Warning a Dave Rant on it’s way..
In time of recession you need to keep hold of your customers more than ever before, whether that’s by just not messing up so that your customers can just forget about you ala the electricity services suppliers, I mean I don’t even know who I get my power from I just let some company dip into my bank account each month and as long as the lights come on each night I’m happy.
So how is Orange messing up, as an Orange business user we have a few handsets and I was looking at getting another phone, quick bit of research told me that iPhone is on O2 and Google Android is on T-mobile so I went for the HTC Diamond Pro. When Orange sent me a HTC740 I was a little pissed and when I found out that Orange don’t even do the HTC Diamond Pro that pissed me off a little more, so I opted for my 4th choice (when in Life do you ever do that really 4th choice) the HTC Touch Diamond HD. The sales guy says I can have it for free but they are out of stock for 2 days, 5 days later I ring back and they have them in stock and haven’t got any orders outstanding for me, Ok I thought I would just reorder it now until the sales person 2 say that’s a £194 pounds.
So today I’m sat here thinking about what Phone Provider I’m going to switch to and asking myself how did Orange mess up.
Dave
19 Comments
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- 2
do you really think Orange customer retention is still there. i called them 3 time to say i was not happy and moving and they said bye. The htc phone i wanted was free ever were but on orange as i finally canceld my contract they said that they would do the phone for free. Did stay in the end but will move next time. i from vodafone 3 years ago as they were also rubbish
- 3
Don’t get me started on Orange!
I had a very similar problem when upgrading to the Diamond last year. It just kept not arriving after being told countless times that it would. CS reps kept contradicting each other and always had no notes on the system of any previous conversations – there is nothing more frustrating to a customer than having to explain their problem over and over again to different people.
I’m still left with a slightly faulty Diamond but just can be bothered to speak to the shower of shite that is Orange CS again.
- 4
I’m a fan of the G1 Android phone mainly because it has a full qwerty keyword and the android system works pretty well
however the screen squeaks quite a lot now whenever I use it and battery life is rather dire - 5
Wonder if anyone at Orange is responsible for online brand management and if so will they reply here. Doubt it…the bigger you are the less you care…there’s always another customer. I read somewhere that you can build more loyalty with an existing customer if you successfully and efficiently resolve a problem they have with you than if they had no problem in the first place.
- 6
Change carriers to get an Android Phone. Better than everything else and will continue to kick butt. Simply awesome in every way and beats the iPhone all over the court… in part just for the simple reason that it *isn’t* an iPhone. Blah.
- 7
Same thing happened to me except that when they finally got the handset in stock (after convincing me to go for the HTC Touch over the iPhone), I was told that I would no longer get the unlimited anytime 3g broadband with it, only off-peak. 3 months later I notice silly bills coming through for about £120, most of which on data. I call back and they tell me that the off peak free broadband was never offered in the first place! It seems to me that their internal communications systems could do with a dust-off…
Their Home broadband Customer service is no better either, in fact, it took me about 2 hours to find out that you can’t even use your own pop3 mail account with their service because they block the smtp port! <a href="http://www.finaldesign.co.uk/blog/general/smtp-e-mail-service-with-orange-uk.html" title="Orange SMTP Service Problem">Orange is crap</a> – nice.
- 8
Am I adding fuel to the fire if I say…
The futures bright the futures…
- 9
I’m personally looking at the HTC Magic, due out soon.
It’s taken me this long to find a phone that was compelling enough to upgrade from my Nokia 3310 (which just works) – picture messaging? Rubbish camera like on early phone models? Nah. Internet is the only compelling thing I think I’ll want on top of what I use – voice calls and text messages, though a camera would be nice to have handy.
- 10
By the way, to the G1 owners above, you might be able to get Android 1.5 (“Cupcake”) working on it in the future, keep your eyes out.
G1 was definitely not a finalised polished product hardware-wise, am hoping the Magic is. Wondering if they’ll unlock it once contract expires.
- 11
I haven’t read through the post yet, but the first line of the post made me want to rant…
it’s
it’s?
it’s??!!!??!!!“on its way” not “on ‘it is’ way”
sorry, I had to…
/end rant - 12
Hi Dave, I work for Orange and might be able to help.
Please send an email to customer.services@orange.co.uk, including your personal contact details and I will give you a call to discuss.
In order that your email is forwarded to me quickly, please add “Darren Orange Response” in the subject field and also in the first line of your mail.
Kind regards,
Darren
Orange Response Team - 13
“Wonder if anyone at Orange is responsible for online brand management and if so will they reply here. Doubt it “….Apparently they do and they will..
- 14
Hi Dave,
I’m also having major problems with Orange at the moment!!
For the past 6months I have been signed up on a second contract which I never received the phone to; they have acknowledged that this is the case and that the account has never been activated!!!!
I think it’s ridiculous how a big company like this can have such a poor customer complaint department and are this dis-interested in helping customers – especially in the current economic client as you have said!!
Not only have I been having this problem for 6mnths with MANY MANY calls to various departments with Orange, on my last call, I got told it had all been resurrected – the contract had been canceled – a refund/credit would be issued to my account.
Because of this I was finally happy and had decided I might actually renew my primary contract with Orange in July – but alas, this was obviously just another excuse to ‘fob me off’ as I am still paying for both contracts although the second phone number has been ‘hidden’ from me on my online account!!!It’s really starting to get annoying now and I’ve been extremely patient stopping taking my concerns public but after reading your post I’ve decided enough is enough and I’m going to have to look at getting their attention in some way!!!!!!
Just thought I’d share my personal experiences!!
RobH @ Summit Media
- 15
I have a pay as you go nokia phone and suddenly my calls have been barred – my number is now registered to someone else. i have been back to the orange shop where i brought it from a few years ago and nobody seems able to give me an answer – why and how can this happen when i brought the phone and number -
- 16
cant beat orange
- 17
I see you are number 10 now in google for orange mobile phones
- 18
i have been an orange p&g customer for 9 months toppin up2 £40 per month in recent months… they sent me a £80 handset £10 credit and reduced my xnet calls from 20p per min to 12p and my orange to orange and landline calls from 20p per min to 5p and i still benefit from the unlimited tx offer!
excellent
- 19
Hi Dave,
I have had a similar experience with Orange.
Rang customer retentions, was told they could offer me the phone I wanted for free ( HTC Hero) but it was out of stock. I was told that this wouldn’t be a problem and they would create an order for it and it would be shipped as soon as it was back in stock. I never received the phone and when I phoned back there was no record of my outstanding order, when i tried to order the phone again all of a sudden it was going to cost £146, needless to say i did not renew my contract.
I’m actually writing an article about this at the moment – Orange customer retention strategy is NOT as good as it may seem. My contract expired and after 3 months I switched providers – if they had got back to me during that time then they may possibly have got my business back. I had been with Orange for almost 9 years!!! I’m with T-mobile now – I had the same problem, except I went for Google Android