Firstly, let me tell you that the fact that I have been a loyal Orange customer for the past SIX years does not mean that this is going to be a glowing review, far from it. However, I will leave my reasons for that till a bit later on and explain how the company works, a bit about the service plans and the way they offer their phones and what they do to them.

How can you get an Orange phone?
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There are a few different options for this.

Firstly, you can go into any orange shop. In these shops (which are very orange funnily enough) you have access to all of their range from the cheapest PAYG (pay as you go) phone, right through the range up to the most expensive models on a contract. The shops are quite nice, and most of them for some reason have a big fish tank full of, surprisingly enough, goldfish! As you open the door, there is a stand with the current issue of their sales brochure. Take it from me, pick one up as you are likely to be standing waiting to be seen for quite some time. I have yet to go into a shop where someone has been able to speak to me inside 10mins – and that was quick! Once you do get to speak to an advisor however, they are very helpful and will talk you through all of your options and I have never felt pushed by them in any way. The process to set you up takes about 20 minutes and after that you are pretty much done with the shop. The Phone Trainers (as they are known) are able to show you the features of the phone and make sure you are happy with it before you make the final decision which can be handy if you have not had the chance to play with a friends. You can of course go to other phone shop’s not tied to orange like the Carphonewarehouse and phones for you, but I imagine the set up would be similar.

Next step is the website. Located at www.orange.co.uk, again you will find yourself swathed in orange and various different options. They have big flashing links for the current special offers and it is simplicity itself to just click on this and it will take you through the process. They give you the options of the phone, what contract and what add ons you want (like texts, extra free minutes etc). It will then total it all up and summarise your order before taking your details, carrying out a credit check and tell you whether you have qualified for a contract or not. I have used this once for an upgrade and found it to be very efficient however it does not give you the option to play with, or even hold the phone you are about to buy and I only used this after getting the chance to try a friends first as I wouldn’t really want to go into a years contract on a phone I may not eventually like. They post the phone out to you via registered delivery and while they do not specify a time, they do tell you the day (between 9 & 5) and allow you to get it delivered where ever you want, including your work, as long as there is someone to sign for it.

Finally, you can buy it over the phone. Now I have done this for an upgrade but not for a new connection. The number to call for new connections is 0500 802080 and I have been assured by a mate of mine that has used it, that it is quick and efficient and that delivery is the same as on the internet.

Phones & Tariff Charges
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This has both good and bad aspects to it. The range of phones they offer is pretty good, all the popular models. However, Orange (in its infinite wisdom) install a lot of their own software onto the phones that you don’t get on other networks. This would be all well and good if the software was useful – or in fact needed, however in my experience it has been a waste of time and has simply not added to the phone at all. In some cases it makes the usability worse. On top of this, it means that when a new phone come out they take a good month at least to offer it after the other networks. I have tried to ask them why they do this but they refuse to tell me so I can only assume it makes it more difficult to change the phone to work with any network. Cheap trick in my opinion. The price of the phones (as with most networks) varies depending on the price plan but it doesn’t usually take more than a few months for them to reduce that to £0 unless they are part of the REALLY expensive range (mostly the PDA’s).

The talk plans they have on offer is really rather extensive and after shopping around for a new contract, they really do offer more options than any other network. They have 6 different types, and within them various different options. Rather than bore you silly, I will summarise them.

Exclusive Plans – These are based around the idea of having a combination of free minutes and free texts, the more you have the more it costs from £15 to £50pm.

Web Plans – These take a couple of the exclusive plans and give you a 10% discount for managing your bills and accounts online with customer service calls costing you 35p (free on other talk plans)

Standard Plans – These are basic plans that include free minutes but no texts. At the moment, they are offering these with double minutes for the first 6 months.

Premium Plans – These start at £55 and go up to £100pm and include lots more minutes, upgrade after 9months and also the promotion for double minutes for 6 months.

Off-Peak – They only offer 1 plan here and for £20pm you get 1000 minutes of off-peak call time (8pm-7am) and 150 texts.

