Some people are idiots. I should know – I’m one of them. However, I’m not so dim that I can’t see the problem with yattering on a mobile phone rather loudly whilst sat on a train or bus. If thoughts could kill, then noisy phone talkers would probably be killed enough to last a thousand lifetimes.

However, some gizmo-developers have been horsing around with technological thingummyjiggery which could see the end of the hooting commuter (provided they’re smart enough to realise that they’re irritating in the first place).

A prototype device is being developed which could see people being able to conduct silent phone conversations. How? Well, the technology measures and tracks the tiny electrical signals produced by muscles used when someone speaks. The device can record these pulses even when a person does not audibly utter any words and use them to generate synthesised speech in another handset. How mental is that? And how feasible is it that it’ll actually work, seeing as our technology has great difficult mastering voice commands.

“I was taking the train and the person sitting next to me was constantly chatting and I thought ‘I need to change this’,” Professor Tanja Shultz of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology told BBC News. “We call it silent communication.”

The device is on show at the geekwankfest Cebit electronics fair in Germany and relies on a technique called electromyography which detects the electrical signals from muscles. That shit is usually used to diagnose diseases and what have you.

The prototype uses nine electrodes that are stuck to a user’s face which ” capture the electrical potentials that result from you moving your articulatory muscles,” according to Professor Shultz. “Those are the muscles that you need in order to produce speech.” Via Bluetooth, it’s all passed to a device which records and amplifies them before transmitting the signal via Bluetooth to a laptop. Then, and here’s the best bit, the software translates the signals into text, which can then be spoken by a synthesiser leaving you talking like Stephen Hawkins.

Apparently, NASA have been mucking about with this for years. It’s well future. Of course, you could have privacy issues with this, provided of course that someone manages to make a version of it that doesn’t require nodes being stuck to someone’s chops. Still, if it shuts up fat blokes in ill-fitting suits and students from talking about the shitty house-parties they’ve been to, I’m all for it.

So Japanese telecoms giant Softbank have a range of brightly-coloured mobile phones that they’d like people to buy. But how to market them?

Simple – call them Jelly Beans and fill three 15-second ads with shots of the poor beans getting their pants pulled off by other beans or the phones themselves. Sex assaults, to be brutally frank.

Oh, and don’t forget to pronounce the phones’ name as ‘Jerry Beans,’ thereby perpetuating a stereotypical assumption about Oriental folk and their funny way of speaking.

Sounds like a winner to us…

[JapanProbe]

Scroteless super hero to tackle phone crime?

Like the headline says, the government wants action against mobile phone crime. So what are they doing about it? Making a special team of mobile phone super heroes to save our sorry arses from being robbed?

No. They’re asking the mobile phone industry to do more to protect handset owners.

So does this mean we’ll see super heroes sponsored by phone firms? Phones4Uman coming to save us after flying through air shouting his gob off about which tariff would be best suited for you?

Alan Campbell, Minister for Crime Prevention, said firms “have a social and a corporate responsibility to tackle crime”.

“First this is a great opportunity – this is new technology which can be promoted around the world,” said Mr Campbell. “But also mobile phone companies have a responsibility which goes beyond the profits they can make from phones; they have a social and a corporate responsibility to tackle crime.”

HOW? Are we getting super heroes or what?! Surely it has to be something as interesting as that because… well… surely expecting a mobile phone firm to help stop phones from being yoinked from our hands is a bit of a piss take? It’s like asking the wallet makers of the world to get their acts together and come up with new ways of killing thugs or something… right?

Well, Campbell has likened the problem to car theft for some reason, saying that following pressure from governments, innovations in the car industry helped to reduce theft by 60% in 10 years.

Surely everyone realises that there’s a world of difference between something you sit inside and that can’t be quickly sold on for a bag of smack and… you get the idea.

It seems that the idea has been had that phones are to be made uglier so that people wouldn’t dream of half-inching your handset. Yup, this call coinicides with the Home Office unveiling the winning designs in a crime prevention contest, aimed at making mobile phones less attractive to thieves.

One neat design however is a phone that has an alarm that sounds when a phone is too far from its owner and locks the handset. Not especially good if you’re prone to losing your phone all the time. The winning designs will be shown off at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from the 15-18 February.

No super heroes as yet.

[BBC]

Nokia. Their tagline is ‘connecting people’, right? Well, it seems that they’re connecting people directly to the mains leaving them looking like they’ve been smoking comedy exploding cigars.

