Warning-PORT your # from ORANGE;lose your Online access to your account, immediately

jimlad68

I have/had a Monthly Orange Mobile phone account for 2 years. As I don't use my phone much, except when I am on holiday, I decided to move to GiffGaff as this was much more flexible for my occasional greater use.

Although I had trouble contacting Orange Customer Service (seems even worse since they became EE), I managed to find a direct number to a very nice man who gave me my porting PAC number etc. All went smoothly, and number ported to GiffGaff.

I then tried to logon to my Orange account to see what I still owed and download past statements. No go. Tried to contact Customer Services and after eons waiting thought I would try the Orange Helpers on Facebook. Seems a bit dodgy security wise, but slow yet good communication ensued. Seems that once your number has been ported you can no longer log onto your account. Strange as number still unique to Orange systems! So how do I download my old statements? Cannot be done and they will not send them by email, but they will post them to you for £3.60 + Vat; for 12 months worth that is £40 plus!

So I thought I would go through the complaints procedure and eventually spoke to a man on 0800 0790134. He said the account was linked to the phone number so I could not look at my account. Fine, but I said that the phone number was still unique to Orange, so why should that be a problem, also that I still had an account with Orange as they had not sent me a final bill or processed my last Direct Debit. REPEATEDLY HE WOULD NOT ADMIT THAT THE ORANGE ONLINE ACCOUNTING SYSTEM could not cope with this. Why not admit the obvious! When I asked what was the next step in the complaints procedure he said there wasn't one, because he had given me an "end of the line" answer.

This is only the most recent problem I've had with Orange over the 2 years with them, I won't be going back to Orange or EE and will be moving my Orange PAYG when it runs out.

NFH

I assume that you pay by direct debit because otherwise you would be surcharged. Cancel any direct debit and instruct your bank to reverse any payments that have been taken without a bill. The direct debit guarantee requires that you are sent a notification (i.e. a bill) of any amount to be taken from your bank account. Orange are not entitled to damage your credit history as a result of any payments it attempts but fails to take in breach of the direct debit guarantee. Tell Orange that you will pay any amounts due upon receipt of a bill.

marty2be2000

T-Mobile are the same, however although I lost access to the account online I did still get a final bill from T-Mobile. They sent a paper bill to my address detailing all the final charges, calls etc.

mobilejunkie

That's laughable; I've not been able to log on to my Orange account since I took out a new contract two months' ago; it won't recognise the number they gave me to set it up, their indian call centres read from scripts and waste copious amounts of time every time I attempt to get them to sort it out and TWO formal complaints have been completely ignored. Abysmal company!!

jimlad68

NFH wrote: »

I assume that you pay by direct debit because otherwise you would be surcharged. Cancel any direct debit and instruct your bank to reverse any payments that have been taken without a bill. The direct debit guarantee requires that you are sent a notification (i.e. a bill) of any amount to be taken from your bank account. Orange are not entitled to damage your credit history as a result of any payments it attempts but fails to take in breach of the direct debit guarantee. Tell Orange that you will pay any amounts due upon receipt of a bill.

Thanks for the info, but I'm sure they would charge me £3.60+vat for the statement! I'm afraid with these guys all you can do is cut your losses and make sure everyone knows why.

jimlad68

marty2be2000 wrote: »

T-Mobile are the same, however although I lost access to the account online I did still get a final bill from T-Mobile. They sent a paper bill to my address detailing all the final charges, calls etc.

T-mobile are of course joined with Orange via EE. For all I know other operators do the same, although I could still log onto my O2 account 2 years after leaving, but as expected after 2 years could not see any details. I have been promised a free final bill.

jimlad68

mobilejunkie wrote: »

That's laughable; I've not been able to log on to my Orange account since I took out a new contract two months' ago; it won't recognise the number they gave me to set it up, their indian call centres read from scripts and waste copious amounts of time every time I attempt to get them to sort it out and TWO formal complaints have been completely ignored. Abysmal company!!

Yes, I have noticed a lot of online "outage" in the last few months, since it became EE, and customer service, well, I ended up using their facebook orange helpers who as far as I can gather from comments made by other Orange employees have limited access and seem to be "cheap" labour, just a way of deflecting the obviously overstretched main customer service. for a laugh/cry look at the Orange Helpers facebook page
I and have to admit they are very brave (or stupid) to have a Facebook page with so many complaints.

NFH

jimlad68 wrote: »

Thanks for the info, but I'm sure they would charge me £3.60+vat for the statement!

They can't charge you for a paper invoice if they refuse to make one available to you online.

Buzby

I would be concerned if you could get access to your account online having transferred out! All services cease when you no longer have an active mobile. Saying the number was 'unique to Orange' is nonsensical - it isn't. If you move o Giff Gaff, the number you ported is not used by TMO as a login, but if you went to 3UK it would be!

You need to complete all your d/ls before you close the account. You had ample opportunity to do this prior to porting. As you are asking for historical data, unless they waive the charge they remain entitled charge you for their trouble.

davethorp

Three also terminate online account access once an account has been disconnected

jimlad68

Buzby wrote: »

I would be concerned if you could get access to your account online having transferred out! All services cease when you no longer have an active mobile. Saying the number was 'unique to Orange' is nonsensical - it isn't. If you move o Giff Gaff, the number you ported is not used by TMO as a login, but if you went to 3UK it would be!

You need to complete all your d/ls before you close the account. You had ample opportunity to do this prior to porting. As you are asking for historical data, unless they waive the charge they remain entitled charge you for their trouble.

When I say number was 'unique to Orange', perhaps I should have said 'unique WITHIN Orange'. If I was aware of this limitation, I would have downloaded beforehand. But the fact remains I still had an account with them, so why should I not be able to view it online. If it is a limitation of their system, fine, a bad limitation, but I understand, what was really annoying was that the Orange guy would not admit there was a limitation of the system to do it. If the system was capable, the only other reason would be Oranges Bloody Mindedness to restrict online access to leavers and try to get a few last £s for statements etc, and have no access to account information if there was a query with the final bill.