Third replacment phone on Orange. What now?

Alex_OC

Hi.
I would be grateful of any advise anyone can give me.

I upgraded to a new HTC Hero phone about 4 months ago and started having issues. So many calls just do not connect. The phone either beeps before connecting and goes back to the home screen or it goes to direct to answer phone. This is even when I call the phone in my other hand which obviously has full signal. It's getting to be that only one call in 5 actually goes through.

I have had the phone replaced and the sim replaced. Now on my third phone and it's still happening.

Can some one tell me what my rights are? They are offering me the choice of 3 other phones. None of them I really want. I like to spend a lot of time choosing phones based on reviews and looks. I don't want these phones. They are old and not nice phones.

I know they have have done there best to fix things but it still does not work.

What statutory rights do I have? Supply of goods act? etc Can I cancel contract?-I really don't want to do that I just want a phone that works and that I like. After all I did sign up for a specific phone on the contract!!

Thanks for any help you can give.

DarkConvict

The phone and contract as separate. Cancelling the contract is highly unlikely, but you are right as the retailer they must provide a working handset as it was a purchase with them.

Its not unusual for the operator to offer a replacement handset, they will try and match the specification of the handset you already have, most likely they have offered you other android based sets.
This can tend to be a grey area so i recommend you ring consumer direct - http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/about/how-we-help/

The other option is pick a handset you do like, and ensure it is a close match in terms of price to what you already have. And present that option to them. Orange do have a representative on these forums that maybe able to help more.

Hi rhysadams,

I work for Orange and may be able to help. If you can drop me a mail to the email address in my profile, I'll have a look at this for you. So I can pick up your mail quickly, please add 'Andy Orange Response' in the first line.

Please also include the reference ORT1015, your username from this site and some account details, as without them, I will not be able to pick the case up.

Hope this helps

Andy
Orange Response Team

customer.services@orange.co.uk

From another post to save you the hassle

drbesty

What you're describing sounds more like the network rather than the handset itself, have they looked into that side of things? Out of curiosity what phones did they offer?

wiggles41

hi
supply of goods and services act 1982...

3 Exchanges of phone or repair is deemed fair and sufficent that there after u have a right to cancelling your contract with no penalty!!! as advised by consumer direct

Jon_01

wiggles41 wrote: »

hi
supply of goods and services act 1982...

3 Exchanges of phone or repair is deemed fair and sufficent that there after u have a right to cancelling your contract with no penalty!!! as advised by consumer direct

As DC stated above, the phone and the airtime are separate.

You are likely to get a new phone after 3 duffers, but its not grounds to breach the contract.

Don't blindly believe everything consumer direct say, they've been proven to very wrong many times.

wiggles41

beginning to wish i was back in the late 70's where mobiles were invisable and it costed a penny to make a call from the many unvanderlised red phone boxes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lool

Jon_01

wiggles41 wrote: »

beginning to wish i was back in the late 70's where mobiles were invisable and it costed a penny to make a call from the many unvanderlised red phone boxes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lool

And where policemen would greet you with a cheerer wave and the buses were always on time. . . (someone pass me a time machine, please!)...

wiggles41

and penny sweets were affordable and making daisy chains and playing poo sticks on the stream, collecting conquers and having home made meals on the table,!!!! sighhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bubblesmoney

was the other phone in your hand a smartphone too and was it on orange too. if not then there is no comparison. what is the signal strength and what type of connection is it (2g / gprs / edge / 3g / hsdpa) . i suspect you have a 2g connection and having the well know tmbile / orange 2g problem with smartphones like the hero constantly accessing the net via 2g and calls constantly getting diverted to voicemail.

please note that this wont be an issue on non multitasking phones or phones that cant do 'proper' multitasking or ordinary phones that dont do data on a 2g network. the 2g network cant do both in the uk unless they have made some special arrangments on the networks which most of the uk networks havent done to my knowledge on 2g networks and only some had done some trials in this regard and i dont know if even one of the networks had implemented that tech to sort this problem.

what is the signal strength in dbm and asu and type of signal you are getting both when the phone is on a wooden table and when held in your hand. since i can see these readings on my htc desire, i assume you can see these readings on your htc hero as well. click from home screen, menu > settings > about phone > network and this should show your signal strength in dbm and asu and connection type (provided the menus are the same as on my phone).

