Hello! You're through to Orange.

Posted by: Steve Toy on 30 January 2005

I've had a Nokia 6600 on contract with Orange since May of last year. I got this phone because apart from the usual phone/text stuff I could download games onto an upgradable memory card in order to pass the time during graveyard shifts.

From early October of last year I began receiving the following message each time I attempted to download anything via GPRS:

Sorry, you need more credit to buy this item or have exceeded your monthly download limit

As several weeks had passed without me downloading anything I contacted Orange Customer Services and eventually they were able to tell me that it was a software fault relating to certain accounts with Nokia 6600s, and that quite a few people were affected other than me.

Over the last four months I've contacted them again on a number of occasions only to be told the same.

At the beginning of this month I called them to set a deadline of 5th January (the start of my billing cycle) for the problem to be rectified or I would cancel the contract.

The date came and went and still the above message kept appearing each time I attempted to download anything, so I contacted their Terminations department only to be told that I could not cancel my contract on the basis that an additional service had been withdrawn because, as far as they were concerned, the service hadn't been withdrawn, it was simply temporarily unavailable.

As far as I'm concerned if it's been unavailable to me for the last four fucking months then it's been withdrawn.

On Thursday someone from Orange actually called me and said:

Your doonlords will be sorted insida farty it owaz.

[The callcentre is somewhere up Newcastle way I do believe, and I do love that accent btw]

Forty-eight hours came and went and still the same message appears. Frown

I guess I'm left with the following options:

Press 1 and pay £200 to quit the contract

Press 2 to drop to the lowest possible tariff, switch to Vodafone and leave the following message on my Orange SIM:

This is Steve Toy. I'm no longer with Orange as I'm highly dissatisfied with their level of service. I'm now with Vodafone and my new number is....

Press 3 to make a formal complaint to OFCOM

Press 4 to do bugger all about it until the contract expires in May and then switch to Vodafone.

Press hash to hear these options again.

I welcome your comments folks.
Posted on: 31 January 2005 by John Sheridan
Steve, they haven't provided the service that you signed up for so tell them to shove it and go elsewhere - personally I'd be demanding a refund for what I had already paid. If they're stupid enough to try and charge you anything there's always trading standards and ofcom to sort it out.
Posted on: 31 January 2005 by justiceklopper
series 60 phones rule! no need to download over gprs, it's all available on the web.

wildpalm.co.uk is a good place to start... Doom!
Posted on: 31 January 2005 by Steve Toy
quote:
Steve, they haven't provided the service that you signed up for so tell them to shove it and go elsewhere - personally I'd be demanding a refund for what I had already paid. If they're stupid enough to try and charge you anything there's always trading standards and ofcom to sort it out.


I've been on Ofcom's website and they only step in when the phone company itself doesn't provide access to some kind of independent arbitration.

So I ring Orange and several weeks later they may send me the appropriate documents...

If I tell them to shove it they bill me for £200, or blacken my credit rating if I cancel the direct debit.
Posted on: 31 January 2005 by PaulF
Steve,

Why not give the Orange Executive office a call on 0870 8700 862? This number I managed to prise out of them after they continually misled me at the call centres. The call centre staff have no latitude in anything they do - all they do is follow instructions from Head Office and common-sense is frowned upon.

Paul
Posted on: 31 January 2005 by Deane F
quote:
Originally posted by Steve Toy:

If I tell them to shove it they bill me for £200, or blacken my credit rating if I cancel the direct debit.


If you have a genuine dispute in respect of the bill, and it seems that you have and have given the company every chance to remedy their failure to fulfill their contract with you, then I doubt your credit rating would be affected. In New Zealand the credit information companies won't list bad debts that are the subject of a dispute. I presume the same obtains in the UK.

Deane
Posted on: 01 February 2005 by Steve Toy
My dowloading facility was restored today.

I guess that makes me happier.

However, it is likely that I'll switch to Vodafone in May nevertheless.
Posted on: 01 February 2005 by long-time-dead
quote:
Originally posted by Tommy C:
Fuck Orange and join VF

I did it 2 years ago and the service is like comparing Matsui with Krell


Mmm. If only Naim did mobile phones.........
Posted on: 01 February 2005 by toad
quote:
Originally posted by long-time-dead:

Mmm. If only Naim did mobile phones.........


... Just think of the size of the battery charger.

Kev.
Posted on: 01 February 2005 by Steve Toy
Faster downloads and clearer voices on the end of your phone if you hook the Na-fone to a Supercap.

No need to go 3G the SC does it all!
Posted on: 01 February 2005 by J.N.
The future's bright - the future's cancerous.

John.