Thanks Laudrup1,
Yeah I'm quite loyal to orange too, not sure why now! When I first enquired about an iPhone they told me that it "shouldn't" matter that i've already got a contract, but apparently it does now!
I'm going to an Orange shop on saturday to see if they can't help me out. Might threaten them with taking my business to O2 after my current contract runs out... see if that kick-starts them!
Wee update for you too. I'm just off the phone with Orange upgrades.
My contract's actually up in April (earliest I'm due a contract is in January) and I enquired about the £35 a month tariff on the 16gig 3gs phone for 24 months with an £87 for the phone. As I expected, there's absolutely no give on those prices at all. Fair enough.
I was told that it'd be £63 odds to buy out my contract just now. I then asked if they'd be willing to wave any of that for 12 years loyalty and the girl (who was very helpful for info) said that that's the two things they can't do.
Deals on iphones and deals on disconnection fees. Because it's contract specific, it's not something they can offer deals on. It's what I expected to hear in all honesty.
I asked if speaking to disconnections would make any difference and she said no (she was actually on upgrades as overtime and normally worked in disconnections) it was two things they couldn't budge on.
If it had been a different phone I was upgrading too or I was out of contract, it'd have been different.
I thanked her for her time and said I'd go and call O2 and see what they said and then phone Orange back.
I'm the same as you, I've got loyalty to Orange but no real idea why. The one thing that is stopping me is the "hassle" of transferring to a different company and getting your PUK code etc and having a temporary number for a few days. It's not a big deal but one thing to keep me where I am.
What I wish I had done now is asked, rather than give me a discount on my contract settlement was if they'd credit my account with any sort of monetary fee to offset the disconnection fee.
I plan to phone back and speak to disconnections anyway (despite what she told me) on the off chance that there's a bit of give there.
In all honesty, I'll likely end up staying with Orange but it's worth trying to get something off them.
*edit*
updated to say that having spoken to a dude in disconnections, he says you can't buy out your contract to use that as a way of getting an upgrade. He said it'd never been something he'd heard done before. I find that strange as I'm sure there must've been tonnes of people in my position at one point or another.
I can buy out the contract to get the PAK code to go to o2 but can't buy it out to upgrade on Orange. Told him it looked like they'd just lost a customer then and he said "seems that way, sorry about that"
If I'm buying out my contract, the number (which I've got to keep) effectively becomes redundant to them and I'd have 30 days to use the PAK code at another service provider.
Now I'm wondering if I just wait until the 1st of January and upgrade then (taking what is effectively a 27 month contract) as it's only a matter of weeks away.
Seems a strange situation / business plan for them.