as a good test to test my hypothesis, that it is the constant data demands of your smartphone taking precedence or voice calls on a 2g network ..... use the mobile network widget and switch off the data connection altogether or go into settings and unselect the APN setting and this will switch off the data connection altogether. then try to call your phone from another phone and see if the connection goes through. if it then goes through but later doesnt go through when the data connection is on then it is the problem i reffered to above and the signal type that you are getting isnt good enough to have data on and hence your smartphone will be useless there and best to get another networks connection instead.

are you using some task killers that are shutting down essential services and consequently interfering with calls.

what ever the problem is, i do hope your probs are sorted soon.

have a look at these threads
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2543121

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2523297
in this thread i changed the prl settings to gsm (prl) but after that i have changed it to gsm/cdma(auto prl), with both i get faster shifts to prl connection if parent network signal is lost and consequently i get better battery life. i think gsm (auto prl) is good enough as i get hsdpa connection with that setting as well and fast shifts to prl provider when i lose the connection (i have two desires to compare and one of them is in factory settings and i can see the difference these settings make and can recommend them as a lay person, obviously anyone doing so does that at their own risk and dont hold me liable!)

butterbean mash in this thread achieved the same with his hero but that was with rooting the phone. i assume he didnt know that he could do the same changes without rooting as i did. see https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2428501

see other threads on tmobile http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/discussions/index?page=forums&topic=8010384abbabde01276d5f3caa005e2d guess orange will be similar

three handsets in a row i doubt would be faulty, my bet would be on your network signal strength and type of connection most probably 2g combined witha multitasking smartphone as the cause of your problems. i had explained the problem (as i see it) on this thread in detail https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2447137

"by first impressions i think you are in a weak 3g signal area and your data connection is happening over 2g / gprs. so unless your network (orange) has implemented the dual transfer mode (DTM) the data transfer will keep happening in the background continuously in android phones or iphone (apps / weather widget / pusk email / facebook etc or any application that gets constantly updated in the background, which will be MANY on newish smart phones like the desire) then in this situation YOUR network cant handle both voice calls and data at the same time if they havent implemented the DTM on their network.

from what i have read on this topic (bearing in mind that i am no techie and just interested in using my gadgets so read a bit on such issues), vodafone is the MAYBE only network to have implemented (i read they were experimenting so not sure if they actually implemented this yet all over their network) the DTM so people on anyother network using smart phones are stuffed if they are in low 3g signal areas and have apps or widgets or pushemail constantly accessing the network in the background via the data connection and since the networks which havent implemented the DTM are incapable of handling both data and voice at the same time (excluding 3g connection i am told) over 2g / gprs etc and the data traffic gets a preference because it is already in use and you never get the all important call that you are waiting for and it goes to voicemail!!!! "

Alex_OC

Wow. Thank you all for your help and reminiscence of a better time. I am only 27 so a few of those things were lost on me.haha(wiggles and Jon01)
Htc Hero 1.5 firmware.

The problem i have is that i spend a lot of time researching phones(...maybe not enough here)and i like how the hero looks. They have offered me a htc ink. Tattoo and a samsung thing. None of these i am keen on. And None of these phones orange seem to actually provide on their websites anymore. That to me highlights they are old and obsolete!No?

I assume orange have looked into the network side but who am i to know what they do on the other side of the phone. It does seem strange that i have 3 different phones and they all do the same thing. i think it unlikely it is actually the phone.

I would like to see what Dark convict can do on this matter however i would like someone else to confirm he is in fact who he says he is before i give details to him. No offense Dark convict - would you have to take my sort code and account number.....hahahahah.

Bubblesmoney - Thats a lot of detail! The other phone is the same orange htc hero with a lot of the same probs. It Runs 3g most of the time.
I do use a task killer. maybe thats the problem but i dont want all that stuff running in the background.

The worst time was when i couldnt find out which pub my freinds were in on a friday after work for 2 hours - So alone!!!!

I know it is unlikely but i want rid of this phone i am so annoyed and feel very let down after being with orange for over 10 years.
Thanks again for all your help guys. Alex

Alex_OC

Oh Just realised Dark convict is not the orange guy. My bad.

Also does any one know if the whole supply of good thing is actually true. People quote it but has anyone actually used it and got anywhere.

Thanks again.