Business Plan Refresh and Removal of Orange Care

Orange has confirmed that it will be removing inclusive Orange Care from its business plans from July 2009.

At the same time, Orange is refreshing its business plans, making them richer for customers in terms of inclusive texts, minutes and optional extras.

The current Orange Care product consists of two parts -- a warranty to cover faulty handsets, and insurance to cover handsets that are lost, stolen or accidentally damaged.  The warranty element remains as a 24 hour faulty handset replacement policy, valid for the life of the customers contract up to a maximum of 24 months.  This is still included as part of the business talk plan.

The removal of the insurance part of Orange Care means that customers are no longer insured for loss, theft or damage.  However, Orange Care is still available as a product in its current form, as a separate add on bundle priced at £6 per month per device (which will of course increase your ongoing revenue).

While the removal of Orange Care is significant, when you consider that over 80% of all claims made under Orange Care are in fact warranty rather than insurance related, i.e. customers claim for faulty handsets rather than those that are lost, stolen or damaged, the decision is easier to justify.

It's the warranty element that most customers use, and this is still included with Orange business plans.  Customers are covered by a warranty for up to 24 months if their phone develops a fault. 

Orange Care is still available as a separate product, and gives you something else to offer your customers giving them full peace of mind if they need it.

Alternatives to Orange Care

To help minimise the impact of these changes, Mainline has been working with leading insurance provider Fonesure, to give its dealers the opportunity to offer an alternative to Orange Care.  Fonesure offers great value insurance policies for mobile phone customers, which are competitive in terms of cost to the customer and service levels in the event that a claim needs to be made.

Plus, the package for dealers is extremely competitive, offering ongoing revenue share and upfront commissions.

Look out for further details on the Mainline website and in July's edition of iSell.