Orange Network...

[PaulRotheram]

Yep the signal is gash! Had my orange contract with my ip4 since release day of the phone and never really had any issues.
Then the numptys merge with the worst company they could and screw over their own customers.

I went straight to phones 4 u, had my contract bought out and took out a vodafone contract.. Best signal and speeds I've used in a long while!

[pro4nut]

Originally Posted by stoff

Bear in mind that the only signal you will receive on merged providers will be a phone signal. No 3G etc so if you're using an internet phone and it jumps over to Orange or TMobile from your main provider it will be a bit useless.

not quite right, when you switch to the other network it will use gprs

[Megacrash]

Originally Posted by PaulRotheram

Yep the signal is gash! Had my orange contract with my ip4 since release day of the phone and never really had any issues.
Then the numptys merge with the worst company they could and screw over their own customers.

I went straight to phones 4 u, had my contract bought out and took out a vodafone contract.. Best signal and speeds I've used in a long while!

can you explain how you did the contract bought out?

im more than willing to do this!

[Ross]

Originally Posted by Megacrash

can you explain how you did the contract bought out?

im more than willing to do this!

You pay for the rest of your contract Brian, ie 10 months at £10 a month = £100, there may also be an admin fee, not sure on that part.

[Megacrash]

Originally Posted by Ross

You pay for the rest of your contract Brian, ie 10 months at £10 a month = £100, there may also be an admin fee, not sure on that part.

ah i thought me meant it was bought out for him, as im sure they used to buy contracts out so you would join another network

i guess that means ill have to keep complaining until i get somewhere with orange

[Big G]

Buy outs are your remaining months without VAT mind.

The Mrs foolishly accepted a iphone4 deal yesterday from orange which was £45/month with the phone for free. I look online and it's the same deal (well the phone is £30 online, but you get 600 more mins) even though Orange told her it was an exclusive deal for her for being a customer for 10 years.

So we call up today saying we don't want £45/month we want to swap to £35/month and we will pay the £129 for the phone. can't do that. we have to return the phone at our own cost insured and all that. Then Orange will send out another phone.

So that's expense for us to send it back and then more expense for orange to send another identical phone out. It's seriously fucked up. Why they can't just take £129 from us now and change our tariff on their system is completely beyond me. It really can't be that hard to do. They will change your tariff to a higher one at the drop of a hat!

Orange CSR is going on about how the phone can't be re-sold now. Even though it is still shrink wrapped! I seriously don't get it. Even when I said to them, if you can't do this now and take our money we WILL be leaving your network in 2 1/2 months and joining another network. After 22 years (combined me and the mrs) of being Orange customers you won't do a single thing for us.

In the end I got Orange to credit the Mrs's account with the cost of returning the phone and she will leave the network soon. Likely to move to 3 which I'm on who will do £30/month and £99 for the phone.

[pro4nut]

Nice and simple, the offer you found online is offered by a differant branch of the company to the one that made the offer to you. The one that made the offer to you is the customer retentions team. Both departments have to buy there stock from the distribution arm of the business. So by asking to switch to the online deal you are doing the same as asking to switch networks, therefore you return the phone to the 'company' that you purchased it from so you can buy it from somewhere else.
This is the same as buying a TLR 22 from DMS and asking JEspares for the refund when you then decide you don't want it. Product is the same the retailer is differant.
All mobile phone companies operate like this, the retail, upgrade, retentions, online and direct teams all have to compete against each other for sales with there own targets and there own supply of stock. This is done to encourage sales people to push to close the deal themselves.
I am not saying this is right or wrong but it is how it works.

Mobile phones cannot be resold once they have been taken by a customer even if returned in mint condition. The company that sells and accepts the return must pay the cost of refurbishing the handset and will not able to resell it. The phone must be reformatted and wiped IN CASE it contains sensitive data which is a government regulation. So when you buy a phone and return it when it has no fault you have just cost the network £250+ considering you as a customer will generate an average profit to the network of £30 a year you are now no longer worth keeping as a customer as it will take another 8 years to cover the cost of the handset you returned.
Again not nice news and i don't like it but again i thought you might like to know, feel free to ask any questions i'm happy to work in a very differant field these days.

[Big G]

We're quite happy to keep this phone which has never been touched, but Orange can't/won't do the easy thing.

All the time harping on about how they can't do any discounts on the iphone4, yet 1 department managed to drop the £30 handset cost and halve the minutes... why can 3 and Tesco offer MUCH better deals than Orange/O2/Vodaphone?

We haven't cost Orange £250. What are they doing to do. Open the factory shink wrapped phone to format a phone which has never been touched? Again they've gone mental lol.

Nevermind. The Mrs will have a much better customer services experience with 3 just like I have for the last 3 months

[Ross]

Am i miss understanding this,If it costs £250 every time someone sends a phone back withIn the 7 day return policy, they would go bust, especially if they only make £30 a year .

Doesn't sound like good business to me .

[pro4nut]

Originally Posted by Big G

We're quite happy to keep this phone which has never been touched, but Orange can't/won't do the easy thing.

