Orange UK

[Guest Tech]

from what ive heard from other long time orange customers - they do not care about old/valuable customers!!

[Guest afhstingray]

i've been with a lot of mobile networks, in the uk and all around the world. the coin zipper part of my wallet is actually full of sim cards, not coins. as far as my experience goes, i've gotten the best service from orange! thats not to say their service is good...i'd say its the best out of the worst !

p.s anyone hear anything about the supposedly very nice data add ons they have planned for next year?

[Guest monkeygadge]

Right then,

On friday, my Orange SIM stopped sending txt around 3pm. The phone worked for calls until 4am Sat morning when it lost the network. Went to sleep. I plugged in my O2 SIM around 12noon Saturday. Network coverage OK. Recieved a couple of txts after a few minutes. Set up my GPRS and MMS which worked perfectly ;) (after sh*t for brains me took 2 hours to work out the right settings :roll: ). Still couldn't send txts. Sunday morning, txts sending perfectly.

All in all a pretty smooth transition, but then again, most of the time I was in my bed :D

Thoroughly happy with O2 for the moment. It's a shame about Orange. They need to come up with a SIM only strategy. Until they do I feel they will loose a lot of customers.

[Guest dasingh]

I too an another irritated Orange customer

My contract ended in Oct and I can upgrade anytime, I wanted to upgrade to the W800i

Was told that I would have to pay £99.99, even though new customers on the same tariff can get the phone for £29.99. Spoke to customer services and then retentions and they said "Sorry sir thats the price on the system, we cant change it"

To make matters worse, my sister who is half way through her contract and pays less line rental than me can get the phone for FREE :shock: :shock: I'm just so annoyed that they can do anything for me, have been with orange for 7 years now and their recent ad campaign of "relationships get better with time" is loads of BS

I spoke to them again and they said, we can give it to you for £49.99, but I'm like how comes you cant even match your OWN price, just keep getting "sorry sir thats the best we can do"

So I'm contemplating disconnecting :evil: :evil:

Not very happy

[Guest shadamehr]

I have my main number as an O2 Online account - crap for Customer Service when things go wrong (though it is no longer a premium rate number anymore), but the mid-range tariffs are great - £30 for 200 Xnet anytime minutes, and 500 texts, which can be used for MMS on the basis of four sms used up for one MMS, plus a small amount of inclusive WAP/data browsing.

As I have other contracts all over, thus allowing me handset upgrades, etc, I changed this a while ago to the SIM only option, which is only a 30 day contract, but doesn't allow handset upgrades. I now get 400 Xnet anytime minutes and 1000 texts a month for the same £30 - BARGAIN and then some.

My partenr also uses an O2 Online account (we both have done since the day it was launched years ago as Genie Online).

I ALSO have however, as well as various Voda contracts, and my new O2 contract for my SP5, a couple of Orange contracts.

One of them is the 3000 Text only tariff for £20 a month our lass hammers.

The other is a standard affair, 200 Xnet anytime minutes and 500 texts a month for £30 - same as the O2 online one, except you CAN'T use it for free MMS.

I have been waiting ages for ANY half decent phones to come to Orange so I could do an Upgrade on both these accounts, as I am well overdue one.

And Orange have NOTHING in stock barely.

But it has just dawned on me...

As much as I will have to keep the text only account, the other one is likely to get ported to O2 or whoever, as there is no way I am gonna pay a fortune for a handset upgrade after waiting all this time, when I can get a nice new handset free elsewhere... AND get inclusive MMS for the same price.

So I am sorry, but aside from the Text only tariff, Orange just simply can't do fair deals now for retentions and upgrades, as other networks can.

So ONE of my accounts is off to someone else soon with a PAC code.

That will leave me with just one last remaining Orange contract.

Gone are the days when I had FIVE Orange contracts running.

I guess that kind of says it all really...

In decline... But is it terminal?

[Guest WillyBig1983]

Hi

I used to work for orange and its all true....even to me when i worked there.