Possibly.

See, Nokia are recalling 14 million phone chargers because they might cause electric shocks.

The problem was, that the charger’s covers were prone to coming loose and exposing the internal components.

This isn’t the first time they’ve had to do this. Some years ago, they did a mass recall for the same reason and the woman who spoke to me about it was the most joyless harridan I’ve had the pleasure to ever talk to. She didn’t even see the funny side of my charger blowing up whilst I was on the phone to her.

Anyway, the models in question are the catchily named AC-3E, AC-3U and AC-4U.

Apparently, no-one has been injured yet. The charger will be replaced free of charge. If the thought of sorting it all out feels with dread, then you can check if your charger is faulty on the firm’s website. Or maybe stick a fork in the mains when you plug it in. It’s entirely up to you. You’ll probably die if you’re going for the latter, so remember, leave a note to a loved one.

Click here to to see Nokia’s charger exchange program.

[BBC]

Here’s a new Vodafone ad from way down in New Zealand. In it, some friendless long-hair has built a wall of a thousand mobile phones and programmed them with various text alert tones. Then, because there are no real humans in his world who would want to hear from him, he sends the phones a text, tripping them into what can just about be made out to be the theme tune from The Banana Splits Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.

Is it an astounding feat of human endeavour or just a load of old bollocks? We’re not sure… but look at his face at 55 seconds – he’s clearly so pleased with what he’s done that he’s away off to monk one out somewhere quiet.

An Ofcom representative yesterday. It's not really.

One of the most common complaints from mobile phone users is the absence of reception, something that is fairly integral to, er, having a mobile phone.

Now Ofcom have called for mobile providers to allow new customers to enjoy a ‘try before you buy’ period, allowing them to discover just how good the coverage is in the places where they need it most. As opposed to giving their postcode to someone who is desperate to sell them a mobile phone and believing them when they say ‘Yes, great reception in that street of which you are speaking’.

Ofcom have found the 36% of mobile users have experienced ‘not spots’ – areas where they are completely unable to get a signal, with 18% experiencing it regularly. A passer-by we spoke to rated the chances of Ofcom’s suggestions becoming standard practice as: “Fucking zero mate. You’ve got more chance of painting a set of tits on a bishop.”

Use the comments section below to tell us how you feel about it. Would you prefer to have good reception or bad reception? Is reception even an issue for you or do you just like to hold, stroke and lick your mobile instead of using it? Is this one of the most pointless paragraphs you’ve ever read in your life? What about that new Dr Who? He’s a bit young isn’t he?

In the week when we’ve uncovered a way that T-Mobile customers can get out of their contracts early, it seems that Ofcom have finally decided to tighten up the mobile phone market with some new regulations.

Introduced on Wednesday of this week the new rules focus as much on third party sellers as the core network providers and follow a large increase in the number of complaints about cashback plans that are almost impossible to follow.

You know the sort of thing we’re talking about – take out a £30 a month price plan, but every time there’s a full moon, send the supplier a photocopy of your latest bill, a pinch of ground ginger and a drawing of a horse’s shin and you’ll get £25 back.

Ofcom say they have no authority over third party sellers which has resulted in the arrival of various ‘cowboy’ firms arriving in the marketplace. Now the onus is on the network providers to carry out diligent checks before getting involved with third party sellers.

Mis-selling is also covered in the new regulations – for example phone retailers who promise a signal in an area where there isn’t one could be hit hard from now on. The phone providers themselves will face heavy fines, forcing them to keep a closer watch on who they associate their services with.

Have you been stung by a bullshit cashback deal? Maybe you were sold a phone but can only get a signal if you climb on to your roof and cling to the chimney while chanting the Lord’s Prayer backwards. Come on, it’s Bitterwallet’s National Mobile Phone Provider Hate Month again, so let’s get a’namin’ and a’shamin’…

Vacationing in Western Europe isn’t for sissies anymore. Between booking a car for hire in Spain and trying to avoid nightmare mobile phone bills, scaring off a pickpocket or two almost sounds quaint.

Although price caps on international roaming went into effect last month, capping calls made within the EU at 43 cents (37p) per minute, and calls received in the EU at 19 cents (16p), there are still significant variations in charges from one provider to the next. And since price caps are given in Euros, the sterling to euro exchange rate affects Britons’ actual charges too.

