Included Orange top up credit

[Guest oiltrader]

I bought my phone for £109 because I couldn't find a single person with an existing orange pay as you go sim card. Unbeleivable!

The phone cost £99 and the credit cost me £10. Does anyone know how to actually get the £10 credit? I don't see any vouchers. My account doesn't show any kind of top up. Still £0.01.

So has anyone actually got their included top up from orange yet? How do you get it?

[Guest ken218]

I had to call them once a week for 3 weeks (£0.25 each call) before they credit it to my account...

[Guest oiltrader]

I had to call them once a week for 3 weeks (£0.25 each call) before they credit it to my account...

I can't even make a customer service call (with a speaking advisor) without crediting my account first because it costs £0.25. That's ridiculous, because it is a credit you have to purchase separately, it's not like its included with he phone if you know what I mean. Its supposed to be a separate thing.

So basically you have to buy the phone which includes a £10 credit, and have to buy another extra £10 credit after you receive the phone just to receive the first £10?

Anyone else get the orange sim card pay as you go credit which came with the phone?

[Guest Spunky Backpack]

I had to phone customer services and quote the phone and order number. I then got a text saying it takes up to 5 days for the credit to be applied :P

[Guest Mike_P]

I got mine no problem, just followed the info in the order confirmation email, just visited http://www.orange.co.uk/activate and follow the steps, bit of a long winded signup process but ended up with a text telling me I had £10.01 credit, didn't have to make any customer service calls.

[Guest mmoalem]

yep you need to activate the sim (i called the 0800 orange online shop number and was asked for my order number or something similar) - week later got the credit

[Guest piperboy]

I got the initial £10 credit when I got the phone but had to put another £10 on it about 4 days later because my apps seem to eat through it connecting to the internet! (but that's another problem...)

To get a free call to a service adviser, call the number you would normally call for a top up and then don't choose any options, this put me through to an adviser!

[Guest spannerz]

took 5 days for my credit to appear..... make sure you're on the data included tariff- I was on Racoon (orange) and going to google maps for 15 seconds consumed £1 of payg credit!

I then moved to Tesco

[Guest suzyb]

I activated my phone online as well but didn't get any text, in fact it actually took a second attempt for the activation to work. I've tried emailing customer support instead of calling but I'm not really holding out hope of a reply. I'll give it a a few days in case the credit does get applied though.

[Guest oiltrader]

I activated my phone online as well but didn't get any text, in fact it actually took a second attempt for the activation to work. I've tried emailing customer support instead of calling but I'm not really holding out hope of a reply. I'll give it a a few days in case the credit does get applied though.

I emailed them this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Sheena,

Thank you for your reply regarding the missing £20 credit which is supposed to be included in the Orange San Francisco box.

You mention that I now have to make a customer service call to get my £20 credit which was supposed to be included in the phone. However I can't get through to customer services as I don't have any credit in my phone.

So now you require me to deposit at least another £10 more credit into my phone just to make a customer service call to get my initial included credit?

To be honest I find it unbelievable that this is the process that an Orange customer has to go through to get their inclusive credit. I had to pay £99 for a phone and was required to purchase a mandatory £20 top up voucher with it, now that I have received the phone I find out I am supposed to deposit another £10 just to get to activate the credit? This was not mentioned anywhere before I purchased the phone so it seems to be false advertising just to get another £10 out of the customer.

Please deposit my credit which I have already paid for into my account immediately.

Thank you

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

they replied with this -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello

Thank you for your reply email.

I am very sorry to learn that you are unhappy with the way that the credit bought with a phone is added. I appreciate your concerns.

I can advise that the minimum topup you can add to an account is £5. Once customers have activated their account with a £5 top up, they can top up with our new amounts. These are 10p, 50p, £1, £2, £3 and £4. They can also top up by any combination of these amounts. So if they have £2.30 in their pocket, they can top up by: 1 x £2 3 x 10p

Once you have topped up, if the credit you bought with your phone is not added within 7 days of you registering your SIM, please contact the Helpdesk on 450 from any Orange Pay As You Go phone or 07973 100 450 from any other phone, selecting option 2, 4 and 2.

I trust my response is of assistance to you and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Kind regards

Nick

Orange Online Services

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah well. I know people will be thinking I will eventually top up anyway, but I am only using this orange sim card as a spare number which my girlfriend uses to call me as a Magic number. This is fine but I have some voicemails which I would like to be able to listen to and I obviously cannot do this without any credit. I would have been able to use the inclusive £20 credit for about two years I think :P I don't want to have to add any more money to it.

[Guest JCPren]

I had to fight with Orange for a week to get my credit, too.

Don't waste/pay for any credit to phone them and sort it out. Use a landline and call them on freephone 0800 801080, option 1, 4, 2. That way, they pay for the call (as they deserve, in these cases).

