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Orange customer services / billing rant |
Cycovision
Joined: Nov 30, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: England
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About three months ago, I did the annual sorting out of my personal and business finances and decided that I no longer need a monthly contract since nowadays I'm mostly office-based and so only really use my mobile for very short, occasional calls. I'd been with Orange for about four years and so was entitled to cancel with the usual 30 days notice.
So, I call Orange to cancel my contract. After being transferred to the wrong department SEVEN TIMES, wasting over half-an hour of my time, I finally get through to the right people.
The cancellation process itself was quite painless. Or at least I thought it was. A pleasent, well-spoken gentleman asked my why I wanted to cancel and, after I explained my situation to him, asked me if I wanted Orange to send me a PAYG sim card. I declined, explaining that I have a drawer full of the bloody things and so would just like the contract terminated ASAP.
All seemed well until the next day when I received a phone call from Orange asking me why I wanted to cancel my contract. I was a little perplexed by this, but repeated my reasons anway.
'Oh, we're sorry to hear that' said the young lady in a Northern Irish accent that was so thick you could have lined a nuclear reactor with it. 'We'll send you out a pre-pay sim card and when you activate it, we'll cancel your contract.'
'No no,' said I, still calm at this point but getting increasingly agitated. 'I don't want a sim card thank you, and you were actually supposed to cancel my contract yesterday.'
'Ok Mr. Cycovision (I'm not telling you my real surname!) thanks for your time etc etc.' and with a cheery bye, she hung up.
Six hours later, guess what? That's right, a phone call from Orange asking me why I wanted to cancel my contract. Biting my tongue, I went through the whole procedure yet again and afterwards, asked them to assure me that the contract was cancelled. They did, I hung up and stomped around the flat for a few minutes moaning at Mrs. Cyco about 'morons', 'full-frontal lobotomies' and 'inserting sharp objects into their orifices'.
Anyway, this was about two months ago and guess what I found lying proudly on my doormat this morning? An Orange phone bill. For £79. Now, at this point I should explain that I have a very loud voice. We're talking Brian Blessed volume here so, after scaring the life out of the cat, Mrs. Cyco and probably many of the neighbors with a string of obscenities that would have made Roy Chubby Brown blush, I grabbed the phone, called Orange and, after three different departments, was asked: 'didn't you receive the sim card that we sent you?'
Have you ever seen the comedy film 'Clockwise' where John Cleese grabs a branch from a nearby tree and starts beating the hell out of his car? Well, something similar would have happened to my cordless phone had Mrs. Cyco not stopped me in time.
Anyway, they now swear on their nearest and dearest's lives that the contract is canceled and I will not have to pay them a penny. I'm not convinced though. Not one bit.
Why oh why do the bigwigs at Orange insist on treating us this way, and making their poor staff do all the dirty work and therefore take the flak? At the end of the day it's dishonest. If I'd have set up a direct debit (which I never do for exactly this kind of reason), they would have taken the money automatically and in my book, that's tantamount to theft!
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david1975
Joined: Apr 05, 2004
Posts: > 500
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Sorry hear about your troubles with orange i know of the lost time spent trying to talk to them they are about as much use a chocolate tea pot they really need to sort themselves out
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Cycovision
Joined: Nov 30, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: England
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Thanks 
I've nothing against Orange staff, nor indeed the quality of their mobile services. But they've very nearly lost me as a customer since, after today's performance, I considered sticking an O2 pre-pay sim card in my phone instead of the current Orange one.
I know that I'm just one small fish in a sea of many but they seemed quite concerned about losing me when they kept ringing me up!
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masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
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I think all these companies are just the same
btw, I think that was a scene from the Fawlty Towers episode "Gourmet Night", although yes, I have also seen Clockwise! a great movie!
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david1975
Joined: Apr 05, 2004
Posts: > 500
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Yeah the actual staff are polite and helpful there seems to be something missing to support them i tried to port a number from t mobile to orange the said it would take seven days took three weeks
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darrengf
Joined: Dec 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
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I think that the problem at orange at the moment is that there is no guidance from the top.
Its money money money at the moment too.
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Miss UK
Joined: Jan 11, 2003
Posts: > 500
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I hope I don't get any crap when I cancel my 8 year contract with 02 come November 23rd, I am not very happy due to the fact that there data is sky high and my current bill was £60... ive send emails to them that im not happy so far they haven't bothered replying to any of them and to knock that off they've taken the amount of of the bill earlier this month lol...
