For ages it’s always seemed ridiculous to me that service providers are more interested in new customers than their existing ones. You get a better deal by switching away than being loyal.
Recently BT and Nationwide have run TV ads explaining that they treat their existing customers as well as their new ones. Now Orange has got into the game. A recently launched series of press ads explains that existing customers are just as important as new ones, and also mentions that those people on Your Plan 120, 200 and 300 can get double minutes and texts free for six months. All I have to do is phone up.
There’s a website that says the same – you can see it here.
So I phone up 343 where I get through to an operator who examines my account and… no I can’t get the upgrade. It seems that there are some terms and conditions, and that I need to be 9 months into a 12 month contract before I can make use of this deal.
A closer look at the website reveals a tiny Terms and Conditions link at the foot of the page. That page is full of terms and conditions, but the one I need to see is right at the bottom.
I’ll have to check again with the newspaper ads to see if all that detail is there, but it does seem more marketing to me to get a customer’s hopes up by seemingly offering something, and then producing terms a bit later on. Of course if I’m nine months into a twelve month contract then another six months takes me three months out of contract, when I might be looking around for a better deal.
Look again at Orange’s webpage – no asterisk indicating exclusions. How many other customers are bombarding their customer support lines with these calls?
“He who turns his back on faithful customers is asking for a beating” it says at the bottom. Exactly.