The tale of T-mobile and the big nasty Oranges
to richard.moat@t-mobile.co.uk
date Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 9:16 PM
subject The tale of T-mobile and the big nasty Oranges
Hello Richard,
You don't know me, but I am one of your customers, a new customer who signed up with you in April last year, woo-ed away from a 10 year tenure with O2 by promises of amazing new Android phones and 3GB monthly internet caps. Despite your garish pink and grey branding, I took the plunge, rendering myself unto you as a loyal faithful hound to its master, dutifully paying my £35+ a month in exchange for all the minutes and texts I could wish for, dancing along the mobile internet without a care in the world with all the gaiety of a high-speed HSDPA ballerina.
I thought, 'I'm happy here, this is exactly the mobile provider I've always wanted to have, one that lets me stream YouTube videos without throttling my connection, and lets me watch 'Have I Got News For You' catch up clips on my Flash-enabled Android phone on the train on my way home from work". And you encouraged me Richard, you said, 'buy this phone and contract, it has an always-on internet connection and full multimedia capabilities and our 3GB cap gives you all the freedom you could wish for'. And for a while we were so happy Richard, for ten months we've danced merrily hand-in-hand. Any dull moment, any time I felt low, like I wanted to give up, I reach into my pocket, take out my phone and you'd just....be there....
But then the Orange monster came along, scooped you up in its big Orange claw and DEMANDED that you end our relationship by making you slash all 3GB data caps for Android phones by a whopping 83%, just because it's a greedy Orange money-grabbing N*zi.
If there was some kind of notice, some kind of advance warning that the jackbooted Oranges were on the horizon, we could have carried on our dance Richard, parting amicably once the pre-stipulated contractually-obligated 18 months were up. But it was not too be; the Orange army came RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of our relationship, demanding that from the start of February we had to keep our merriment under control, with any downloads or streaming strictly throttled once a paltry 500MB allowance was passed.
But I pleaded with them Richard, nay, I demanded that they see legal reason. I said to them, "I signed up to a full 18 months with a 3GB data cap on my Android phone, if you want to change that for new customers then fine, but at least do what O2 did in January 2010, and HONOUR my damn EXISTING CONTRACT".
But the mighty Orange decided he was above the law, had never heard of anti bait-and-switch legislation or the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulation 1999. He refused to acknowledge that my phone and indeed our whole relationship were marketed with a 3GB monthly cap, instead deciding to bring out a forth-coming PAID upgrade that would enable us to go beyond the 500MB (basically making me PAY more money for that which I am already contractually supposed to have for at least the next 8 months).
Only you are in the position to do something about this Richard; Ofcom have been notified but unless their inboxes are at critical mass I doubt they will make the effort. I beseech you Richard, stand up to the Oranges, bring our relationship back on track so we may explore this crazy world together without prejudice once again....at least for the length of our contract....
Yours in hope.....or until Ofcom kick your a*se,
X X X
Biting the hand that feeds IT
