I can only speak from experience, although I may have been unlucky. All I can say is, I am a bitter, bitter Donkey and I'm spreding the word about my experiences at the hands of the yellowy red company. I'm so bitter I won't even eat that fruit with the same name any more. In fact I think I might start a thread calling for the re-colouring of the MoDaCo logo - nobody wears keks that colour anyway!!!

Seriously, to be treated like that when I have been a customer for over 10 years sux!!

The point made about the movement to T-mobile being reversed in a years time will only apply if the other companies (currently benefiting from the yellowy red company's arrogant, uncaring, money grabbing ways) fail to the learn the lessons and follow suite.

Remember service providers, you are just that, service providers, and you need us - the customer - to provide that service to. Upset us and we vote with our feet. In these days of the 'global village' it is very easy for snowballs to roll downhill and your profits will roll with them!

Oooh I've come over all masterfull!

Pass me another wall to write on!

I left orange and went to 02 for the Qtek too. Have subsequently cancelled my O2 contract early and gone to t-mobile with the 'pink' MDA Compact II. Am loving my flext with Web 'n Walk contract!

After my previous post which was a reply to a very much earlier post just wanted to add a bit more.

Left Orange because I could find a better phone at 02.

Lett 02 for T- Mobile because they also improved my phone at no charge (covered the cost of writing off the end of my O2 contract) and now have a plan that suits my usage sooooo much more than any I've had before!

Would just like to add I'd been with Orange for 14+ years and had had a good few arguments about their treatment of long term customers V new one's.

I've just left T-mobile for Orange so a little reversal though i'm on PAYG so that may make a difference

left orange cos they cost too much. Deals are way better with t-mob.

Monkey boy, BIG mistake if you want to roam, get any customer service, if you have bought M600 and a few other gripes!! \Good luck, Martin

ooops not monkey boy,... goochy1

This is all interesting stuff.
Personally I've never had a major issue with Orange. Their customer service used to be second to none.
I've only had one sticking point with them - when I upgraded to my M500 I couldn't have it on the contract I wanted, so I went to Express Communications, got my deal, lost my number though. - Then I had (& still have) a major problem, my contract is double what was agreed. I've tried to call Express but the number no longer works, so I spoke to Oranged & they said tuff luck basicly.
About 3 weeks later I decided I really wanted my old number back & was willing to pay for it if need be. So I rang orange, the first guy I spoke to was quite helpful as usual, he explained that the number was still allocated to my name but had been deactivated. He wasn't sure how I could go about reactivating it & replacing my current number, but said he would put me through to someone that could help, well this next guy was obviously one of the new school, very short, very arrigont, very unhelpful. He just said no can't be done. I explained that I was willing to pay for it, he said no, I explained that it was still allocated to my name & could I attach it to another contract - no. He game the impression I was wasting his time & had interrupted his game of minesweeper for something.

Then the other day I was talking to my father who is also with Orange & was looking at upgrading to bring the land line on too, he couln't get anyone from Orange to call him back other than the rather insistant salesman that was rather put out when the old man told him where to go if thats how Orange now treats its customers.

As far as I can see all their problems seem to have come in overnight - about the time they took over Wanadoo!

I'm about to call them to find out when my contract ends, then I'm seriously thinking of T-Mobile

You're right O CS used to be 2nd to none but since the take over by France Telecom the deterioration has been swift and dramatic.

With regard to our old number, I don't think it's possible to transfer it - even tho it's still allocated to your old account, before the account is closed you can get a PAC to transfer to another operator - but not the same one (to dtop people getting cheaper deals) but once the account is closed I believe it is impossible to get the number back = but I believe this applies to all operators, not just O. The number will be re-used after only 6 months, I still get calls for the precious owner of my number and, no, I don't speak Indian and don't drive a taxi!

T-Mobile's CS is as good as Os used to be - I#m very impressed - and what with the flext prices and flat rate data I am ver leased I went to them.

It is just such a shame that O, the people that pushed SmartPhones in the first place, have gone downhill so badly and I'm not sure they'll ever be able to recover - there's certainly no sign of it so far!

