Hi all -

I've been with Orange for almost 10 years (and haven't had a new phone
in three years), but am now so sick of their utterly useless customer
service that I've deserted for T-Mobile.

I've just ordered a Vario II on a pocket-money contract for a few pence
upfront from the T-Mobile website (weirdly, there was one link on the
website to get the same phone on the same tariff - Flext 30 plus
Web-N-Walk - for £89 plus £32.50 a month, and another link to get it
for £69 plus £25 a month. I took the latter, strangely enough).

All well and good, you might say - pay off the remaining 28 days, get
the PAC, port the number, and enjoy the T-Mobile experience. But as
always, there's a hitch: in February, someone called me saying that
they were from Orange and asked me if I wanted a 10% discount as a
loyal customer. I said "yes", and thought no more about it.

Unfortunately, as I found when I called Orange trying to get a better
tarrif a few months later, this person wasn't from Orange, but was
employed by a bunch of privateers lied to Orange that I'd agreed to a
new 12-month contract. Which obviously I hadn't, as I had a 2-year-old
phone that I knew might die at any point. Orange were no help, claiming
I ought to take it up with the privateers - however, unsurprisingly,
they don't answer their phone...

I know this contract is not legal, that it's Orange's fault, and that
if Orange were to take me to court enforcing my payment of the terms
that I would win. However, I'm keen to keep my current phone number,
and to not have a dispute on my credit rating for however long it takes
to reach court, to the point where I'd be willing to give the b-st-rds
£100 or so to give me the PAC and never darken my door again.

So:

1) Is there any way I can get my PAC without paying off the contract? I
doubt this, but stranger things have happened, and I relish a fight
enough that if I can do this I'd be willing to go to court over the
outstanding bills...

2) (if not) what's the minimum that I can pay Orange to get out of the
contract? Currently my base tarrif is £19.50 and I pay another £10 or
so for additional SMS messages and GPRS access - can I cancel all the
additional options and just bung them £19.50 * 5 months to February?
Can I move further down to anything cheaper? In general, if I move to
the absolute cheapest possible tarrif tomorrow (which I think is
Dolphin at £19.00), can I immediately pay the contract off on that
tarrif?

Thanks very much for any responses...

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org