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.