Predictably, I'm having Orange problems

[Guest TouchyAndalou]

I bit the bullet today and bought a Monte Carlo for £119.95 plus mandatory £10 top-up. The saleswoman put the new sim in and applied the credit, before switching off the phone and sending me on my way. On arriving home, I turned on the phone and received a message welcoming me to Orange and telling me that I had a balance of £10.01 on my account. That was at 15:27 this afternoon. At 15:48 I received a second message, saying that I've only got £0.62 left and that I should top up! Um, ok...

Now you're probably wondering what the hell I did in those 21 minutes. And the answer, essentially, is nothing. I don't have Wifi, so I was connected to 3G. But auto sync was turned off by default and I hadn't even logged into my Google account anyhow. I watched - at most - 30 seconds of Youtube. I even set the phone to airplane mode for at least some of that time, as I'm concious of data usage. I didn't make any calls, didn't send any texts.

Befuddled, I dialled 453 to check my balance a couple of minutes later and I had £0.00 remaining. Brilliant. So I called 450 from my landline to find out what caused this, and the service centre woman said that I'd have to call back tomorrow as they can't bring up a history of usage for 24 hours or something. She did however add 2x 25p to my account, to allow me to call back tomorrow.

Has anybody else experienced this? Does it sound like an error to you, or can 21 minutes of background data usage really burn through £10 of credit that quickly? I'm not on any of Orange's animal packages, but I'd like to hear Orange try to justify a £10 charge for a few seconds of Youtube viewing.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

[Guest tilal6991]

I bit the bullet today and bought a Monte Carlo for £119.95 plus mandatory £10 top-up. The saleswoman put the new sim in and applied the credit, before switching off the phone and sending me on my way. On arriving home, I turned on the phone and received a message welcoming me to Orange and telling me that I had a balance of £10.01 on my account. That was at 15:27 this afternoon. At 15:48 I received a second message, saying that I've only got £0.62 left and that I should top up! Um, ok...

Now you're probably wondering what the hell I did in those 21 minutes. And the answer, essentially, is nothing. I don't have Wifi, so I was connected to 3G. But auto sync was turned off by default and I hadn't even logged into my Google account anyhow. I watched - at most - 30 seconds of Youtube. I even set the phone to airplane mode for at least some of that time, as I'm concious of data usage. I didn't make any calls, didn't send any texts.

Befuddled, I dialled 453 to check my balance a couple of minutes later and I had £0.00 remaining. Brilliant. So I called 450 from my landline to find out what caused this, and the service centre woman said that I'd have to call back tomorrow as they can't bring up a history of usage for 24 hours or something. She did however add 2x 25p to my account, to allow me to call back tomorrow.

Has anybody else experienced this? Does it sound like an error to you, or can 21 minutes of background data usage really burn through £10 of credit that quickly? I'm not on any of Orange's animal packages, but I'd like to hear Orange try to justify a £10 charge for a few seconds of Youtube viewing.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Yes it can. £4 in 5 mins for me.

[Guest Magnets]

Their Racoon plan is £4/MB

http://www1.orange.co.uk/service_plans/payasyougo/services_price_guides_overview.html

Lots of people had the same problem when the SF was released.

[Guest TouchyAndalou]

Yes it can. £4 in 5 mins for me.

Jesus. I think this phone will be sitting in my cupboard until an unlock is available.

[Guest tilal6991]

Jesus. I think this phone will be sitting in my cupboard until an unlock is available.

If you get dolphin it should be ok though 100mb free.

They should give you you £10 back but with orange you never know.

Its a great phone which is ruined by a poor network.

[Guest gitf@ce]

Same thing happened to me, just using my phone at home on wifi. No calls and no texting?!?!

I rang them on their freephone number and gave them some stick. They never could explain what had happened to my tenner, but I managed to wangle 20 quid out of them after a protracted argument.

[Guest Daddy Tickles]

I managed to wangle 20 quid out of them after a protracted argument.

Beginner! :P

Only mildly positive thing for me to add is that you can add a 250mb allowance for £5. So top up £10, use £5 of that to buy the broadband extra leaving you with a £5 call allowance.

Told you it was only mildly positive.

