Orange is CHEATING ME! Said they will send a

[Guest afhstingray]

I called them as soon as i recieved my M5000 in early november, and they said they would post the battery out to me....

now, when i call them they are telling me "it was a misprint" and "unfortuneately we are not sending out any spare batteries"

WHAT CAN I DO????? i feel cheated :x

[Guest Pondrew]

Can't say I'm afraid. I heard that a memo had been distributed advising all reps NOT to send out spare batteries.

[Guest afhstingray]

but isnt it unfair that i bought the device before the advertising was pulled, and was promised a spare battery by their customer services?

i tried emailing the executive office but never got a reply.

[Guest Pondrew]

It sucks but I don't think there's a whole lot you can do in reality. Internet sites often misadvertise and get away with just saying, sorry, that was a misprint. ;)

[Guest basharv]

I had to go through to the Executive office and I got my Battery. Their Direct Number is 08703768888

Their address is Orange Executive Office, Birchwood Drive, Bracken Hill Business PArk, Peterlee, Co Durham, SR8 2RS

Fax no 08703748101

Good Luck

[Guest afhstingray]

grrrr this is the UK.....

what is the office of fair trade for???

*grumble grumble*

big companies bullying customers is NOT cool

[Guest philtech44]

Guys, Guys... Guys...

if you search for the earlier topic regarding spare batteries you will see my posts:

I got mine & so did my wife!!

email the [email protected]

They know the deal... rant, rave, scream & shout

after you email them you can call Michael Ramage on 08708700862

and confirm they have received your email... then rant, rave, scream & shout.

It's grief I know... but you do get one in the end...

[Guest philtech44]

grrrr this is the UK.....

what is the office of fair trade for???

*grumble grumble*

big companies bullying customers is NOT cool

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey this IS Orange Customer Services.. remember? ;)

[Guest Confucious]

AFAIK the spare battery was only mentioned on one site under business phones - it wasn't in there general advertising and as in internet page is an invitaton to treat not a contract offer I'm suprised any of you got a spare battery.

Doesn't do any ham to rant and rave to see if it gets you anywhere but I don't think trading strandards would help nuch.

Hope you get one but is it the end of the world if you don't?

[Guest moosery]

Hey this IS Orange Customer Services.. remember?  ;)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

LOL!!!

I'm sure they have a cribsheet containing phases like

"I'm sorry, we aren't planning any updates to the <insert phone>"

"that deal is a web only offer"

"This is the first case of that fault we've had"

"Yes there is a problem with that service, we are looking into it"

and the old faithful

"try removing the battery and turning the phone back on"

[Guest w411y]

and the old faithful

"try removing the battery and turning the phone back on"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh and dont forget to rub the battery contact points with a rubber ;) I've had that one so many times

[Guest moosery]

Oh and dont forget to rub the battery contact points with a rubber ;) I've had that one so many times

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ay, that'll stop the "C500 sound bug" - it worked for me!!! :D

[Guest afhstingray]

yes, but the point is, when i called them as soon as i recieved my phone, they DID promise to send it to me. When i called them a week later, they said it was delayed, and their systems says its still at the warehouse.

so yea, they are breaking their promise. if they promised to send one out, they should keep their word.

[Guest Confucious]

afhstingray, you are. of course, right. if they said they would send one out they can't then not send it (in theory). I hadn't realised they'd actually promised you one.

Hope you get what they promised, kick up enough fus and you might be succesful (although you shouldn't have too!)

Good luck.

[Guest afhstingray]

but what really ticks me off is that they promised it, and said it'll be there in 3 days, then a week later i call back and they say its still in the warehouse, and they'll try and rush it.

then i wait in vain for 2 months (my first call was on 6th november) and i hear nothing from them, and when i call them back a few days ago, im given that stupid story. They even admitted my call was on their log (6th nov).

how can you just decide not to send it, and not even inform your customer about it? ridiculous.

hehe anyway hence the title "orange is cheating me, said they will send ....."

Edited January 21, 2006 by afhstingray

[Guest philtech44]

but what really ticks me off is that they promised it, and said it'll be there in 3 days, then a week later i call back and they say its still in the warehouse, and they'll try and rush it.

then i wait in vain for 2 months (my first call was on 6th november) and i hear nothing from them, and when i call them back a few days ago, im given that stupid story. They even admitted my call was on their log (6th nov).

how can you just decide not to send it, and not even inform your customer about it? ridiculous.

hehe anyway hence the title "orange is cheating me, said they will send ....."

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yes! they said the same to both my wife & I... that's when I sent a very stinky email... pointing out the fact that the original offer is what made me stay with orange, how long I've been with them, how much I spend each month, trading standards, etc, etc... then they called me!

It IS not fair... but sometimes you HAVE to stand up and complain.. I hate doing it, but out of principle I did and got what I deserved and then told my wife to do the same....

Power to the people, eh? sad, really huh?! all for a lousy spare battery!!

[Guest afhstingray]

emailed the exec office for the second time..no response at all and its been a few days

arrrrghhhh

[Guest philtech44]

emailed the exec office for the second time..no response at all and its been a few days

arrrrghhhh

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well it took around a week or more for me to get an initial response... just as I forgot all about it and carried on with my life... they started calling without leaving a voicemail - from a number that I couldn't call back on... then after a couple of days they left a voicemail asking me to call them, which I did, and the rest is history!!

Perseverance and patience is the key here...

I'll PM you exactly what I said in my email... ;)

[Guest belfast-biker]

If a customer service person PROMISED to send you a battery, and if they're as meticulous on phonecall recording as we in O2 sales are, they'll have a recording of that stashed somewhere.