There are a few ways you can reduce costs for roaming while you’re on the continent this summer. Vodafone has waived roaming charges until 31 August for those with the Vodafone Passport scheme. New Vodafone customers are automatically signed up for Passport, while existing customers who don’t have Passport must opt in by texting “passport” to 2345 for pay as you go customers, or to 9788 for monthly billed customers. There’s a link in the righthand column that you can click on to get the full list of countries covered by Passport.

All the major networks except for 3 offer travel bundles. T-Mobile (which recently increased outgoing calling rates in Europe to 43p per minute) offers a package called Euroboosters which costs £5 to £30 in selected countries. Here’s the breakdown of travel add-ons and bundles:

1. The T-Mobile Euro 10 pay-as-you-go Booster costs £10 and allows 34 minutes of outgoing calls, 78 minutes of incoming calls and allows you to send up to 60 texts.

2. O2’s My Europe Extra package costs £10 per month for calls that cost 25p per minute to the UK and most EU countries and free incoming calls.

3. Though I dursn’t make recommendations in light of some other Orange news recently,  Orange offers a Favourite Countries bundle with cheaper calls to Greece, France, Spain, Belgium, or Ireland.

4. Vyke Mobile is a downloadable app for your phone (click here to find out if your phone is compatible) that uses your mobile phone’s WiFi connection to send calls and messages rather than your mobile operator. The website says:

Because Vyke Mobile uses your phone’s WiFi connection to connect to the Vyke network whenever you’re in a hotspot, there are no international roaming charges to pay when you send messages or call using Vyke Mobile’s WiFi feature from overseas

As an added incentive Vyke is giving away a Nokia E75 with a £25 credit to every 2,000th customer to sign up.

All this assumes you’re going to be talking on your mobile phone a lot when you’re on vacation, but of course, not everyone does. When all is said and done, if you do not plan to make more than a couple of brief “I’ve arrived” calls while you’re in other countries, you may come out better just going ahead and paying the roaming charges.

Coming up: International SIM cards for traveling with your mobile.

While covering Orange’s attempts to change your contract, we also published a post about how you could cancel your Virgin Mobile contract for similar reasons. Bitterwallet reader Steve got in touch to tell us about changes Virgin Mobile are making to pay-monthly customer terms. Looking through the changes, they’re likely to effect most customers – in essence, if you call landlines or other Virgin mobiles, or make any other calls that less than a minute, then you’re going to pay more than you originally agreed to when you signed the contract.

Here’s the email that was sent to Steve, that every Virgin Mobile customer should have received:

Is this an opportunity to cancel your Virgin Mobile contract? Yep. Virgin’s terms and conditions mention material detriment (i.e. your bill is likely to increase as a result of these changes) which is subtly different to Orange’s terms, which didn’t. That said, the changes are so fundamental they’re bound to effect you. Short of leaving your phone permanently switched off, you’re probably going to be worse off:

• Call any landline or Virgin Mobile number and calls will cost 20p per minute at all times, instead of 15p per minute for the first five minutes of the day, and 5p per minute after that – so a call that lasts two minutes will cost 40p instead of 30p, a six minute call will cost £1.20 instead of 80p and a 10 minute call will cost £2 instead of £1.

• Make any calls to any landline or mobile number lasting less than a minute, and you’ll pay for a full minute rather than the actual duration of the call

What to do next

Here are the particular Virgin terms and conditions relevant to your situation. Have a read through so you’re aware of what you agreed with Virgin:

2.2 Minimum Term: This Agreement will continue for at least the Minimum Term although you may cancel it during the Minimum Term in accordance with Clause 10.

10.2 Your right to cancel: You may end this Agreement immediately in the following circumstances:

(c) if you do not accept any change that we notify you about in accordance with clause 5.3 and you notify us in accordance with clause 5.4 that you do not accept such change.

5.3 Significant changes: We will notify you at least one month in advance of any change coming into effect that (in our reasonable opinion):

(b) is a change to your Agreement, your Contract Allowance, the Services or any Additional Services you are using, or to the Charges for any Services or Additional Services you are using, which is likely to be of material detriment to you.

You’ll have a better chance of cancelling your contract if you a) know the relevant terms and conditions (which you do, because they’re above) and b) go through your last three bills and are aware of several examples per month of calls which will cost more once the new price structure begins – so any calls to landlines or Virgin mobile numbers of any sort, or to landlines or mobiles that last less than a minute. By doing this you’ll have clear proof, based on your billing history, that the new prices are likely to be of material detriment to you.

