A letter to Orange head office

Dear Sir / Madam,
I write to you with a bitter taste in my mouth caused by recent communications and issues with the Orange handset support system.

On Thursday 25th March I awoke to find my Blackberry was no longer sending or receiving data. I placed a call to handset support, who ran through some diagnostics, but was unable to resolve the issue, so passed me on to another department. Unfortunately by the end of many tests and checks the data service was not restored.

Following this there have been numerous calls to Orange, promises of call backs from customer services, escalations, failed call backs from team leaders, and many more infuriating occurrences. These calls total somewhere in the region of 5-6 hours now. However as I write this letter, I am again without data for the 6th consecutive day now. I have been told over and over that I cannot have a replacement handset as they are still running diagnostics. However at what point does the inconvenience to me start to matter to Orange. Six days is somewhat ridiculous, especially considering there is still not a replacement on its way to me.

I have 6 lines with Orange, and have been a loyal customer for 5 or 6 years at least now. I have never encountered anything more than a mild disappointment before, let alone been drawn so close to wishing to cancel my contracts and move to another provider. I spend in excess of £2,000 a year with Orange as a private consumer, yet when it comes to what matters to me, having a working handset with data, suddenly I am insignificant.

I have had various explanations of what is going on, why the delay, why the handset cannot be replaced (apparently the computers won’t let them be courteous), time scales, amended time scales, indefinite time scales, and many other comments and explanations which help my case in no way whatsoever. I refuse to get mad at these people like some would, and have always been courteous, polite and as understanding as I can, given the circumstances. However I now find myself reaching the end of my tether.

I spoke with someone from the executive office this afternoon, who again looked into the matter, updated me on where we are with all this, advised me that the issue has now been passed to RIM, and told me “hopefully” I will get a call from Orange, or my data will start to work again by Thursday afternoon, before the office closes for Easter. I certainly hope this is the case, however am not holding out in hope for this to happen.

I am left a little bewildered that after a week of running diagnostics, finding nothing, and now passing the matter to RIM, I have become nothing more than a guinea pig for technical people to get to change settings and pull the battery on the phone while they remain determined they can fix it. So with that in mind I have decided that if the service is not resumed by Thursday PM, I will be returning the handset to Orange, if someone can advise me on where to send it to, and it can be fixed at Orange’s leisure, and I will play no further part in this charade.

Should this turn out to be the case, I will be contacting Orange, and the appropriate ombudsmen regarding termination of the contract with Orange, compensation for the problems caused, and any further action recommended by said ombudsmen. I truly hope it does not reach this stage, and that something can be sorted out in the meantime.

I hope to remain a loyal and happy Orange customer for many years to come, and hope that this issue can finally be overcome.
Regards

Michael Snasdell