Help improving a complaints letter to Orange

David8686

Morning all, first time poster, long time reader here hope you are all well

I sent an email complaint to Orange after being instructed to by a customer service representative and after a few days of waiting have been told they can't deal with complaints over email...and to phone a service rep....after weeks of dealing with the WORST customer service over the phone imaginable (although I'm sure more than a few of you on here have experienced it first-hand) I am going to send a snail mail letter to their customer services department and was wondering if people could help me refine/improve/give tips on it here.

The letter in full --

1. Signal and Handset

My first complaint is regarding the consistent lack of signal I receive at my home address, causing massive problems to me when calls from family/work are missed. Outgoing calls consistently fail while trying to get through and often require me to go into the garden or even outside into the street just to get a reliable signal to make a call. I live in a busy town area and find this unacceptable, in my previous contract with a different provider I didn’t have any of the signal problems at home. Whether this it to do with Orange masts or my Blackberry handset I do not know. On the subject of the Blackberry handset, I have already had it replaced once due to a faulty rollerball on the 8900 Curve and the rollerball is already sticking again, I enquired to see if I could change my handset to a different handset and was only offered cheaper versions of the Blackberry I already had, after enquiring if I could change the phone BRAND entirely I was told that I would have to wait until my handset has broken 3 times! On a 24 month contract paying £30 a month that is absolutely unacceptable.


2. Customer Service

The ‘customer service’ I have received has been completely and utterly terrible. My first call with one of your representatives was approximately 1 month ago, where I had phoned up to downgrade my service plan from Dolphin 35 to a lower tariff, as I was unhappy with paying £30 per month when using very few minutes and consistently struggling to get a good signal. The customer service representative I spoke to told me this was all fine, no problem at all, and that he was switching me to a £20 per month contract with less monthly minutes and exactly the same texts/internet services. A month later, I receive my bill at £30, check my account and find that my service is exactly the same and nothing has been done to change anything.

Again, I phone one of your customer service representatives and after having to press the letters of my password on my phone keys (even though on a Blackberry, the letters are not on the 1-9 keys as they are on normal phones, making this extremely tricky, you’d think for a provider selling so many Blackberries that they would have realised this) before I get through, I am told that I cannot downgrade my service plan until I am at the halfway point of my contract (which is 12 months) and to call back on a specified day. There was absolutely no mention of this in my first call, where I was told I would be downgraded to a £20 monthly contract no problem at all after the next billing date.

A few weeks later I phone up on the day I was told to call again when my phone would be at the halfway point, only to be told I have to phone 2 days later as I was still not eligible to downgrade my service plan. After I finally get through to a representative 2 days later I am told in barely comprehensible English that I cannot change to a £20 per month tariff and I can only downgrade my plan 1 level per month, I told them that is not what I was told when I first called said I wanted to speak to a manager and in reply the representative immediately hung up the phone.

I phoned back straight away (going through the password process again) and after being put on hold for 10 minutes am told I can downgrade to a £30 per month tariff and instead of the £5 discount I would only be receiving a £2.50 discount leaving it at £27.50 p/month and in another month I can request to be downgraded to £25 per month. I find the fact the first representative gave me completely false information, and the fact I had to call up numerous times, had the phone hung up on me, all to be told I will be paying £2.50 less per month for a phone that doesn’t work properly and has terrible signal completely unacceptable.

To summarise, I want my Orange contract to be cancelled with immediate effect as I cannot trust the service, the reception, or the basic competency of any of the customer service representatives. If this cannot be done I will take this complaint as far as it needs to go, including contacting the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS) until my contract is cancelled. << is this too much?

Regards,

David Walker

---

Any tips/help would be appreciated. Would you recommend copying a letter to the trading standards institute etc? as I've heard many stories of them ignoring/agreeing to cancel contracts/make changes and continuing to charge for months afterwards whilst ignoring calls etc and I'd like to protect myself.

Thanks to you all

Dave

spark_deals

David8686 wrote: »

Morning all, first time poster, long time reader here hope you are all well

I sent an email complaint to Orange after being instructed to by a customer service representative and after a few days of waiting have been told they can't deal with complaints over email...and to phone a service rep....after weeks of dealing with the WORST customer service over the phone imaginable (although I'm sure more than a few of you on here have experienced it first-hand) I am going to send a snail mail letter to their customer services department and was wondering if people could help me refine/improve/give tips on it here.

The letter in full --

1. Signal and Handset

My first complaint is regarding the consistent lack of signal I receive at my home address, causing massive problems to me when calls from family/work are missed. Outgoing calls consistently fail while trying to get through and often require me to go into the garden or even outside into the street just to get a reliable signal to make a call. I live in a busy town area and find this unacceptable, in my previous contract with a different provider I didn’t have any of the signal problems at home. Whether this it to do with Orange masts or my Blackberry handset I do not know. On the subject of the Blackberry handset, I have already had it replaced once due to a faulty rollerball on the 8900 Curve and the rollerball is already sticking again, I enquired to see if I could change my handset to a different handset and was only offered cheaper versions of the Blackberry I already had, after enquiring if I could change the phone BRAND entirely I was told that I would have to wait until my handset has broken 3 times! On a 24 month contract paying £30 a month that is absolutely unacceptable.


