I’m taking some small delight in using my blog to give Orange a small bit of bad PR.
Basically, they’ve really cheesed me off by refusing to change my contract. “You’re incompatible” they say.
All I wanted to do was change the contract from a £50 one to a £30 one, as the amount of call minutes this represents is closer to my actual phone usage.
But no, phoning them up to change it, I’m told that I’m “incompatible”. I ask what this means, and they can’t tell me. I’m not satisfied and ask to speak to a manager, and I’m promised a call back.
Two weeks later and no return call, so I’ve cancelled. Sod them. They can’t be bothered to give me any form of service for £600 per year? Then I won’t give them what they want, i.e. my cash.
Right. So what next? I’m left without a phone? Not for long I hope…
Well, first off, I happen to know about a website called Quidco. It’s a rather interesting thing, basically it gives you the cash back from affiliate schemes. (Websites pay other websites to promo their deals, Quidco give it back to the consumer.)
Certain mobile phone companies (not naming them here) cash back very heavily, up to £100 for yearly contracts.
(Ever been to a middle-man phone hawking site that’s offering you an iPod if you can referrer three costumers? This is how they afford it, you’ll be earning them up to £300.)
So, that’s £100 in my pocket, plus the contract I’ve picked is half-price for 18 months, meaning I’m only paying £17 for approximately the amount of minutes I wanted to pay Orange for.
So yah-boo-sucks to Orange. And listen to your customers when they say they want to change plan!
UPDATE: I’m now sorted out with a lovely new Sony Cybershot phone. It only took me about two hours of reading to work out how to “de-brand” it. I.e. Stopping every damn button from pimping ringtones…