Orange services broken down?

On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:40:31 +0100, "Steve Terry" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>If i had my way I'd put you in charge of their website
>
>Your http://www.mobileshop.org.uk/

LOL.

Mobileshop are another 'once great' that have fallen from grace due to
the dodgy way they have been handling cashbacks. Assuming that many
people manage to comply with the cashback conditions accurately the
attempt to delay payout's or even 'forget' about them is widely
reported on MSE and other consumer forums.

Re: Orange. Wife and I still have OVP Virgin on two low use handsets.
Orange suits us for that but if they ever do away with it or make it
unpalatable that we be the end of our association with FT.

Guess they won't be bothered. However they have lost £1000's in lost
recommendations from my family over the years. Like a lot of people I
had all my relations and friends on Orange in the 'Snook years'
because they were so innovative. Don't recommend them any more and
most for my family and friends have moved provider.

---

› See More: Orange services broken down?

"Al Paca" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:40:31 +0100, "Steve Terry" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>>If i had my way I'd put you in charge of their website
>>Your http://www.mobileshop.org.uk/
>
> LOL.
> Mobileshop are another 'once great' that have fallen from grace due to
> the dodgy way they have been handling cashbacks. Assuming that many
> people manage to comply with the cashback conditions accurately the
> attempt to delay payout's or even 'forget' about them is widely
> reported on MSE and other consumer forums.
<snip>
>
Clearly I was referring to the layout and construction of
http://www.mobileshop.org.uk/ website

Not the sales policy of
http://www.mobileshop.com/

Steve Terry

On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 06:49:53 +0100, "Woody"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>"Cheeky" <[email protected]> wrote in message

>>
>> Incidentally, what makes you say that?

>
>For a few years we were also on O2 - or Cellnet as it was then.

So a fair few years ago then....? I was originally on Cellnet when I
got my first mobile in '95!!

>Cellnet was (and I believe still is) also good at dropping calls mid
>stream for no apparent reason. By that I mean you are stationary, in
>close proximity to a (known) O2 site with no possibility of another in
>range (i.e. out in the Yorkshire Dales and I am a radcomms engineer so I
>know the sites) and in conversation for several minutes and suddenly you
>are talking to yourself. You attempt to redial and get network busy -
>and this would happen almost daily!

Precisely the problem I have with Orange. Also when stationary. In my
location it seemed to flicker between 2G and 3G and when it did the
call would become scrambled or I'd be cut off.

>Per your comment about 3G, how do you control that? The phones
>(admittedly only a few) that I have used that have 3G give an option of
>GSM only or GSM and 3G auto. Unless you are using it for web functions
>or data downloading where the speed difference would be obvious, how do
>you know whether you are talking on 2G or 3G?

The issue I had was that the phone would invariably not connect when
on 3G when I was at home - it'd take 3, 4, 5 attempts to connect a
call compared to when I was in other locations where it'd work fine.
Voicemails and SMSs would also take an age to arrive often arriving
the next day or many hours later. The "solution" was to force the
phone (HTC TyTn/SPV M3100) on to GSM rather than UTMS. It would be
guaranteed to work 100% when this was done.

Oh... and the straw that broke the camel's back was them unilaterally
removing part of my agreed, price-matched contract claiming it was a
"12-month promotional offer" which was total bollocks and their
laughable data prices.

As many others have said - Orange used to be innovators which is sadly
no longer the case.

On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:39:18 +0100, "Steve Terry" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>The rumours i've heard are Orange are going to bring in new management
>to deal specifically with the CS problem.
>cos their surveys are showing the lousy CS now offered
>is the leading cause of customer churn
>
>Steve Terry

That's interesting as to the end I've found CS to be helpful if not
always clued up....

Al Paca wrote:

>> Your http://www.mobileshop.org.uk/
>
> LOL.
>
> Mobileshop are another 'once great' that have fallen from grace due to
> the dodgy way they have been handling cashbacks.

It's a few years since we stopped maintaining that website for them.
They said they'd decided to bring the maintenance inhouse, but it looks
like they decided not to maintain it at all.

I suspect that there have been major management changes there since my
involvement with the mobileshop.org site.

"Cheeky" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:39:18 +0100, "Steve Terry" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>>The rumours i've heard are Orange are going to bring in new management
>>to deal specifically with the CS problem.
>>cos their surveys are showing the lousy CS now offered
>>is the leading cause of customer churn
>>Steve Terry
>
> That's interesting as to the end I've found CS to be helpful if not
> always clued up....
>
I've experience Orange CS from the days you could speak to Snook in the exec
office

I compiled a list of forward facing depts

Today it's so bad it's a crime, only redeeming point is you can still talk
to the exec office, to sort out what the lower levels should have done

Steve Terry

On Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:25:18 +0100, "Steve Terry" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Clearly I was referring to the layout and construction of
>http://www.mobileshop.org.uk/ website

I wasn't inferring anything else Steve.

Clearly it is the current trading practices of Mobileshop as a company
that I was eluding to, not Iain's org website that I have referred to
for useful information many times over the years.

> I have to pinch myself to believe I'm not asleep and living a nightmare
>

It is a DIGITAL nightmare and we are all living it ..........

> O2 eh? Ah ha.
>
> Boy are you in for a surprise!
>

just don't ask for a PAC code from them...it won't arrive...

> it's a "simplicity" one-month contract so if I don't like them I can
> bugger off somewhere else.
>

if they let you .......

"Steve Terry" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

>>
>> Tom's trying to fix this.
>>
>> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...norange104.xml
> Interesting, so they are going to install 450 new BTS
> Would that be cos they've removed more than that in the last 5 years
> during their 3g upgrade.

Your evidence for this is? I can assure you neither 2G nor 3G sites are
"removed" for the sheer hell of it.

Cheers

Jon.

"Jon Pitts" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Steve Terry" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>>> Tom's trying to fix this.
>>>
>>> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...norange104.xml
>> Interesting, so they are going to install 450 new BTS
>> Would that be cos they've removed more than that in the last 5 years
>> during their 3g upgrade.
>
> Your evidence for this is? I can assure you neither 2G nor 3G sites are
> "removed" for the sheer hell of it.
> Cheers
> Jon.
>
>
AFAIK they followed T Mobiles policy of saving money by moving
2g BTS from the UK to Ireland, only FT Orange took it a stage further
by taking out too many.

Snooks Orange planned 10,000 BTS and then make a PR stunt out of it
buying cheap good publicity

FT Orange wouldn't know good PR if it fell over it in the dark.
they took Snooks 9,500 BTS and weeded it with a flame thrower

I wouldn't trust FT management to look after a dog

Steve Terry

"Steve Terry" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Jon Pitts" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> "Steve Terry" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>>>> Tom's trying to fix this.
>>>>
>>>> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...norange104.xml
>>> Interesting, so they are going to install 450 new BTS
>>> Would that be cos they've removed more than that in the last 5 years
>>> during their 3g upgrade.
>>
>> Your evidence for this is? I can assure you neither 2G nor 3G sites are
>> "removed" for the sheer hell of it.
>> Cheers
>> Jon.
>>
>>
> AFAIK they followed T Mobiles policy of saving money by moving
> 2g BTS from the UK to Ireland, only FT Orange took it a stage further
> by taking out too many.

>
Your knowledge is flawed then, so far as Orange is concerned.

>
> FT Orange wouldn't know good PR if it fell over it in the dark.
> they took Snooks 9,500 BTS and weeded it with a flame thrower
>

Again, I suggest you are incorrect. Your evidence for this claim is?

Jon.