time, I will not be able to port it back to Voda - which is highly annoying.

Are Orange under breach of contract by not providing me with a service of some description - probably not.

Is there a way out of this? Probably not? Sure I could cancel the contract, but then I would be liable for 13mo x £55 which is £700+ OUCH!

Anyone have any ideas?

[buzby]

Sadly no - they do not promise 100% coverage in all circumstances, and you are given 14 days to check it all out and terminate if the coverage was as bad as you say. Thee problem COULD be that of a local BTS being temporarily offline, but if the coverage has remained bad and you missed the opportunity to cancel, you're stuffed. Incidentally, where I am Vodafone is the worst network!

[Chesterexpress]

Originally Posted by discoian

I NEED to keep my number, which is now with Orange. Even if I took out a Voda contract, they tell me that even in 13mo time, I will not be able to port it back to Voda - which is highly annoying.

Why can't you port your number back? As far as I am aware there are no limits to the amount of times you can port your number.

[sequenci]

Originally Posted by Chesterexpress

Why can't you port your number back? As far as I am aware there are no limits to the amount of times you can port your number.

I would imagine the contractual shortfall might be the stumbling block

[Chesterexpress]

I understand the need to comply with the contract. However the OP is claiming to have been told that even in 13 months time when his contractual obligation is complete, that he will still be unable to port his number to another service provider.

[sequenci]

Originally Posted by Chesterexpress

I understand the need to comply with the contract. However the OP is claiming to have been told that even in 13 months time when his contractual obligation is complete, that he will still be unable to port his number to another service provider.

It's utter rubbish.

I worked for Vodafone for 7 years and spent 4 years of that porting numbers from one network to another and back again and all over the shop.

Orange are not speaking the truth, you can port that number whenever you like and to whereever you like.

[buzby]

This is a common ploy to retain customers who have ported in - and an effective (if misleading one) if the number was given up, Orange would be duty bound to return it to Vodafone anyway. As sequenci notes, you ported it in, you can port it back out AND you don;t have to wait the full contract term - they can put another number on the mobile to keep it active.