My "Support" from Orange

[Guest matt_hobson]

I have recently bought an SPV E200 from orange by direct sales, here is my letter that i will be sending to the head of customer services:

Sir/Madame,

I am writing this letter as I am sure that you will be as outraged as I am at how Orange have treated me as a customer to your business. I bought an SPV e200 over the phone on Sunday 7th December 2003 as a Christmas present from my girlfriend to myself. I was told at the time that the deal would be exactly the same as the one over the net. I have been with Orange before and was happy to come back.

When my phone had not turned up on the 17th December I phoned Orange who told me that they had tried to deliver it twice on the 10th and the 11th December, both times putting letters through the door. I had received no such letters, and so was directed to the courier company: Inter City Link. They told me that I would have to drive 25+ miles to collect my phone, or it would be sent back to Orange that evening. Why was I not phoned at all to say that they tried to deliver, or that it had been recalled?? I later learned that this company tried to deliver to the wrong house - I learnt this as my father also used them to have some goods delivered to our house. When his goods didn't turn up he phoned them and they were adamant that they had been signed for and delivered. It turned out later that the driver had put the valuable goods in a shed next door, as no-one was in!! So they lied about it being signed! What would have happened if my phone was delivered to the wrong place? If anyone had found it then they could have been making calls from my account, without me knowing it had even been "delivered". So of course I would not have said it was "stolen" and would have been accountable for these calls. I hope some serious investigation goes into the courier company that you use as they obviously are not very thorough.

When I eventually brought my phone home, it was missing the free memory card that should have come with it, the "Travel and Office Time Out" card. When phoning about this I was told that it was not part of my deal, as I did not buy it over the net. It seems that the word exactly has a different meaning for Orange, as the deal is now different. After some simple explanations, Orange are now "looking into it" for me.

So I get on with the phone and I am happy, the phone is great, I don't have some of the "Buzzing" problems that other have so I am relatively content. That was until I try and link my phone to my desktop PC, this is where the problems really began:

Firstly I do not yet want to sync the PC with the phone, all I want is to be able to download things from the Internet on the PC, and put it onto the phone. I follow all instructions and the activesync couldn't find my phone. After a lot of fiddling, it eventually worked, for about 10 mins. Basically it will now connect 1 time in every 40 or 50 tries. It is not a PC problem as I have exactly the same problem on multiple PC's. So I try to contact orange about it, and what I have gone through can be seen below:

1. Contact Orange Customer Care - Sorry sir but you must contact data support on 156 from your handset.

2. Phone 156 - OK, putting you through to level 2

3. After fiddling am told to re-install (CD at home so start again next day)

4. Re-installing did nothing so phone 156 again - Level 2 say that it does not work on Windows 2000, so try activesync v.3.7 not 3.7.1

5. This did not help so I phoned again and told that it DOES work on windows 2000, so install 3.7.1 from the net (which I had on in the first place), again no help.

6. Phoned again and told that it DOES NOT work on Windows 2000, I tell them to check and eventually they do, and admit that they are wrong, it DOES work on windows 2000, put back through to level 3 (WDF), who go through some helpful steps with me and we come to the conclusion that it is a problem with either the USB cradle or the software drivers on the CD. So I am directed to phone Orange Customer Care who can get me new ones.

7. Orange customer care - sorry sir this is a data problem, phone 156 (where I had just come from!)

8. 156 - It is a Microsoft product - phone them

9. Microsoft - Sorry it is OEM software - phone orange

10. 156 - OK I will look into it and phone you back within 15 mins (never received a phone call, so I phoned them after about an hour)

11. 156(orange) - OK it is an accessory problem - phone HTC on 01295 662109

12. HTC - Sorry sir we only deal with handsets not accessories, phone orange

13. 156(orange) - Sorry phone HTC (now this is getting boring!)

14. Phone HTC sorry this is Hayes Technology Repairs, not HTC and that Orange are giving out the wrong number, they are giving a repair company, not the manufacturer.

Basically the current state is this. Orange will take NO responsibility for something that I have only had about a week as it is not the handset. Now I am sorry but if I buy a computer and there is a problem with the monitor after 2 years I contact the monitor manufacturer. BUT WITHIN THE FIRST YEAR I CONTACT WHERE I BOUGHT IT FROM. Surely Orange should work under the same principle?! If they sell me faulty goods, then why am I sent to the manufacturer within the first couple of weeks? Surely Orange can simply send me some new bits, I can send back the faulty ones, and Orange can converse with HTC?