2. Customer Service

The ‘customer service’ I have received has been completely and utterly terrible. My first call with one of your representatives was approximately 1 month ago, where I had phoned up to downgrade my service plan from Dolphin 35 to a lower tariff, as I was unhappy with paying £30 per month when using very few minutes and consistently struggling to get a good signal. The customer service representative I spoke to told me this was all fine, no problem at all, and that he was switching me to a £20 per month contract with less monthly minutes and exactly the same texts/internet services. A month later, I receive my bill at £30, check my account and find that my service is exactly the same and nothing has been done to change anything.

Again, I phone one of your customer service representatives and after having to press the letters of my password on my phone keys (even though on a Blackberry, the letters are not on the 1-9 keys as they are on normal phones, making this extremely tricky, you’d think for a provider selling so many Blackberries that they would have realised this) before I get through, I am told that I cannot downgrade my service plan until I am at the halfway point of my contract (which is 12 months) and to call back on a specified day. There was absolutely no mention of this in my first call, where I was told I would be downgraded to a £20 monthly contract no problem at all after the next billing date.

A few weeks later I phone up on the day I was told to call again when my phone would be at the halfway point, only to be told I have to phone 2 days later as I was still not eligible to downgrade my service plan. After I finally get through to a representative 2 days later I am told in barely comprehensible English that I cannot change to a £20 per month tariff and I can only downgrade my plan 1 level per month, I told them that is not what I was told when I first called said I wanted to speak to a manager and in reply the representative immediately hung up the phone.

I phoned back straight away (going through the password process again) and after being put on hold for 10 minutes am told I can downgrade to a £30 per month tariff and instead of the £5 discount I would only be receiving a £2.50 discount leaving it at £27.50 p/month and in another month I can request to be downgraded to £25 per month. I find the fact the first representative gave me completely false information, and the fact I had to call up numerous times, had the phone hung up on me, all to be told I will be paying £2.50 less per month for a phone that doesn’t work properly and has terrible signal completely unacceptable.

To summarise, I want my Orange contract to be cancelled with immediate effect as I cannot trust the service, the reception, or the basic competency of any of the customer service representatives. If this cannot be done I will take this complaint as far as it needs to go, including contacting the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS) until my contract is cancelled. << is this too much?

Regards,

David Walker

---

Any tips/help would be appreciated. Would you recommend copying a letter to the trading standards institute etc? as I've heard many stories of them ignoring/agreeing to cancel contracts/make changes and continuing to charge for months afterwards whilst ignoring calls etc and I'd like to protect myself.

Thanks to you all

Dave

This comes across as if you want to wriggle out of the contract.
Just ask them to improve the signal and change the phone. If they can't, they should let you know your options, including CANCELLING the contract.

David8686

Yeah I agree, thanks for pointing it out. Appreciated!

spark_deals

I shot an e-mail to ceo and executive team.
See Here

David8686

Yeah i'd noticed that post Sparks, what was the ultimate outcome after emailing them?

What email address can the executive team be reached on, do you still have it?

Thanks

spark_deals

ceo: Tom. Alexander@orange.co.uk
exec team: executive.office@orange.co.uk
You can dig out deep to find other addresses.

Hope this helps.

David8686

Thanks sparks, i've done that, hope it helps....Although if their customer service 'advisors' are anything to go by, I will now probably be fobbed off/misled by the executive team now!

spark_deals

the executive team really tries to help you out. If everything else fails, advise them that you can consider going to the media. This advise usually works wonders.

David8686

Haha, aye I think I'll threaten to start a facebook/twitter campaign and tell all my friends and family to avoid them like the plague if they don't help me.

Is that something you did sparks? Threaten to go to the media? Genius!

spark_deals

David8686 wrote: »

Haha, aye I think I'll threaten to start a facebook/twitter campaign and tell all my friends and family to avoid them like the plague if they don't help me.

Is that something you did sparks? Threaten to go to the media? Genius!

Well, I didn't do this and threaten is not the correct word. You explore all the possibilities in a friendly chat over the phone including escalating the matters and being forced to cancel the contract( Read the fine print first and take some informed legal advice on company law and contract law). Thing may turn ugly if you choose to use strong words to express your emotions, beware they record each call and every word they RECIEVE, may not record when they telephone you.

So, try to rephrase your letter that:
they are trying to help you but somehow things are not shaping up to the satisfaction of all the parties involved. It might be due to the cascading authority each member of the team holds
and
you are very much interested in sticking to your provider, hence, decided to start at the top rung than misunderstandings creeping while lower and mid ranks try to help to solve your problem.
HTH

spark_deals

I got it all sorted by a call from exec. office. They honoured what has been commited by the customer care officer. Thanks to all who gave all the useful advice.