Orange: Fed up with second rate 'my account' website & 'Plus' text rip offs!

peterbaker · 8 January 2008 at 2:58PM

For months and even years, Oranges my account website has been second rate. I use it to top up my kids PAYG SIMs.

I would say that top ups using a pre-registered credit card are successful in only 25% of attempts.

Instead of a successful top up acknowledgement, you are more likely to get a repeatedly refreshing progress page ('Please wait' or similar) followed by a downright lie which says "Sorry. Unfortunately we are currently experiencing a technical problem. Orange is aware of the problem and is working to resolve it. Please try again later."

How do I know it is a downright lie? Because it's obvious that if Orange know of the problem and was working on it they would have fixed it months ago!

Whilst writing, here is another Warning about Orange Plus texts such as the ones which notify you when your team has scored in a football match. I first warned that if you did not switch this off after the match ended, you were likely to receive texts about Snooker results or goodness knows what else (Tiddlywinks perhaps) that you never requested but are nevertheless charged for.

A couple of months ago I discovered that Orange had incorrectly charged around £7 I think on my son's account and after banging the message home hard with their customer services I eventually got 100 free texts and 100 free minutes as a "goodwill credit".

At first they wriggled and blamed a Third Party and indicated that they could not investigate. But I established that they had exact data confirming the texts and what was charged and invited them to consider whether or not they were aiding and abetting fraud via my son's account with them. That seemed to hit home.

Now it seems we have a variation on the scam - duplicate or very similar messages are sent during a match which simply doubles up the cost of learning about a goal event.

I have yet to find the strength to tackle Orange Customer Service again about it and thought I would come here with the warning instead. It might do more good more rapidly!

Get your fingers out Orange!

peterbaker · 8 January 2008 at 3:07PM

... and now here's the dumber than dumb part!

After posting the above, I logged back in to my account to try to top up again, and the balance had already increased by the amount I supposedly failed to top up by last time!

Orange :mad: ... blithering idiots more like

John_Youles · 14 January 2008 at 12:23PM

I too was shocked by Orange's attitude when I was charged for a job advert by an SMS mobile theft message from a company I had never heard of. Eventually the advertiser agreed to compensate me, but Orange have never been able to explain how taking money from a customer's account at the request of a third party is either in terms of the contract, or is legal. Surely they are complicit in theft.

So many people I have spoken to have had mysterious charges taken from their accounts by these telemuggers, it is quite clear this "industry" is out of control.

The attitude of the regulators - Ofcom and Phonepayplus - is apalling - they say third party billing must be allowed but this is nonsense as the system could be easily changed so that the customer has to reply to a text to agree to make the payment.

The regulators and directors of the telcos as well as the advertisers should be prosecuted. Or then the government might decide to legalise other forms of theft with appropriate regulators - Ofburgle, Ofmug etc.

Intasun32 · 14 January 2008 at 1:31PM

John_Youles wrote: »

The attitude of the regulators - Ofcom and Phonepayplus - is apalling - they say third party billing must be allowed but this is nonsense as the system could be easily changed so that the customer has to reply to a text to agree to make the payment.

Welcome to the seedy world of the Premium Rate Industry! The 'Tele Muggers' (I like your description) are allowed to continue with their theft unchecked due to one thing MONEY. (£1.6b in 2005)

* The Networks earn up to 35% of the £1.50 cost of each Unsolicited Reverse Bill Text, as they are know. This is why only T-Mobile will block these texts for its customers.
* PhonePayPlus, or Icstis as they were known before the recent makeover, receive a levy on each text that the PR Industry send.
* PPP are a PR industry self regulated body set up by Ofcom.
* PPP are also financed by the PR industry and are made up of representatives of the same companies that commit these crimes.
* The police cannot get invoved unless requested to do so by PPP, and theres's not much chance of that.
* I have been told many times by PPP & Ofcom that these companies have not commited any crimes, all they have done is to have breached the terms & condition as set out by PPP. In the real world we call it THEFT.

I agree something must be done but the people in high places, our MP's, do not want to do anything.
WHY? The answer is: there's too much MONEY involved.................... :mad:

diamonds · 14 January 2008 at 2:52PM

Well write to Brown and ask for a parlimentary investigation if your MP wont do anything, where there is a proven issue - PM has by duty to investigate

John_Youles · 14 January 2008 at 2:56PM

Thanks for yout tip about T-mobile. I'll see about switching from Orange.

seth · 14 January 2008 at 3:30PM

I used to be with Virgin and opted out of premium rate stuff.

Dickieburd · 14 January 2008 at 6:00PM

Tesco Mobile also allow their customers the option of barring premium rate texts from reaching their phone and reducing their credit. This can be activated via the website when you log in or you could have it done via customer services.

seth · 14 January 2008 at 9:06PM

Dickieburd wrote: »

Tesco Mobile also allow their customers the option of barring premium rate texts from reaching their phone and reducing their credit. This can be activated via the website when you log in or you could have it done via customer services.

Thanks will check with Orange CS

Dickieburd · 15 January 2008 at 12:37PM

seth wrote: »

I used to be with Virgin and opted out of premium rate stuff.

My wife sent an email yesterday to Virgin Mobile asking to put a bar on premium rate texts, they do not do this and here is the reply.

Thanks for your email to Virgin Mobile about putting a bar onto your phone to prevent chargeable text messages. Although we'd love to able to bar these text messages, unfortunately we're unable to, as we we're unable to bar companies from carrying out their business by not allowing them to text and charge customers for services which they've ordered.

Below we've listed some information about how these services work to prevent you being incorrectly charged, or being signed up to services which you didn't request by the companies which send these messages.

There are two types of shortcode text service:

- Subscription services: That's where you're charged to receive content on your phone – like ringtones, wallpapers or news and sport updates. The company sending it will keep sending it, and charging your mobile account, until you ask them to stop.

- One-off services: Like text voting during TV shows. The cost of these messages will be advertised during the programme, and no extra charges are made.
These services can be activated in any of three ways:

- Sending a text message to a 5-digit number – the shortcode.
- Sending a request through a website.
- Ringing a shortcode from your mobile.

As well as activating a shortcode service, it's important to know the correct procedure to stop it. That's because you may find you're being charged for services that you no longer want.

If you'd like to stop receiving shortcode services, here are some general tips which may help stop them – although the only way to be sure is by using the shortcode company's official steps:

- Firstly, text 'STOP' or 'STOP ALL' to the shortcode that the texts have been received from.
- Or find out the name of the company sending the information, and call their helpline number.

In most cases, we can provide you with information on how to contact a service provider. So if you can't find the details yourself, just let our team know – we'll do all we can to help.

We're sorry that we're unable to block these messages for you and we hope that the information above proves useful.

So as I said Tesco Mobile definately have the option of the text barring service on the website when you log in and it is found under parental controls also in there as well is the option of blocking premium rate calls being made and also blocking adult sites via WAP. these services are PIN protected on the website and can be switched on or off as required, subject to a delay of up to 48 hours.

seth · 15 January 2008 at 1:23PM

Dickieburd wrote: »

My wife sent an email yesterday to Virgin Mobile asking to put a.....deleted for brevity ...

Gosh sorry I thought I had I got a letter about adult and premium services in Feb 07 about them introducing some scheme. My Virgin contract ended yesterday I'll call Orange CS and report back what options are available.

Orange: Fed up with second rate 'my account' website & 'Plus' text rip offs!

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