I would also suggest that when you call back you be fairly exasperated and request an unlock code - they will be mighty resistant, but push hard and if you get lucky they'll pop you through to someone in India who will also try to disuade you (probably citing 3 month minimum lock-in period) but should you push hard enough you may get lucky and she will (for £20) order you an unlock code (that will take upto 14 days to arrive). Worth a punt, surely?

Anyway, best of luck.

[Guest Sean__D]

I called up on Friday and got through to someone in India. Was quite surprised, they didn't even mention the 3 month period, just warned me there was a charge of £20 and said it would take up to 14 days. I topped up my phone to have the required amount and they took my IMEI and email details:-)

I'll be amazed if it does actually go ahead, probably nothing will happen and when I ring to query it they'll tell me I haven't had the phone long enough, but you never know, maybe I'll get lucky!

One other thing about the Dolphin call charges which got me is that the free 100Mb doesn't kick in initially, presumably after the first month. And you have to have a minimum credit of 66p in order to use the data connection. Eg if you top up by £5 and then buy the 250Mb for £5 offer, your balance is zero and you won't be able to connect. I had to call orange and they agreed to top me up by 66p in order for things to work!

[Guest TouchyAndalou]

Update:

I called Orange customer services today. I explained what had happened and the lady I spoke to confirmed that it was down to Internet usage. She however gave no explanation or justification for how £10 can disappear due to 30 seconds of Internet, outside of saying, "Internet and streaming Youtube will use lots of credit".

She transferred me onto the Dolphin plan, which will give me 100mb of Internet once it goes through, and I'm also getting 400 free texts. She also reimbursed £3 onto my account. I didn't think I was getting anything more out of this woman, so I expressed that I wasn't happy and requested information on receiving an unlock code. She explained that for £20 I can request an unlock code after three months of being with Orange. I asked whether I needed to top-up a certain number of times during those three months, and she said no, I just had to use my phone each month.

I've just sent a complaint email to Orange, expressing my displeasure and requesting an itemised breakdown of where my £10 has gone, so we'll see if I have any more joy there.

[Guest gitf@ce]

You've been had mate! It may take a bit of time (understatement), but they are paying for the call so give them some grief, maybe over a couple of days and they will cave in. I got £20 and DaddyTickles (the pro) got his unlock.

[Guest Garej]

I was very conscious of this too when I bought the MC, and being on pay as you go you've got to be a bit careful. I'm on the dolphin package which helps. The only things I can suggest is to disable all automatic updates of apps, and turn off 3g when you don't need it. I found that google maps was the main culprit of data usage by updating itself.

I guess androids are not really tailored for pay as you go use, but It's ok as long as you manage your mb usage.

[Guest tillaz]

I was very conscious of this too when I bought the MC, and being on pay as you go you've got to be a bit careful. I'm on the dolphin package which helps. The only things I can suggest is to disable all automatic updates of apps, and turn off 3g when you don't need it. I found that google maps was the main culprit of data usage by updating itself.

I guess androids are not really tailored for pay as you go use, but It's ok as long as you manage your mb usage.

thats why i'm with t mobile £5 unlimited internet

[Guest ColonelZap]

Something "similar" happend to me once, I wasn't aware that I had a data connection on, Google Maps and some other Apps did an automatic update, before I knew it 10 Euro GONE!

[Guest Paul Shirley]

I watched - at most - 30 seconds of Youtube.

<snip>

Orange try to justify a £10 charge for a few seconds of Youtube viewing.

You're seriously underestimating how much data YouTube can consume. Just had a quick play here on WiFi and it sucked 400k just loading the start page, then another 7mb playing 30s of a randomly chosen stream, although a lot of that would be preloading video. Even with lower quality and less preloading on 3G, it's very believable you really did use 2mb of data that quickly.

My OSF SIM came preset to Dolphin, it wouldn't surprise me if Orange aren't presetting it now and are deliberately trying to drain credit @£4/Mb during the initial login and Android setup. I never setup Android with a SIM in the phone because it can hammer 3G on existing accounts.

Edited October 7, 2011 by Paul Shirley

[Guest iam_smithers]

Given that my account went down by 48p after a few seconds (cheeky buggers leave 3G on when you start the phone up the first time) I wouldn't be surprised to hear that .

EDIT: By, not "to". that would be drastic.

Edited October 6, 2011 by iam_smithers