Author: steve

In the early years of mobile technology you’d have excused a hiccup with a mobile contract being setup, after all things were a little different in the ye olde days of the early 90’s. I remember my first contract was a fairly time consuming task, filling in paper work, getting authorised then eventually my phone turned up.

So with the benefit of nearly 20 years you’d have hope things would be smoother. Recent I changed my mobile contract on O2 from a normal tariff to a simplicity contract – it went through fairly easy. Though there was a couple of hours when things got a little confused – which annoyed me a little, but in hindsight it’s not a real problem.

So where’s the rant, well you see being the lovely generous person I am I decided to give my wife my iPhone 3GS after I bought my iPhone 4S. The iPhone 4S is happily on a simplicity contract and everything is well in the world. The 3GS sat unused for a few weeks until we could visit an Orange shop to look at sim deals with data.

I’d initially thought of moving Louise over to simplicity but the Orange shop (Mell Square, Solihull) offered a deal which on paper looked ideal. Current she’s on a Dolphin (I think) plan (£15) which gives enough inclusive minutes/texts etc but no data. So she was offered a deal for £10.50 which was around 100 minutes, unlimited texts and 250mb data. Whilst for some that’s not much, but for Louise it should be fine. Only caveat is it was a 12 month deal, but the price was right so the paperwork was completed. As with all contract changes you get the normal setup texts which you need to read then delete. These came and then we waited for the contract switch over date of the 24th November.

On the day texts arrived saying the contract was working, so the sim jumped phone. Instantly the phone was online, data working (seems to be no APN settings for Orange networks). After a few days I installed one of the many iPhone apps orange produce. The one in question was to check the balance, so we did and found charges for data (only around a pound – but unexpected), then we get a text telling us that the account needs to be updated for data.

Confused really as Louise had signed a contract which included. So she contacted customer services and was advised that she was still on Dolphin (the one without data) and she’s have to visit the store. So Monday comes and Lou pops to Solihull only to find out that the shop manager shouldn’t sold that contract, but it could all be corrected for the next billing date (December 24th). Not happy with this she requested a PAC code to leave Orange, but this could not done in store – so she had to do it over the phone. So Louise called Orange Customer Services and after a while sorting out the maze of improbability that is the call options she eventually got through to a real person. A nice bloke call Alan who was apologetic, but couldn’t action the PAC code as the system was down.

This evening was a milestone though as we managed to get through to someone who authorised a PAC code (though 2 hours later it’s not turned up yet) and we’ve apparently managed to get a small credit for the data use (though the confirmation email has yet to turn up yet either).

So where next, probably O2 as the simplicity bundle is fine for Louise.

I’ll keep you updated with any further developments such as:

1) PAC code not actually turning up
2) Contract that was setup a few weeks ago re-appearing
3) Orange Customer Services not crediting us for the Data use

Personally I’m expecting all 3 of the above to happen.

Orange: Making 3 mobile look competent

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