Guest eldiablo Posted March 6, 2006 Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 I've been a loyal Orange customer for 7 years now and I've owned a smartphone since the E100. However, my contract is up for renewal next month and I'm seriously considering jumping ship and getting a free MDA II, with copilot. I'm a bit wary because the deal seems too good to be true. I think the best I'll get out of Orange is a new C600, for about the same monthly cost. Is T-Mobile's customer service even worse than Orange's, or can anyone give me another compelling reason not to switch. My (probably misplaced) loyalty to Orange is giving me doubts. The T-mobile contract is 18 months but I can handle that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pondrew Posted March 6, 2006 Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 I've found T-Mobile (been with them for coming upto 1.5years now) to be better in general then Orange (who I was a customer with for several years before). The T-Mobile online account details are far better then Orange's version displaying upto date allowance info for everything (Data, Texts, etc). Orange only display minutes. The T-Mobile online info seems to be updated almost instantly too unlike Orange where it seems you're luck if it's updated daily (I still have an Orange account too). As for customer services, I've had no problems. In general I find T-Mobile slightly better BUT like with all customer services lines, some reps are more knowledgeable and more helpful then others. One thing you should pay attention to is whether you're signing upto the online self-service option whereby you WILL have to pay 50p a minute for calling customer services (although I hear you can just email them online for free and they call you back very promptly). I say go for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eldiablo Posted March 6, 2006 Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 Thanks for your help, I think I will be switching. I know Orange have never been the cheapest operator but they seem miles off the competition at the moment. I see you currently have a C550 and a MDA compact. Am I likely to miss anything by moving from my C500? Except its compact features of course ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pondrew Posted March 6, 2006 Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 One thing you might miss is the profiles (for example where a Smartphone chooses Silent profile when you have a timed meeting in Pocket Outlook) as the Pocket PC Phone doesn't have profiles as such by default. But you can check out PPCProfiles Pro free from here. It reintroduces profile functionality. Personally I'd say the Pocket PC platform is fuller and more feature packed then the Smartphone platform, added to which Pocket PC software is far more wide ranging... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Confucious Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 The only other drawbck with T-Mob which doesn't affect the Compact II is their "patchy" 3G coverage compared to Orange who sem to have the best 3G (but also the most expensive) and they think 40 Mb is enough for 3G (it's not). Just thought I'd mention this in case anyone is reading this thinking of the MDA Pro. I did have a T-Mob SIM that had a number that had been used before and signed up to an expensive text message service and it was a pain but eventually they swapprd it and refunded but I think that could happen with anyone. Apart from that, like Pondrew says,T-Mob seem V Good. Go for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pondrew Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 But what I don't get is that, assuming 3G users are navigating to the same number of websites, using Messenger the same amount, and downloading their emails/updating their software the same number of times, how can it use more data then traditional GPRS/EDGE? I mean, 3G doesn't use more data for the same functions/same amount of data does it, just does it quicker. Never had a 3G device so not experienced it myself... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Confucious Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 I was using 50 - 70 Mb / month for the first 3 months when Data was free. You don't use more for the same thing but you do use it a lot more. 3G makes full internet usage not only possible but a pleasure and on the large VGA screen of the universal if data was still free I'm sure my usage would have gone up not down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pondrew Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 I see. I felt the same after changing onto Web N Walk. All of a sudden I had 40meg to use where before I'd rationed 12meg a month. Haven't come close to using the 40 yet and what's really peculiar is that this month the allowance rolled over (something that I thought was NOT meant to happen!). As a result I started the month with an allowance of 56meg (16meg from last month and the new months 40meg!) 8) I can imagine the Universal's VGA screen being an absolute pleasure if you made use of a browser with true VGA such as the new one from Opera... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Confucious Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 Orange's price for data is prohibitive so I have actually removed my connection until I can find a decent price plan - I've already used 12Mb since the1st and I only have 4Mb until I can change. I've downloaded Opera but won't install it until I can afford to use it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eldiablo Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 Apologies for interrupting an intelligent discussion with a dumb question but can you use your data allowance to send emails instead of texts to bog-standard mobile users? If yes that'll save me an extra few quid on a text package. I'm ringing Orange tonight to tell them about the deal I've seen and see if they'll try and compete. Doubt it somehow...I can't see them pushing the boat out for a £40 a month customer, reading how they treat their £400 a months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Confucious Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 Not a dumb question at all - If you could I would! Unfortunatly you'd need an email to SMS gateway and they all cost at least as much as mrmal texts. Unless someone else knows different.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fraser Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 Some guys did do a service like this. You per-paid for text messages with them and the phone sent the messages using GPRS direct to their service. I'm not sure if they are still around, but the guys who did it were present here on Modaco at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zoky Posted March 23, 2006 Report Share Posted March 23, 2006 (edited) eldiablo, why you don't wait for Orange SPV M600 (HTC Prophet) ??? It's better than MDA Compact II (HTC Charmer)! ZZ Edited March 23, 2006 by zoky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chunky Monkey Posted March 23, 2006 Report Share Posted March 23, 2006 I have been with Orange for yonks & think they are brill, always helpful always polite always there. I have only had a couple of issues with them, 1 was not letting me port my number from contract to buisness. 2, wouldn't do the deal I wanted. I went to Express Communications, very good people it took 3 days but I got the phone I wanted on the contract I wanted & they kept throwing free stuff at me the longer I took to sign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now