eddiewawa

Hey Kids,

It's nearly 15 months since I got (well..i thought it was anyways) a cracking retentions deal with orange.

Coming from a HTC Hero on £35 a month, I got a new Desire HD with 400mins, 800txts, unlimited land line, 10mms, 500mb data and a 500mb data dongle (random i know) and all for £25pm over 18 months (£450 tco)

so, time has com-meth to see what people are getting via their respective upgrade and retentions teams to gauge what the markets like at the moment. I've noticed the 18 month deals are really crap in comparison to the 24months now as the UK market is slowly pushing us towards the 2 year mark (then watch out for the 3 year deals...)

I can't haggle the upgrade teams till the 23rd April, but I was wanting to see what the UK peeps are getting of their carriers recently (so i can use some of it as ammunition when I can)

Thanks in advance all!

craggybuk

I've spent the last 2 years on Orange with my Desire. I spoke to retentions but any deal they could do me would mean me having the Orange bloatware software installed which I was not prepared to accept (I know I could root in theory but didnt want to go down that road with the One-X).

Anyway, I got my PAC code and moved to GiffGaff where I intend to stay for a couple of months. That way I can move back to Orange as a new customer and get better deals on the One-X than I would have had as part of an upgrade. The only downside to this is that I'll lose my magic numbers but as I never got close to using my minutes, this was never really an issue.

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El Presidente

Orange called me today to tell me mine is actually in stock, but they can't let me pick it up till tomorrow.

I haggled a bit with the girl on the phone, ended up changing to one of the panther plans so I get tethering, 2 swappables and she threw in an extra 500MB of data, all for a fiver less than what I was paying before. It's not much, but I'm getting a better phone, for less than I was paying for the DHD.

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eddiewawa

Hey El Prez, would you mind giving a breakdown of what's in the overall package you got?

mins, txts, data, extras, £ per month, x months, upfront cost?

Cheers!

El Presidente

600 cross network, anytime mins, unlimited texts, 1.5GB of data. With the swappables, I'll probably take the gaming package and the Skysports/TV thing. I'm not sure what the deal is with the data allowance for SkySports as I'm pretty sure it doesn't work over WiFi. All that for £35 a month for 18 months.

She didn't mention anything about a price up front, but I've never paid a penny for phones before so we'll see what the deal is.

I think I've done alright, but I've been with Orange for nearly ten years and my average bill (including the Orange Care insurance) is about £50 a month so generally, when I upgrade, they bend over backwards to keep me.

Kremen

Prez, I was looking at the Orange swapables yesterday and found this page:-
September 2011 Panther plans update with Swapables | help & support | Orange UK
Don't know if it is still current, but it says you can view the Sky Sports swapable over 3G or WiFi and there won't be any additional charges for the data you use and it won't come out of any data allowances you have.

El Presidente

Excellent, thanks!

eddiewawa

Oooo thats dude! I've been fortunate to be dropping from around £45 to around the £25 mark per month, but I do like what you've got but i really dont use that many txts or mins...but i like the extras...ooo...skysports...with the HTC media link HD??? ooo the possibilities! was it with upgrades or retentions? ta in advance!

wavemeister

Don't get too excited about skysports, I was considering moving to Orange for this so I tried it out on my wifes galaxy S2, even with a fast wifi connection the picture quality was pretty poor I think it would be unwatchable streamed to a large screen tv

eddiewawa

o-h. lol that bad huh? was it just that one time or just the whole service in general? might get an orange shop to demo it for me, but thanks for the heads up!

DesireMe

I called T-Mobile this week. They could not give any details until the phone was released on 6th April. So will call back on Friday to see what they can do as my 2yr Desire Contract expired EoF March. Here's hoping it will be something decent, but i'm not expecting the cracking £15 p/m deal they had on the Desires.

El Presidente

Neither, that's what the girl in the shop said she'd sort me out with.

I rarely use the minutes either to be honest, I would, but a lot the people I contact on a regular basis are on Orange anyway so they're magic numbers. I can hammer texts, but even text use has gone down since Mrs Presidente discovered Google Talk.

eddiewawa

interesting, via a shop huh? never done that before! how long did you have left on your DHD contract? just wondering if you got a better deal at the 3 or 1 month mark

El Presidente

I was eligible for an upgrade at the end of January and my contract runs out at the end of this month. I'll probably have to add the existing days on to the new contract (I think that's what the deal is), but it's only 27 days and I can live with that. If it was January, I probably wouldn't have got as good a deal.