Well, I've finally done it!
My choice was this:
1. Stick with O and pay £150+50 upgrade fee for M3100 despite being out of contract. Then take a fluffy animal tariff and mega pricey data probably £8 for 8Mb.
2. Move to T and get the same device for £60 with flext30 and all-I-can-eat data for £32/month.

I moved to T. How odd! Now I'm a very happy chappie and my nephew gets my old C550 - lucky goochy1!

You won't be sorry - But I get Flext35 and unlimited data for £31.88 / month

That is amazing for a company that is only 12 years old, especially as it sounds like you left them over a year ago :s


Sorry for bringing this up but I used to work in Orange Retail and customers always used to do this, they'd try the "I've been with you 10 years!" line and I'd look at the system and say "You only joined us two years ago on xx/xx/xx" really used to bug me.

The point I always had to make was you might have been with us years but as a customer with a £30 tariff who rarely goes over your allowances then you don't make us any money so we'll charge you £200 for the phone" they ain't a charity, I personally think customers expect too much for nothing when it comes to mobile phones.


Sorry for that, not aimed at anyone but its generally how it was working with the great unwashed.

So what you're saying is that unless you spend over your allowance Orange don't want you as a customer? But are quite willing to give new customers incentives? So they don't care about the number of customers leaving as they only wantt high spending customers? This does seem to be born out by there attitude but is a complete change from the way they operated before FT took them over.

Well, just to add insult to injury, I've just requested my PAC from O.
Straight through to Retentions who offered me a 3100 for nothing! He still couldn't do anything about the data charges tho. I did point out that this was, perhaps, another reason why O was less attractive these days - OCS's who each sing from a different hymn sheet and you just never know who will be playing the 'OCS Lottery' with you that particular day.
Inconsistency is not confidence inspiring.

IMHO an M3100 without flat rate data is very limited compared to what it is capable of - When T-mobile took off my brother's W'n'W package and didn't add the new one his data charge for the month was over £400 (they did refund it and sort it out) - just goes to show what good valy W'n'W is.

I was a customer of orange since day one, the OCS is becoming worse and worse, long wait times etc. The final straw came when it came to renewing my partner and my contract. I was offered the equivalent of one of tmobile deals for both my partner and myself. The kicker was that I would have to pay an extra 10GBP per month over what my partner would pay for the same talk plan
This is the reason: I had routinely spent more than her per month (gone over my minutes)and thus they would charge me a higher monthly rental. The justification was that "I would save more than my partner" due to the substantial increase in my minutes.

I was flabbergasted and spoke to 3 other people before geting a mac and packing off to t=mobile.

The T-mobile customer service has been great to date, really frieindly and accomodating. The telephone signal isn't as good as orange in some areas but its way better than it was. The flext tariff is amazing and my vario 2 is loving the web and walk.

Would not consider moving elsewhere... Orange are going to have a REALLY hard time getting me back, if its even possible.

The nice thing as well is that you don't have to be a zoologist to understand what tariffs you can get on t-mobile.

Slightly off topic but...

Are we on MoDaCo or Mobiholics?? This is confusing the hell out of me

MoDaCo, although you're in the Lounge, so it could be anywhere right? Maybe .network wide...

P

Hmmm, curiouser and curiouser.... MoDaCo lounge meets Mobiholics lounge.... too many beers and there'll be a fight ;)

I'm on the cusp of joining T-Mobile but I'm holding off on pushing the submit button because at the the bottom of the signup page it says that the £5 a month line rental discount ends on 31 Dec 06 but it seems to still be offering it when you get to checkout.

If the £5 off flext 20 with w'n'w still stands then they will shortly be getting another Vario 2 customer.

I only got mine yesterday - complete with £5 off the rental. The only 'issue' I had with them was due to my only having a Solo/Maestro card (which they couldn't use on their website) I had to go to the shop in Glos. Unfortunately, because of this, I lost the 3 months free W&W which I was very cross about. I felt penalised because I had the 'wrong' card

Most unfair.