I recently switched from TMobile to Orange in order to get a Nokia N80 as TMobile didnt have it.
I've gone for an online 18 month tarrif and for £30 pm get 1000 texts and 700 or so any time cross network minutes.
This in itself is great, as is the network coverage and actually useage.
However, customer services/tech support/billing leave a lot to be desired.
When I first signed up about 2 months ago I set up a direct debit, got a letter 6 weeks ago saying it had been set up correctly. When my first bill showed online I just left it assuming the DD would take care of it, but it showed for a fair while, so I thought I should try and pay it, but when I clicked card payment I got a message with words to the effect "You are paying by Direct Debit so needn't make a card payment". This put my mind at ease so I decided to leave it and assume the DD would take care of it.
Went to log into my account at the weekend, and it's now showing £80 overdue and online access had been suspended. Obviously for some reason the direct debit had not been processed. There is a button to click though to make an instant payment with debit or credit card. I click it, and get told "There is no need to make a payment as you are paying by direct debit" (grrrr).
So I phone them up but being Sunday cannot speak to a person, but it let me make an instant payment over the phone, so I did this to clear the ballance.
I then get a letter Monday morning confirming the Direct debits would start on 4th Aug and the first one would be taking £40 or so (the 2nd bill). Great... so on the 4th August my account will go £40 into credit. I phoned orange to see if they could do a £40 refund back to my car, but they cannot, I'll have to either cancel the DD before the 4th and set it up again (and face a 6 or 8 week wait for it to be set up probably) or just wait for my account to go in credit and get a refund at that time or just leave it until the next bill brings it back down to roughly £0 again.
Later that day I try to login to the online service and get told "The ballance on your account is £0.00 and is therefore overdue. Access has been suspended until payment is received". Great.... so my account is "overdue" by zero pence
I phone them up and at the same time mention another problem. As I ported my number from TMobile, I have to use my orange assigned number to login online, despite the actual phone using the old tmobile number. Customer services say they cannot do anything with the website, and I need to call the website team on 439 (for which there is a 50p per min call).
The web team say the easiest away around both problems is to delete the online account and start again, leaving it 24 hours before doing so. I was on the phone 7 mins, so a cost of about £3.50.
So today I've just tried to create my account again. When I get asked to enter the mobile number it says "This number is already managed online" and I cannot proceed.
So I call tech support again (439 at 50p per min) and get told that there is no record of yesterdays call. Great. He says he'll escalate my problem to the 2nd level team, but they can take 72 hours to get round to looking at it, and that the 2nd line team have to report back to the first line team, who in turn get back to me, so it could take up to a week. This call took about 8 minutes, so £4.00 or so.
I ask if I can have the cost of yesterdays call refunded. I am told no, because the tech team are outsourced and have no access to orange's billing information.
So, I call 150 (customer services) to have a rant and try for a refund on yesterdays call, but after being on hold for 15 minutes decided to give up.
So, I've wasted about 45 minutes of my time, spent £7.50 on the phone to tech support who didnt know what the problem was and still have no online access to my account. Awesome isn't it.
It's a really poor system, surely I should log in using my account number rather then my mobile number, and it should then show all numbers under that account, and update them automatically if they are changed or removed. Having your "username" as something that can change (mobile number) is just stupid.
Well thought out and nicely designed database lads
Should have stuck with T-Mobile.
I've gone for an online 18 month tarrif and for £30 pm get 1000 texts and 700 or so any time cross network minutes.
This in itself is great, as is the network coverage and actually useage.
However, customer services/tech support/billing leave a lot to be desired.
When I first signed up about 2 months ago I set up a direct debit, got a letter 6 weeks ago saying it had been set up correctly. When my first bill showed online I just left it assuming the DD would take care of it, but it showed for a fair while, so I thought I should try and pay it, but when I clicked card payment I got a message with words to the effect "You are paying by Direct Debit so needn't make a card payment". This put my mind at ease so I decided to leave it and assume the DD would take care of it.
Went to log into my account at the weekend, and it's now showing £80 overdue and online access had been suspended. Obviously for some reason the direct debit had not been processed. There is a button to click though to make an instant payment with debit or credit card. I click it, and get told "There is no need to make a payment as you are paying by direct debit" (grrrr).
So I phone them up but being Sunday cannot speak to a person, but it let me make an instant payment over the phone, so I did this to clear the ballance.
I then get a letter Monday morning confirming the Direct debits would start on 4th Aug and the first one would be taking £40 or so (the 2nd bill). Great... so on the 4th August my account will go £40 into credit. I phoned orange to see if they could do a £40 refund back to my car, but they cannot, I'll have to either cancel the DD before the 4th and set it up again (and face a 6 or 8 week wait for it to be set up probably) or just wait for my account to go in credit and get a refund at that time or just leave it until the next bill brings it back down to roughly £0 again.
Later that day I try to login to the online service and get told "The ballance on your account is £0.00 and is therefore overdue. Access has been suspended until payment is received". Great.... so my account is "overdue" by zero pence
I phone them up and at the same time mention another problem. As I ported my number from TMobile, I have to use my orange assigned number to login online, despite the actual phone using the old tmobile number. Customer services say they cannot do anything with the website, and I need to call the website team on 439 (for which there is a 50p per min call).
The web team say the easiest away around both problems is to delete the online account and start again, leaving it 24 hours before doing so. I was on the phone 7 mins, so a cost of about £3.50.
So today I've just tried to create my account again. When I get asked to enter the mobile number it says "This number is already managed online" and I cannot proceed.
So I call tech support again (439 at 50p per min) and get told that there is no record of yesterdays call. Great. He says he'll escalate my problem to the 2nd level team, but they can take 72 hours to get round to looking at it, and that the 2nd line team have to report back to the first line team, who in turn get back to me, so it could take up to a week. This call took about 8 minutes, so £4.00 or so.
I ask if I can have the cost of yesterdays call refunded. I am told no, because the tech team are outsourced and have no access to orange's billing information.
So, I call 150 (customer services) to have a rant and try for a refund on yesterdays call, but after being on hold for 15 minutes decided to give up.
So, I've wasted about 45 minutes of my time, spent £7.50 on the phone to tech support who didnt know what the problem was and still have no online access to my account. Awesome isn't it.
It's a really poor system, surely I should log in using my account number rather then my mobile number, and it should then show all numbers under that account, and update them automatically if they are changed or removed. Having your "username" as something that can change (mobile number) is just stupid.
Well thought out and nicely designed database lads
Should have stuck with T-Mobile.