I'm trying to work out if they'll ask for cash up front tomorrow, do you remember how much the DHD was at launch? Roughly the same as the X?

eddiewawa

yeah it was £450 at launch cos when i got the £25 over 18 months it worked out at the same price so im using that as my guideline...defo need more data though or i'll have to jump to the full monty or all-u-can-eat data deals with 3 but hmmm....shame i cant upgrade sooner, guess it'll be this or the sg3 when it gets finally announced

andrewxlb

Hey - I just got off the phone from Orange who offered me the following. I could have 400 mins, unlimited texts and 500MB of data for £31 per month on an 18 month contract.

I swiftly declined and said I wanted to speak to someone about cancelling my contract with Orange...chap in retentions was obviously much more helpful. I have agreed to the following:

500 minutes
Unlimited texts
15 picture messages (MMS)
1.5GB of data plus free BT Openzone hotspot usage
2 swapables and an extra two magic numbers

It's a 24 month contract at £31 per month..i didn't really want a 24 month contract, but am gonna wait til i get the phone and see how i feel...

Good luck bargaining!!

eddiewawa

pretty good, but to get it to a lower price point, try and knock the mins down, take off MMS (as people should be using WhatsApp lol), also if you dont use alot of txts , try to knock it down to 500-800txts.

in a way, find out what you use per month and work out a figure around that usage. I wont go 24 months unless cost p/m is below £25.

but good luck in haggling more dude! try it again tomorrow to see if you can get someone else

Netherdragon

btw the sky sports swapable is currently poitnless with orange if its refering to sky go usage.

sky go doesn't work with ICS yet... however that is a decent amount of stuff for the price.

im going to see what 3 can do for me later on. At this point I cant live without their all u can eat data (and I won't touch t mobile with a barge pole with how they have treated me in the past...) hell I used 4.5 gb of data last month and I dont think it ever drops below 2 gb a month for me...

Davkaus

After much moaning, I managed to get this on Orange: Model HTC One X Handset Cost FREE Contract length 24 months Tariff 600 Anytime Xnet Mins + Unlimited Text Messages + 1GB Data Monthly Cost £26

coney

Managed to get a retentions deal of £190 up front, £15 a month for 100 mins talk ( all I need) U/L text booster and still keep my U/L data. Happy with that and used to 24 months contracts.
Heard some things about the swappables that put me off Orange deals, which were about the best, and I hate Orange C services with a passion.

shedboy79

whats the best deal folk have had with o2 ? fancy the £27 pm deal but the phone costs £79 but the same deal with tescos with o2 is the same without the phone charge. Would prefer to do it through o2 as it is a lot less hassle! Any change o2 would drop the phone charge ?

billywiggles

Managed to get 200 minutes, unlimited texts (booster), 750mb internet and £170 for the phone from t-mobile on 24month contract, with £17pm.
I was coming from a £15, 300 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited internet Desire deal.

coney

There might be.
Ring O2 and tell them you have seen a deal through Tesco on thier network without the upfront cost.
I did it 2 years ago on T mobile. They must pay a proportion to tesco for selling their product, so it helps them to deal direct.

coney

Nooo. I paid £190 for the phone but kept my £15 a month contract. Much more desirable to have the UL data, than capped and pay more a month.
They did want £210 originally though.
Still a good deal on total cost.

billywiggles

I was quoted 270 for the phone, so was happy to knock it down, plus Btwifi (where available, and 750 mb, should be enough for me tbh.

MaverickWar

I phoned orange and phones4u,

Phones4u offered me panther 46 - 1200mins, 3k texts, 1gb data, 2 swappables, htc media link as an upgrade customer for 28.08 pm

Orange retentions offered me loyalty plan with manages discretion,

Unlimited minutes(fair use 3k), unlimited messages and unlimited data.
30.60 a month

I'm struggling with orange at the moment as I want to use my mobile Internet for laptop, tethering costs extra £ and wireless hotspoting is disabled. :-( thinking of going guff gaff or tmobile/3

coney

think Giff gaff don't allow tethering.
T-mobile do, but yet to find it in writing

El Presidente

Maverick, if you take a panther plan on orange, tethering is included.

MaverickWar

Itnwas a panther loyalty they offered me but I dont think they allow it on the loyalty packages, also in order to get my unlimited data and mins offer, they take away swappables :-(

MaverickWar

Haha i just phoned orange and they are trying to he out of what they offered me, I took the extension and name of the person who rang me so I might chase them.

davoid

I've never paid extra £ for tethering and I'm on Orange - dolphin

You say wireless hotspot is disabled - how? in the phone? or do you get a blocked page in your PC web browser?

