Freephone

Right. The battery in my mobile is doing its impression of a thing that won’t hold charge (damned if I can think of a funny analogy). So me thinks… a new battery is 30quid and I can get a 6310i from Vodafone for free. I’m with Orange… an upgrade is 30quid. So, if I get my PAC number and get an Orange contract with Vodafone I can do this for free. Hmmm. Indeed, if I got a new contract with Orange the phone would be free. I’d rather stay with Orange (Sister has Vodafone, so when we go riding out in the hills two networks give better overall coverage). So I’m think… get new contract with Orange, get PAC from curent contract, transfer, easy! I call Orange…

At first the lady was confused, then she asked if I was serious. She soon stopped asking that when I explained it was clearly more favourable to walk from Orange. She agreed with everything I said, but for one thing – I couldn’t transfer my number internally within Orange. So lets get this straight, what I am being told here is that I can transfer my number to Vodafone (or any other network) and do this all for free, but I can’t do it within Orange. I suggest that Orange are obviously encouraging customers to leave. I’m asked to hold and speak to someone in senior account management. I wait.

Daniel Beningfield (sp?) doesn’t sound good down a mobile…

So, new blood^W^W a new lady to speak to. I explain, she agrees its odd. However, she says that she can do me the phone for free on an upgrade. I thank her for the offer but really I’m now more interested in the point that Orange are clearly not trying to keep customers. She offers me two months free. I sell my morals for a total of 90quid. Damn I’m cheap 😉

New phone arrives Thursday and I get to keep the old one. Sweeet.