After some MORE talks with orange it is now clear that HTC = Hayes Technology as I first thought, Orange are wrong that HTC looks after accessories (SO WHO DOES?) and now my only option is to send the phone back, and get a new one. So I will lose that number, everything stored on it, and a phone for the next few weeks. I do not want to send the phone back as LOTS of other people are having major problems with the handset, but mine is fine. WHY CAN I NOT JUST SEND BACK THE USB CRADLE AND SOFTWARE?!

Well the answer is, they CAN! Finally after about 2 days of being on the phone they are currently organising the delivery of a new cradle and software, the only problems now are:

a) If they use the same courier (Which they will) who knows where this stuff will turn up.

:) This may not even solve the problem

So it shows that wasting 2 days of work and loads of money on phone calls is the way to get the most of orange's support.

I don't mean this letter to be a rant, it is merely a list of what I have gone through to get a new phone on Orange. I can quite happily say that if this phone was available on another service provider then I would cancel the contract with Orange asap, which is disappointing as my previous experience with Orange (and that of my friends) have been much better. I hope that this letter is informative enough for a thorough investigation into the procedures that Orange follows. I made a point of ensuring that everyone I spoke to at Orange was aware that I am angry at their procedures, not them, and one employee even agreed with me saying:

"I agree mate, our procedures like this are crap, but I have to follow them"

Fair point, and at least he was understanding about the situation. Only right at the end was I apologised to about the whole situation, and on this I want to say a personal thank you to Kelly in data support (156) for all her help, as without her I would probably have cancelled my contract by now.

Yours,

Matt Hobson

[Guest Will]

Wow you've had fun!

pop into the chat this evening, if it's possible we'll try to get you sorted with the pc to phone connection (assuming it's not the cradle or phone)

Will

[Guest matt_hobson]

Hi,

Sorry have been away for a while. Guess what happened next. After another week they said sorry, can u send in the USB Cradle + software. I had to put in a note to say PLEASE dont use the same courier company.

Matt

[Guest matt_hobson]

Oh my god it gets WORSE!!

I have received my package back from Orange today, opened it eagerly looking for my USB Cradle + software to get going on.....

all that was there was a DATA LINK CABLE to a SERIAL PORT!!!! and it had samsung written all over it!

what the hell is going on, are Orange completely incompetent??!?!?!

Are serial ports for the SPV meant to have samsung on them?

I dont even know if this works as they sent me NO SOFTWARE TO TRY IT ON.

I am not a happy chappy.

[Guest matt_hobson]

well just as i thought my dealings with orange were bad, they have now got a hell of a lot worse!

Well it turns out that they have in fact sent me the wrong connection cable, for the wrong phone, and with no software. So that was nice of them.

After LOADS of talks last night it is now apparent that they will be sending me the correct software + cradle, however if it does not work i cannot have a refund as it is out of my 14-day period! Despite the fact that i registered the phone on the 17th December and reported the problem on the 22nd. Basically it has taken them so long to get it sorted that i have gone out of my refund period, and they cannot guarantee that i will be able to get my money back!

Surely there must be some customer standards warranty for 6 months at LEAST?

I am phoning their refund people at 9 this morning, this should be fun!

[Guest matt_hobson]

YAY, they have sent me a new cable + software, and it all works. Proving that i was right all along, they sent me faulty goods, this is an absolute disgrace, and i will be sending a letter to trading standards.

Matt

[Guest mcwarre]

Matt,

Don't take this the wrong way but Trading Standards won't be interested. There was a problem, and a lot of messing about, but at the end of the day you received the goods as advertised (which is what they'll say). Let us know if ought else happens.

Cheers

[Guest matt_hobson]

i know what ure saying mate, though i still havent actually received the memory cards.

I will definately be sending it on to a few senior people at orange though. If anyone has any details please let me know. I have phoned 3 times and got different details each time!

Matt

[Guest Rob.P]

Not that it's much help now, but did you at any point escalate the problem up to a supervisor?

Only reason I ask is that I had a gripe with Orange just before xmas and it went something like this

[Guest matt_hobson]

jesus, nice ordeal! Yea i spoke to pretty much everyone at orange, apart from the most senior people of course. Who i will now be sending letters to.

I used to like orange, but now as soon as this contract runs out, i will be looking for another network, hopefully with a phone like the e200, because my actual handset has been fantastic.

Matt

[Guest myktaylor]

Ive got an e200 and needless to say a few problems, orange are going to send me a new one, again. This didnt fix it the first time and i dont suppose it'll fix it this time either. Orange seem to like to stab in the dark, maybe until your 14 day cool off period expires. I,m keeping my eye on the calender cos ive nearly had enough. My original spv had less bugs than the new one!

:shock: