My experience with Orange UK customer services

OK, so I know I have already blogged about this, but wanted to get it all into one entry. Reason being is, I want to copy it and send it to any organisation, governing body, or media body that wants to read it. As a whole I feel the way Orange have dealt with this matter is ridiculous, so it deserves as much attention as it can get. So here goes.

On Thursday 25th March I awoke to find my Blackberry was not sending or receiving data. Its not the first time it has happened, but usually a battery pull or re-registering it on the network solves the problem. However on this occasion it didn't.
After doing all the usual things I decided to call Orange and report it as a fault. I called them at about 11am, and spoke to the handset faults team, who after running some basic diagnostics were unable to resolve the issue. The matter was then escalated to the next level, and I spoke to someone else who ran me through a whole host of diagnostics, including deleting settings, resending things etc. None of which worked. At this point he suggested purging me from the network was the last resort, and set about getting this done. Sadly this didn't work either. He then said he had exhausted all the options and needed to speak with someone about replacing the handset, and he would call be back..... The call back never came.

I made a couple more calls to Orange, that day, but nothing was resolved. I spoke to another guy that evening, who again ran through some ideas, but was unable to resolve it either. He too said replacement would be the best call on the matter. Just wanting to be sure it was a handset fault and not a network fault, I asked if he could call me back once I was at home, so I could try and alternative SIM in the handset. 30 mins later he called back, and I tried the SIM..... Nothing.

The strange part in all this is, both my BIS SIM's work fine in my other Blackberry (8520) Full BIS service, no issues. But when put in the 9700 neither can use the data service. Giving him this information he too was satisfied that it was the handset, and requested a replacement be issued. To my surprise the request was denied, and the matter was passed to networks as that is where is was now believe the fault lay. Quite how this could be the case, with both SIM's operating fine in another handset, I do not know, but then who am I?

I was told it could take a couple of days, so left it until Saturday afternoon to call back. When I called back I was told network were aware of the issue, but had not finished with the matter yet, and I would have to wait until they have made their decision on the matter until it could progress any further. Over the weekend I was told networks work normal hours, networks work limited hours, networks run a skeleton crew, and finally networks don't work at all over the weekend, so nothing will be done with the case til Monday.

Sunday comes around, I call Orange to ask what the outcome is with network. They tell me that its just being looked at now, and hopefully I will get a call back that afternoon, but to give them til late, as they work til 10. 10pm comes and goes, no call back. By this time it is about the 4th time I have been promised a call back, and it has not come. Monday now rolls around and to my shock I get a call. A voice says "hi I'm from customer relations, I have someone on the line who can help with your faulty Blackberry", seconds later I am connected.... To level 1 tech support, in what sounded like India. I don't make that assumption from the fact I am speaking to an Indian guy, but more to do with the loud native chatter in the background drowning out his voice as he tries to speak to me.
Now at this point again I get a little wound up. Firstly, I have been through level 1 over and over with numerous people over the last few days. And secondly that the instructions he is giving me (screen prompted of course) are wrong. Telling me to "press the trackball" errrm, the 9700 has a pad, not a ball. Eventually, as expected he admits defeat and passes me to the next level.
I am now connected to a guy who says he hopes he can help me, as its his first day. GREAT!
After a few mins of explaining that the SIM's work fine in other handsets he also states that its not a network issue, but a handset issue. However they cannot replace it at this point.
I ask for an escalation and a call back as its now getting stupid.

Somewhere along the line, I forget where now) the matter is passed to RIM themselves. As it is now believe this is where the real issue lays. (I will come back to this in a bit)

(at this point, forgive me if I contradict myself with dates etc, with the hours of calls I have honestly lost track of time)

On Tuesday, its now been 6 days, no data, no replacement handset, no sign of an answer to it all. I am getting fed up now, so I place another call to see what is going on. I also ask for the matter to be escalated to a manager or team leader the day before. This is the second time I have done this, and for the second time, surprise surprise the call back never comes. I also called retentions to see how much it would cost me to leave Orange. By this point I am really starting to get fed up of messing about with a broken phone, pulling the battery out etc to satisfy the curiosity of a tech support guy who is sure he can fix it.
The guy at retentions was very nice and polite, disappointed the Orange have dealt with it so badly and says he wants to make some calls and get back in touch with me and hopefully he can speed things up for me. No shocks, but no calls back, no resolution, nothing. Yet another department full of empty promises.

