Have You Been Rolled Over By Orange?

[k999jde]

Hi There All,

Just wondered if anyone had ever stopped to consider the profits being made by Mobile Phone Operators (Orange in my case) and whether their actions are in fact legal.

The scenario:

I had a talk plan with orange giving 120 anytime minutes per month, invariably I never used all of the minutes and they rolled over. This was great until I downgraded to a lower talk plan. At the time of their request I had over 400 minutes rolled over.
Orange advise that you have until the next billing date to use the rolled over minutes or you lose them.

This cannot be fair and shouldn't be legal.

They have been paid for the minutes and never actually supplied the service.

Any thoughts or musings welcome.


David

[cheddar]

What does it say regarding this in your new contract for your new talk plan, or did you even get one???

[BotB]

They have been paid for the minutes and never actually supplied the service.

I suppose they would argue that they did supply the service but you didn't make use of it prior to the date for the change of the service agreement that you initiated.
And now that you've changed to a lower talk plan, guess what? You'll not have enough minutes and will be paying extra. How do I know? Well, can't you guess - I have Orange too and did the exact same thing.

[seylectric]

I agree you have a point but their argument would be that it's part of the T&C's that you agreed to, e.g. part of the contract you signed.

What I DO have a major problem with is that if you miss a payment they immediately cut you off (or at least restrict you to incoming calls initially). THAT can't be legal because you pay for your line rental a month in advance but calls in arrears. That means that they are denying you the service (the line rental, or use of the service/network in otherwords) that you have already paid for.

I also object to the fact that if you pay for the "Care" scheme (it was £5 a month last year, I switched to O2 in December - great move btw) they charge you £15 to get a new phone to you if yours is faulty. No way should it cost you anything. They told me they had to introduce the charge because of the high number of returns they were getting, but it's not our fault the phones are crap. Besides it does NOT cost anything like £15 to get a replacement phone to you, it's just profiteering.

[k999jde]

Originally Posted by cheddar

What does it say regarding this in your new contract for your new talk plan, or did you even get one???

Didn't get a new contract as it was all agreed over the phone.

It will be in the T&C's but I didn't read them (does anyone)

Further responses suggest suitable responses from Orange, I fear they may be right.

Thank you all - food for thought anyway.

David