Orange PAYG infrequent user problems

kfsimpson

Has anyone else had problems with Orange PAYG removing your credit? I am a strictly emergency only mobile user (hate the things!), and I keep under £5 credit on my phone. Two weeks ago Orange removed all of this back to 25 pence. When I contacted them I was told that this was due to non-use. I have always tried to use it every six months or so for a text message just to keep it active, in February I was told by the man in the Orange shop that he reckoned I should use it every three months, Fair enough, 40 pence a year is OK. I know I used it on 1st March and had a reminder set for 1st June. The woman to whom I spoke last week said that they have now changed it to every month. I can find no mention of this online in any of their terms and conditions. I can’t be the only such user who doesn’t want to use the thing but needs it for emergency. Has anyone had any recent experience or contact with Orange on this issue?
Thanks.

grumbler

The woman you spoke to was a typical incompetent frontline CS adviser whose main task is to fob the customers off. You should have asked her to quote these 'new' T&C and where you can see them. It's hardly a surprise that the men in the shop was similarly incompetent, but at least he made it clear that he wasn't sure.
In fact, the terms and conditions for pay as you go customers - effective from 15 November 2012 say very clearly:

3.4 We will disconnect your Device if during the previous six months, you have not Registered a newTop Up or you have not made chargeable calls from your Device. For the avoidance of doubt callsshall include but not
be limited to voice calls, data calls and text messaging.

And they say nothing about confiscating the credit if the sim remains active.

That said, there are plenty of other providers around that are much better than Orange.

tyllwyd

I've not seen any mention of this for our Orange PAYG phones.

Are you 100% certain that they 'removed' your credit and that it hasn't been spent in some way? Have you looked at your itemised bill online - what does that say?

Buzby

When a mobile is deactivated,any credit is retained (recovered) by the network as there is no active account.

If you complain early enough, they often restore it, but this is not guaranteed.

tyllwyd

Buzby wrote: »

When a mobile is deactivated,any credit is retained (recovered) by the network as there is no active account.

If you complain early enough, they often restore it, but this is not guaranteed.

But the OP said that they still had 25p remaining on their phone? And OP hasn't said that the SIM has been deactivated. It seems strange that they would take some of the credit but not all.

kfsimpson

Thanks for all the thoughts. They have now restored it to £4.70, which is what I thought sounds right. The person to whom I spoke was, I suspect, in an overseas call centre working off a script, but she immediately offered to restore the 'lost' credit. Clearly Orange had done something to remove it because I hadn't used it since March 1st. I have now used it again, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I'm sure that in the past I hadn't used it for a long period, possibly even 12 months. And yes, I have been a victim of the network simply taking back your credit with the first mobile I ever bought with Vodafone - put £20 on it and ended up losing nearly the lot as Vodafone has no coverage where I live, which I hadn't realised ... Other forumites please keep posting your experiences so we can all be forewarned! I'll do so if they play silly beggars with me again.

kfsimpson

grumbler wrote: »

The woman you spoke to was a typical incompetent frontline CS adviser whose main task is to fob the customers off. You should have asked her to quote these 'new' T&C and where you can see them. It's hardly a surprise that the men in the shop was similarly incompetent, but at least he made it clear that he wasn't sure.
In fact, the terms and conditions for pay as you go customers - effective from 15 November 2012 say very clearly:
And they say nothing about confiscating the credit if the sim remains active.

That said, there are plenty of other providers around that are much better than Orange.

Thanks, but sadly, only Orange has any coverage in the rural outposts of Devon!

grumbler

Orange share the masts with T-mobile.
Virgin and Vectone use the same signal.

However, I can't vouch that any from the above is better than Orange. They can be cheaper, but for occasional usage this doesn't matter.