Tuesday afternoon rolls around and I am searching the web to find a way to speak to someone more senior, who can maybe just over ride the ongoing stupidity, and agree to replace the handset. I find a complaint site about Orange (seems there are a few of these now) with the email address executive.office@orange.co.uk so I give it a go.
I fire off an email of annoyance, explaining the situation in a much detail as I can, and cross my fingers. An hour later I get a call from the executive office who want to discuss the matter further. My hopes rise for the first time in a week.

On speaking to the guy all seems well, sounds like I have someone on my side finally, and the name "executive" would kind of indicate that the matter is finally serious. At this point I should mention, I have been a loyal customer to Orange for about 6 years now. With 6 contract with them, and an average annual spend of £2000+. While I don't expect "special" treatment, I do hope that they will take the case seriously, and try and look after a good customer. Apparently this has no bearing and they don't give a toss.
The call ends with me agreeing to give Orange and RIM til Thursday afternoon to try and decide on the matter, and get my phone working again. I wait all Thursday afternoon with baited breath, hoping to see GPRS appear in upper case..... it does not happen.

I call the same guy at Orange back, and tell him the bad news. Now at this point its day 8 (yes EIGHT) of this charade, so surely with Easter holidays looming (the next 4 days) something is going to be decided now. We start the conversation, but I can tell its going nowhere. As he continues to talk, I can tell there is NO intention of replacing the handset for me. He goes on to explain that they will use this to learn from, and will make changes if deemed necessary to the way they handle these matter in future. Now I'm all for change, and improvement, but how the hell exactly does this help my case right now. Eight days without my 9700, and I'm meant to be impressed about promises about the future?
I explain that I am frustrated beyond description now, and just want the Blackberry away from me. I am sick of being the test dummy for the tech guys asking me to go through menu's and pull the battery, and just want the phone out of my sight until they have fixed it or replaced it. The response I get to this is amazing. They refuse to take the handset back until RIM have made their decision of if the fault lays with them, just in case it can be fixed over the air. The funniest part is the reason for this... Apparently Orange would not want to cause a delay getting a working phone back with me!! Are you freakin kiddin me or what. Its been 8 days, when exactly did you start caring about that !
Then the killer blow. Now I don't expect to speak to a nerd with knowledge of every handset out there, but I don't expect to be spoken to like a complete a-hole either. He starts to tell me what they believe the fault is, and why they cannot replace the handset at this point. Its something like this.

Exec: The fault is with the account, so even if we send you a replacement handset out, it would still not fix anything.
Me: Yes it will, both accounts are working fine on my other handset, so replacing the handset clearly does work.
Exec: No it wont, the problem is with the PIN, so if we replace it the problem will remain.
Me: The PIN is tied to the handset, if the fault is with the PIN, then its a handset fault, and replacing it will solve everything.
Exec: No, the account is the problem, you wont be able to use another Blackberry on that account.
Me: I already am, I'm using my 8520 just fine. I can log into either of my Blackberry accounts, and assign them to the 8520, and they both work perfectly, data, email, BBS etc. So its nothing to do with the account, its the handset, so replace it!
Exec: The issue is with the PIN......

I give up trying to explain at this point as its becoming very frustrating now, to be insulted, to have your understanding of the way it works questioned, and to be messed about to such an extreme.

Now from what I have learned from places like Crackberry (thanks guys for all your help) the PIN could be the issue, as RIM could have a block on it for some unknown reason. Which is unfortunate, but Orange know that they CAN issue a replacement to me, to get my service back up and running, then take the issue up with RIM about why it was blocked. But instead I have to sit around for 2 weeks with a bricked phone sitting on the side, waiting for someone to finally decide I can have a new phone!

