I Need Help With Mobile Phones

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kathy
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I just got a message on my mobile phone from Orange asking me to take part in a survey about their customer services. You didn't actually get to speak to anyone (no change there) you just had to rate them between 1-3 on 4 questions. Their helpfulness, their understanding of your problem, how they dealt with it and then finally your overall impression of customer services as a whole . I bet they wished they hadn't asked. B)
 
I too am on Orange and have never had a problem. Blue chip company imo.

And talking of blue chip, or world class if you will i`d like to say something positive about Virgin Trains, the company i work for. They have just forked out £45,000 to provide all train dispatchers with watches in an effort to help us get the trains out on time. And although it`s hardly a match for the £600 Krug-Baumen i usually wear it`s the thought that counts.
Oh, and talking of puncuality we are having our Christmas party tomorrow evening(true)
 
ok something I know about for once on here, as some of you know I have been in the phone business for about 12 years now (blatent plug for what I do http://www.remoteunlocker.com) , and although I don't now, used to sell contracts on all the networks, so have had dealings with them all, here's what I think:

'3' Don't bother, coverage is rubbish, customer service - errm, do they have any?

T-Mobile Bad coverage compared to the others (bear in mind Virgin & BT use T-mobile if you are thinking about going with either of those), customer service ok ish but are expensive

Orange - 5 years ago I would have said they were cheapest, free insurance was excellent, customer service brilliant, unfortunately I hear more and more horror stories about them now, so possibly they have slipped recently.

Vodafone, rarely get problems with customer service, coverare good, pricing is pretty good

o2 - I'm with o2 which should tell you a fair bit. 5 years ago I wouldn't have touched them, CS was bad, and prices were worse, but now you get through to someone usually straight away & most problems are sorted straight away. I had a fault on my 8 month old v3 last week, posted it away for repair Monday had it back Thursday, pricing is now very good too, especially their online deals, http://www.o2.co.uk .

However it's worth noting you can always find someone who has had trouble with any company.

Kathy, if you move all your handsets to o2, you might want to look at the business tariffs, one for example give completely free calls to any other o2 mobile, so if you have 15 phones and call each other that might save a lot of money if you move them all to them, if you already have phones and want sim only deals you will probably find if you call them they will reduce the line rental too. If you aren't changing them all, have a look at http://shop.o2.co.uk/shop/o2uk/jsp/tariffs...ef=SIM_mod_head where you have 30 day contracts and double minutes and texts for however long you stay with them. Business tariffs are here http://www.o2extras.co.uk/business/ - if you do want 15 handsets though ring them as they will offer you a deal to get the business, hope that helps a bit

I know a manager of an orange shop too, if i see him online ill get him to read this thread and see if he can suggest a solution for you - whereabouts in the country are you (in case you are local to him :) )
 
oh I forgot this

you are taking a risk buying a phone from ebay, I wouldn't, it it turns out to be lost, stolen or an insurance job you will end up out of pocket, pay a little extra and buy from a shop.

The phone does not form part of your airtime contract, so threatening to cancel won't wash with them as they know you can't. Was the new contract an upgrade or completely new contract? If it was a new contract then you have 14 days to change your mind, if an upgrade you don't.

Merlin, yes I forgot to mention Orange coverage, it is better than 3 and T-Mobile but worse than o2 & vodafone :)
 
Thanks Col B)

My fella upgraded his new phone abut 2 weeks ago, and had to sign a new 12 month contract. As I see it, as the contract was dependent on him upgrading, and the upgrade doesn't work, I don't see (although I don't know the legality of it) that the contract should now stand. We have cancelled our direct debit with them, so that should wake them up.

02 seems to be the one.

By the way, the unlocked phoned on ebay, are so much cheaper Col, brand new and still in the box. I would only consider those sold by power sellers with 100% feedback. I wouldn't dream of buying a used one from there and certainly not an import, and certainly not from someone who has no history. I am fully aware of how many stolen phones end up on here. :ph34r:

I have just shown this message to the other half and he is very grateful. I knew we would find a use for you on this forum eventually Col! B)

If we can't get out of this new 12 month contract, we will simply get OH a new phone from Orange, unlock it and use a different airtime provider for it and keep just one phone on the contract (move the others) and then just pay them late every month. :P

Col, I am quite near to Ascot/Bracknell/Maidenhead, so any of those.

Thanks again for your help! B)
 
Kathy, while you appear to be in the minority of critics on here, why not phone Orange again (as if you haven't already), record the conversation, and if it's as rubbish as your previous calls, send it to Watchdog at the Beeb? They just LOVE outing these too-big-for-their-boots outfits who only want to flog more products, but are crap at the after-care!
 
I have had to deal with organisations like Orange before Krizon. The key is normally getting through to the right person, something that their CS do not want you to do. They won't (they say they can't) put you through to Technical Support or let you speak to a manager.

It's one thing owning one mobile phone for personal use and thinking Orange are the dogs danglies as the three times people have called them they have always been happy with the response. I can appreciate and understand that. In those peoples eyes, Orange are excellent and I would be of the same opinion too. It is obviously a totally different kettle of fish when you are trying to run a business and Orange have apparently trained their CS staff to not give a flying feck about the urgency of a major problem and just quote, "you can't do that you are under contract" in a really annoying Northern accent and then sit there tutting. I have checked various newsgroups and websites, and it looks as it I am really not alone in my opinions.

