Give us a break

[Guest pinky123]

Right lets start. I work for Orange on the phones. All i get all night are the same people like you lot who like nothing more than to complain at us saying how rubbish we are. I wish all you people who are leaving orange good luck with your new chums at T-mobile who do not work 24 hrs.

So i do hope you never have a problem with your phone,wish to upgrade or have a question about your bill after ten at night or before seven in the morning as you have not got a hope in hell of getting through to anyone. Even if you phone between 07.00 and 22.00 you will get charged 25 pence for the call.

The one thing you all need is RESPECT. If you phone up and say you WANT this and WANT that most times you will not get it. How about i would like or any chance of?

And do you think that if you wanted for example a M5000 and you only spent about ?20 a month you would stand a chance? ?20 x 12 = ?240 DOH

I could go on but hey you want to go thats your choice. As for OVP we are doing you a favour. No other mobile network offers this.

So give us all a break who work at Orange. Yes there may be some bad eggs but most of try to help the customer and earn a living. You try doing it. I am sure with most of your attatudes you will be like the csr's you are slagging off. :)

[Guest sporkguy]

erm.. 150 is also free on Tmobile buddy.

Respect? Yes, we, the customer should apologise for being so utterly rude.. or not. Whatever happened to the old saying, "The Customer is Always Right"?

No matter what the attitude of the customer, I have always been polite and courtious with mine - even when I was chirpy with you guys I got a hard time due to the fact I was one of those 'scummy retail' folk.

So please, leave your angst in your call centre. We're just normal people here, discussing normal experiences with CSRs.

OVP is outdated, and isn't even actively promoted anymore. I had to speak to a supervisor before I was able to change my sister's account to an OVP only yesterday.

Oh.. and Tmobile, with every call I've made to them so far, they've been polite, professional.. and they know what they're talking about. So please look into these things before starting troll threads.

Thanks.

Welcome to the forums, btw.

[Guest tik]

I've always made a point of being extremely polite to CSRs - and, yes, have encountered many who have tried to help.

I've also encountered several who were plain rude, obstinate, and unhelpful.

The point isn't so much the CSRs (or your aggressive attitude - what does that suggest?) so much as the lame systems they invariably have to work in, and general incompetence that seems to so pervasive throughout Orange. It was very clear to me that the levels of service dropped dramatically from later-2004ish, and plenty of people here have encountered exactly that & decided it's time to look elsewhere.

[Guest pinky123]

I've always made a point of being extremely polite to CSRs - and, yes, have encountered many who have tried to help.

I've also encountered several who were plain rude, obstinate, and unhelpful.

The point isn't so much the CSRs (or your aggressive attitude - what does that suggest?) so much as the lame systems they invariably have to work in, and general incompetence that seems to so pervasive throughout Orange. It was very clear to me that the levels of service dropped dramatically from later-2004ish, and plenty of people here have encountered exactly that & decided it's time to look elsewhere.

Thanks for the reply. I have always done my upmost to help customers. The other night i was on a call which lasted an hour and twenty minutes. I have phoned call centres myself and i will always try to make the call i take with the customer better than the service i got.

There has to be a damm good reason why i can not resolve the call there and then. If not i will follow it up and call the customer back. You should try calling when the nightshift is working you will be suprised as we are a different breed.

Live long and prosper :)

[Guest Tech]

RESPECT? i dont think you know the meaning of the word respect.

we customers of orange, past or present, are customers who deserve respect since we take out contracts from your company.

being an employee of orange (not me, you) i think perhaps your manager would not be impressed with the thread at all. Not a good idea!

After the personal experience I have had, and many others, you want "respect"? even after the treatment we recieved? give me a break.

the previous price plans were much better than now - so now you pay more for less and you want respect?

what about the orange loyalty customers? do they get respect? no.

what about the customer service - do they treat us/me with respect? no - not the last few times I phoned being polite - the person I am and have been brought up to be - yet I got treated like crap - and that is the respect I/we deserve?

because of such actions/attitudes - no wonder many people are leaving orange - and you want respect? you got it....

