Orange going down the pan?

LisaB85

Have just sent this complaint email to Orange -


Dear Sirs

I am contacting you to complain about the service I have received from you. I draw your attention to the notes on my account while I explain.

I have been an Orange customer since 2008 when I moved from a T-Mobile contract and while the service has been OK I have often found your shoddy systems a complete hindrance causing billing problems on more than one occasion. The first occurred when I wanted to cancel a bundle I had on my account, I found there was no option to do this online so I called 150 and was told it had been cancelled; however for 2 months I continued to be billed for bundle and had to call again to cancel it.

Moving on to May 10th 2012 I was aware that my bill for May would be a little higher than usual so I made an additional payment of £10 via my online account; however when the direct debit was taken from my account I noticed that the £10 additional payment had not been deducted so I called 150 and spoke to man who had a very poor grasp of the English language, this man went on about cancelling my direct debit and calling my bank to claim the money back and I was left confused about what I really should do.

I sought advice online and discovered that the payment on the 10th May would have been added to my account after my billing date which I accepted and once I checked my online account it did indeed state -£10.00 leaving me assuming the £10 additional payment had been recognised which wasn't the case. My bill for June was £49 minus my additional payment which left £39 to be paid so I left £40 in my bank account ready to be taken on 27th June.

Imagine my shock to receive a letter from my bank on 28th June informing me that you had tried to take a £49 direct debit and that I would be charged £8 for the unpaid direct debit. Again I call 150 and after a 15minute wait I got through a pleasant lady who actually listened to my problem and explained that Orange had never recognised the additional payment despite taking it from my bank and showing it on my online account.She rectified the problem and has made a deduction from my bill for July to cover the bank charge as well as refunding the additional payment.

Only to receive this reply -

Whoops, due to issues beyond our control we are currently unable to handle your email query. If you need to contact us by calling us on 07973100150 from a landline (landline calls are charged at local rates if you're a BT customer, but if you're with another provider it may cost more so do check). You can also contact us whilst you're abroad on 07973100150, where calls are charged at international rates.

In the meantime, you can always check or manage your account online at orange.co.uk/your account

Our technical teams are working hard to restore the service to you

What a joke! lol.

What is the best way to compare network providers in my area?

Last time I swapped providers I went into Phones4You who paid the remainder of my contract and gave me cash back, are there still deals like this about?

DUTR

To cut a long story short, you credit £10 to your account, the DD was the same amount as previous, with hindsight it may have been wiser to leave the £10 in the account and await the bill with the higher than usual DD which could then be debited from your account.
Now onto the complaint....Sirs? not PC, rubbishing the call centre staff, not good either, just stick to the main points of the complaints.

buscape

LisaB85 wrote: »

What is the best way to compare network providers in my area?

In what sense? Coverage? Contract deals? Customer service?

Last time I swapped providers I went into Phones4You who paid the remainder of my contract and gave me cash back, are there still deals like this about?

Cashback is available through various websites, not sure about buying out your contract though. How long have you got left on it?

kempsey

OMG! I had to laugh at the automated message as I have recently made a complaint and got the same reply!

What the hell is wrong with them?

LisaB85

kempsey wrote: »

OMG! I had to laugh at the automated message as I have recently made a complaint and got the same reply!

What the hell is wrong with them?

It is laughable, there whole system is !!!!ed! Feel like calling them and asking for the email address of a manager as it will cost me AGAIN to post them a letter which doesn't sound a lot but have you seen the price they charge now?

Their site never works, email doesn't work. Makes you wonder where the price increase they enforced is going because it isn't on improving the service lol.

j0nathon2

Orange are not going down the pain. They went down the pan long ago.

I find dealing with Orange incredibly distressing. "Rubbishing" their call centre staff as somebody referred to can only come from somebody who has not dealt with them. They are the worst customer services I have ever had to deal with. I am sure they are incredibly nice people, maybe even intelligent, but they are not being trained by Orange to do anything but follow a script. When you deviate from that script, they struggle, they lie, they cut you off. And you are left feeling powerless but with a problem.

Yesterday I spoke to Orange over their internet support chat - I would recommend this option as it led me to English support staff who were honest (You can request a copy of the transcript is emailed to you). At the end, I told him I still wanted to complaint, and he told me not to email the complaint yet because for some technical reason they were not being received, which somehow ties in with your email problems - but how could they possibly send a whoops if they never received it in the first place?

LisaB85

j0nathon2 wrote: »

how could they possibly send a whoops if they never received it in the first place?

My thoughts exactly.

Their call centre staff are either brilliant or crap I believe they have one in Newcastle and if you get through to a geordie you can be confident they will sort it as every time I get through to the geordie call centre they have sorted it quickly and been lovely.

Other times I got no help at all. So not sure how it works x