Orange Problems…

Well ‘3’ have so far handled my cancellation really well. If it wasn’t for the offshore call centres I’d still be with them as the prices and coverage are second to none. I just got annoyed when the customer service information was different than that on the website, and when they put me on my old tariff when I thought I was moving to a much better one. But since I’ve cancelled they’ve done everything they said they would very efficiently. It’s just a shame that 2 out of 3 customer service representatives are useless.

Now I think I’m an official Orange member. But I’m so sure as I’ve followed all the instructions that came with my new phone but I can’t seem to use it. I accepted the text message that was meant to update my SIM but that is not enough to let me make any calls. If I phone the Orange 980 number as written in the manual a voice tells me, “Calls from this number are barred”. If I phone Orange using my ‘3’ phone then I get told there is a 46 minute waiting time, and they don’t tell you if the call is costing me any money. That just isn’t good enough.

My new Nokia N90 from Orange has the ugliest looking interface. It’s amazing how much different the N90 from ‘3’ looked. The Orange manual is awful too. I’m kind of wishing I stayed with ‘3’ now. Maybe I’ll move back after 18 months, if they’re still around. I’m sure there’ll be a few more updates in this post during today. Will I ever be able to register my phone, switch my phone number across from 3 or get my Broadband for free as promissed?

Update: Was waiting on phone for 9 minutes and no customer services at all. Just a message telling me that they were receiving a large amount of calls. I still have 14 days to go back to ‘3’, I may just do it.

Update: Still not registered. I tried 4 more times yesterday and twice last night. They’re still too busy. This morning I’m trying again and I’ve currently been on hold for 1 hour and 26 minutes, I wonder if I’ll break the two hour mark? And I’m not sure if the money-back guarantee refers to my contract or just the phone. I’ll be moving off Orange if they continue this.

Update: After 2 hours on hold the call was disconnected by Orange. Apparently there is a huge Orange problem at the moment as the whole network went AWOL yesterday.

Update: All sorted. This time I had a wait of 40 minutes but the guy, his first day on the job, managed to register my phone and hopefully transfer my phone number over sometime next week. He was a helpfull guy and I hope he does well there. My annoyance levels have reduced sharply.