We'll see. :)
 
It's for the points you make, Kathy, that I suggest you 'out' them. Mind you, they can't help having 'annoying Northern accents' any more than the outsourced centres have 'unintelligible Indian accents' according to those users!
 
Don't worry Krizon, the last thing I need today is an argument with you about people's accents! :)
 
Originally posted by Kathy@Mar 2 2006, 03:12 PM
I think I am going to get my own phone for now, just in case. 02 do a sim only with 1000 mins and 500 texts for a £25 a month, with a 1 month contract. I may just buy an unlocked phone on ebay.

At least then I have a phone, no major contract, and I am sure I can talk for 1000 minutes without even drawing breath.

By the way, Orange came back with a standard e-mail saying that if I want to call their technical support, you can call them direct on a landline for 50p a minute. Bargain eh? No wonder customer services won't transfer you. h:)
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I'm using that one, good choice, I switched after my bills were around £150 a month with Vodafone.

Now my bills with O2 on that sim card are always around £30, the savings you make means you can buy a nice unlocked phone off ebay, no looking back for me!

As for coverage, I am in West Horsley and go walking in remote areas quite often, coverage has been excellent.
 
Orange were brilliant when I had problems with my new mobile phone in November. It was hard enough to get hold of the phone as most places were out of stock and the Orange call centre told me they wouldn't get it in until January. I managed to pick up the one remaining model in stock in the Newbury shop and had was unable to transfer songs to the MP3 player. The shop in Newbury were perfectly happy to replace it but had no more models in stock so they personally telephoned every shop in the area to see if they had one and tracked down two handsets in Didcot, which they held for me for 2 days whilst I was waiting for the Orange call centre to get back to me with a 'replacement code' for the phone. It transpired it was a software problem for which I had to wait 3 weeks for Sony Ericcson to develop a software update that could be downloaded via their website. I had a lot of contact with Orange over trying to resolve the problem and they were nothing but helpful, even getting engineers to telephone me during the weekend in an attempt to get to the root of the problem. They really couldn't do enough for me, either on the phone or in the shops. So it's not a case of ringing them three times, having no problems and thinking they are the 'dog's danglies'.

As I said before, I have always found Orange's customer services to be excellent, they are up there with BA, Amazon and First Direct. Egg are pretty good too but I have had one or two small problems with them, on each occasion the problem was easily rectified though and the staff were very helpful.
 
When you start running your own company SL where you need access to mobile phones 24/7 and not just getting a local Orange shop to work out how to transfer your favourite little tunes onto your new posh phone, then come back with a counter argument. Having to get Orange to help you get your new mobile to play your favourite little ditties into your lugholes was hardly going to lose you money or business was it. B)

I am sure Orange will be abslutely thrilled at your personal testimonial to them and likewise I am thrilled you received such a fantastic service from them. Perhaps I've just been unlucky eh?
 
I'm just sharing my experience of Orange Kathy, in defence of your assassination of them. No need to get so chippy.
 
Kathy, what you are saying about little local Orange shops is irrelevant. I negotiated a business contract with Orange in the late '80s and by the year 2000 we had over 1,000 mobile phones connected to their network. We operated regular evaluations both on costs and on service. To date the company has seen no reason to change service supplier.

You have had a nasty experience which is unlucky but although to you that is a 100% failure, it is in the overall scheme of things a pretty small sample.
 
I was waiting for that! Thanks Brian, for a moment I was worried you didn't have a bigger and better story to tell about Orange. :P
 
What the fu©k are you on about? My posting is entirely relevant. You very patronisingly came out with "When you start running your own company SL where you need access to mobile phones 24/7 and not just getting a local Orange shop to work out how to transfer your favourite little tunes onto your new posh phone" and I pointed out, truthfully and from personal experience that I had significant and relevant history with Orange as a business supplier. How can you not consider that to be a meaningful contribution to the discussion of the company's service record?

Not everyone uses this forum to snipe, you know.
 
In Ireland COMREG have set up a website Call Costs which enables you to input your mobile phone usage from an itemised bill and it will tell you which service provider is your best option, costwise. There probably is an equivalent in the UK.
 
We have Orange out here in Australia, and I had a mobile phone with them for about 4 years. The only issue I had with them was they had no SIM card, you used their phone, worked off a plan, and you ended up with a phone at the end of the contract that could not be transferred to another carrier etc.

Because I wanted to own my mobile outright, and have the SIM card so I could carry the same number over if I got a new phone, I switched to Vodafone.

Best investment I have ever made, I can now work off of $30 credits every 6 weeks, and no monthly payment plan either.

As for bad customer service, Kathy I know how you feel. I had a situation in December where Citibank would not offer me a credit card. When I called their call centre they didn't want to know me. Eventually I rang Virgin, whom from day one have been nothing more than positive and customer service driven. You get call them, issues sorted out in 5 minutes. I got my card in less than 5 days. Richard Branson should be proud of his little Virgin Empire, they stand above the rest, from music stores, finance companies and airlines. When I fly internally, I only fly Virgin. The last time I was with QANTAS they forgot about my dinner, or greeted on the flight. Virgin, every time the stewards smile, greet you by your name and take you to your seat (which is leather, compared to QANTAS' lovely material seat :angry: ).
 
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