Last edited by davoid; April 8th, 2012 at 11:01 AM.

rod9669

up-graded on t-mobile through cancelations - 600 x-network minutes, unlimited text, unlimited browsing, 750mb dowloading, no up-front fee - £27.00/month and I got to pick it up from the local t-mobile shop last Friday Very happy as they initially wouldn't budge from £41.00 / month

MaverickWar

One thing that would have been nice on this phone I think would be a to match that camera startup and shot time witha dedicated camera button, or being able to configure holding a volume button as a shortcut to open camera mode and take shot.

How does it feel in the hand after a while? I currently have the 3GS which is small, when I picked up one x, it nearly slipped out of my hand as I gripped it a few times (and I have quite big hands)

Also still haven't managed to nail orange to find t&c that state on panther I can tether? Has anyone used tether or a wifi hotspot equivalent?

MaverickWar

Apparently orange have disabled the ability to wifi hotspot on phone, that's what I've heard, they blamed htc disabling it but htc said only orange disable that feature?

Also I've heard stories if £1/£2 a day charges for people who try to use phone for tethering without permission. Some say it can be done on panther, some say that its chargeable on all and others say it can't be done with orange unless on iPhone, no idea what to believe anymore and I cannot find any terms or info anywhere to tell me in blak and white. I asked orange to see it in writting and they said they doubt it was in writing and they couldn't show me. Ridiculous!

El Presidente

Orange's Official Tethering Policy

Take a look there, that should be what you're after. I'd a chat with the girl in the shop, when I got the phone, I switched to panther specifically because they allowed tethering and I tether to my tab when out and about. I've also had internet issues for the past couple of days so access at home has been using the USB tether feature (doing it right now). I presume if that works, WiFi hotspot will work too.

Re the volume as the camera shortcut, if you have the camera as one of the shortcuts in the dock, it appears on the lock screen. Even if you set up a pin security code, you're not asked for it if you use the camera shortcut via the lock screen so you can access it pretty fast anyway. Personally, I find using volume buttons as camera keys never really works as vol buttons can be quite finicky/rigid, every time I've used them in the past, they've caused a bit of handshake and that ruins the shot.

Size wise, I'd say it's perfect. It feels a little weird when you're using it as a phone, but you quickly get used to it.

El Presidente

I've linked you up to the policy in the Initial Thoughts thread and to confirm the WiFi tethering works, that's what I'm using to reply to this post.

I'm Orange branded (S/W version 1.26.061.5) and on a Panther plan.

MaverickWar

How do you know they wont be charging you? Do you have it writing or are you just hoping?

Also in your opinion, is this a good phone to go for from iPhone 3GS, should I wait for sg3? And is orange good enough for another 24 months over giffgaff or becoming a new customer elsewhere?

I've spoken with another person today they are happy to give me the panther loyalty 36 with unlimited mins (3k) unlimited message and apparently unlimited data (which is an extra from management discretion), although ive heard it's fair usage of 3gb? For 30.60 with my orange lifetime 15% line rental discount. Do you think that's not the best deal I would get, bare in mind it's 24 months, sadly I will get no swappables on a loyalty plan apparently also :-( I'm currently a band 4 customer but they work off loyalty points now allegedly?

MaverickWar

I wonder if I will get a choice of colour if i decide to go for it, im not sure what's nicer, I currently have a white 3GS, the size worries me a little as I'm used to smaller phones, I liked the feel of the one s size wise but features and spec were a bit thin on the ground for the price I felt, but I like the fact the one s is scratch poof and that worries me a little with this, although I'm likely to go on orange care for insurance :-)

I was told that tethering had not been disabled but trying to access orange data network using wifi hotspot was? Not sure if this stands?

El Presidente

It says in the bit of paper I signed when I picked up the handset tethering was included so if they charge me, they'll know about it pretty sharpish. Also checking via MyOrange, I've no additional charges. We've a member of Orange First line who's a member here, do you want me to link him to this thread, would that help?

MaverickWar

that would definitely help give me some peace of mind, did you get my other questions?

Thanks for all your help with this

shedboy79

whats the best deal people have managed to get with 02 ? i can get a upgrade next week (1 month early) can i still haggle over costs ? and whats the best way to get the best deal, never done it before!

El Presidente

No problem!

The Orange specific stuff, I'll leave alone, I can only go on what I've been told.

ANY multi core Android handset is going to be an improvement over your 3GS, the One X would be a massive step up. I'd toyed with waiting for the SGS3, but I really don't know how you could improve on the OX! Maybe a removable battery, but there are rumours that the SGS3 won't have a removable battery either. Until there's more concrete info and a release date, I'd say you'd be delighted with the OX. Contract wise, I've never had any issues with Orange, I know Giff Gaff seem good, they piggyback on the O2 signal, so it's up to you. I can't see any reason for me personally to leave Orange though, they're pretty good to me.

davoid

I'm on Orange dolphin and I can use wifi hotspot. I don't appear to get charged for tethering, but I do get charged if I go over my monthly allowance. I guess they don't mind tethering on a limited data contract because they can charge you crazy money if you go over.

