Orange complaint

citylen

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on a situation arising from my wife's mobile being stolen.
What happened was she was at home one evening when she realised she must have left her mobile phone at school. When she went to the school the next day she couldn't find and after extensive enquiries to see if it had been handed in she called Orange to report it as stolen. They informed her that the last recorded usage was the previous day (when it was still in my wife's possession) and that they would immediately block the sim card.
When she asked what she should do next they informed her that she could get a new phone with a new sim card but keep her old number. In response to her worries about keeping the same number they assured her it would be no problem. This was the same message given by the assistant in the Orange shop.
Now to the problem: as a PAYG customer she noticed her credit was being used up more quickly than she thought it should be, then last week she received a strange text about paying £1.50 per text. Imagining this to be some sort of scam she immediately deleted it as she thought to reply might trigger this payment. However when she found she had used £25 credit in a week she contacted the strange text people and found that they were a ringtone company who had been called when the phone had been stolen and that they had indeed been charging £1.50 a text! They of course denied all responsibility for what had happened and that she should call Orange.
Orange also denied any responsibility as the call was made before the phone was reported as stolen. When my wife pointed out that when she reported it stolen the last call was supposed to have been made the previous day and this particular call was made on the day she reported it stolen she was told that they couldn't be expected to have such up to date records of calls. Their response to the advice that there was no problem in keeping the same number was that people didn't want too much information as it was confusing!
My next move is to register an official complaint in writing to Orange but I would like to know how far I should go with it or am I wasting my time.

smcicr

one of the simplest ways to complain effectively is to go as high up as you can as quickly as possible.

write a letter detailing the incident, what you were told by who and when (names, locations if you have them), if you have been a customer for a long time point that out, express your disappointment and frustration with the result but be polite and make a request - give them something that they could do to repair the relationship.

send that to the CEO - if his name isn't on the orange site somewhere (you may have to dig or even look on the business site) then google may well help. it may get a result it may not but it will take significantly less of your time (and patience) than running around trying to get something done through customer services.

good luck.

Woby_Tide

[email="executive.office@orange.co.uk"]executive.office@orange.co.uk[/email]

LSmith4285

Orange only usually have all information from the call records after 3 days. The original operator told you what was on her system. She was incorrect to tell you this.

The problem is you are liable for any calls etc made before the phone was barred and as such I'd imagine you'll be liable for this.

charlie12

I agree with LSmith - although I'd still fire off a letter to them as they may offer a goodwill gesture. Worth a try.

IME they don't really give a toss about PAYG customers (they treat contract customers like royalty in comparison). Here's the address (I'm assuming the PAYG and contract service addresses are the same).

Customer Service Department
P.O. Box 10
Patchway
Bristol
BS32 4BQ