How to get a 12 month contract again?

[adr]

Half way through month 12 of my 18 month contract, the ear piece speaker on my N80 died. I called Orange and they said given that I was just outside of my 12 month warranty, they could not repair the phone for me. They unhelpfully suggested that If I had Orange Care, they could send me a new phone immediately. However, without Orange Care my only other option was to pay the £200 "Smartphone replacement fee".

The CSA (intentionally?) neglected to tell me about option #3 which was to send the phone back to Nokia for free repair through somewhere like Carphone Warehouse. I have the phone back, and its repaired and everything's fine.

However, I'm naturally a little soured on the whole 18/24 month contract thing if phones simply won't last that long. I'm pretty sure that enforcing a minimum contract for a device that doesn't last the length of the contract is questionable, at best.

Has anyone here managed to get a 12 month contract through orange? Every shop I go into tell me that orange have phased out 12 month contracts. Is this true?

[Kryten]

I thought you can get 12 month contracts with everyone? You just tend to have to pay a little more.

I have a 12 month with O2 Online (http://www.thedvdforums.com/jump2.php?url=http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-582776-10309950)

[adr]

Perhaps you can ... I walked around the plethora of mobile phone retailers this afternoon and asked some questions and everyone shrugged their shoulders when I asked for a 12 month contract. The best offer I had was from CPW, who said they'd buy the remaining 6 months of my contract off me to make it a 12 month contract....

Which doesn't sound straight forward.

[MC Rubber Chicken]

your phone is covered for 2 years by the manufacture if you take it into an orange shop with proof of purchase they will send it off to nokia for you.... they have told you a load of bull on the phone.... i hope you didn't take the emergency care out and pay the smartphone fee??


orange still do 12 months contracts and have them listed in every months magazine

[thetope]

i just got an 18 month contract with O2 and the lady on the phone said she would extend the phone warranty to 18 months as well. i thought on 18mo contracts you could still get an upgrade after 12 if you continue to tie yourself in?

[adr]

MC Rubber Chicken > The phone was repaired free of charge via CPW, so no I didn't pay their £200 extortion fee. More annoyed that I was mislead on the phone....

thetope > I assumed that since the CSA was trying to get £200 out of me half way through my 12th month, that upgrading for free was not an option. However, since it turns out this guy was a lying prick, I might call up Orange and find out. Thanks for the help.

[dysfunction]

You can definitely get a 12 month Contract with Orange online...my guess is the sales lady was talking rubbish just to get you into another 18 mths!