Here in Australia there is pretty much one giant which operates the entire telecommunications network. The monopoly, Telstra, has given way to few real competitors in the time I’’ve know of them. I am a long time customer of the former Telecom but of late have wondered about the decreasing level of service, apparent greed and loss of interest in real customer relations. Looking into the cost of my phone usage revealed a displeasing discovery of high rates and charges which made me consider one of the newcomers here in Oz.
Orange is apparently known around the world but are quite new here. Aggressive marketing and advertising has generated a lot of talk and interest in the new carrier. For some time, I have been peeking into thier brochures and advertising to see just what they are all about and what they really had to offer. The rates for mobile usage seem extremely low and work out at about a 60% saving from the rate I was on with my Telstra contract with no fees just to have the service. Paying for what I use sounds like a much fairer deal rather then simply sending off money each month .. then paying for calls on top !!
A few weeks ago an Orange saleswoman dropped in to give me the sell. I was a little prepared in research and eventually signed up with an LG model phone. The next day while surfing the net, I discovered the LG phone on offer with Orange is poor and it looked cheap too. I decided to ring and upgrade to the higher level Samsung SCH N-105 model. At this point, the gleaming introduction to Orange was tarnished. The original deal was struck with the saleswoman in person for 2 phones, one for me and one for my wife with the second being half price and no establishment fee. When I tried to change to the new phone I was advised the offer could not and should not have been honoured with no discount available on the N-105 and a $20 establishment fee I was unaware of. With some concern and relating discussion, I managed to get accessory kits consisting of a leather case and car charger with each phone thrown in in compensation. Delivery date for the new 105’’s was set for one buisiness day. Four days and many phone calls later I located the phones at a post office ... way off track from thier destination with the wrong address attached.
Ahh .. finally we have our phones and .. wait ... opening the package and no accessories ! Back on the phone again and I find they were forgotten. Another package 2 days later got them to us after straightening out the address details. OK .. got phones on charge and set up. The phones themselves look good, are easy to use and work well. One major drawback is the surprising lack of ability to use the address book when sending text messages !! You have to remember the phone number and type it in manually before typing the text and sending .. probably the biggest downfall with the phones so far.
Over the next couple of weeks I found the CDMA phones to be extremely clear. The reception clarity is remarakble in good service areas and the coverage seems acceptable considering the history of problems with my former GSM mobile here ... although I have had a few drop outs. One thing I noticed was the very short battery life with the phones supposed to last over 100 hours on standby but only getting about 10, thus requiring them to be charged every night. Following this up, I found the phones contained the wrong software for Australia and had to be produced at a service centre for software upgrading to improve the life of the batteries. The nearest service centre was over an hour away but we were heading that way the coming weekend so used the trip to get the phones reprogrammed at our inconvenience The accessory packs we were supplied indeed contained the leather case and car charger. Leather case .. good quality but did cause a few problems with the flip phone cover getting caught when closing. I don’’t actually use the case for this reason. The car charger is aftermarket and I discovered during the battery life problem, using it would actually void the phones warranty !!
I was also told by Samsung here in Australia the aftermarket chargers have been known to damage the charging circuit diodes in the phone. Another call to Orange to discuss the matter and request a genuine charger has so far fallen on deaf ears. I am assured the warranty on the phone is supplied by Orange and they will replace it if there is any damage caused by the charger’’s use but they have yet to give me written cover for this as requested.
The customer service is good in the sense of getting through for help with no recorded messages or robots but is very poorly structured. Mailing problems, inconsistancies in agreements from different people within the company and an apparent ’’’’it’’s your problem’’’’ from Orange at fault situations tip the scales at a concern for the future of the service and how genuine the deal really is. It seems to me the people giving the door to door sell are providing deals the comapny can’’t meet for reasons beyond me.
A friend had a visit from them recently and they offered him a deal removing flagfalls (individual call connection fees) and the phones cheaper then I could get them. There were also major differences in the information he was given about service outside of Orange’’s network coverage where the signal switches over to Telstra incurring an extra surcharge if used. He was told there was no charge where I was told there was an additional .15c per 30sec fee in that situation. Since then I have, firstly, also discovered the information I used to have sent to me in the form of automated text info messages relating, in my case to share prices, is in no way available with Orange unless I pay for WAP incurring charges with every message and ongoing monthly access fees. Telstra offer this service free for normal digital phones for any one topic. Secondly, the advertised local call rates from home on the mobile offer isn’’t available outside of the CBD. We miss out on this being outside of the city ... for now anyway as it is apparently expanding to cover wider areas shortly.
I have contacted Orange via phone and asked a supervisor or manager to contact me to discuss what seems to be ongoing glitches and problems inconveniencing me and shady areas in the service. I get an impression of powerlessness from the operators so hope to speak with someone higher. So far there has been no call.
For those who are looking into Orange in Australia, I say wait. In the next few months there will be a much better picture on how this new carrier will stack up. The extent of service expansion will hopefully unfold making it easier and more reliable to assess. There have been rumours and articles of finacial troubles already and the service seems incomplete and disjointed at least for now. I’’m not packing it in just yet but will be watching closely at how the matters I have just discussed get resolved. Hopefully, they will be handled fairly leaving me with an economical and hopefully improving mobile service. I do wish Orange well in providing much needed competition here therefore introducing the possibility of better and more economial telecommunications services for everyone. In a nutshell I would say the rates are great but I am yet to actually receive my first bill.