Hi all,

I'm (for my sins) employed by Orange UK in the Business Solutions Team. I'll try to answer any questions you may have about Orange, what is going on, and what is coming up.

Oh dear - let the flood gates open!!

Ok - heres mine!

Why do Orange seem to think more of their PAYG customers than the Contract ones? As a contract customer of 7 years, I appear to be able to get a much better deal by leaving and rejoining than I can ever hope to get by extending!

Any comments on that one?

Hi. I don't think they do. Prepay is not a lucrative part of the market. Contract is where all the money is made. It will always be the same, whereever you go, that new customers get a better deal. Because the market is flooded now the only way to win in this game is through churn. Taking customers from your competitors.

Have you tried speaking to Retentions? You can reach them on 0800 079 2288. Depending on certain factors such as monthly spend and contract length, you will be offered different things. For example, a friend of mine called through and got 400 mins and 1000 texts a month for ?30. I won't say you will get the same deal, but you do not know if you do not ask.

Hope that helps.

Probably way too early to say but will they include WiFi in their future smartphone handsets?

I'd imagine so. The SPV M2000 has WiFi, I think the SPV M5000 does too. If you mean for smaller phones (C550 etc), I'll see what I can find out tomorrow.

Really!

i was a customer for 8 years, on the last year i was on a Orange Premiere account with a 8MB? GPRS bundle and a text bundle with a spend of beteween ?70 to ?140 a month and when i left in jan they did not care... not even any nice offers like i have recieved in past years... somthing is going on for sure!?

any clues on that?

cheers!

I can't comment on individual occasions such as you have described. Sorry.

Surely that's the basic mistake Orange (and the others are making)..
There is no "Win", and the way to get ahead is to take customers from your competitors, whilst keeping as many of your own as you can

It's the second part that Orange in particular dont seem to get.

Just remember, a business needs to identify and keep their Good customers. A good customer is one who doesn't demand for example a 50% discount year upon year...

Sometimes you just have to cut your losses. That seems to be Oranges view on the market at the moment anyway, and can't say I agree to the same extent.

I've recently left the company, the retail sector has become unbearable - being forced to sell 18 month contracts to customers who don't want/need them etc was the icing on the cake for me.

FT was the nail in the coffin for the death of Oranges innovation and customer focused approach!

Howdy AzH, regarding PAYG getting better deal than Contract - as we know, on PAYG you get unlimited GPRS for ?1 a day.

Is there any plans for it to happen for Pay Monthly contract?

Thank you.

Howdy AzH, regarding PAYG getting better deal than Contract - as we know, on PAYG you get unlimited GPRS for ?1 a day.

Is there any plans for it to happen for Pay Monthly contract?

Thank you.

100% correct. Orange is little more than a cash cow for France Telecom. I wish they'd sell us.


I'll see what I can find out for you tomorrow.

OK, thank you.

Any update?

Thanks.

I'd like to know why Data rates are rediculously high. I have an M5000 and have been using the 'try 3G' for two months now, and have found it great but it will be too expensive after the try ends.

I think the UK operators are making a mistake pricing data so high, sooo many people I know are scared of touching their "Orange World" button or "Vodafone Live" button on their phone cz they link it immediately to high costs. So there'll be people out there who'll never even try it.

I'm gonna be worried when my try period ends because my M5000 has a nasty habit of connecting to the net without me knowing despite trying to close programs that would automatically try to connect. I think there should be an option in the phone to disable it or allow it to ask you 'do you wish to connect?'

Besides that, I'm very happy with Orange's services and products. Especially Orange Care.

Glyn

I'm in a similar situation. Have been with Orange for approx. 7 years on the same number. Tried retentions for an upgrade from a C500 to a C600 and the best they could offer me was ?80 (?30 more than the website and exactly the same as upgrades!). No minutes or texts or anything. My monthly spend is ?29-?30 and I've had my C500 for 14 months.

That is soooooooooo true chucky.egg. The key to it IS also keeping your current customer base!!

They had the adverts on the telly with the wise man telling the big execs at Orange how to keep the customers happy, obviously the real directors are as brain dead as the actor portrayed because they do not practice what they preach.

The tech support is my main bug bare, they are totally uselesss. How many times do you have to remove your SIM card, do a dance, pat your head, whistle a tune and reset the phone before they accept it's got a fault! It's also hit and miss to weather or not you get a helpfull / knowledgable CS operator. Come on Orange (and all other operators as I suspect your all the same) sort it out, directors - Listen to what customers are saying!

Orange.......Best of a bad bunch - Unfortunately!

JB

Sorry, I was off today. I've been hit by 'flu (really nice). I'll check this out on Monday but I couldn't find anything on the Orange website.

I'd like to know if/when the Single Number facility will be available to personal customers, and not just business ones. It's a feature I would LOVE, and it's on 02 and Vodafone already....

Someone on the Premier CS did say they had heard it was "coming" but that I'd have to ring approx once a month to keep asking. I've rung twice now since Dec but no joy.

I did consider moving to a business just to get the feature, but I couldn't find as good a deal as the Premier tariff I'm on now, so held fast.

Hi guys, I'm a Senior Phone Trainer from an Orange Shop, so again, if anyone needs any orange-related help or tech advice, there's a couple of us around to PM