Bitter Orange - No more from Orange (Orange Network)

Member Name: no1purvak

Product:	Orange Network
Date:	26/11/08 (196 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good price plan

Disadvantages: Bad customer service

Last year I bought a contract phone Sony Ericsson W810i from Orange. I used to pay £40 a month with 800mins and 250 text which was alright. I could have got cheaper deals from 3G but Orange is supposed to be one of the really good network communication companies.

The network reception proved fairly effective even in remote village areas. I often use my phone on the national rail which gets a bit of disturbance but still atleast you get some reception.

Other thing I like about Orange is its customer service. Even though they make alot of administrative mistake, they are good with talking to customers. I been with orange for last 12 months and most of my queries are being resolved in one phone call. Their call centres used to be based in India but recently they been moved back to UK leaving the administration work back in India. UK call centres are based in Cheshire, so people on the phone have northern accent, its all good :)

According to the rules of the company, customer have to call 1 month before they want to cancel the contract. About 3 months ago in August, I called up the customer service requesting to cancel my contract. The customer advisor was happy to do that for me. Thereafter I went on holiday to India for a month and when I come back, my phone was still on orange. I was surprised since it was clearly more than a month and I was still connected with Orange, so certainly they been charging me. I called up the customer service and complained about the £40 direct debit even though I requested my deal to be cancelled. The customer advisor asked me if I was sure about that. I got a bit angry when he asked me if I was sure did I cancel the contract. After a little conversation, I ask him to cancel that I dont want Orange no more and if he could kindly cancel the contract. He put my request into the system and confirmed the deal will be cancelled in a month's time.

Apparently the deal got cancelled after 1 month and 1 week so they charged me for the next month too. I was really upset that I paid £40 x 2 = £80 for no reason. Their smalled mistake cost me £80 which is equivalent to my 2 week's saturday job income.

Apart from this problem, I never encountered any other problems. Its a good value for money in terms of price plan and handset but customer service may be a bit useless when cancelling takes place. There are other networks offering good price plan along with the handset at a lower rate.

Thanks for taking time to read my review.

Summary: Orange contract - Think twice