Here is a story that though not strictly within the sphere of mobile broadband, can serve as a good example to show how the collective might of consumers can make a big difference .

The recent tariff hike announced by Orange for some of its services such as data access through mobile and rates for out-of-bundle calling took a number of subscribers by surprise. Normally, a service provider can get away with it, as subscribers remain bound by their contracts. However, this time the case was different.

Subscribers in this case alleged that the extent of the hikes was so steep that Orange had broken the Terms and Conditions of its own contract. Subscribers thus considered themselves free to terminate Orange’s services with no penalty accruing to them. They were further instigated by Bitter Wallet, a consumer watchdog website, that released a guide on how Orange customers not happy with the recent hikes could get out of their contracts.

The trickle of subscribers leaving Orange became a torrent once subscribers found they were under no obligation to return the subsidized handsets provided to them by the company as part of their contracts. Orange initially opposed by refusing to allow customers to terminate their contracts, but ultimately retreated when matters got worse with a large exodus of customers to other broadband deals by competing service providers and announced a rollback of the price increase.

This goes to show that companies cannot always take their customers for granted and act in whimsical ways regarding tariffs.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 5:51 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.