I also agree 100% with sporky - putting aside my differences with orange.

everyone has opinions and if you are "sick and tired" of reading them - then dont - you wouldnt have to read this opinions if the quality of CS was good from orange - which is not.

pretty much a meany company with no respect or care about customers - ever heard the saying customer is always right? no..guess not.

being an employee of a company (who I wish not to say for alot of reasons) - we believe on critical feedback and improvment and do orange care and improve? no. - companies are all about improvement and having success and currently orange are not showing it.

you EARN respect - you cant take it or be given it

[Guest pinky123]

RESPECT? i dont think you know the meaning of the word respect.

we customers of orange, past or present, are customers who deserve respect since we take out contracts from your company.

being an employee of orange (not me, you) i think perhaps your manager would not be impressed with the thread at all. Not a good idea!

After the personal experience I have had, and many others, you want "respect"? even after the treatment we recieved? give me a break.

the previous price plans were much better than now - so now you pay more for less and you want respect?

what about the orange loyalty customers? do they get respect? no.

what about the customer service - do they treat us/me with respect? no - not the last few times I phoned being polite - the person I am and have been brought up to be - yet I got treated like crap - and that is the respect I/we deserve?

because of such actions/attitudes - no wonder many people are leaving orange - and you want respect? you got it....

I also agree 100% with sporky - putting aside my differences with orange.

everyone has opinions and if you are "sick and tired" of reading them - then dont - you wouldnt have to read this opinions if the quality of CS was good from orange - which is not.

pretty much a meany company with no respect or care about customers - ever heard the saying customer is always right? no..guess not.

being an employee of a company (who I wish not to say for alot of reasons) - we believe on critical feedback and improvment and do orange care and improve? no. - companies are all about improvement and having success and currently orange are not showing it.

you EARN respect - you cant take it or be given it

I am here to defend the company i work for my workmates and my job. It may suprise you to learn i like my job and i like going to work.

If i was to come on here and say that the company YOU work for were crap, your workmates were incompantent and you did not know what you were talking about what would YOU do?

I think with your atatude you need some anger management.

[Guest Tech]

really? I think your the one that needs such a thing as you were the one who came out raging - not me. perhaps your company could pay for it if they have enough profit left....

know your audience son.

nuff said.

Sure I would defend my company however I am also the person that likes to take in feedback PROFESSIONALLY and respond to them with a professional manner - unlike what you have done.

yet I see that you didnt even respond to my questions - and you started on the personal attacks - not me or us. do your research.

tbh - i dont care how you reply or what you reply with - i said my bits and stand by them very strongly - there is no need to waste my time on people like yourself who are not willing to listen and like to start trouble for no reason.

have a great evening! And just for the record - i LOVE my job.

[Guest pinky123]

The only reason i started this post is that there are plenty of posts slagging the company i work for off but none defending it.

[Guest sporkguy]

The only reason i started this post is that there are plenty of posts slagging the company i work for off but none defending it.

In my book 'attack' does not mean 'defence' - as they are two completely different things.

I suggest when defending your company, you do so in a manner that will not upset the regulars here at this site.

As you mentioned earlier,

If i was to come on here and say that the company YOU work for were crap, your workmates were incompantent and you did not know what you were talking about what would YOU do?

Difference being, this is a forum where we discuss openly the telecoms industry and handsets - you were the one who stumbled upon this site

You are well within your rights to defend Orange, but to do so in an agressive and unprofessional manner does nothing to help your cause I'm afraid.

Now - shall we start again, but do it nicely this time?

Thanks.

[Guest impy78]

Right lets start. I work for Orange on the phones. All i get all night are the same people like you lot who like nothing more than to complain at us saying how rubbish we are. I wish all you people who are leaving orange good luck with your new chums at T-mobile who do not work 24 hrs.

So i do hope you never have a problem with your phone,wish to upgrade or have a question about your bill after ten at night or before seven in the morning as you have not got a hope in hell of getting through to anyone. Even if you phone between 07.00 and 22.00 you will get charged 25 pence for the call.

The one thing you all need is RESPECT. If you phone up and say you WANT this and WANT that most times you will not get it. How about i would like or any chance of?

And do you think that if you wanted for example a M5000 and you only spent about ?20 a month you would stand a chance? ?20 x 12 = ?240 DOH

I could go on but hey you want to go thats your choice. As for OVP we are doing you a favour. No other mobile network offers this.