Im just not a happy bunny with them atm as like yourself 
I wonder if you will get the 0range Payg sim still lmao !!! 
An "Apple" a day keeps the Doctor at Bay! |
Cycovision
Joined: Nov 30, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: England
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I hope for their sake they don't still send me a bloody sim card
I know how you feel though. £60 is a lot of money to most people but these companies just don't seem to care and think that we can magic it out of thin air.
Perhaps if they sacked all of the highly paid tosspots who sit there all day dreaming up ways to make things more complicated than they need to be, we could all be on pay monthly with reasonable bills.
@darrengf
Yes, I've noticed that Orange have been much more aggressive with their sales strategies lately. I think they're a bit skint after buying out Wanadoo
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[ This Message was edited by: Cycovision on 2007-09-21 17:00 ] |
MWEB
Joined: Feb 13, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: somewhere nicer than you
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Ummm, i had quite good experiances with Orange CS this week, they transfered the credit accumulated on 4 PAYG sims onto one new one instantly, and i had a number ported from O2 in 4 days flat.
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david1975
Joined: Apr 05, 2004
Posts: > 500
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Really your a lucky one then they should have you stuffed and left in their reception ha ha
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dougproctor
Joined: Jan 07, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Gosport, UK
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My son is transferring to Orange from O2 as a new customer. He ordered his phone/contract etc last Friday for delivery Tuesday between 0900-1800. The fact he is at work and won't be able to get it is immaterial. They won't deliver anywhere else, not even to his work.
Tuesday - 1755 - where's my phone? Them - it still might come. It didn't. Phone call to Orange. A bit of a mix up. On the lorry, delivered tomorrow.
Wednesday - no phone, was never on any lorry, sent out for delivery tomorrow.
Thursday - no phone. Why? Problem with your address, need confirmation with a faxed bill. So there was no phone on Tuesday, Wednesday or today. Why did you not tell me that on Friday, Tuesday, Wednesday?
Faxed the stuff off - still not happy! The saga will continues......
Doug
[ This Message was edited by: dougproctor on 2007-09-21 19:26 ] |
A L 3 X
Joined: Dec 20, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: Yorkshire Phone: iPhone 3G
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On 2007-09-21 17:48:07, miss uk wrote:
I hope I don't get any crap when I cancel my 8 year contract with 02 come November 23rd
OOOoooOOOoohhh...my Bday lol 
I cancelled a contract with t-mobile once and they asked the reason why and such and tried their damdest to get me to stay...even the offer of a free phone...but once we said NO! for the final time he said it would be cancelled at the end of the month and at the end of the month it was transferred to a PAYG sim
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Cycovision
Joined: Nov 30, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: England
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@doug
Yeah, that's a perfect example of my gripe with Orange! As david1975 said, it seems to be the infrastructure that's at fault rather than the poor buggers on the end of the phone who have to blag us because they'd probably be disciplined if they told the truth.
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[ This Message was edited by: Cycovision on 2007-09-21 19:38 ] |
Mr Miyagi
Joined: Mar 28, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: UK
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my experience with orange is that i had 2 numbers with them, cash back deals though an independant, they disconnected the wrong number, which i was still in contract with, they re-connected it, but couldn't offer the priceplan i had with the cashback, the term of the cash back was, that i had to stay in the same plan otherwise my cashback would stop, i complained to them about this, and they asked how much would the cash back have totalled upto, to what i would have been entitled to, i told them it was £146, and guess what? they decided to credit my bill with £146 for what they did, cuz i wouldn't have got my cash back from the retailier, so i am a happy with that
The only good thing with orange was conference call, i.e you might have 1000 mins u call upto 5 people at same time and mins come off ur allowance as if u calling 5 people at same time. thats the only good thing with orange. other networks don't do conference calling like that, apart from 3, which i would never go to.
[ This Message was edited by: Mr Miyagi on 2007-09-21 19:39 ] |
fatreg
Joined: Jul 26, 2003
Posts: > 500
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ahhhh orange billing...
had a fit at them today actually...
on my b'berry was getting 30mb for $8.. they essentially decided I was getting too good a deal so put me on 6mb for $11.75..
good job orange but I use upwards of 20mb a month.. so I get charged $45 extra this month for data use and all they can say is sorry!?!
GRRRRR...
Sanjiv will be getting a letter from me.....
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Posted: 2007-09-21 16:09
