Strange call from Orange

[Guest shuurajou]

Hi there,

Orange will not call you in this manner, for sure. Even if when you were asked you opted in, your details are NOT passed onto third parties. The companies that do this, and claim to be Orange, and are NOT allowed to do this. You must let Orange know if this happens, because it's the only way Orange can stop them. Orange has been going for a few of these companies lately, but the companies bit back saying that Orange Employee's were calling them 'dodgy dealers' and that it was slanderous (but completely true).

Orange try to be very strict on data protection, as it is indeed the law. You will know if it's Orange Customer Services as the telephone number calling you will be 07973100194.

It's difficult, because as you can imagine, Orange CSR's cannot call customers, and just start talking to them about their account information without first verifying it is the account holder on the line. The only way to do this is to ask personal details. Although it's obviously better if customers call Orange, I don't think many customers would like getting a call from Orange, only to be told to call Orange in the first place. NO personal information would be given out if name/password verification couldn't be done.

Edited May 30, 2005 by shuurajou

[Guest extravagant]

I really doubt its from Orange, caution everyone, lots of lame scammers with no education and therefore no good paying job so they try to screw everyone else over.

[Guest Rui_Costa]

just a note on the txts that cost you money - i never signed up for anything and somebody was sending my old phone (o2 PAYG) these texts i took it to the o2 shop and they said its nothing to do with us - thid party...etc.

but she said text stop to whatevcer number that might work.

on the subject of 'orange' calling you, i beleive i recieved a call near the start of my contrcat saying i could have an upgrade.....i am beginning to think this may well have been a ploy for telesales people to upgrade thier detaiks on when my ACTUAL contract finishes and when they call me back with the same spiel.

i also recieved a call from a company (phone retailer) asking if i was still with the company after 12 months. i never accepted the job offer. ;)

[Guest Griff_FFOC]

It's not too difficult for someone to ring your mobile and say they are ringing on behalf of Orange. They only need to look at your phone number, and if you haven't ported it to another network, they can usually tell which network you are on. This is why they have no idea on when your contract is due for renewal, or indeed which handset you have.

I got four calls in three weeks from people 'on behalf of orange' (mobile upgrade centre rings a bell) wanting me to upgrade my handset, they even left messages on my answer phone to ring them back on their freephone number, lol. Why would I when i'm only 5 months into my contract and have a C500. doh.

I asked them to remove me from their database and they seem to have stopped, for now.

[Guest feck_on_a_stick]

I got a similar call from them around the same time as you did and was caught off guard and unfortunately I was stupid enough to give out my password. They wanted to know if I wanted to upgrade to a woop-de-doo better mobile for a small price of £100 haha. When I said I didnt want to they said no probs and gave me £5 international call credit. After five minutes of feeling smug about getting something for nothing I soon realised what a jerk I was and rang Orange to change my password. The guy was able to tell me though that it was actually them that rang before. After reading this message I dont really know what they were playing at!

[Guest paddy_mcnulty]

one scam that is companies that offer you an upgrade and if you say yes and give them all your details - "we just need to confirm your address and other details, etc" - they send you a phone but they have actually signed you up to a seperate and new contract. You then have two contracts and therefore two line rentals, etc. My sister fell for this and after talking to Orange - who confirmed that this is what had happened - we eventually managed to get Orange to cancel the second contract. Orange said it was normally carried out by small unscruplious companies, I gave them the details and Ornage said they end that companies right to sign people on to Ornage as it was bad for Orange and bad for customers. Although it took a while for Ornage to come round but once they did they proved to be offering excellent customer services.

[Guest Xenzo1990]

Ye, that happened to me about 6 months ago. Same, the contract was nowhere near renewal date.

[Guest Kanga]

There is a company based in Manchester who trades under various names and is qute bad for cold calling and text messaging. If you call the 0800 number supplied, they claim to be the UK's biggest Orange dealer, but according to Orange this is nonsense, although there's nothing they can do.

If you do get called by a company claiming to be calling on behalf of Orange, advise them that they are not as Orange do not supply our numbers to third parties. Also ask them for the parent company each time they ring and if they don't stop when asked, report them to your operator.

Also for those who register their number with the telephone preference service, make sure you register all your numbers this includes fax and data numbers which can be obtained from your operator. I discovered that I still received text messages via my mobile fax number.

At the end of the day, if these people still keep ring, use the only last line of defence they seem to understand - verbal abuse allows you to get rif of a lot of steam! ;)