Judging by the comments in the original thread, readers are finding it far easier dealing with Virgin Mobile customer services than they ever did with Orange.  One recurring trend is that customers are being told they can’t cancel until the date of the changes in September. This is incorrect – as clause 10.2 states, it’s your right to cancel immediately once notified of the changes; more importantly, if you don’t inform Virgin Mobile within 30 days of being notified, it’ll be assumed you accept the changes and your right to cancel will be void.

Above all else remember to be polite and calm with operators at all time – treat them with disrespect and you’ll probably find that any goodwill and helpfulness suddenly dries up. As before, support other readers by telling us how you get on. Good luck!

After a rollercoaster couple of weeks, an interesting footnote has been added to the saga of Orange attempting to change their out-of-bundle call charges, but ultimately backing down after so many customers took the opportunity to cancel their contract. There are now reports on industry websites that suggest Orange customers weren’t the only ones to take advantage of the situation; third party retailers, including Carphone Warehouse, are said to have turned the loophole to their advantage to boost their own sales figures.

According to Mobile News:

“…a number of retail staff in retailers such as Carphone Warehouse have been using this as a way of getting customers to cancel existing contracts, and then re-signing them to a new contract on a different network. Thus giving the sales person an extra new contract to their sales target and the customer a brand new handset.

One Carphone Warehouse staffer said: “I had a call from another store telling us we could cancel Orange contracts and it turned out to be true. Since we found out we have been using it as a way of getting new business and so have many other stores.”

And again at What Mobile:

A forum member, ‘Simax’ who works for Orange posted on our forum: “What also amused me was the amount of dealers who were advertising the loophole. Some of who took out a few contracts at the end of last month who now cannot cancel. Not only naughty in the first place, but serves them right!”

If that’s the case, Orange will no doubt be examining their dealings with Carphone Warehouse and other third parties over the past three weeks, to determine which of their trusted retailers tried to screw them into the ground.

As promised, here is the statement from Orange concerning their decision not to proceed with planned changes to call charges. Orange has also confirmed on MSE that customers that have requested their PAC code “will still get it”, meaning if you had already confirmed your cancellation and requested to transfer your number to another provider, the cancellation still stands:

“Orange recently decided to make changes to contract customers’ call charges for out-of-bundle minimum call rate, international calls from the UK and pay-as-you consume data browsing.

However in listening to our customers it became clear that some of them found the messages sent to announce these changes confusing about who would be affected and how. This is obviously not our intention and therefore we have decided not to go ahead with the proposed changes.

It is normal practice for businesses to make pricing changes, and whilst we clearly cannot rule out any future changes we know that transparency and consistency in our policies is extremely important to our customers. Orange apologises to those customers who found the messages unclear and any subsequent misunderstanding this has caused. We will be reviewing all policies and procedures for price changes to make sure that they are clearer in future.

Orange always strives to deliver the best communications and we hope that these steps will overcome any confusion and frustration that our customers felt.”

UPDATE 1006: We’ve just spoken to Orange’s press office – there’s a full release due to be sent to us in the next few minutes, but in the meantime we can confirm that in cases where Orange have already agreed to a cancellation, these will still stand. Anybody who has requested a PAC code will be informed that the changes will not be going ahead, but will still be free to cancel.

Orange have apologised for “any frustration and confusion” that customers have experienced, and we’ve also been told Orange are carrying out a full review of customer service procedures to ensure future customers aren’t treated in the questionable manner reported by dozens of Bitterwallet readers.

In the past three weeks, Bitterwallet has received thousands of comments and emails concerning Orange’s attempts to increase their charges on out-of-bundle minutes. You called their customer service reps in your droves, and amongst it all suffered inconsistencies and bare-faced lies from many of their operators.

And while we’re delighted to hear that our posts picking apart their own Terms of Service have secured new readers amongst Orange’s senior management and at Ofcom, it’s been staggering to see how many of you refused to accept changes made to your contract without permission, and fought for your right to cancel.

It’s your actions that last night forced Orange management into a meeting where they agreed to abandon the proposed increases. The Executive Office has confirmed that “a business decision was made” and that “further to feedback from several customers, Orange has decided not to go ahead with the proposed changes – Orange appreciates these changes were not communicated as well as they could have been.”

