How do I get Orange to give me my money back?

I recently changed from Orange Pay Monthly to Orange PAYG. I wanted to
switch to another network so I asked for my phone to be unlocked. They
charged me £20 (added to my balance) and asked me to wait 14 days. After 16
days I called to chase it up and apparently they won't issue the code
until I've been with them for 3 months.

Disgusted with their service I asked them to refund the money that I
wouldn't have given them if they'd told me this from the start. They told
me they would refund the £20 to my card. 6 hours later my balance is still
£20 minus the 25p they charged me for called customer "services".

Is there any magic wand I can waive that will make Orange refund me?

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:45:10 +0000, Karl Q. wrote:

> I recently changed from Orange Pay Monthly to Orange PAYG. I wanted to
> switch to another network so I asked for my phone to be unlocked. They
> charged me £20 (added to my balance) and asked me to wait 14 days. After 16
> days I called to chase it up and apparently they won't issue the code
> until I've been with them for 3 months.
>
> Disgusted with their service I asked them to refund the money that I
> wouldn't have given them if they'd told me this from the start. They told
> me they would refund the £20 to my card. 6 hours later my balance is still
> £20 minus the 25p they charged me for called customer "services".
>
> Is there any magic wand I can waive that will make Orange refund me?

A second question is, is there a company with worse customer services than
Orange? I waited 30 minutes to get through to someone, at this time of the
day I'm OK with that.

But on getting through and explaining my problem he immediately asked if I
could be put on hold. A minute later and I'm listening to a constant
ringing tone. What's the chances that the agent just couldn't be arsed and
transferred me to some dead extension number?

"Karl Q." <karlq@nos.uch> wrote in message
news:WQ3Rj.45372$B83.45044@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net...
>I recently changed from Orange Pay Monthly to Orange PAYG. I wanted to
> switch to another network so I asked for my phone to be unlocked. They
> charged me £20 (added to my balance) and asked me to wait 14 days. After
> 16
> days I called to chase it up and apparently they won't issue the code
> until I've been with them for 3 months.
>
> Disgusted with their service I asked them to refund the money that I
> wouldn't have given them if they'd told me this from the start. They told
> me they would refund the £20 to my card. 6 hours later my balance is still
> £20 minus the 25p they charged me for called customer "services".
> Is there any magic wand I can waive that will make Orange refund me?
>
Make Hans Snook CEO again?

Steve Terry

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:18:01 +0000, Karl Q. wrote:
> But on getting through and explaining my problem he immediately asked if I
> could be put on hold. A minute later and I'm listening to a constant
> ringing tone. What's the chances that the agent just couldn't be arsed and
> transferred me to some dead extension number?

I've been on hold for an hour now listening to a ringing tone. At a flat
rate of 25p I'm quite happy to leave it plugged in and ringing indefinitely.

How long it will ring for?
Will a real person eventually answer?
How much does this cost Orange?

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:18:01 GMT, Karl Q. wrote:

-------------------8><
> A second question is, is there a company with worse customer services than
> Orange?

Vodafone.

In article <WQ3Rj.45372$B83.45044@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net>, karlq@nos.uch
says...
> I recently changed from Orange Pay Monthly to Orange PAYG. I wanted to
> switch to another network so I asked for my phone to be unlocked. They
> charged me £20 (added to my balance) and asked me to wait 14 days. After 16
> days I called to chase it up and apparently they won't issue the code
> until I've been with them for 3 months.
>
> Disgusted with their service I asked them to refund the money that I
> wouldn't have given them if they'd told me this from the start. They told
> me they would refund the £20 to my card. 6 hours later my balance is still
> £20 minus the 25p they charged me for called customer "services".
>
> Is there any magic wand I can waive that will make Orange refund me?

A refund can take up to 3 days to post to your card account. Might be
worth checking again if a few days?
--
Regards
Jon

In article <fy4Rj.45534$B83.35842@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net>, karlq@nos.uch
says...
> On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:18:01 +0000, Karl Q. wrote:
> > But on getting through and explaining my problem he immediately asked if I
> > could be put on hold. A minute later and I'm listening to a constant
> > ringing tone. What's the chances that the agent just couldn't be arsed and
> > transferred me to some dead extension number?
>
> I've been on hold for an hour now listening to a ringing tone. At a flat
> rate of 25p I'm quite happy to leave it plugged in and ringing indefinitely.
>
> How long it will ring for?

?

> Will a real person eventually answer?

Unlikely, they would have done so by now.

> How much does this cost Orange?

Nothing.

You were probably transferred to handset unlocking, but I don't think
they work outside normal office hours.

Or you could have been right the first time.
--
Regards
Jon

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:33:31 +0000, Karl Q. wrote:
> On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:18:01 +0000, Karl Q. wrote:
>> But on getting through and explaining my problem he immediately asked if I
>> could be put on hold. A minute later and I'm listening to a constant
>> ringing tone. What's the chances that the agent just couldn't be arsed and
>> transferred me to some dead extension number?
>
> I've been on hold for an hour now listening to a ringing tone. At a flat
> rate of 25p I'm quite happy to leave it plugged in and ringing indefinitely.
>
> How long it will ring for?
> Will a real person eventually answer?
> How much does this cost Orange?

After about half an hour of ringing tone the tone changed to silence, then
it switched between ringing tone, hold music and silence. After 1 hour 48
minutes I eventually heard a blast of music followed by something like "The
number you have dialled is not connected" then I was cut off.

"Appelation Controlee" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
newsneznlnknlq1.5sp49y3460dv$.dlg@40tude.net...
> On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:18:01 GMT, Karl Q. wrote:
>
> -------------------8><
>> A second question is, is there a company with worse customer services
>> than
>> Orange?
>
> Vodafone.
>
O2's worse than Voda.

But as most of the others like 3 have improved,
my guess is Orange is now probably the worse?

Steve Terry

"Steve Terry" <gFOURwwk@tesco.net> wrote in message
news:fv4gf1$3m9$1@news.albasani.net...
> "Appelation Controlee" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
> newsneznlnknlq1.5sp49y3460dv$.dlg@40tude.net...
>> On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:18:01 GMT, Karl Q. wrote:
>>
>> -------------------8><
>>> A second question is, is there a company with worse customer services
>>> than
>>> Orange?
>>
>> Vodafone.
>>
> O2's worse than Voda.
>
> But as most of the others like 3 have improved,
> my guess is Orange is now probably the worse?
>

I have 02 and 3 contracts, and both customer services have been pretty good
on the few occasions I've had to call them recently.

Voda Business are good, but I have no idea about their "normal" CS

Mike P

On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:37:32 +0100, Steve Terry wrote:

> "Appelation Controlee" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
> newsneznlnknlq1.5sp49y3460dv$.dlg@40tude.net...
>> On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:18:01 GMT, Karl Q. wrote:
>>
>> -------------------8><
>>> A second question is, is there a company with worse customer services
>>> than
>>> Orange?
>>
>> Vodafone.
>>
> O2's worse than Voda.
>
> But as most of the others like 3 have improved,
> my guess is Orange is now probably the worse?

My beef with Voda is that, when the local cell was put out of action by a
fire in the building it was mounted on, they wouldn't relinquish my wife's
contract, even though our home and her work location are both within its
coverage. My contract - also using Voda - was with Singlepoint (before they
were assimilated), who released me within hours. At the time Vodafone
weren't able to predict a date for reinstatement of service, and happily
collected their £30/month for the three months of mostly no service before
the cell was reactivated. The Vodafone customer service people were
complete assholes so never - ever - again.
At the end of my wife's contract they made it as difficult as possible to
terminate. By comparison, O2 are the dream team.