[Guest oiltrader]

I had to fight with Orange for a week to get my credit, too.

Don't waste/pay for any credit to phone them and sort it out. Use a landline and call them on freephone 0800 801080, option 1, 4, 2, 3. That way, they pay for the call (as they deserve, in these cases).

Thank you very much JCPren. I phoned up as you suggested. They said that usually what happens is once a payg sim card has been activated the customer order gets forwarded to another sales team and they activate the credit. However mines never got forwarded, i wonder why.

Should be getting my credit in 48 hours.

[Guest oporto]

Just checked and found My £10 hadnt been added either........ I rang the 0800 number, and after 8 minutes on the phone was told that "when the billing department tried to add the top up they found the upgrade hadnt been processed" whatever that means..? The bloke on the phone when i activated the phone said it was, and also transferred my number across.

Orange are now looking into it, but i have to wait for them to activate again, could be 24 hours or longer.... what a bunch of muppets! :P

I previously emailed customer services and got a polite but unhelpful response, basically nothing to do with customer services..... phone the billing department at 25p a call to find out why we have kept your money. Some customer service!!!! Thought they used to win the "JD Power Customer Satisfaction Survey" in the "Good Old Days"

Edited November 29, 2010 by oporto

[Guest Magnets]

The guys on twitter @orangehelpers do it pretty much instantly (15 mins), don't wait for it to be done "automatically", because it probably won't happen and why the heck does it take 7+ days to add some credit?

[Guest synet]

Took me 5 or 6 weeks to get my credit, but I was on holiday for 3 of those weeks.

Edited November 30, 2010 by synet

[Guest dan_dejs]

I emailed them this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Sheena,

Thank you for your reply regarding the missing £20 credit which is supposed to be included in the Orange San Francisco box.

You mention that I now have to make a customer service call to get my £20 credit which was supposed to be included in the phone. However I can't get through to customer services as I don't have any credit in my phone.

So now you require me to deposit at least another £10 more credit into my phone just to make a customer service call to get my initial included credit?

To be honest I find it unbelievable that this is the process that an Orange customer has to go through to get their inclusive credit. I had to pay £99 for a phone and was required to purchase a mandatory £20 top up voucher with it, now that I have received the phone I find out I am supposed to deposit another £10 just to get to activate the credit? This was not mentioned anywhere before I purchased the phone so it seems to be false advertising just to get another £10 out of the customer.

Please deposit my credit which I have already paid for into my account immediately.

Thank you

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

they replied with this -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello

Thank you for your reply email.

I am very sorry to learn that you are unhappy with the way that the credit bought with a phone is added. I appreciate your concerns.

I can advise that the minimum topup you can add to an account is £5. Once customers have activated their account with a £5 top up, they can top up with our new amounts. These are 10p, 50p, £1, £2, £3 and £4. They can also top up by any combination of these amounts. So if they have £2.30 in their pocket, they can top up by: 1 x £2 3 x 10p

Once you have topped up, if the credit you bought with your phone is not added within 7 days of you registering your SIM, please contact the Helpdesk on 450 from any Orange Pay As You Go phone or 07973 100 450 from any other phone, selecting option 2, 4 and 2.

I trust my response is of assistance to you and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Kind regards

Nick

Orange Online Services

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah well. I know people will be thinking I will eventually top up anyway, but I am only using this orange sim card as a spare number which my girlfriend uses to call me as a Magic number. This is fine but I have some voicemails which I would like to be able to listen to and I obviously cannot do this without any credit. I would have been able to use the inclusive £20 credit for about two years I think :P I don't want to have to add any more money to it.

when i got mine credit was on there when i left the shop, did they top it up for you or have you got the reciept with the top up number on ? you should have a receipt with 'topup succesful' on ,if not then maybe you should try finding the receipt and using that to top up??? and you can call them on 450 for free just press 1 and 1 so you go to top up but just repoeatedly press 0101010100101 till they say connecting to operator

[Guest suzyb]

The guys on twitter @orangehelpers do it pretty much instantly (15 mins), don't wait for it to be done "automatically", because it probably won't happen and why the heck does it take 7+ days to add some credit?

What do you mean Magnets. Can you contact them via twitter?

[Guest Magnets]

What do you mean Magnets. Can you contact them via twitter?

http://twitter.com/orangehelpers

You can contact them yes, just tweet them @orangehelpers, they'll request your phone number and first 2 digits of orange pin code which you can Direct Message to them. They put my £10 and texts/free internet on very quickly (contacted them 8 days after I received the phone though)

[Guest suzyb]

http://twitter.com/orangehelpers

You can contact them yes, just tweet them @orangehelpers, they'll request your phone number and first 2 digits of orange pin code which you can Direct Message to them. They put my £10 and texts/free internet on very quickly (contacted them 8 days after I received the phone though)

Tweeted them today and the credit was applied within a couple of hours :P

Thanks.