Angry People

It had not escaped my notice that Orange customer service was extremely poor, but like many people I was just too lazy to change my mobile network. To say lazy may be an understatement as I had been an Orange customer since 1998!

I’m one of the customers that service providers absolutely love - as long as there is no problem I will maintain brand loyalty indefinately. I had thought about upgrading my current mobile phone when my previous contract ran out in March but every time I looked into my local Orange shop it was packed. While there is a plethora of mobile phone shops in the high street (The Link, Car Phone Warehouse, Phones 4 U, Orange, O2, T-Mobile, 3 and O2 all within 100 metres) I thought I should go to Orange first; it’s just the type of guy I am.

I’m not a big mobile music fan, not into playing mobile games, don’t need a pda, in fact I don’t even make that many phone calls but I do find it handy to be able to take pictures with my phone as well as the usual texting. With that in mind I did a bit of research, begining with my friends and colleagues. Amongst them, in the 3 Mega Pixel category, were owners of the Sony-Ericcson K800i and the Nokia N80. As I already had a 3G Nokia with the Symbian operating system I knew it was user friendly but unfortunately also slow and unreliable. The K800i was the phone I wanted.

Off I set to the Orange shop and queued for an assistant. To cut a long story short, Orange, she says, has updated how they rate their customers and I was no longer rated as a good customer. This has nothing to do with credit history - it can’t do - I’ve been on direct debits since 1998 and always made the payments! No, it’s based on how much you pay each month. Therefore the answer was, if I wanted a K800i I’d either have to upgrade my contract to a level way above my monthly usage or pay £150!

This was obviously something I was not prepared to do, especially when most of the other networks were offering the phone for free on similar, if slightly more expensive tariffs. The point was, I expected at least a bit of loyalty from Orange, if not good customer service.

I checked the available deals from Orange and the other mobile networks and then telephoned Orange Customer Services and explained what I wanted. They offered me the phone for £85 and were not interested in listening, negotiating or trying to match other mobile networks offers.

On Sunday morning I made the rounds of the mobile phone shops in town and had my best response from Vodafone. I walked into the shop and said “I’m a pay monthly customer with Orange, paying £25 per month. I’m looking for a new mobile provider because Orange customer service sucks and I want a new Sony Ericcson K800i. Can you help me?” The bloke said “yes”.

And there, just like that, no haggling, I’m a Vodafone customer. I’m paying the same as Orange except I’m getting double the minutes, 100 texts (Orange didn’t give me any) and 3 months half price line rental.

I’m now much better off, with an up to date contract, a mobile phone that meets my requirements, better signal coverage and so far Vodafone customer service is much better than Orange - all for the same price. The only cost was a little time and shoe leather. Lesson learned!