I have been with Orange for over 5yrs and they treat me like they dont give a crap about my business just new business.

There motto should be "Bleed Em Dry & Chuck Em" or in some upgrade cases "bleed em again...mooohahah"

I get no signal with Orange and olnly use it to divert my calls to my network 3 phone. I know i could cancel but network 3 cant do PAC transfers in middle of contracts and i need the number ive had for years for business.

AHHHHH! I hate ORANGE!

[Guest rannoch]

A couple of questions - one on Orange one on O2

I'm 10 months into a 12 month Orange contract. To move to another provider (possibly O2 PAYG) when do I notify them of cancellation.

I linked to O2 site from this thread, and saw the PAYG deal of 100 anytime any network mins if you top up a tenner a month.

Is this real, or are there any catches.

Rannoch

[Guest monkeygadge]

I reckon you should inform them of your intentions to leave when you recieve and pay our second last bill. This should cover the advance charges for the last month of your contract, and give orange the 1 months notice they require?? (Do they still require 1 months notice when your in contract anyone?) It'll also give them a chance to get back to you with a better offer, (if there able to give you one!!)

[Guest sponge]

My wife's C500 mysteriously stopped working last Thursday. It had been sat in her handbag all day, unused, on silent, while she was at work. At the end of the day she got it out to check for calls, etc. It said the SIM was blocked and was asking for a PUK.

When she told me, it struck me as strange as the phone is configured to auto-lock the keypad with a PIN required to reactivate it. Even if the phone's keypad was somehow being pressed whilst in the unaccompanied handbag, how would it lock the SIM card? The phone itself, maybe. But not the SIM card.

Anyway, she didn't call Orange until Friday morning and they gave her the (I think 8 digit) PUK number. It didn't work. The cursor wouldn't move to the following field to allow the entry of a new PIN number. Neither would the phone accept the PUK number - the 'Done' button remained greyed out. (I wondered if it wasn't actually the SIM that was blocked, but the screen clearly said 'SIM blocked'.)

This totally confused the guy from Orange. Despite rebooting the phone a few times, it wouldn't work and he was at a loss. So he transferred my wife to a different department.

They went through the same process and, of course, it still didn't work. She then asked if we could put the SIM card in another Orange phone. Fortunately, I'm on Orange too, so we could. (I don't know what she would have said if we couldn't try this.) I got the same problems.

I then tried my SIM card in my wife's phone. It worked fine. So, by process of ellimination, it's my wife's SIM card that is at fault. Great, I thought, we've identified the problem and it'll be a simple case for them to send out a new SIM card to us. But noooooooooo. 'We can't do that madam. I have to pass it over to another technical department, to do more tests!' She also added that her tests show the SIM is working, despite having made us go through all the SIM card swaps, clearing concluding it doesn't. But she said her computer wouldn't allow her to do anything else! :?:

I was livid and said so, quite loudly. Loud enough for the woman from Orange to here. I said, 'What? Why? Does the computer say no?' (aka Little Britain) Well, my wife was nearly in tears with laughter. :) But I don't think the woman from Orange was amused. :|

My wife was told it would take up to a week for them to contact us. But they called this morning. They had done some more tests and found the SIM card to be at fault. They are going to send her a new SIM card and seeing as though she is eligible for an upgrade, they'll waive the £17.50 fee! :shock:

Well, I'm glad I wasn't in when they called as I'd have given them hell. They want to charge us £17.50 to replace a faulty SIM card that is only 12 months old? :evil: Cheeky feckers!

My wife had the presence of mind to ask if such a generous offer would effect any future upgrade, but they said no. But to be honest, if it wasn't for the fact I was going to use her upgrade to get a C600, I'd just cancel the contract and move to Tescos' (o2) PAYG SIM only deal.

Edited November 21, 2005 by sponge

[Guest cfmj]

I too have jumped ship to O2.