So give us all a break who work at Orange. Yes there may be some bad eggs but most of try to help the customer and earn a living. You try doing it. I am sure with most of your attatudes you will be like the csr's you are slagging off. :)

I have never been anything but polite when I have called Orange. I am sure that whilst at work you do everything you can to help your customers. However, there are some of your collegues, who are, to put it kidly, a little terse and undertrained, so you would seem to be something of an exception to the rule.

Afetr all, it is Orange advisors who have:

a) Implied I know nothing about technical issues, because I am female (even though I clearly knew more than they did, as they didn't even know what an outage was);

b ) Openly mocked my accent when speaking to me;

c) Advised that I need to call back and speak to someone else, as they didn't know the answer to my question;

d) Come on to a public forum and started trolling a load of people who would never ever even dream of speaking to another human being the way you have spoken to us today.

We are polite on the phone, however, we are only human and we need an outlet - this is it.

There are actually other people who work for Orange, however they do not feel the need to come racing to Orange's defence by way of abusing other people in a playground-bully type manner.

May I politely suggest that you go away, find a sense of perspective and lose the persecution complex, because I can guarrantee that the muti-billion dollar making France telecom will not rushing to your defence any time soon.

[Guest Tech]

good job impy - but also really shocked that someone would mock your accent - why do such a thing? total low life it is..... :)

[Guest sp00k]

Right lets start. I work for Orange on the phones. All i get all night are the same people like you lot who like nothing more than to complain at us saying how rubbish we are.....

OK, so Pinky didn't start with a particularly diplomatic post but I think some of you failed to take much notice of the first line of it, above...

I've not worked as a C.S.O. but I've known and talked to quite a few people who have... and I've also had the (mis)fortune of dealing with the public in other fields... An appreciable percentage of whom I would politely class as idiots, in my experience.

The civil, pleasant and friendly customer is, to a lot of public call-centre workers, a refreshing change. Many customers who call can range from the type that knows considerably more about the workings of the company and it's technicalities than the Operator does, or at least think that they do... (though in some very few cases, I'll admit that they're probably right in this belief)

Then we have the type that insists that whatever they want doing is done, regardless of whether or not the Op is able to do it, either because of it being against company policy, beyond their authority or because they are restricted by the system.

There is also the sort of customer that openly treats the Op as a social inferior, a mere servant to their commands, this is another species that is generally disliked... But top of the heap are the irate fools who, at the slightest provocation, tells the Op be they male or female, to go forth and multiply... and worse! This species is more common than you may think... People can be extremely "brave" over the phone!

Incidentally it's not unknown for some "customers" to use the free Op number to call when none too sober and try to initiate a 'sex-chat line' type of conversation... Would you like your wife, daughter, sister or girlfriend exposed to these perverted and obscene calls? Ops have considerably more to put up with in the course of their duties than you might imagine!

But I'm not like that, I hear you say, I wouldn't dream of treating operators that way.... No, you probably wouldn't but an awful lot do and when you suffer that sort of abuse day after day, it tends to taint your opinion of the Great British Public... You learn to anticipate it and it has a tendency to harden your attitude towards customers in general, unfortunately.

I've every sympathy with Pinky, I doubt that I could suffer fools even half so gladly!

[Guest Tech]

I wouldve replied to that however I am not going to. To reply would again proove my point - and to be the better person in all of this, I am not going to reply really however I will say this as my last reply to this hidious thread.....

You are not willing to think outside the box and consider others, who perhaps maybe in your situation or not - and as i have said a few times before, there is no consideration for others without a cheap reply.

There are much more important things than this to which I am going to attend to, so have a great day!

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

At the end of the day there are some really good people who work for Orange and some that should go back to the hole they came out of.

I have seen both sides of the support so lets agree to disagree on some matters.

And now lets get back to keeping the site friendly place to visit.

[Guest Monolithix (MVP)]

Personally i agree with pinky, and compared to some of the posts i've seen on here i see nothing wrong with his post. The entire Orange forum is a flamepit.

Now I'm not denying that the O CS hasn't been perfect, but certain members are just taking pleasure in picking at everything. Sporkguy - you should know that the phone retail industry is a minefield for terms and conditions, looking at my Orange contract there is literally pages of small print, i admit i didnt read it all when i signed up, and i'm sure most other customers don't either, resulting in the customer often being wrong.

