Orange bill - any advice please?

[Guest barrybryce]

I had this months Orange bill in. It was massively lower than last months, but I didn't think I'd used the phone that much less. I've had a look at the last two bills, and this is the difference: A series of 1 hour data calls through one evening, the middle of the night and into the next afternoon on the second last bill, that I didn't make.

On the same bill there were also some 7 to 10 hour calls that I didn't make, I noticed these at the time because the length stood out. On that occasion Customer Services on 150 only gave me a £10 credit (they were during the night at 1p / min) towards them after a lot of arguing and because I threatened to cancel the contract.

This time around I've just upgraded to the C500 and can't make that threat... And as these ones are during the day at 35p a min there's a lot more involved - £56 including VAT. :shock:

Again, the calls are impossible; unless you've spent a night / day making hour long data calls at exactly 5 to the hour every hour... :roll:

Any advice on how / who to complain to? I don't expect 150 to be any use... :)

orangebill.jpg

[Guest beersoft]

hmm, thats not good

its is a modem your connecting to, but finding out what isp its connected to is going to be tricky, bt might be your best bet for that.

i would check in your settings > data connctions > csd data for any none orange settings as that might be it, set your idle disconnect to something (not never) and also turn of automatic checking of email as that might be causing the phone to randomly dial out.

later

Owen

[Guest barrybryce]

It was Tiscali - I was using the phone as a modem for the computer. I'd just moved and had to wait weeks for BT to come to put a line in, and couldn't get GPRS.

The phone had kept on dropping the connection - sometimes up to every 3-5 mins - and I'd complained to O about this. It seems that what has happened was that when it had to the best of my believe it had dropped the connection again (ie the phone had frozen and I couldn't get it to do anything without taking the battery out and re-booting, and the computer wasn't finding anything to talk to) that the call was still running.

Orange took the line that it was negligent for me not to reboot the phone immediately. But I didn't know it would've been up to that - and it is their phone insured through them that's buggered things up...

That could've explained the 7 / 7 / 10 hour calls, but not a series of 1 hour calls. (I have never had the phone set to check for e-mails)

I'm on the phone to them at the moment, and have been for 40 mins :cry: :evil:

[Guest barrybryce]

Oh well, over an hour and a half since I first rang. Been assured that my call is important to them every thirty seconds, but still haven't had any one to talk to. :evil:

And I need to get to work tomorrow...

Currently not Mr Happy Bunny Who Thinks Orange Are Wonderful. :roll:

I shall send a letter of complaint (odd way to contact a phone company I know, but not listening to that song again).

I shall also post a copy of the letter and any reply here.

[Guest barrybryce]

I have spoken to the lovely people at Orange.

I have just been told that my total data charge for the billing period was only £13 (yes, that's what my GPRS was), so I don't need to be worrying about thinking I've been charged £56 for any calls. She also explained to me how on GPRS you only get charged for the actual data transferred, not time.

I tried to explain the two types of data call and what happened, didn't really get anywhere with a person that didn't want to know and kept on interrupting, got put on hold for a wee while, and then told that someone would phone me back but it might be a few days. Didn't manage to point the person towards looking at individual days on the bill, don't know whether the person couldn't get that on screen or if they couldn't be bothered.

Got told that whatever it was it was my fault lots of times, and that the person who phoned me back would tell me that too. Given I didn't manage to transmit the nature of my complaint to her, or ever even finish a sentence, she's unlikely to manage to get the nature of the complaint across to mysterious third person :) ...

Grrrr... I almost wish I hadn't looked back now.

(Below is an example from the bill of where I kept on trying to connect but was getting cut off)

orangebill2.jpg

[Guest ajb3000]

IS there anything to be read into the fact that when you tried you dialled 448..., and the other hour long calls were dialled in the 08.... format? Also, did you really leave your phone connected to your PC all that time?

[Guest chucky.egg]

But those calls in your bills aren't GPRS connections they're CSD (dial-up) connections and so not covered by your GPRS bundle!

[Guest barrybryce]

ajb - hadn't noticed that, thanks! And in reply to the question, no! Would have been in my pocket during the day!

Chris, I know. But try telling O Customer Services...

Posted from my SmartPhone!

[Guest Dade]

Have you tried asking to speak to a team leader? You may need to insist on it and ask them to use the esculation procedure.

Also if you dont get anywhere with a particular operator, rather than get frustrated, hang up and call back. Tip for getting thru quickly, when you call 150 and they start listing the options dial 632, you normally get thru much quicker. And dont worry too much about departments, all the ops are in the same place!

[Guest barrybryce]

Handy advice about the phone line! Wish I'd known that the day they brought out the real Mr Fury in me. I waited 54 mins to speak to someone, and then they decided without reason that they didn't believe I was me!

I went in to the O shop at lunchtime, and they phoned and put me through to someone that seemed to listen.

But they didn't say anything definite, just said that they would get someone to look at the bill and see if it was correct, and that if any credit was due, they would put it on my bill but it might not be the next one (which gets issued on 5th October!).

If they say no, does anyone know if Orange care would cover it? If these calls have been 'made', then they're certainly the result of the phone being faulty...

I may be insomniac, but I don't have the stamina to spend that length of time on the phone! (I'd have lost track in the early hours of the morning and one of the calls wouldn't have been an exact hour). Come to think of it - did the original SPV have that kind of life? The battery life was hardly 17 hours even not making any calls!!!

Just as I was enjoying C500 life and thinking Orange were wonderful again... that'll learn me! :roll:

[Guest ajb3000]

That's a very good point, unless your phone was plugged in all that time the battery wouldn't have lasted anywhere near as long as that.

[Guest barrybryce]

... set your idle disconnect to something (not never)  

I've been trying to look into this one - is this a setting I'd find on the phone, or do you mean the computer one?

If it's a phone setting, would anybody be able to tell me what the default was on the original SPV? (Don't have one any more, but whatever it was I wouldn't have changed it!).

If it's the computer one, it was set at ten mins, but as the phone was unplugged and carted off many miles away from switched off computer while the calls were being 'made'...

Many thanks

Edit:

Latest is a text message advising that my billing problem has been referred to IT Support. :roll: Good? bad? The last person said Data Integrity needed to deal with it... :?: