Does Orange "Diagnostics" actually work

[Guest icornish]

I called O yesterday about the update (Paul-Thanks for the updated data - twas more than O new!)

They told me they were going to run some diagnostics on my phone. They then said their was a keyboard problem on it (yes, its too small, I said). But my thought was "did they actually do a test, or did they look in their script and say 'he say's he's not getting all his calls - perhaps the 'hangup' button is stuck? Therfore replace the phone." :?:

BTW, the H/U button is not stuck. Works fine.

Am I being a devil's advocate, or can Orange actually "peek" into my phone ?

[Guest neilg]

personally i think you are right - diagnostics is the new name they use for the fault scripts that the call centre follow, so it is essentially a PC talking them through the steps to try to rectify/diagnose a fault. I am sure someone from O on here can confirm what exactly it is...

[Guest Firaas]

The diagnostics is the name given to the script they follow on screen, but they also have (although to a limited extent) access to your phone. The reason why phones are branded with the Orange logo, and why they are often delayed, is because software that allows them to access your phone needs to be put on to the phone and tested.

[Guest neilg]

had another think about this now, and the way things currently reside I guess what O can do is use the information your phone provides when it connects to the network and the other information which is constantly being transferred on the control channels etc (although I would be surpirised if this is much use to an O call centre operator). ALso obviously O have access to their own network information, and the information you provide when registering a handset and can compare this to what you see. For instance Network says Voicmail flags are not set, Phone is still showing voicemail indicator, so can then send SMS updates to sort some of the problems (cancel flag on phone). However simply because of the way GSM, and GPRS work at the moment O cant get at anything on your phone other than the standard information that the network and MS (Phone) send back and forth in the normal course of things. They can use this cleverly with what they know about you as a user though to diagnose some faults. Roll on dedicated fault finding servers, or UMTS (with SIP) so you could start a diagnotsic 'session' whilst on a call!

[Guest spacemonkey]

They've done this remote "diagnostic" thing for ages. I think it's actually just a customer service ploy to make us trust them. I remember a friend had a Nokia 7610 (maybe, the green one with the sliding down bit over the keys) and the sliding bit had broken off and they "remote diagnosed" that it was broken off, after he'd told them of coure, and authorised a replacement handset.

I don't reckon it actually exists in the world.