The future's bright...

[j4]

... or not, as the case may be. I was supposed to be getting a shiny new phone as my birthday present from my parents, and had decided to go for the gorgeous all-singing all-dancing Sony Ericsson P800. I phoned Orange to sort this out, and they said, rather hesitantly, "Well, it's very expensive"; almost as if they knew I was about to join the ranks of the jobless. Anyway, I said that was fine, my parents were paying for it as a birthday present. They then told me that because I'd already had an upgrade earlier this year, if I wanted to upgrade again now I'd have to pay an extra £250.00 upgrade fee on top of the £279.99 I was expecting the phone to cost. This is clearly just ridiculous. I don't want to change the contract, why do I have to pay such a ridiculous sum of money just to use a nicer phone?

Comments

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

Transport the number, and get a new contract; they're just taking the piss.

The P800 is only £480, new, and contract-free.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

Because part of the cost of the phone is in the contract. Thus if you have a new phone more often than they want you to, they lose money.

This is why I'm a big fan of Virgin Pay as you Go. The price for the phone is the actual cost of the phone.

[j4.livejournal.com]

"Only" £480! And then I pay for the contract, and lo and behold I've spent as much as I would have done to get this farcical "upgrade", without even being able to keep my phone number.

[j4.livejournal.com]

This is why I'm a big fan of Virgin Pay as you Go. The price for the phone is the actual cost of the phone.

Yes, but the disadvantage of that is that it's PAYG... The contract I'm on works out much cheaper for the way I use the phone, and I prefer to be able to rely on the phone to be there and be working, rather than having to keep track of how many seconds I've used up today and whether I need to buy another five minutes before making a phonecall.

I'm really just annoyed because they gave me the last upgrade free, without me asking for it (well, they phoned me up and said "You're entitled to a free upgrade, do you want it?" and I said "Yes" because it was apparently free), but they didn't tell me then that I'd have to pay £250 if I wanted to upgrade again in the next 12 months.

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

No, even if you just buy a contract-free phone, and use with your current contract SIM, you save a little money. Find another contract that offers it at a discount, and you still win.