So, its Thursday night now. The end of the 8th day of no phone (thank god for keeping my 8520). The outcome is I have to wait for RIM to contact Orange to tell them what next. Then at that point Orange MAY finally decide to replace the handset. But with my luck the whole matter will turn another corner. I mentioned 2 weeks without a phone earlier as tomorrow is Good Friday, so all customer services are closed. Then its the weekend, then Easter Monday, so no services resume til Tuesday. So days 9, 10, 11, and 12 are wasted. Who will day 13 be unlucky for.... Somehow I think me!

So my sincere thanks to Orange, for taking 7 hours of my life, wasted talking on the phone to people pretending to give a damn, promising to call back, then not bothering. I am now left with a talk plan WAY over its allowance, due to the hours spent on the phone to your tech support. A seriously bitter taste in my mouth over how you treat big spending and loyal customers, and a ticking timebomb in my head about if I bother to remain with Orange or not. Although grasped by the balls due to the dates on all the contracts, I am not going to be had over a barrel and will not stop until I have told this story to anyone and everyone who will listen.

Letters have been sent now to all the appropriate bodies, as well as the customer services, and head office of Orange. I have contacted RIM directly to ask their opinion on the matter and their part in the issue, and will just keep going.

The chances are I will stay with Orange if this gets resolved soon, all my expenses are reimbursed, and we talk hardball about where we go from here.

After so many years of loyalty, and singing the network praises, I am left with just one thing to say..... Orange UK, right now YOU SUCK!

PS I have missed out lots of things here, most of which can be found in earlier entries, but I hope it gives a rough idea of the crap I have been putting up with for over a week now.

Today is D Day, for Orange that is.

Well after a couple of days of grace for them to sort the matter out, today is the last day that was agreed I would wait for them to sort the issues out.
Its 8 days now, this all started over a week ago now. After loads of diagnostics there is still no joy with the matter. Suggestions have been that maybe RIM has accidentally blocked the wrong PIN as the phone seems to be behaving as if its data is blocked on purpose. (or its just bloody broken!)

Either way, I agreed with Orange Executive Offices that I would wait til this afternoon before chasing them up again, and its coming up for 1pm. So in a couple of hours time I will be calling them back and asking what decision they have come to. Either way, with Easter just around the corner (tomorrow) I am likely to be without my Blackberry for a few days more until a replacement is sent out, if they even agree to send one out.

If there is no resolution agreed today its gonna get a little bit messy. I understand that networks have grace in-built into the contracts to allow them time to sort stuff like this out, but I am not sure it is quite this long, certainly not without them even having diagnosed the issue.
So if I am told they are still waiting on RIM, the response will be something along the lines of, breach of contract, failing to provide a service or reasonable timescale for resolution, and so on.
My solution offered to them will be, I will return the phone in the next available mail service, they can keep it and sort the problem out at their own leisure, and either replace it or return it to me repaired. In the meantime they can suspend billing on that account, reimburse me for the calls made to tech support, and discuss how they are going to convince me to remain with Orange as my contracts begin to run out.

I will update as it all unfolds, but either way, I am past caring too much about it now, the whole scenario has dulled my enthusiasm for Orange by about 90%, and if they are not willing to talk about it, I will start to pull the contracts as soon as economically viable.

Is this what they call "progress"?

Well after another entertaining day speaking to Orange over and over and over, I have made I believe what some would call progress.
After an earlier encounter with a call back from Orange, which just put be right back at the beginning, I searched the web and found an email address for the Executive Offices for Orange. The address is executive.office@orange.co.uk . After emailing them I was expecting the same sort of response as most other promises of call backs etc. But to my amazement, after a trip to the loo I came back to find a missed call and a message. Michael from the exec offices had called back to discuss the matter, and see what they could do to sort the matter out.

After a long call to the techs, he came back with almost what everyone else had said, that tech were SURE it was a problem with RIM now and not the handset. The issue has been passed on to Research In Motion for further investigation. Unfortunately as they are a 3rd party Orange are unable to give or enforce timescales for these matters, so it is simply a matter of waiting again now til RIM contact Orange.

