Orange Cifas Flag - Not my fault

chanz4

After having such a great service from orange, I am not really that happy in making a formal complaint. Their service is second to none and when ever their has been a problem it has been sorted by customer service.

On the 5th June this year I decided that I wished to terminate my dongle plan, not only did I not use it much but the dongle was falling apart. I had previously asked about upgrading but was told that it would be the same price and I wouldn't get a new dongle as they had no stock which I took as fair enough. I put my notice in and was told that you could of done a deal, but it was too late as I had already secured a deal with vodafone.

My wife the main user of one of the lines asked me about having a blackberry phone, as she had noticed a good deal on quidco of £150 cashback which I agreed to. I went through the site entered all of the details, it asked did I want it adding to an existing account to enable it on one bill which I didn't select.
The application was referred and it asked me to contact them on the sales freephone number quoting the reference number.

I called from home, spoke to a guy called Craig. I gave him the reference number and he placed me on hold and said he went away to confirm about the application. Which he came back and said that credit referrals. He said that he could put the order through for me on his system, I asked about the cashback and he said I wouldn't get it and also said I would need to pay £5.

He then went on to say that I would get a cifas flag on my credit file for application fraud, as I hadn't put on for it to be added to my existing account and that it was a new customer. He was nothing but rude and very cocky and patronising. I explained it was not my fault and that all questions had been answered honestly by myself, he said it does not matter as I did it wrong. I requested to speak to his manager as I don't deserve a cifas marker as I had done nothing fraudulent. He refused and said that If I wanted a manger to call customer service, to which he dumped my call.

I got through to customer services and went through all the issues, I asked to be called back on one of my lines which the manager did. I explained to him about the circumstances, to which he said I had been misinformed about the reason for referral. He explained that over 3 connections get referred for another credit check which been honest I totally support.
He advised that I would hear within 24 hours via email with it been an online application, although I still have not heard anything.

It got me so very worried and has caused severe loss of sleep last night, to which I had to join credit expert, callcredit check and order an equifax credit reporting subscription to ensure that if a flag is placed on my credit file I would know about it and take the appropriate action.

I know that companys do sometimes have employees that sometimes feel that they should wind customers up for a reaction, on this occasion it worked however it maybe at the cost of orange. I'm currently contemplating paying all the live lines off and moving my business to another network. I have asked for the call to be listened to and for the appropriate action be taken against the advisor. I have also asked for my costs to be refunded, if the situation had not be made by their advisor I would not of gone through the process of signing up for the services with all 3 agency's. Is this what they have not got drawn to?

beautiful_bagel

I am not experienced enough to help with this but I just wanted to let you know that today I spoke to someone called Aaron at Orange who was obnoxious,rude ,arrogant and unhelpful over an issue that should never have arisen and still not been solved. While sorting through bills to sort it out I realised that Orange were taken over by another company in February and their main call centre seems to have been outsourced. The phone operator twisted my husbands words, then I went on the phone and he made me cry, so my Mum went on the phone and he was arrogant and did not listen. I am outraged by a company that I though had outstanding customer service! I hope everything gets sorted for you

matrix999

That's such a shame about the service you have received from Orange.

I've just joined Orange from Vodafone and so far found the service outstanding.

It does sound like an individual on a bit of a high horse.. I personally can't understand why some staff do this to customers, it does create nothing but worry and stress and is a poor level of service.

If you are worried I'd drop an email to the exec team to investigate.... executive.office@orange.co.uk

keith1950

There will be no cifas marker put on your file, there will just be a credit check reference to confirm your identity.

It is a pity that you didn't tick the existing customer box because the chances are it would have gone through without any issues.

I accidently did the same a couple of years ago and when the application was refused I just went straight back on ,reordered, ticked the existing customer box and the application went straight through. When it is an existing customer a full credit check is not carried out.

People really need to try and understand the quidco/topcashback process before going for any cashback deals.

The money for these deals comes from a marketing budget that is paid to a 3rd party referalls affiliates.

The original company ( in this case orange ) have no knowledge or link to these deals. The deals are completed wholly online and if they go wrong you CANNOT ring orange to sort them out, so you lose the cashback.

Once it is understood exactly how they work and therefore can adhere to the process it is possible to make a lot of money from cashback but any deal made should be worth doing on its own and the cashback only considered as a bonus in case it doesn't work.

I have been using quidco/topcashback for 3 years now and have received well over £2500 in cashback however I adhere to all their advice. ( such as using a different browser for the transaction/ clearing all cookies and browsing history immediately beforehand. )

I have had a few declined cashbacks but luckily these have all been for trivial amounts.

I apologise for going on if you are already an accomplished cashback user but now that quidco are advertising on the tv there will probably be a lot of people who blindly try these deals and fail.

Again, don't worry about the cifas issue , its just some obnoxious little s### trying to wind you up, lets hope he gets sacked.

chanz4

I understand cashback a lot, have used for the last few years. I have a dongle which is under notice, a 36 month contract which I had for 2 years. Also a sim only since oct last year and all were through quidco. I sent a very polite but strong email to orange press office / executive complaints, its a shame as they are a really good network.

keith1950

Hi, as I said , I didn't mean to go on about the cashback but the fact that you actually asked the customer service rep. if you would still get the cashback seemed to suggest that you did not understand that there is no actual connection between the cashback and orange , just an affiliate network using online referalls and that orange are not interested and will not honour any cashback failures.

chanz4

yeah I know what you mean, they were trying to put the order through again.

beautiful_bagel

matrix999 wrote: »

That's such a shame about the service you have received from Orange.

I've just joined Orange from Vodafone and so far found the service outstanding.

It does sound like an individual on a bit of a high horse.. I personally can't understand why some staff do this to customers, it does create nothing but worry and stress and is a poor level of service.

If you are worried I'd drop an email to the exec team to investigate.... [EMAIL="executive.office@orange.co.uk"]executive.office@orange.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Thank You for your advice, I have always found the cutomer service outstanding but unfortunately it seems that once you try to leave they try to sting you for all your worth and then when you try to sort it out they put on their most horrible pushy staff who do not listen to a word you say ( From researching the internet and MSE it seems to be all to often the case at the moment). Thank you for the email address you have posted, I will definately drop them a line

computersaysnoagain

That the thing, orange will seem outstanding till something goes wrong!!!!!!!
Then you get to know the real them and after all thats what counts and pushes people away.
Orange have gone down hill there is not doubt about that and they only record 1% of their 5 million calls so when you try to complain they will just say we dont have it, so you need to record calls your end to portect yourself which will only come into play if you come accross a situation of he said she said which is often a moan with orange.

Personally if they dont accept you please feel relieved that you had a near miss, of if goes through it is your c hoice but consider what if something went wrong, just look at orange uk on facebook and see how many unhappy people there are. They will try to argue it is only a small percentage, but when issues do arrive do you want to be considered as only a tiny percentage or have you issue resolved and treat with respect.

If you do go with them record all calls I cant say that enough, as you can never be guaranteed what told over the phone is what they write on you file, that will be contradicted next call.

I suspect their staff are not concerned re complaints knowing hardly any calls are kept for record, how do you fight a negative with no proof your end? hence record

computersaysnoagain

ps. Yes I am an orange hater and just hope others protect themselves as it was made very clear to me that what was written on file mattered over anything you had to say. I was not that way till they tried to abuse my situation and it was a matter of he said she said, thing was I recorded my calls and was able to prove my case. They were not happy I had recorded them!!!!!!! Wonder why?

chanz4

I dont hate orange, their service is good. Its just a shame for their underhand staff practises.