Let’s bury the hatchet with Orange
Posted on Aug 12th by William in Customer service
Peace breaks out with Orange. What tipped the balance was their late but pretty comprehensive response to my DPA subject access request.
It excludes location data, but has all the contractual and customer-service data for my real account, and also the phoney account impersonated in my name. It must be some 800 pages. The phoney signature is clearly fake to me, but might fool a shop assistant. There’s a worrying note that “customer says he hasn’t had anything stolen” which I don’t recall saying. But perhaps when first asked I didnt immediately recall having lost a wallet.
Cancel the iPhone. My reasoning is:
- Orange didn’t initiate this whole saga
- they’re been ripped off by persons unknown
- my grief came from intransigence and poor procedures, not malevolence
- their last-chance-saloon people, when I rang to leave and get my O2 iPhone, were human and apologetic
- they offered £15/month for 18 months for unlimited data
- the legal people have offered £300 and confirmation my credit reputation will not be affected
- Orange offers half-decent coverage where I live; the rest are quarter-decent
Nothing says other service-providers’ customer service is any better. Meanwhile Apple extract maximum rent for iPhones, and are unco-operative about Google apps.
It occurs to me that if I were Orange I might find me-as-customer a bit irritating.
So, onwards and upwards with new E75 on new contract.
If any data-protection obsessive want to go through a massive subject access request result I’m more than happy to share it. In the middle of the whole pile I found my £10 cheque, returned uncashed. This process works, and lets you see both sides of the story. Wdn’t it be better if (Wibbi) it were an easy, automated routine? Roll on VRM, VPI and Mydex….
I was happy with Orange until yesterday. I purchased an additional handset for my wife on Saturday with the actual store manager who ensured us that the package came with an unlimited data bundle. The problem is that it wasn’t added so we’ve paid for any data usage since then. So I went the store in question and their customer representatives belittle me claiming that I was making up a package that didn’t exist. I explained to them that the manager personally setup the package himself so it was legit. Of course he was not present at the time so I felt like a tit getting told that it was something only he could sort out. I found the store staff inept and in urgent need of customer service training. They could never keep eye contact and always seemed dismissive towards me. I was bit upset standing in the shop I must admit. Who wouldn’t be? So the very next day the manager calls me and before anything is said attacks me over the phone for intimidating his staff, and has viewed CCTV footage etc. Like that was supposed to make feel sorry?
My question is if someone was intimidated why didn’t they call the police or security?
I almost fell off my chair. First of all he didn’t even have the decency to apologise for his initial error and went off on a tangent that he was merely protecting his staff and it’s his opinion that I was aggressive. I said that he should get facts before making wild accusations towards customers.
What saddens me is that a manager calls up a customer, without getting the facts first, and goes on accusing me of all sorts of things. Defamation of character comes to mind. I’m not happy and I’m considering the legal route, sadly.
What are the formal complaints procedures to follow for Orange stores? If anyone knows?
I look forward to a response.