Orange Mobile Contract Price Hike
Orange has sent text messages to all it’s pay-monthly contract customers, notifying them of a 4.34% increase in their monthly payments from January. Whilst this might not seem like much, it is unprecedented in the history of Orange, particularly in the fact that this will hit people mid-contract.
Of course, Orange have covered themselves, their terms and conditions do allow them to do this, and they mention this in their statement- http://link.orangeworld.co.uk/studio/paymchanges/planupdate/
Just because it’s written in a contract doesn’t mean it can hold up in court and so this remains to be seen. Orange customers are not happy if the many Money Saving Expert forum people are anything to go by- http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=48894975
As for me, I am an Orange customer, and I am not happy. My view is, they are completely within their rights to do this- it’s in their terms. However, how many people actually read every word of the terms and conditions? I love one comment in the MSE forum that urges people to spend a good hour reading the terms and conditions in the Orange Shops before purchasing their mobile phone contracts. I can imagine the huge queues out the doors!
More to the point though is that this will completely backfire on Orange from a branding point of view. This makes Orange look bad- it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It’s not the price hike as such, or the fact that it isn’t a huge price hike, it’s the fact that they are increasing our monthly tariffs mid-contract. I have another year in my contract which means a year of the increased monthly tariff. I’ve totally lost confidence in Orange, especially since their coverage and customer service is truly awful. Perhaps the other mobile phone companies aren’t much better, but despite the fact that I have a good loyalty bonus and the that I have been with Orange for around 10 years, I think I’ll be leaving this time for good.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/phones/2011/11/orange-to-raise-monthly-mobile-costs
