Help with Orange giving the wrong information....

babyfruitella

This is a bit of an odd one but im hoping someone can offer some advice.

I have a contract with Orange. Its a 24 month one & runs until November this year. My husband is the user on the account. For Christmas, I decided to buy him a new handset. He wanted one he could watch Sky Sports on & liked the look of Blackberrys. I rang Orange to tell them I was thinking about buying a sim free Blackberry Curve 9300, & asked was it compatible with the Sky Sports package the sell (£6 a month) The gentleman I spoke to said yes. So on his assurance I went out & bought my husband the Blackberry Curve 9300 (£250), locked to Vodafone & got it unlocked. I then rang Orange, confirmed the handset, & had the Sky Sports package added to my account. I was told it would be activated within 24 hours. The following day I got the text to say it was now active on my account, but everytime I tried to load the page up I got a message telling me it was an incompatible handset. When I rang back, the lady I spoke to told me that the information I was being given on screen was correct & the handset was indeed not compatible with sky sports. Needless to say I wasn't happy & they gave me a £30 credit on my account.

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking on their website again, & noticed that the Blackberry Curve was now showing as a compatible handset. Hurray! So I called them to confirm it WAS compatible now. I was transferred to the Techinical support team who told me they'd look into it & call me back. Received a call back & was told, yep, not a problem now, it will work if you add the package on. So I did. Go live date came & it STILL didnt work. Rang AGAIN to be told the issue was the fact that I didnt have an Orange handset. The guy I spoke to recommended I sell the other handset on eBay & buy an Orange branded one instead, & he assured me it would work. I queried why no-one had told me this before, & he said most of the Customer Service team were just interested in bumping their figures rather than going into details. Before hanging up, I asked him to confirm that buying an Orange handset would DEFINITELY rectify the problem & once again he confirmed that YES it would.

I wasnt happy at having to buy another phone, but if it was going to sort the problem out, I was prepared to do it & sell the other. I wasnt going to make the same mistake as last time though & buy one from a shop. So I bought an unwanted Orange upgrade on eBay for £150 (so we're now at £400). It arrived a couple of days ago, & I put the sim in, & STILL couldnt get on the Sky Sports page! Cue ANOTHER call to Orange. I asked could it be because I only had a 2G sim. Ah yes, it will be she said & got me a new 3G sim sent out by courier for delivery last night.

Popped it in, thinking surely it HAS to work now??? NO!! STILL DOESNT WORK!! After at least TWO hours on the phone to them (including at least half an hour where the manager put me on hold, probably in the hope i'd hang up!) last night, it was confirmed to us by one of the assistants that the information on their screens wasn't correct & the phone isnt compatible.

I expressed my disgust with Orange, & told them I wanted to cancel my contract with them. No surprise when they told me I couldnt but offered to let me upgrade early to a compatible phone with a new 12 month contract...... Why would I do that when its become more & more apparent that Orange dont know their @rse from their elbow?!

Do I have anywhere I can go with this?? I KNOW they have the calls recorded because they went away & listened to Saturdays call where the guy told me to buy the Orange phone, & I know their systems are showing the wrong information. I'm £400 down, & they just dont care.

babyfruitella

Wow, thats long. Sorry to anyone who gets through the whole post.......

drbesty

I would have thought the Blackberry 9300 would be compatible, it's pretty much the same as the Blackberry 9700 which is compatible, is it an Orange branded phone? With regards to the contract you won't be able to cancel unless they let you as a goodwill gesture, I'd have took the upgrade to be honest

leezuk1

I had a similar thing - told the phone was compatible with my emails - then each person I spoke to told me a different story (it was/it wasn't etc) - I was in tears down the phone in the end - managed to get a different phone that now works (set it up through googling settings rather than listening to Orange this time). However, I was promised free emails (given up chasing) and my billing still isn't right - very disappointed. Asked at one point for confirmation email of discussion - not surprisingly they got it wrong in writing aswell - I replied stating that it was wrong and have heard nothing since..... shall not be renewing my contract (or my sons) again after this experience!

babyfruitella

drbesty wrote: »

I would have thought the Blackberry 9300 would be compatible, it's pretty much the same as the Blackberry 9700 which is compatible, is it an Orange branded phone? With regards to the contract you won't be able to cancel unless they let you as a goodwill gesture, I'd have took the upgrade to be honest

I didnt want to upgrade because I didnt want to end up tied to them for ANOTHER 12 months, when quite frankly their customer service is diabolical. I can't even see that phone on their website tbh....

babyfruitella

leezuk1 wrote: »

I had a similar thing - told the phone was compatible with my emails - then each person I spoke to told me a different story (it was/it wasn't etc) - I was in tears down the phone in the end - managed to get a different phone that now works (set it up through googling settings rather than listening to Orange this time). However, I was promised free emails (given up chasing) and my billing still isn't right - very disappointed. Asked at one point for confirmation email of discussion - not surprisingly they got it wrong in writing aswell - I replied stating that it was wrong and have heard nothing since..... shall not be renewing my contract (or my sons) again after this experience!

Thats exactly how I feel. I've been pushed from pillar to post by them, constantly given incorrect information, & am now £400 down thanks to their ineptness.

drbesty

The BB9300 is on the Orange website, furthermore when you're buying it you can add the Sky Sports bundle to the cost of the monthly plan, so I would assume that it is compatible

babyfruitella

drbesty wrote: »

The BB9300 is on the Orange website, furthermore when you're buying it you can add the Sky Sports bundle to the cost of the monthly plan, so I would assume that it is compatible

I know. Thats why I called them again last week to enquire. But apparently their site is wrong, as is the information they have on their systems. This is why i'm so annoyed. They're still blatantly misadvertising it!

wandos

I know this is slightly off topic but what is interesting is that Orange also now appear to be offering 12 month contracts? I saw that Vodafone were too and looks like the EU legislation is finally making an impact

drbesty

As far as I know the only requirment needed for Sky Sports is a 3g connection, you tried texting 'sky pack' to 247?

babyfruitella

Yeah, i've done all that. No luck