Orange aren’t admitting the charges were unfair, which is what the feedback surely reflected, but that their introduction was poorly communicated – regardless, consumer power has brought about some positive change. We’re now attempting to clarify Orange’s position concerning contracts they’ve already agreed to cancel – their press office have failed to provide any statements to us in the past week, but this is important stuff so we’ll try and get some answers. In the meantime if you have any information, let us know at bitterwallet@gmail.com.

[Image courtesy of TheGiantVermin]

UPDATE: ToS rollback now confirmed by Orange executive and press office. Existing cancellations will stand. Read it here.

In the last hour, we’ve received information from two individual sources that Orange has decided not to push through the proposed changes to its Terms of Service. If this is the case, then the new charges due to begin in September will not be introduced, and customers will no longer have grounds (as Orange’s current terms and conditions suggest) to cancel their contracts.

We’re letting you know because this information has been passed on from two different sources, although it is yet to be confirmed by Orange themselves; we’ll now attempt to verify this with their press office. In the meantime, if you have been told similar by an Orange representative in the past hour or can provide a source of official information, please get in touch at bitterwallet@gmail.com.

UPDATE: Orange has now scrapped the ToS change following consumer upset and cancellations. Existing cancellations will stand. Read full update and official statement here.All day, we’ve been receiving emails and reading comments concerning your attempts to cancel your Orange contract. Tomorrow, we’ll be providing you with a more definitive guide detailing what action to take if your efforts have so far proved unsuccessful. Until then, the Bitterwallet team has been digging through consumer law to ascertain where you stand.

That said, this post shouldn’t be taken as legal advice for your particular situation, nor is it a substitute for the real thing. As with everything we’ve posted so far, this is general information. We’re not lawyers or solicitors, and despite what we might tell you when we’re drunk, we’re not pilots or porn stars either.

Right then. The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (UTCCR) apply to unfair terms in contracts concluded between a consumer and a seller of goods or a supplier of services. By the UTCCR an unfair term is one which has not been properly negotiated (such as a standard term) and which, contrary to good faith, causes a significant imbalance in favour of the seller or supplier. Any term which is unfair is not binding on the consumer, but the rest of the contract may continue in operation if it is capable of continuing without it.

Now the interesting stuff. Section 5 and Schedule 2 of the UTCCR sets out a non-exhaustive list of terms considered unfair:

• (i) irrevocably binding the consumer to terms with which he had no real opportunity of becoming acquainted before the conclusion of the contract;

• (j) enabling the seller or supplier to alter the terms of the contract unilaterally without a valid reason which is specified in the contract;

• (l) providing for the price of goods to be determined at the time of delivery or allowing a seller of goods or supplier of services to increase their price without in both cases giving the consumer the corresponding right to cancel the contract if the final price is too high in relation to the price agreed when the contract was concluded;

We think customers have a good argument that the new minimum charges applying to all calls from 14 September 2009 that exceed their call plan allowance are unfair under the terms of these regulations. The change occurred after the contract, no valid reason is given, the final price is high. And this is not a severable part of the contract, it actually goes to the very heart of it. These regulations are clear that if that if the price is increased, then a corresponding right must be given to allow the consumer to cancel the contract. This right to cancel must also be fair – and so have been bought to the consumer’s attention before the contract was concluded – and so cannot now be unilaterally amended or added to, or be given an unnatural interpretation.

There are also concerns with regards to the Unfair Contract Terms Act of 1977 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, but we need to you stay alert for the next bit.

With regards to Orange’s Terms of Service:

The clear language of clause 15 entitles you to terminate on a change in charges if excessive in accordance with clause 4.3, provided you do so within 1 month of being told of them.

The clause refers to Charges – not Service or Price Plans – so on its very face the right to terminate applies to Out of Service Plan Charges. These minimum charges apply to all calls from 14 September 2009 other than service plan calls. These ordinary calls are not severable from the services as a whole and we certainly don’t think they fall within the definition of Additional Services. Obviously we’re of the opinion that the increase is excessive and is a change to your detriment. Only a court can say so definitively however.

Arguably even those still within their Minimum Terms can cancel, without having to pay the total remaining monthly charges to the end of the notice period. It’s not entirely clear from the language of the contract however and there is a risk that a claim might still be made for damages for termination or breach (i.e. the usual termination charges under clause 4.2). Only a court can finally determine the correct interpretation.