And the thing is, you've every right to get that recording, or in fact anything written or otherwise recorded they have on you.

Tell them you want it because you've been contacted by a junior member of the BBC watchdog team, with a view to possibly having it on their program.

Or tell them a battery is good too, as an alternative. :)

Edited January 29, 2006 by belfast-biker

[Guest Dave_UK]

Hmm, this is possibly gonna be a tricky one.

The first difficulty is that the person who promised you a new battery probably did so against Orange policy. This, unfortunately, happens in every company - a customer service advisor will attempt to solve the customers concerns - and then this process will get stopped higher up. However, given that a customer services representative has already promised you this, you may have some luck.

As for the 'tracing the phone conversation' via the recording, this is pretty much impossible. Even if you (theoretically) had the exact time and date at which this promise was made, without a name and extension number it would be nigh on impossible to find out the individual who spoke to you, unless they placed some notepad information on your account.

The second difficulty is, even if customer services accept liability for a replacement battery, actually getting a replacement actioned.

Thus, my advice to you:

1) Equip yourself with the rough time and date that you originally spoke to customer services about the issue, and why you believe that you are entitled to a second battery for the M5000 in the first place.

2) Visit your local Orange Shop, and ask them to speak to customer services. If there is any doubt as to the procedure at the CS end, ask them to involve a supervisor. I expect that the 'handset faults' department may be a good place to start for battery replacement, although its probably best coming from regular CS given the situation.

To be honest, I still think that you may have difficulty getting a replacement battery unless it is done as a 'one off' example such as the one above regarding contacting Head Office. I personally have an SPV M5000 myself, and it only came with one battery. I have also not had a single person back into the store after supplying them with an M5000, complaining that they were one battery short.

In my opinion, Orange have no doubt got a little wary of a select few people jumping on a bandwagon via word of mouth for extra batteries with no real idea as to why they should be entitled to one - this of course ruins it for the customers who really need one - but your case seems genuine particularly considering the time you've spent trying to get one - so good luck!

Edited February 6, 2006 by Dave_UK

[Guest belfast-biker]

As for the 'tracing the phone conversation' via the recording, this is pretty much impossible.

Even if you (theoretically) had the exact time and date at which this promise was made, without a name and extension number it would be nigh on impossible to find out the individual who spoke to you, unless they placed some notepad information on your account.

To my mind you don't need to trace anything. You do not need to know the time, date, name or extension.

You would simply provide your unique account number, and the system does it for you. We've had potential customers query things and simply by entering their phone number, we get a complete call history.

If they use a similar system to us in O2. Which I reckon to cover themselves, and to maintain quality, they do.

[Guest Confucious]

To my mind you don't need to trace anything.  You do not need to know the time, date, name or extension.

You would simply provide your unique account number, and the system does it for you.  We've had potential customers query things and simply by entering their phone number, we get a complete call history.

If they use a similar system to us in O2.  Which I reckon to cover themselves, and to maintain quality, they do.

That's allright when their systems work.

I had a couple of contracts with Three and could not reduce one of them by two 'levels' in one go, they said I could reduce it one month then reduce it again the following month if I rang them after my billing date.

They swore blind that all calls are logged and there was no record of me calling them the second time. I thought I was going mad ( a distinct possibility :)) and took there word for it.

I was then with my brother when he rang them to make a change to his account and, sure enough, the change was not made and they had no record of his phone call.

Wether it id deliberate lies or just their system not doing as they tell us it should I don't know. What I do know is you can't always rely on their records. Sad, but true.

[Guest afhstingray]

well yes, i do actually need a second battery due to my intensive use of the device and the fact that i travel to some really remote places (sri lanka etc) where i may have to go several days without a power supply.this was a factor i took into account when they said they would give me the m5000 for 90 quid on my contract

i could have gotten it for cheaper elsewhere, but the hassle of switching networks and the fact that the orange units supposedly came with an extra battery swayed me to stay.

anyway, an update: after i emailed the exec office for the second time, i got a phonecall from them a few weeks later (friday) telling me that they investigated it.

i listed all my problems i've had with orange over my first year with them, and the lady who called was very nice about it.

Problem 1: Billing errors

i was grossly overcharged on one bill and there were mistakes on several of my bills (i have a calling abroad pack, but for some reason $$ was not being deducted from it, but i was being charged for international texts and calls :|) all she did was apologise, but i dont mind because i had already gotten the issue sorted out. It was a real waste of time though calling them so many times

Problem 2:Not delivering replacemnt

i got my c500 replaced under insurance (it was faulty), and they said it would be delivered at a certain time etc. It never arrived. There were 5 people in the house, and all of them knew i was expecting a delivery. It simply did not come, and when i called them they said the courier reported that no one was there to accept the phone. Bullcrap. THey charged me 13 quid for redelivery. THe woman from the exec office credited 13 quid to my account as compensation

Problem 3:No second battery

She said she will arrange for one to be sent out.

all in all im satisfied, but barely.

grrrr

Edited February 13, 2006 by afhstingray

[Guest aallan]

Hmm, this is possibly gonna be a tricky one...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

After reading the threads on this board about the 2nd battery I contacted the executive office and got a shiny new 2nd battery for my M5000 in the post this morning. I also got £30 cash since there wasn't an SD card included in the package. Total time from my initial complaints to resolution was just under a week...

Al.

[Guest Confucious]

I also got £30 cash since there wasn't an SD card included in the package. Total time from my initial complaints to resolution was just under a week...

Al.

Congratulations - but why did they give you cash for not supplying something they never said they would?