On Orange PAYG. Can I stay as I am as now run by EE?

[AJW1100]

I've been on Orange PAYG for a very long time, I have very limited usage, maybe a couple of calls a week on a busy week. Mostly used to check emails or receive calls, not make them.
Seems EE has taken over Orange and only seem to offer PAYG Bundles at £XX per month, I can make that last 6 months so I do not want to 'Upgrade'.

Will I be able to stay as I am, just top up on line by £10 as and when needed say every 6 months or so? Will I be able to open an account on EE using my Orange phone # and top up online or am I stuck with phoning 450 each time?

I just need to keep things simple, not interested in data download, only used it once in about 10 years!

 

[Hadron]

Generally legacy contracts remain in place until you change them (but if you do you can't change back). Certainly unless they have contacted you and given you a chance to cancel they can't change your contract terms (beyond RPI increases), so as long as they don't tell you anything is changing then nothing will change.

BTW Orange changed to EE several years ago. It wasn't Orange being taken over, rather Orange and T-Mobile merged and the merged company rebranded as EE. As Orange were by far the bigger of the two it was more like a takeover by Orange than of Orange. So if you've had no problem in the last 5 years or so why is it a concern now?

 

[AJW1100]

Thanks for the quick reply, I was on an Orange plan Racoon 2 @ 14p min or text, one rare occasion when I needed to top up I noted the plan was still shown as Racoon 2 and 14p min and texts. I checked my usage which showed as 22p min and Texts, never a notification from Orange, email or text to advise the large jump in costs.
Then I got a text stating my account would be closed from 29th December, when I opened my orange account it came up as EE with the Orange link in small print, again warnings about my account closing and lots about upgrading and moving to EE. I could it seemed continue to use Orange by phoning their Customer Service department. But.
Whenever I have tried that I have had trouble understanding the heavily curried accent of the representative.
So, Orange is closing my account, upped the price without telling me, then I am being pushed across to the EE side, where I think it was, £13 a month when I doubt I spend £13 in 6 months.
It all gives me the impression that Orange will be phased out, maybe T-Mobile as well, leaving me no option but to pay silly amounts that I really do not need to.

I tried the live chat, with the drop-down as; I am an Orange PAYG customer, no chance, please phone Customer Services on 450 (or 150 I forget which). But suggested an 'Upgrade' to EE.

I guess it will be a case of wait and see......

 

[tommo47]

Hi, ironically I have just dealt with the same issue. I currently have five Orange PAYG accounts, all Racoon2, which have been acquired over the last 20 years or so. I've kept them active to retain the Orange.net email accounts associated with them. Each having aliases available made them ideal for 'throw-away' email addresses. Orange.net email was discontinued about 12 months ago and now they are closing the online access makes it too much hassle to bother retaining them apart from one which has sentimental value. For that one I have asked for a replacement EE sim to allow continued online access. If you take the basic PAYG option, topping up is as and when necessary, the same as with Orange, and although it is more expensive per call EE give you £10 credit to add to the current credit balance on the old sim, so bearing in mind I rarely make outgoing calls it is not an issue for me.

As for the remaining four sims because the credit balance cannot be transferred or refunded I will call/text with them whenever it's convenient to use up the remaining credit.

According to the EE info it will be possible to continue to use the old sims and top-up by text or, as you said, by calling 150.

 

[AJW1100]

Hi Tommo.
Just tried live chat with EE, they offered me a new sim but with a new number, too much hassle to change it now. Did you have to change number or is there another way? Being a pensioner life now is much more hi-tech and complicated!

 

[tommo47]

Hi, that's interesting but because I made the point to them that there was only one of the five numbers I wanted to retain because of it's sentimental value I'm assuming the EE sim will activate with the original number. If that isn't the case they can go do one and I'll keep the old sim. I will check that before I activate it . They said it will arrive in time for activation on the 29th so I'll post an update.

Update

Just to be sure I've given 450 a quick ring to confirm it and the EE sim will have a new number but I will have the standard option of retaining the original number during the activation process .

 

[AJW1100]

Hi. was the call to 450 on your Orange phone and is that where you ordered your EE Sim? I'm a little confused as the live chat gave no indication I could keep my number, in fact I said changing it 'was not an option'. The reply was 'sorry I cannot help you then'.
I have an EE number of 07953 966 250 so might give them a ring. Did EE charge you for the Sim?

I am told I need a PAC ? number from Orange in order to take it with me to another provider, I guess you order your EE Sim, get your PAC number from Orange, somewhere during activation I assume they give you the option to keep your Orange number and attach it to the EE Sim ??

Whenever I try something like this it usually goes wrong somewhere so I like to cover all the bases and hope it works!

 

[tommo47]

Hi. was the call to 450 on your Orange phone and is that where you ordered your Sim?.............. Did EE charge you for the Sim?

Yes, I rang 450 from the phone in question so they know straight away what number you want to discuss. I then referred to the impending closure of Orange PAYG online account access and because I wanted to retain access for this number could I change to an EE sim card. The answer was "Yes, certainly" and after confirming my name and address the guy said he would process the request and the sim card would be on it's way. There was no mention of a charge for the sim card.

A PAC is required but that should be a quick call to 450 prior to the activation as detailed in the following link:-

http://ee.co.uk/help/help-new/getti...p-my-number/how-do-i-transfer-my-number-to-ee

It might be worth giving 450 a ring from your phone.

If it's any help after the usual 'Welcome' message I chose:-

Option1 - 'To top-up' followed by
Option5 - 'To speak to someone'
then took it from there.

Good luck!

 

[AJW1100]

Thanks for the advice Tommo, As it's so close to Christmas I will not do anything until the new year.
If you would be kind enough to update this thread with how you got on with changing to EE and keeping your Orange number it would be appreciated.

So, until next time, have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

[tommo47]

I will certainly post an update.

You have a great Christmas and Happy New Year too .

 

[tommo47]

@AJW1100 Hi, the EE sim arrived this morning. The original Orange number has already been transferred to it so there was no requirement for a PAC procedure, although this wasn't made clear during my previous calls to 450. My existing EE account now shows both my pay monthly account and the new PAYG account for browser or MyEE app access and is a much better UI than the old Orange online account. All I'm waiting for is the credit balance on the Orange account to be transferred along with the additional £10 top-up which can take up to two days to complete. There was no charge made by the way .