The poor guy here has posted his opinion just as everyone else does in painful detail and got flamed back to hell. There are definately trolls here but pinky is certainly not one of them.

I still stand by what i have always said - i am a happy Orange customer and have had no worse problems with their service than any other company i've used.

[Guest Jamma14]

I gotta agree with Mono here guys, whether or not Orange's service has deteriorated over the past few years, and whatever you're personal experiences have been, doesn't mean everyone should start taking it out on this guy, I think it's fair enough that he posted what he did, if I was an honest Orange employee and came across this forum, I might've have started a similar topic.

There are enough thread's slagging Orange off and to hear the other point of view is refreshing, and I don't think we should be supressing other people's views with agressive replies, let's try to keep this topic flame free from now on. :)

[Guest mavisdavis]

Right lets start. I work for Orange on the phones. All i get all night are the same people like you lot who like nothing more than to complain at us saying how rubbish we are. I wish all you people who are leaving orange good luck with your new chums at T-mobile who do not work 24 hrs.

So i do hope you never have a problem with your phone,wish to upgrade or have a question about your bill after ten at night or before seven in the morning as you have not got a hope in hell of getting through to anyone. Even if you phone between 07.00 and 22.00 you will get charged 25 pence for the call.

The one thing you all need is RESPECT. If you phone up and say you WANT this and WANT that most times you will not get it. How about i would like or any chance of?

And do you think that if you wanted for example a M5000 and you only spent about ?20 a month you would stand a chance? ?20 x 12 = ?240 DOH

I could go on but hey you want to go thats your choice. As for OVP we are doing you a favour. No other mobile network offers this.

So give us all a break who work at Orange. Yes there may be some bad eggs but most of try to help the customer and earn a living. You try doing it. I am sure with most of your attatudes you will be like the csr's you are slagging off. :)

<_< I understand how you must feel and I do agree with you that alot of people dont respect the shite you lot go through. I am one of the "I would like - please can I have"customers. Altho ive tried for 4wks to upgrade from the M500 to M600. out of my 12months. ?50 prmth min spend on cantract they still want ?50 to upgrade.

Untill yesterday that was when 1 Bloke (cant remeber his name) said that he'll see what he could do as I did say I'm not a nagging user but I he must be able to see fmy rustration. He went through to retentions and offered it me free and doubled all my mins n txt for 12 mtnh. I feel that untill you do get the right OCS staff member its like banging your head against a wall sometimes.

But you have to admit that the OCS has gone down hill in the last 6mths or at least the policies have..

[Guest confucious]

His "defence" of Orange consistes of saying that T's CS is shut from 2200 to 0700 and that they charge for calling them (which they don't on contract).

When you do phone them they are polite, pleasant and helpful and have good products to offer. Maybe if Orange were the same he wouldn't have to put up with so many irate customers.

It is dificult to defend the indefensible.

My ?32/month with T gets me up to 900 mins or 1800 texts and unlimited data. I still have a contract with O which costs ?30 / month for 200 mins. I know which suits me better.

I'm sure some people are still happy with O - Mono for one, but I wasn't, I left and am very pleased I did. A quick look in the T-Mob forum will give many examples of good CS, unfortunatly you no longer seem to get those in the O forum....

[Guest Wildfire]

Personally i think Orange have lost sight of the customer, they have become too wrapped up in one thing....money money money.

I understand that it is important a company generates money, but there is no effoer of Oranges part to enerate a long term relationship with their customers, they seem to be doing what singlepoint were doing a few years ago.....fleecing them for everything they are worth in the contract period and then letting them go.

Pinky, just to give you an insight, i spent 5 years in the trainig team in Orange, i left when it became clear that all they wanted was for operators to pay lip service to customers and deliver nothing, i am still a customer, but for how long i do not know.

Recently i worked for Vodafone, i am now self employed, WOW!!! what a difference in ethos, attiude, and willingness, maybe Orange should b worried by the like of Voda and T mobile, i hear that retentions is very busy currently.

I remember a time when Orange was the best for customer service, those days are long gone and will most likely never come back

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

His "defence" of Orange consistes of saying that T's CS is shut from 2200 to 0700 and that they charge for calling them (which they don't on contract).

They do charge if you choose the online billing option which happens to also save you ?3 per month on your bill.