So really I am no further down the line. Although on the other hand I am, as I have a single point of contact now, who is going to see the matter through to resolution. We have also started discussing reimbursement for time wasted, calls placed and services not provided.

One comment made me chuckle though. He said he was happy to make such a credit to my account but would do it once resolved "in case" it is another week of no service". My response was to laugh and politely inform him that if it drags over to next week I wont be an Orange customer anymore. He understood this clearly.

So onwards, and nowhere for the time being lol. I am in higher spirits about it now, thanks to a settlement cheque arriving on my mat this morning, but that's about the only thing keeping me from driving to Orange HQ and having a word in person.
IF..... and I mean IF, this turns out to be a handset fault after all, the whole thing will become VERY messy indeed. As I explained to one of the call centre guys, I am not a guinea pig for them to experiment with their theories on. I am a paying customer, and a high paying customer at that. I expect to be treated like an individual, and not someone they can mess about, just so the geeks in the basement can prove they can fix the phone.

Thursday afternoon is the cutoff for this whole matter now, which was made clear to the exec when we spoke. If I have to call them back that afternoon as its not resolved, then I will be asking for an address to send the phone to, and will be rid of it once and for all. At that point I want nothing more to do with it until it is fixed, working, and I don't have to call Orange again. Renewal time is nigh, but I am having serious doubts about it all now, unless they can do something really special. REALLY special.

I have never felt SO insulted!

OK so this is the 6th day this whole "no data" thing has been dragging on today, and I have placed a number of calls to them, once again.
First call today was to retentions. After not getting a call back from them yesterday, after asking to be called by a manager, I was seriously wound up, so thought I would explore how much it would cost to get out of this particular contract.
Truth of the matter is, I dont really want to cancel it, as I have 5 other contracts with Orange, and cant be bothered working with 2 service providers, having 2 billing points etc, but want to keep my options open anyway.

On speaking to retentions the guy was super helpful and made some calls for me to try and get the matter sped up. He also gave me the cancellation fee of £67, which is a small price for the amount of time I have wasted calling Orange over the past week.

I got a call back from Orange early this afternoon, a guy from customer relations, announcing to me that he had someone on line that was going to take care of the matter for me. To my dismay (hardly suprised) it was a guy from the indian call centre, level 1 handset faults. He proceeded to start ask what was wrong, and start going through the basics all over again. Which pissed me off no end! remained calm and went through it all to keep him happy, but it made no difference to the service on the handset.
I was then passed to, yup Level 2 diagnostics, networking. After running through the matter again, I pointed out it was already with Level 3, so he decided to call them. Even though I have been told over and over that they CANT contact Level 3 by phone.
A few mins later he came back on the phone, and advised me it was NOT a handset fault, it was a problem with RIM, then started to try and explain who RIM are..... Oh do shut up !

After a brief conversation he said he could only tell me what level 3 had told him, and that they were still looking into the matter. I pointed out this is day SIX of this issue, and informed him I am not a guniea pig for running geeks experiments on, and if someone wants to sort it out, maybe they can send me a new phone in the meantime and let the geek work on it in his time not mine!

He advised me he would escalate the matter for me, and ask his line manager to call me back, so I am waiting on a call back now from Level's 1 2 and 3 from Orange tech support now.

Note to Orange.
You are a complete joke now. I spend over £2000 a year with you as a private customer, I have stayed with the network for 5-6 years, and always sung praises for the great service, brilliant products and customer services.
BUT....
That has all changed now.
Six days..... SIX days to try and decide what is wrong with one of your handsets, no replacement, and leaving me without a usable handset is a disgrace, and one I will tell EVERYONE about. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Blogger, Google, anywhere, thats where it is going now.

I will also now be escalating the matter to the official bodies, so an email will be getting fired off shortly.

I am at a total loss for words now, so will shut up for the time being, but please Orange, restore my faith in you.