Finally, you don’t ever need anyone’s consent to terminate a contract. You can always terminate a contract and stop your direct debit by informing your bank. The issue is whether or not you will be liable for damages for breach, and that depends on the contract language. If you terminate and Orange does not agree to it, then they may claim damages for breach – usually any standard monthly charge to the end of the notice period or until the end of any Minimum Term less a rebate for early payment.

And relax. Got that? Good. More tomorrow.

UPDATE 12/08: Orange has now scrapped the ToS change following consumer upset and cancellations. Read full update and official statement here.

UPDATE 10/8: Ofcom have now responded to Bitterwallet’s request for a statement on the current situation. You can read it here.

What’s going on, then? Can you cancel your Orange contract or not? By their own terms and conditions, the answer is yes. If you call them however, the answer will be yes, maybe or absolutely not – although this may change throughout the duration of the call. There’s no consistency in the reasons given either way. The whole thing is a mess and Orange are tying themselves in knots as they try to fob off their customers.

We’ve spoken to the Executive Office at Orange, and were told that customers must be eligible under specific criteria if they wish to cancel, although the office wasn’t aware of what the criteria were. They said the retentions department are working off a spreadsheet that states whether a customer is eligible or not. When we asked where these criteria were recorded in the customer contract or Orange’s Terms of Service, we were told they weren’t, although that we should be aware that while customers are eligible to cancel under the terms and conditions (!) Orange are simply raising their call charges in line with other networks.

So on the one hand customers are eligible to cancel, but on the other it’s only if Orange wants to let them. That pretty much sums up where we are at the moment. We’re waiting to hear back from Orange for an official statement, and we’ve also asked Ofcom to comment too, given that operators are telling customers that Ofcom have rubber-stamped the changes.

We’ll let you know when we hear back from either one, but in the meantime there is action you can take now. If you want to cancel but have so far been refused, please take note:

• it’s approximately three weeks since Orange first began advising customers of the changes. As per their terms and conditions, after 30 days it will be presumed that customers accept the new charges. Even if you haven’t been successful in cancelling your contract, you should formally state you refuse to agree to the new terms. Bitterwallet reader Lewis Roberts sent a great email to Orange (more below) – use this as your template and send it via this page on their website. Also send a copy to executive.office@orange.co.uk and customer.services@orange.co.uk, and by registered post to Orange Customer Service, Correspondence Department, PO Box 10, Bristol, BS32 4BQ.

• if you’re getting nowhere with customer services, call Orange’s executive office on 08000 790 134. Explain that regardless of your current usage, the changes Orange are making are outside of your plan, therefore you have a legal right to cancel and you are formally stating your refusal to accept the new Terms of Service. The customer service team here cannot help you – they’ll refer you to the retentions department – but it means you are formally stating your refusal to agree to the terms (thanks to Kernal). As always, remain calm and polite.

• call Ofcom’s advisory team on 020 7981 3040 or 0300 123 3333. They will only offer advice on the matter, give you a reference number and most likely refer you to CISAS – an independent dispute resolution service. Regardless, register your complaint with Ofcom – they are more likely to investigate the matter if they feel there is a widespread issue.

• if you have the time and inclination, you can ask Orange what’s going on via Twitter. They may not repsond, but it again raises the profile of the issue.

Meanwhile, here are four questions we’d like Orange to answer:

Why did an Orange spokesperson go on the record and say all customers have the right to cancel?

Orange seemingly has a very short memory. Mobile News reported on this story at the end of July, which included this quote from an Orange spokesperson:

“Orange has increased its minimum call charge from 5p to 15p. So what this means is that if you go over your inclusive minutes, the first minute is now 15p and any other minute of that same call is as per your current out-of-bundle rates.

“Whilst our terms and conditions do allow customers to terminate their contract as a result of this change, we are confident that the majority of our customers will not be affected by this because of the nature of their talk plans and their usage.”

So let’s be clear on this: an Orange spokesperson told the press the majority of customers will not be affected because of their usage, but that the terms and conditions allow them to terminate their contract as a result.

We’ve spoke to Mobile News, and the quote is solid – these are Orange’s own words. Are they attempting to reverse course because the changes have been highlighted by the likes of Bitterwallet and MSE, and so many people are attempting to cancel?

(more…)