All the time harping on about how they can't do any discounts on the iphone4, yet 1 department managed to drop the £30 handset cost and halve the minutes... why can 3 and Tesco offer MUCH better deals than Orange/O2/Vodaphone?

We haven't cost Orange £250. What are they doing to do. Open the factory shink wrapped phone to format a phone which has never been touched? Again they've gone mental lol.

Nevermind. The Mrs will have a much better customer services experience with 3 just like I have for the last 3 months

You have cost them the price of the phone as they can't sell it as new and have to send it for reflash, fact. Its a trading regulation in this country that mobile companies have to abide by. So i'm sorry to say your now bad business to them.

3 and Tesco source there stock on the grey market so they have cost flexibility.

The other networks all agreed deals with Apple which ensure the phones are sold at a fairly fixed price, they also dictate seperate tarifs for the i phone to ensure a premium brand image and again to ensure Apple customers pay more.

Part of the origanol o2 deal was a condition that a seperate tarif structure was brought into place to charge I phone customers more as a cut had to go to Apple. The handsets also could only be sold at the agreed price as stated by Apple.

I worked in this industry for a long time and a few other guys on here can validate that i know what i'm talking about.

[pro4nut]

Originally Posted by Ross

Am i miss understanding this,If it costs £250 every time someone sends a phone back withIn the 7 day return policy, they would go bust, especially if they only make £30 a year .

Doesn't sound like good business to me .

There is no 7 day return policy. When i worked for a particular network we NEVER cancelled and only exchanged if the product was faulty.

And as far as 'they would go bust' A mobile network has a typical ARPU (average revenue per user) of £30 per year. So yes margin is tight, to the point where one mobile phone network has made EVERY shop manager redundant come this April. Its a cut throat industry where you can earn big money, but the customer never wins believe me no deal is as good as you think it is.

[PaulRotheram]

Originally Posted by Megacrash

ah i thought me meant it was bought out for him, as im sure they used to buy contracts out so you would join another network

i guess that means ill have to keep complaining until i get somewhere with orange

Sorry for the late reply, forgot about this thread! Yes my contract was completely bought out by phones 4 u.
I had 5 months left on my contract at orange, and phones 4 u bought the entire contract out. They even rang orange for me to cancel my policy for me, hand the money over and no issues.

They were more than helpful, the idea with this was they would prefer to secure me for another contract length and buy out my policy to do that as they are getting money from me either way.
I'm now on vodafone, signal is superb, and the 3G speed is amazing. Apparently orange has a speed of 4.something odd, and vodafone have 7+ (unsure on the units used) and it definitely shows!

Only thing I'm missing from orange is orange Wednesday's, however I'm sure I'll get around that...

From doing what I have, I gained 60 quid due to my phone trade in, and I'm now on a lower tariff and enjoying signal and speed everywhere.

You can only ask and be turned down.. Being cheeky gets you everywhere with these people

[Balders]

I think I'm going to change over to Vodafone, I've been with orange for over 10 years but in this game loyalty does not get you anywhere.

Talking to Orange they either deny there is a problem or tell me to turn my phone off and back on again as they've carried out a sim update.

[damselfly]

Originally Posted by Balders

I think I'm going to change over to Vodafone, I've been with orange for over 10 years but in this game loyalty does not get you anywhere.

Talking to Orange they either deny there is a problem or tell me to turn my phone off and back on again as they've carried out a sim update.

Originally Posted by Balders

I think I'm going to change over to Vodafone, I've been with orange for over 10 years but in this game loyalty does not get you anywhere.

Talking to Orange they either deny there is a problem or tell me to turn my phone off and back on again as they've carried out a sim update.

It's a wonder if you can converse with an advisor who's capable of speaking decipherable English.
Approx 80% of the time I call ( after a 5 min + wait listening to crap music ) I invariably get greeted by an Indian operative, or somebody else of an ethnic origin who is completely inept.
When it comes to billing issues though, you're guaranteed to speak to a UK operator.
Have you noticed that message indicating; " we're receiving a very high number of calls ". They seem to receive a very high number of calls whether it be 3am, 5am, 11pm, or anytime of the day/night.
They're liars, incompetent, and provide a real shit service, until you're slightly late in paying your bill of course, then they're really swift.

[Kash]

Originally Posted by pro4nut

You have cost them the price of the phone as they can't sell it as new and have to send it for reflash, fact. Its a trading regulation in this country that mobile companies have to abide by. So i'm sorry to say your now bad business to them.

3 and Tesco source there stock on the grey market so they have cost flexibility.

The other networks all agreed deals with Apple which ensure the phones are sold at a fairly fixed price, they also dictate seperate tarifs for the i phone to ensure a premium brand image and again to ensure Apple customers pay more.

Part of the origanol o2 deal was a condition that a seperate tarif structure was brought into place to charge I phone customers more as a cut had to go to Apple. The handsets also could only be sold at the agreed price as stated by Apple.

I worked in this industry for a long time and a few other guys on here can validate that i know what i'm talking about.

Your spot on there i've also been in the industry over 10 years too so i have a small understanding of it all.