Because of this option you are then expected to deal with the Cs via email.

I'm quite happy to do that as it saves me ?36 a year, or in other words I technically get one month of free rental on my contract.

[Guest Honest John]

Nothing like reading agood old verbal punch up on a wet Sunday afternoon.

I think that Pinky 123 is probably more closer to this than most of the posters - except other CS reps. So, in prespective, his job is being jeopardised with comments that slag of and could harm Orange, the rest of us just use Orange as a phone service, of which there are several. So, no problems in defending your company.

And many CS guys are excellent, but I have to say that Orange for a while have had a real succession of less qualified CS guys and in the early days of Smartphones...........................forget it!

What Pinky really needs to look at through less rose tinted spectacles, though (that was nearly a joke) id the cold hard facts.

Are Orange losing customers? It would appear that they are.

Are they profitable customers? Some certainly are.

Are they signing up new ones? Talking to CPW guys and other High St stores, the new plans are

difficult to sell.

What will happen to the job if customers depart in droves?

However emotive the language on the posts, put that to one side. I have been a member of Modaco forum for many years. I have never seen so many posts complaining about Orange. never. They can't all be wrong. Sure enough, there have been the odd posts slagging off all networks ( and the Onestpphoneshop!!!) over the years, but recently, this has been a flood against Orange.

What Orange CS guys should be doing, is printing these message, copying the URLs and forwarding them on to top management to get competitive and whoever hires and monitors the CS to weed out the poor ones who are giving the rest of you a bad name (I agree that the late shift are usually very good. Do they keep the best ones for the late shift to work with less supervision?)

Anyway, we need Orange to get back to what they were. We need 2 good challengers to O2 and Vodafone, both of whome somehow just don't do it for met, although O2's latest special of 750 minutes, a great phone all for ?35 per month seems to be a step in the right direction.

So, here's to a rethink at Orange!

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

Good post honest john and sums it up nicely for both "sides" :)

[Guest pinky123]

I gotta agree with Mono here guys, whether or not Orange's service has deteriorated over the past few years, and whatever you're personal experiences have been, doesn't mean everyone should start taking it out on this guy, I think it's fair enough that he posted what he did, if I was an honest Orange employee and came across this forum, I might've have started a similar topic.

There are enough thread's slagging Orange off and to hear the other point of view is refreshing, and I don't think we should be supressing other people's views with agressive replies, let's try to keep this topic flame free from now on. :)

Thank you!!

I never stared this post to offend anyone,but as i said in a previous reply that it seems like everyone is out to bad mouth us. I like nothing more than to sort a customers problem out and to end the call thinking that i have done everything i could to help them. To get a customer on the phone who cheers you up and makes you happy is fantastic. I even enjoy getting a call that starts with the caller wanting to escalate but sorting the problem out myself and then getting thanked at the end of it.

Yes Impy, if someone mocked my accent i would be spitting blood, it is disgusting and i would have been on here to say about it. There is no need to take out your frustrations out on the customer who only called in because h/she has a problem. What sort of advertisement is that for the company you work for.

I am sorry if i offended anyone.

Live long and prosper

[Guest pd.ryder]

Pinky - I've worked in a variety of high-pressure positions, often being required to offer 'good customer support' to those who are genuinely extremely cheesed-off.

More often than not, I've been limited in my response to complaints and/or concerns expressed by these service users due to the systems used by the Company I worked for (ie I might well have been able to resolve issues there and then but for a variety of reasons have had to let it sit for 24-48 hours as dictated by Company Policy). As a rule, the service user has no real beef with me personally. However, as the Company's representative, I would be on the receiving end of 'vented spleens' every other working day (and often by telephone on my weekends off!)

Regardless of how cheesed-off or aggressive these people were, I was required to provide a helpful attitude, even when these people were venting highly expressed emotion in an inappropriate manner.

My impartial suggestion is to develop a 'professional detachment'. Orange is not your Company, you don't write the rule book. You are required to follow these rules, however, which can cause untold frustration and annoyance to yourself and your customers. You can only do your best within the Company's policy framework. It's not you people are getting at, but the recent, perceived changes at Orange.

Sit back a bit, let the stress wash over you and take strength from it - before it takes it's toll on your heart :)