Orange increasing prices for existing contract customers

[BoredBloke]

I assume as Orange and T-Mobile are the same company now the latter will be following suit too at some point

Wrong - If/when Orange get away with this, expect them all to do it. This leads the way to all the providers increasing their bills by whatever inflation figure they can justify. It means that you will be able to expect an inflationary increase mid contract at least once! I have 2 contracts running with Orange, one ends in May and it will be moved away from Orange at that point. I will tell them it is because of this price hike as being the reason.

[TheFaQQer]

I assume as Orange and T-Mobile are the same company now the latter will be following suit too at some point

Technically, only their back-office is the same company, so I wouldn't expect that necessarily.

[TheFaQQer]

Looked into it. It was in the small print. You can terminate but have to pay the line rental for the remainder of the contract.
Obviously thsi is more expensive than paying for the rise.

After this cntract ends I will move on. I suggest you avoid Orange like the plague - I've never had this blatant profiteering happen with any other company.

Vodafone tried the same thing a few years back, but backed down in the end. The Vodafone one would have allowed people to walk away with no penalty, whereas the Orange one doesn't.

[TheFaQQer]

This was in the Guardian last week.

Orange says its terms allow it to increase charges by up to the RPI figure in any 12-month period without giving customers the right to cancel their contract.

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, allows consumers to break a contract without penalty in certain circumstances, such as a big price hike. Given that the increase is below inflation, Orange argues this does not apply.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

You have the EU to thank for that particular piece of evil red tape. Bastards making it harder for hard working phone companies to screw money out of their existing customers. Don't they know this is DESTROYING BRITISH JOBS!!!!!!

No you don't - it's just an update of the 1977 unfair contract terms act which we thought up without EU help.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Wrong - If/when Orange get away with this, expect them all to do it. This leads the way to all the providers increasing their bills by whatever inflation figure they can justify. It means that you will be able to expect an inflationary increase mid contract at least once! I have 2 contracts running with Orange, one ends in May and it will be moved away from Orange at that point. I will tell them it is because of this price hike as being the reason.

If they all do it there will be no point moving.

[BoredBloke]

If they all do it there will be no point moving.

what would they prefer? A short term push for customers by ruling out a price hike or the chance to hike their bills each 12 months in addition to the general price hikes and costs when people sign up/renew?

[lilelvis2000]

I would try telling them where to put it, and tell them you will complain to oftel. There is a good chance that the relevant part of the contract could be deemed unfair if it doesn't give you the right to reject the price increase and terminate the contract instead.



http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1...9992083_en.pdf

You have the EU to thank for that particular piece of evil red tape. Bastards making it harder for hard working phone companies to screw money out of their existing customers. Don't they know this is DESTROYING BRITISH JOBS!!!!!!

'course that bit of the law is pretty weak now given the ruling on bank charges a while back. Basically you signed up to it knowing they could make increases.

I'm proud to say that I've never had a contract and have been on PAYG for seven years, have changed networks and kept my number each time. But then I am a low usage customer with a basic phone and I don't use mobile internet at all.

[AtW]

I suggest you avoid Orange like the plague - I've never had this blatant profiteering happen with any other company.

You work in ze City and you say that about poor mobile company that raised prices to reflect official inflation of less than 5%?

[BoredBloke]

You work in ze City and you say that about poor mobile company that raised prices to reflect official inflation of less than 5%?

The point is that this term has been in their contracts for a while and like most people I didn't read their T&C's - yes that was my fault and that's why I have not complained. However when I do get the chance to leave, I will be doing and their little price hike will be the reason for it. As I said, now that they have got away with it once, what is to stop them from doing it every year.I have no issue with the prices charged are renewal/sign up time and would have thought that this would be the best place to factor in probable inflation increases and I can see all the other providers following suit.