It all started to go wrong with Orange about 18months ago when my Treo 600 went wrong 6months into a contract. Over the phone they were adamant that it was not their problem - even when I quoted the sale of goods act to them. Of course had I purchased Orange care from them they would have replaced it they told me, but as I hadn't - it was my problem not theirs.

Thankfully, my local Orange shop did listen to me and sent my phone for repair. I actually got a brand new one back and promptly ebayed it.

This year, 11months into my contract I asked for an upgrade to a C550 but was asked to pay £££ for it. New customers we getting a better deal. Goodbye Orange, hello O2.

[Guest mcwarre]

'New customers only' seems to be a recurring theme with Orange. I must admit that it seems they have clamped down hard in the last 3-6 months and are losing a significant amount of customers as a result.

Anyone from O care to comment?

[Guest James]

All i hear of is bad stuff about Orange these days.... i am always sticking up for them by saying their customer support is excellent when i hear tales of poor help from other networks.. i am getting worried whats happening, :/

[Guest qwertyuiop2k]

'New customers only' seems to be a recurring theme with Orange.  I must admit that it seems they have clamped down hard in the last 3-6 months and are losing a significant amount of customers as a result.

Anyone from O care to comment?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm getting a fairly large doses of "new customers only" at the moment from Orange. Despite wanting to increase my monthly contract they seem to want me to pay more for the M500 than a new customer would.

I've even had a Orange tubby recommend taking out a new contract and cancelling the old as a cost effective way of upgrading my contract!

As it stands I'm currently "exchanging emails" with Orange in a somewhat futile effort to find out why they are treating existing customers in this manner. So far I don't seem to be getting any answer at all from the executive.office@ email address and the same old "anything but an answer to the question" from the normal customer services address.

If I get any sort of sensible, or even honest (we don't want you, you don't spend enough) answer from them I'll post it.

[Guest SeeJ]

I'm up for moving to O2 for a lovely new sp5...

One question though - will I lose my orange.net email address?

I use it for everything. Maybe not a reason to stay with orange but it would be such a pain in the @ss to have to change it....

[Guest mupwangle]

I gave up on orange too. o2 now.

[Guest Tech]

To Sponge:

that is just UTTERLY shocking! :)

[Guest penguin]

shocking indeed maybe someone should goto ofcom with all these complaints & see what they have to say about it?

[Guest capt_janeway]

Also jumping ship from Orange to O2 as soon as phones2u get more SP5's in

[Guest]

I've been with Orange for more than 5 years now...and to be honest I've been extremely pleased with them. To my mind I pay for the service and the quality of service, I'm not interested in the cheapest offer, just a fair and balanced offer.

The first sign of a problem I had was last year when I "invested" in a Nokia 6600. I bought the phone from an Orange shop - big mistake for me!. The phone was abysmal from day one...mostly it has to be said due to the nightmare that is Nokia and Nokia software.

I tried to return my phone when I discovered that the ROM was TWO releases old when it was sold to me, brand new out-of-the-box. The Orange shop said sorry you've had if for more than 7 days, we can't/won't help. Not a good start. :cry:

Contact Nokia, the Orange shop said....Nokia said it would take up to 3 weeks to get the phone updated...and they couldn't guarentee that the phone would ever get back to me :shock:

I decided to try the Orange shop again just for clarification on options, access to upgrades, etc. The store folks I bought it from were useless to be honest. I perserved for several months contacting the shop when the phone developed yet another new problem each time I got more duff support from the shop people until one day when my phone failed in a major way - thank heavens for backups!

When I finally got it working I decided to call Orange directly. With hindsight I should have done this to begin with. They were excellent! :)

The Customer Care people that I spoke to made all of my options very clear and in the end replaced my phone.

When I made the call, I wasn't very happy, I was annoyed and frustrated. Orange addressed my concerns, and then fixed my problem - they sent me a replacement phone arrived 2 days later!

I've visted the Orange site and they do seem to have several deals on offer to existing clients some of them of interest to me some not.

