I was lured by Orange’s seductive marketing in 2003 to subscibe to a post paid connection. A ’free’ offer of a pair of Reebok shoes promised on payment of the first bill required about a dozen reminders, phone calls and threats to materialise.
I finally managed to get my hands on the promised pair at a local Reebok store where instead of finding myself the sole victim, I met other kindred spirits, all of whom were united in their frustration and generally unhappiness at Orange for having duped them with their sales talk.
While the connectivity and signal strength as well as ease of roaming is fairly good, the customer service of Orange is below ground zero. If you call their helpline at either 111 (on the mobile) or 56641111 (through a landline), you can expect to be kept waiting on hold for a period = t cubed, where t is the estimated time you are told by the recorded message to wait.
On Sundays and after working hours, you can normally take your chances and wait for a period of 30 minutes or more or hang up and go to the nearest shop to get your problem sorted out. The shops are not much better - with queues akin to railway reservation counters - but at least you will meet someone at the end.
The Internet facility for checking your account and paying your bills is quite good, I have to say.
What I dislike about the company is that whenever you ask for help, the customer service personnel try to deal with you as if you are a child. In one instance, I happened to lose my mobile while on my way from Mumbai to Pune. The account was deactivated on my call and I told the company that I would like a new SIM card.
After getting the card, which I was told would be activated in ’two hours’ I had to wait for approximately four days to start using the mobile. The reason - the customer service had got the SIM card number wrong when they issued it to me! (Don’t they have some computerised system by which they can just put the SIM card in a machine and record the number instantaneously?) It took another series of calls (whenever I could get through) and lengthy explanation to get the thing sorted out. And the attendant at the other end kept on trying to explain to me that the problem was quite serious and would require my having to come to the Orange shop .
After some heckling from my part, she finally relented and handed the phone - thankfully - to a fairly knowledgeable customer service person, who was able to solve the whole thing in a few minutes. And voila, the account was activated.
While this article is not intended to dissuade you from taking up an Orange connection - God knows, the others are just as bad, what pains me is the thick skin of most of the mobile providers. They will disconnect your account at the drop of a hat, if you so much as default in payment by a day. As far as their own sins are concerned, however, well, they can be explained away with a very standard crocodile apology. Oh - and of course - you are supposed to ’have a good day’ at the end of it all.
Orange - are you listening?