The Fraud that is costing us telephone charges whilst hanging on for service...

mandybear

It is free to call them if you are an Orange customer. I called them on my way to France to turn on the roaming and even if it was free and when I eventually got through they were helpful, they still wasted most of my battery life! I was on a 12 hour road trip to the alps and didn't have a car charger (nokia have changed the charger jacks so none of my old ones work, just another way of getting us to buy new accessories!) so I had to make sure I saved it for emergency use only.

cullin

As the trading standard officer stated to me (No.1 in the World ) for whining and moaning, but get them to follow it up with any positive action no chance.

rsykes2000

0800 0795000 is freephone for Orange customer services.

peterbaker

Not so fast rsykes2000!!! Nice try! (seriously)

But even that number is not as free as it looks.

Try it.

Option 4 for existing customers

Then Option 2 for PAYG customers

"Once connected you will be charged a one off charge of 25p for this call"

I assume they charge your mobile account after you have got your details or is it all a ruse to make me hang up and try a different way of contacting them?

I thought great, and thanks for that rsykes, but having tried it I am now gobsmacked!

Careful_ly

What about an Orange top up card, then you can top up at the supermarket, and even earn Tesco, Boots or Sainsburys points too.

HTH

rsykes2000

peterbaker wrote: »

Not so fast rsykes2000!!! Nice try! (seriously)

But even that number is not as free as it looks.

Try it.

Option 4 for existing customers

Then Option 2 for PAYG customers

"Once connected you will be charged a one off charge of 25p for this call"

I assume they charge your mobile account after you have got your details or is it all a ruse to make me hang up and try a different way of contacting them?

I thought great, and thanks for that rsykes, but having tried it I am now gobsmacked!

Sorry pb, I missed the PAYG bit from your first post, I used it when i had a contract with them.

Stonk

I agree about the insincerity of it all. It's that time of year when I review and reshuffle my finances, and have recently talked to a fair few customer "service" centres. It's amazing how usual it is for there to be an unusually high call volume! Even at 3 a.m.!

neermaur

I too wish Martin would take this phone fraud up and rip it to pieces. I have lost count of the number of businesses I have rung and been kept holding on or anything from 10 to 45 minutes, listening to worn out crap music and intermittently some woman stating Thank you for holding, your patience is appreciated or due to unusually high call blah blah blah. I for one do not have the time or the money to spend on these phone calls. Every business you ring these days has this automated rubbish and it should stop. The last one I rang was Ulster Bank who kept me fuming for 45 minutes, I was like a dog with a bone I would not let go until I spoke to someone and boy did they get it when they answered, of course it was not this poor bloke's fault and I apologised to him, but have written to Ulster Bank asking for the price of my phone call back. MARTIN - I do hope you are listening - we need you please to rid the country of these fraudulent scams!!!

fudgeukraine

Perhaps these businesses genuinely do have high call volumes.

Consider, people working 9-5 need to call some place that's open 8-6, then they'll only be able to call at 8, 1 (lunchtime) and 5. Therefore, you'll have thousands of people trying to call at these times when they can't call another time. Try calling outwith these times and often you'll get through a lot faster.

Same works during the early evening - avoid places between 7 and 9, try after this and you should be quicker.

Kilty_2

Careful_ly wrote: »

What about an Orange top up card, then you can top up at the supermarket, and even earn Tesco, Boots or Sainsburys points too.

HTH

Aren't top ups exempt from clubcard (etc) points? (since the merchant only earns say 40p commission on a £10 topup*)

* figures based on a leaflet I have here for Bank of Scotland Business Banking, aimed at small businesses who want to accept cards & do mobile top ups also