Can you down grade an orange contract at anytime?

[Dupont666]

Looked on the net and before I ring up orange, does anyone know if you can downgrade an orange phone at anytime?

Reason being is that my sparkily HTC touch 3G dies last night (faulty) with water/air bubble under the touch screen rendering the thing useless.

However even though it is faulty (not dropped, stood on, thrown, etc) they say that you need to have insurance to cover a faulty phone if it is over 12 months old... 6 months cover by orange and 6 months by HTC, so they give me 3 options:

1) pay £70 for new phone
2) pay £60 and 3 months insurance
3) fk off.

I cant use any of the:

well you are not fulfilling your part of the contract supplying a phone that can do email (the reason I have it) so I want to cancel...

and a load of other queries...

They want me to rejoin on a 24 month contract which I cant commit to (probably will have left UK in that time), so stuck.

Unless anyone knows how I can get them to see reason as I have been a customer for in excess of a decade, that means st to them.

My initial thought is to downgrade my contact to a £10 a month for the last 2 months as I dont need wifi, download, etc as phone the sim is now in cant do it, then simply cancel it and move over to someone who doesnt fk about with loyal customers and doesnt demand 24 month contracts otherwise they charge £200 for a phone, etc...

Can anyone else think of any other way to resolve it? I did speak to their upgrades team but they dont have 2 brain cells to rub between them.

[E21_Ross]

yes. claim the sales of electrical goods act. they are legally responsible for the item for up to 6 years. if it's not lasted a "reasonable length of time" for the price of the product, they are legally obliged to pay to get it repaired, or replace free of charge.

i had the exact same problem with orange, after speaking to 4 people i finally got a free brand new phone next day.

it doesn't need to be insured, the law says that. they'll say it's their policy, but just say they are not above the law and you'll seek legal advice (just threaten, they'll back down eventually - did with me)

hope that's some help to you mate.

edited to add - it's the same with most things. extra warranty covers for tv's, sound systems etc etc is all really irrelevant, since it should be covered by the sales of electrical goods act. but, if a £10 kettle breaks after 1 year, it's lasted a reasonable length of time for it's price. if a £500 phone breaks after 18months, i don't think that's acceptable, thus you have a case.

Edited by E21_Ross on Wednesday 21st July 10:08

[Dupont666]

anyone tried something like this?

http://www.xvillage999.com/product_info.php?langua...

its the top section that has got the bubble under meaning that its registering in the wrong location if at all when pressing the screen.

[E21_Ross]

Dupont666 said:

anyone tried something like this?

http://www.xvillage999.com/product_info.php?langua...

its the top section that has got the bubble under meaning that its registering in the wrong location if at all when pressing the screen.

as i've said mate, with some arguing, you shouldn't have to pay.

[Piglet]

We tried this with hubby's E71 with Orange, he whinged and moaned and shouted at them but they wouldn't replace it (inside 12 months incidentally).

He then went straight to Nokia via their website who collected the broken phone and replaced it a week later with a new one.

Orange are trying really hard to avoid dealing with knackered phones.

[E21_Ross]

Piglet said:

Orange are trying really hard to avoid dealing with knackered phones.

trust me, i had to try very hard. they claimed it was nokia's responsibility, but if you ever happen to read the sales of electrical goods act (as you do....) then it's the responsibility of the person who sold the item, not the manufacturer. after pointing this out to them, they eventually backed down. took me about 45mins of arguing. saved me buying another phone though (nokia N96 for what it's worth) - the least reliable phone i've ever had)