Orange have announced a new set of tariffs choosing for some reason to name them after animals. Customers can now choose whether they want “Dolphin,” “Panther,” “Canary,” or “Raccoon” plans, all with different attributes — the Dolphin is for people that like to text, the Raccoon is for people that like to sift through garbage “want no-nonsense basics”.
Does that imply customers that choose the other plans are okay with some nonsense? Because that sounds like all this is. Basically, Orange has raised their prices. Then, it’s almost as if they went to their marketing people and said “Come up with something so ridiculous that nobody will notice… make things needlessly complex while you’re at it.”
In addition to all the animal-based fun, Orange will now charge customers £1.50 per month for itemized billing, a whopping £3.50 per month if they pay by any means than direct debit, and in perhaps the feature that comes out of the “Snake” package, it will now charge consumers 1p for every text-message delivery report — a feature many people probably don’t even realize they have turned on.
Are simple, straightforward tariffs too much to ask for? Orange is now the second UK operator in about a month to revamp its tariff structure, following T-Mobile, and it’s the second one to embrace complexity. What do the operators have to hide in making things so confusing?
[tags]orange, t-mobile, mobile[/tags]
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