Blatant false advertising on the part of Orange UK mobile phone company

The mobile phone company Orange has recently launched a collection of new 'animal based' tariffs; dolphin, racoon, canary and panther. For a certain price, each tariff either offers 'unlimited' calls per month, or 'unlimited' texts per month. Orange are keen to throw the 'unlimited' word around, a visit to www.orange.co.uk will reveal that it is the integral part of their current advertising campaign.





However, claims of 'unlimited' texts or calls are quite simply completely untrue. The terms and conditions state that these 'unlimited' offers are in fact within Orange's 'fair use' policy. This means that when they tell you that you have unlimited texts each month, you in fact have 3000, and when they tell you that you have unlimited calls each month, you in fact have 3000 minutes. Obviously 3000 texts / minutes per month is still a lot, but the following points need to be considered:





1. Fundamentally - why do Orange use the word 'unlimited' when they in fact ARE setting limits (albeit, hidden away in their terms and conditions)?





2. The 25 dolphin tariff offers 3000 free texts per month, which is in fact the same as the 35 dolphin tariff (with the latter, one receives a number of free minutes as well, explaining the 10 price difference). Why then, do Orange refer to the 35 tariff as having 'unlimited' texts, when it in fact has the exact same number as the 25 tariff, which apparently isn't 'unlimited'?





3. I called Orange and asked them directly about this entire issue. I was told, firstly, that "no one has ever sent as many as 3000 texts in a month", and was then told that "we have to set a limit of 3000 per month, as that is all the system can handle". Obviously, I am slightly curious as to how they know how their system can only handle 3000 texts per month from an individual customer, if in fact, as they claim, no one has ever come close to sending that many anyway. Nevertheless, my main point is this: Orange have admitted to me that their network has its limitations - so why on earth do they offer packages which stake the claim of having no limitations - being 'unlimited'?!





4. I understand that many would try and justify Orange's deceit by saying "3000 texts / calls per month is still loads though", and on the surface of things, this would seem true (although would by no means justify their blatant false advertising). However, 3000 minutes per month in fact works out at 1 hour 40 minutes worth of telephone calls. I am absolutely positive that there are a number of people out there who can make up to and beyond 1 hour 40 minutes of calls per day for a month - and if they were on Orange, they would falsely be under the impression that they were doing so for free! You can understand why they'd think that though, after all, Orange's website has 'unlimited' written everywhere.





I understand and agree with the view that everyone should read terms and conditions before signing up to anything - but if you agree that this simply doesn't justify Orange's patently false advertising, please sign this petition.





Thanks.