Orange pay &go network impressions

[MurphmanL]

Only just registered and joined orange the other month, with one of these free sim offers going around on the web, got my 300 texts for registering, was well chuffed so tried my best to use them all up.
Once they ran out however ive only used my orange sim to recieve incoming calls from a friend on orange who gets free calls to my sim off peak.

Anyway just the other day, got a voicemail message and tried to listen, but was out of luck since apparently voicemail is not free , 10p a shot i believe - i was not impressed!
Anyway curiosity cost me, I topped up with a tenner at 11am today, and bugger me i then realised after getting home and checking my balance I had 0p remaining?!

And sure enough, i realised i had used the wrong e-topup card, the one for the supplied sim frm my c550 (at this moment in time which was long lost) and not my 300 texts enabled one! I was (needless to say) pissed off.
Tried orange, but customer care wouldnt accept me as i needed 25p so my call was rejected, so I
then went back to the newsagent and didnt want to know me, so i reluctantly gave up hope.

Came back home and found the other sim, popped it in and found i had £11 instead of £10, assuming the £1 was the starting credit on the sim.
So i rang customer care for what it was worth, got through to a friendly lady who advised me i was charged for the call, told me she couldnt do a lot to start with as my current sim was not registered.

So i explained the scenario, she was really sympathetic and once I proved i owned both sims, she apologised, transferred every ounce of credit, (including the quid hee hee), refunded me the cost of my call (25p), enabled 300 texts for me to use right now, altered my eligibility so i'll recieve my may texts on 12th may as well!
Finally, I thanked her and enquired on my friends ability to call orange numbers off peak, she apologised the offer was not available, but to make up for it insisted on finding me another freebie i'd be interested in, so then offered me £12 (4mb) of gprs a month, or 25 picture messages, I took the £12 of free orange world gprs to use every month provided i top up by at least £10!

I left customer care with £1.25 more credit that i topped up with, 300 texts and 12 quid of web access in the bag
A VERY profitable call i'd say, bang on customer care, no delay in answering and brilliant network coverage in my area. They even give 30 free internet texts a month off their websites, and im yet to configure my magic numbers (what's the limit for these numbers btw?) So far im VERY impressed with orange and they have certainly made a great first impression on me!

[Daymonkey]

sounds incredibly good, i was mostly surprised that you werent put through to a indian call center in the first place.
I use orange, just reassures me that if i ever need customer support its there for me.

[atrull]

Nice - orange have lost quite a few customers lately and have to start competing properly again IMO. Nice to see they're making a start.

I got 25% off my monthly bill and a new phone a few months ago. At no cost to me the motorola l6/razer is one of the best phones I've owned. At long last an alternative to nokias!

[mike306dt]

so then offered me £12 (4mb) of gprs a month, or 25 picture messages, I took the £12 of free orange world gprs to use every month provided i top up by at least £10!

Hello mate,

Watch the free gprs thing, you'll probably find its £12 as a orange try deal - orange did this with me when I rang up. They give you the £12 to use by a certain date and it won't go on there again. I currently get £4 which is 1mb free every month due to the top up thing and my 600 minutes/300 texts.

[Koolpc]

Orange have always been superb as far as i am concerned.

[nc555]

Im with Orange too. I've always kept a an Oange PAYG sim for a second phone.

About the GPRS....you can browse from all day (midnight to midnight) for £1 if you're on Pay as u go. Text 'access' to 247 and you will receive a reply stating the time your offer starts. Best thing about this.....sometimes you will find you still have free access the next day or a few days after!!!!

Now if you use the GPRS for modem access that £1 can go a long way!

[Jonny M]

I'm with them at the moment, on a student tariff. I will have to see what they can offer me when my contract comes up for renewal, because T-Mobile's Flext plans look very appealing, shame about the 18 month contract though.

[johncouzins]

Yea i have never been a big orange fan but that sound pretty good

[zulander]

just moved to orange from o2 and im not really impressed. dire network coverage - i live near manchester so ud think it wouldent be a problem but 3 of the places i spend most of the time i struggle to get a signal. Have to ring up to activate stuff pain in the ass cause i hate phonin people it does my head in. Orange Wednesdays rocks tho, but thats the only thing i can say about em really.

[JimmyBoy]

i used to be with orange, i quite liked em, customer service was always good and they replaced my phone free even when i was to blame when i broke it, they even paid my postage, (though i did say it just stopped working...
ah drunken wrestling, but thats another story )

just recently moved to o2 though who have been pretty good, signal is a lil better on o2 for me, had to ring customer service once and they were great aswell

[mike306dt]

Orange were good with my insurance when I broke my 3210 a long long time ago (drunken accident again)! However, a friend broke his c500 accidentally and they said it was done on purpose and refused to replace the handset.

I find their pay as you go bundle pretty good really - £10 gets me

300 free sms
600 Offpeak Orange Minutes
1mb Wap
The £10 to spend

Cant complain really Just a shame their choice of pay as you go phones is more limited and they cost ££

[MurphmanL]

mike306, how did you get the 600 offpeak minutes?
Ive got the 1mb and 300 sms, but I dont have the offpeak minutes, did you have to request these or something?

Had another good bout from orange just last week as well, got myself a 3G Usim for just £4, and they seamlessly transferred everything over, and gave me £1 to try video calling on them cant say fairer than that!

Their signal coverage is a little bland in places, especially school but Im hoping this area will soon get a boost if their "network promise" is actually a reality, and they really do invest hundreds of pounds extending their coverage , as to avoid having to dish out free credit for dropped calls.

[Agent]

I'm with them at the moment, on a student tariff. I will have to see what they can offer me when my contract comes up for renewal, because T-Mobile's Flext plans look very appealing, shame about the 18 month contract though.

Just went through it mate
They gave me £100 + any phone i wanted to stay with them another year.

[mike306dt]

Hello mate, when they first did the £10/20/30 top up thing with text messages at 300/600/1000 you also got 600 off peak minutes for topping up £10 for 5 years. They have since stopped this offer so I guess you probably can't get it now? To be honest I hardly use the minutes, I guess I should to get even better value

[nc555]

MurphmanL,

Taken from http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/show/o..._evening_calls

If you're a new customer, you'll get them automatically when you register your phone. If you're an existing customer and you're upgrading your phone, just text 'evening' to 1132 from your new Orange phone and your free evening calls will be added to your account for free.

[mike306dt]

MurphmanL,

Taken from http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/show/o..._evening_calls

If you're a new customer, you'll get them automatically when you register your phone. If you're an existing customer and you're upgrading your phone, just text 'evening' to 1132 from your new Orange phone and your free evening calls will be added to your account for free.

Well played that man I wasn't aware they still did it. Thats two phones i have to send that text from then Cheers mate