Better make sure that the deal really is unlimited and not with a 3GB cap!

I've seen deals that come to a total of about £31 over 24 months (including some up front payment for the phone) for the 3 One Plan which gives you 2000 mins, 5000 txt and Unlimited data. The data on this plan really is unlimited, they guarantee it, and this plan explicitly allows tethering. The deal I've seen is £186.99 up front and then £23 per month.

I'm considering jumping ship from orange when my contract is up because I'm not sure they can match that, even though I've been with them for five years and they should try to retain me. We'll see, but I've got my eye on other deals.

It sometimes works out cheaper if you pay some money up front for the phone. But not buying a sim free phone. the giff gaff deals would bring the total cost to way more than the subsidized contract deals can offer.

Last edited by davoid; April 9th, 2012 at 06:29 AM.

dnapro

Any tariff post Sept 2011 has to have a specific enabler product to allow tethering, Panther and iPhone Extra tariff's have this product. Any other post Sept 2011 tariff (Dolphin etc) has to have a Tethering bundle to enable this product.

Most newer tariff's come with a product to restrict charging for both mobile internet and tethering (Daily Cap) when your inclusive allowances have gone. Charges would be £1 per day with a 25Mb Fair Use limit applied.

Some older tariff's allowed tethering without a specific product as an enabler.

I can confirm that you WILL be allowed to tether on a post sept 2011 Panther plan, I currently have the Panther 41 on a 24 months contract and I can tether with my inclusive 1GB of data.

Hope this helps, I am back to work tomorrow if you want me to dig out any relevant T's and C's?

ScouseSandwich

Hi, First post.

I renewed with orange. I am on a £26 a month dolphin contract and I am a low user (band 2). I managed to get the one X for £80 with no increase in line rental. This is a 24 month contract. This was cheaper than anywhere else I looked and in shops no one could even match it so I was pretty pleased. I know some people have got better out of orange but seems I am a low user on their 'loyalty' system I wasn't expecting to get such a good offer.

I have tethered with my (now replaced) HTC desire in the past on this contract and not incurred charges. I did get this contract a few years ago. Now I have renewed will I get charged to tether??

coney

I'd say that is about a decent to average deal at best
If you work on total contract cost, about £600 ish is very good, and £800 ish being poorest around, for new customers. For a retention deal I would want to be paying less than that, but it isn't terrible. Be better if it had the swappables, so I would push for something such as that to get added, but you get a lot of minutes and such.

JohnnyBravo1000

I'm with T-Mobile in the UK and if I upgrade online I have to pay £60 for the handset, but I do get to remain on my current tariff - which is the Flext 35 tariff which is no longer available to new customers. It's an 18 month contract and you get a £180 allowance to use on text messaging, calls, voicemails and picture messaging as well as unlimited internet for £35 per month. I could also had an unlimited text booster to this for around £5 per month to make the allowance stretch further if needs be.

The alternative is to switch to one of the new Full Monty tariffs. One costs £36 per month and I would have to pay £50 for the handset, but I get 2000 minutes and unlimited texts and internet, but I do have to pay for Voicemail and MMS. The other is £41 per month, the phone is free and I get unlimited minutes, texts and internet, but I still have to pay for Voicemail and MMS. These are both 24 month contracts rather than 18.

What do people reckon?

dnapro

If you have been placed on to a post Sept 2011 tariff I would say you will now be charged for tethering, I can't guarantee that as I haven't seen your SIM products! Judging by the price £26 it is indeed a post Sept 2011 tariff.

Did you renew through Retentions, Upgrades, Retail??

rod9669

I phoned their cancelation dept. (t-mobile) who offered me to stay on my existing contract (600 minutes, unlimited data and unlimited text @ £26.00/month) for a phone cost of £90.00

They then offered me exactly the same apart from unlimited browsing and 750md download (I hardly ever use 3g anyway - average about 300mb/month) for £27.00 / month with the phone free

Call the cancelation dept. not up-grade - you'll get a beter deal

davoid

£35-41 sounds like quite a lot to me.

I personally wouldn't find the unlimited minutes appealing - ever since owning a smart phone I don't talk too much on my phone - I'm more usually looking at its screen. So the £41 deal doesn't look worth the extra money over the 2000 minutes deal.

How about this deal - £64.99 for handset, £29 per month for 2000 mins 2000 texts and unlimited internet on 3 network:

HTC One X White on 3 3 The One Plan 24 months with Delivery

and being on The One Plan you can tether that unlimited data.