I hope that those who have decided to move have better experiences in your new providers, you're clearly unhappy with the service that you've received to date and as such you should vote with your wallets if only to make it clear that what you have experienced is not acceptable. Perhaps the people that treated in the way that they did might be addressed by Orange if enough people complain or leave.

In any event I can say that Orange can and does still offer good (existing) customer support. I would have no hesitation recommending Orange.

BTW I don't work for Orange and have no other link with them other than the fact that I'm one of their customers.

[Guest turpentine]

i think its funny how you guys say tariff

[Guest eyecam]

I've been with Orange for 8 years odd and just jumped ship as well, went for a MDA Vario on TMobile £59.99 for the phone and £13 a month for 12 months and £27 for 6 on Web and Walk 100, the wifes Samsung D600 was free and half price line rental as well.

Basically for 12 months my bill will be half my Orange one with 40 Mb of Data !

Lets hope the service is good

[Guest dasingh]

I'm jumping ship too, Orange for me just dont seem to be bothered whenever I speak to them

They dont even try to keep me as a customer

Was talking to someone in retentions about an upgrade and I wasnt happy that they wanted me to pay £100 for a phone (i'm out of contract so can upgrade anytime) that new customers can get for free on the same tariff I am on.

Told them that i might disconnect and go elsewhere, Orange's response was "OK sir, we'll leave it with you, when you decide you can ring us back".

:evil: :evil: No very happy

[Guest chrisbpr]

after being with orange scine the early days there level of service has got worse.i recently upgraded my phone & was unable to access the "your page" section on orange world, after several calls to ts they were unable to sort it out.i rang upgrades to see if they would change the phone for a model that worked..no dice as it was a month scince i got the phone & was told i had to ask the shop were i up graded.

when i upgraded the shop made a big point of saying that if i didn't like the phone i couldn't change it...this after only playing with the phone for 5 minutes in the shop.

cs muppet was very rude over the phone , retentions were a bit more understanding but still no luck,asked how muh to canel my contract & was quoted £250!!!!!!

i have now downgraded to the lowest tarrif i can & waith for a MDA vario for free with web & walk 100 for £15 a month & free voicemail...beat that orange.

i wouldn't touch orange with a bargepole as all they care about is PAYG or new customers & like i said i've been with them scince 1995 :x

[Guest James]

the more i hear the worse it gets, i may be following you guys! any stories of good CS on o2?

[Guest Agnar]

No, I came to Orange 16 months ago after being with O2 since 1990. You would have thought a customer who was with you for nearly 14 years paying between £25 and £40 a month would be worth keeping but not O2.

Every time I wanted an upgrade (3 times in nearly 14 years btw I'm not one of those serial upgraders, I only do it when I need a new one due to wear and tear) O2 refused to match the deals they were offering new subscribers. The only reason I stayed was the loyalty bonus (12.5% discount off everything).

They cancelled the loyalty bonus about 18 months ago and still refused to offer me a deal on par with the one newbies could get so I walked and went to Orange primarily to try the SPV500 out which looked tidy.

Can't say Orange have done anything to impress me so far but the phone is really nice. Well constructed and so functional (plays music, plays films and even makes phone calls! )

Thinking of going to T-mobile next year if I decide I would like a Vario but I'll see what Orange can offer first.

Best thing about O2? signal / reception. Without fail I always had a good connection even up on the north yorkshire moors when everyone elses phones had lost signal.

When I left O2 they sent baliffs round to my house to get £150 of unpaid bills even though I had paid everything off and had agreed on the phone that everything was settled. Also after cancelling they sent me a crappy bottom of the range Nokia for no apparent reason and I had to pay to return it even tho I had never asked for it!

I've never defaulted on a debt of any type in fact every loan I've ever had has been paid off early. Imagine my fury at having the baliff threatening me on my doorstep over a £150 cockup by O2!!!

O2 have gone on my list of retailers to never use again, along with the Halifax Bank who are thiefs too.