And finally,

Text Only – Again only 1 plan where you get no free minutes but a massive 3000 texts for £20pm.

(all minutes are cross network and anytime except for the off peak tariff)

So, quite extensive and generally something that should suit anyone. However, they do have a trick up their sleeve if you think you have found something better elsewhere. Their Orange Value Promise means that if you find another deal on another network (excluding promotions) that you think is better, they will match this to the letter. On the face of it, this is really good however I have found that the best deals recently have all been offers so they have not honoured it. The last time I checked, they don’t honour internet only deals either so while this is a good thing from them, they are able to work it to their own advantage! They do also have special offers now and again and the current one is for students where they are offering 200 minutes and 1000 texts for only £25 a month as long as you can prove you are a student.

They do of course have a plethora of different services you can add to your account ranging from MMS, ringtones, call forwarding, international discounts and many more. A good place to go for info on these is the website where they are fully explained. You can also go into the shop and ask a Phone Trainer, and they will explain how they work. A good thing they also do is to let customers who have never used a particular service before, try this out for free for a month to see if they like it with no obligation to carry on using it after the month is done.

Insurance
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With you phone, you can by the insurance package which will cover your phone for loss, theft accidental damage and breakdown. It costs you £5 per month but I would say forget it. While they will cover you for these things, they do have an excess on certain claims and you are very likely to be charged delivery when they send a replacement or fix the one you have. Also, if you dont have this and something happens, you always have the option to take out their emergency cover which means that you will get the same insurance package with an excess of £30 and you will get the same service! I don't know about you, but I think that is worth the chance. One thing to check (and this goes for all networks) is if your house insurance covers your phone as it is very likely it does and would not cost you anymore than you pay at the moment. Mine does and I have actually claimed through it and it was WAY easier to claim.

So now you have it, is it any good?
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Another mixed bag here. In terms of network quality and coverage, I have had no problems at all in main areas, only ever having problems when I have been driving through hilly areas. There is one blackspot on the drive to my mums (under the viaduct by Castlecary on the motorway between Cumbernauld and Stirling for anyone who knows the area!) where the phone will ALWAYS cut out, but other than that pretty decent.

Billing is mostly ok. The statements are very clear and summarise the main costs for the month as well as how much of your free allowance you used, with what is left over for the next month. You also have the option to set this up online where you can also see how many free minutes you currently have (also available on the phone) as well as make payments and change your service plan if desired.

Technical support is very much a hit or a miss. I have had a few queries with a few of my phones over the years and sometimes you find that you get someone that is very good, but others just don’t seem to have a clue and try to fob you off with any old rubbish.

Then we have customer services. What a pile of **** this is! I have had to call them various times over the past six years (done by calling 150 from your handset) and apart from the queue’s you have to endure, when you get to speak to someone they are usually useless and basically fob you off with what is basically, total lies half the time. A few examples?

They set my direct debit up incorrectly one year meaning that it came out the day before my pay went in. I had no money, the bank bounced it and Orange cut me off. So, I phoned them up to ask why this had been done and to change it to the correct day. The advisor I got tried to tell me that a direct debit is asked for about 28 days before it is due to come out, they could not stop payment after this time, and that they could not change a direct debit. When I told her that a direct debit is actually asked for a couple of DAYS in advance she told me “with all due respect” she knew better. So, I brought out the “I work in a bank card” which left her stuttering a bit so all she could say was “well you cant change it anyway” to which I had to inform her of the direct debit guarantee meaning that since it was their mistake, oh yes I could! Not only that, but they were liable for my bank charges! It took me another 10 minutes of arguing with her and a request to speak to a supervisor to get anywhere and get what I knew was correct.

Onto supervisors. On a few other times with similar idiot advisors, I have asked to speak to a supervisor the agents have actually told me that there are none working at that time, they are working on their own. Now working in a call centre, there is NO way this would be the case. I can sympathise that they will be told to handle any complaints themselves (though if they were trained properly they wouldn’t have as many) but that downright lie has had me raging many a time. If this happens, refuse to believe them and demand to speak to someone in authority.

Talking of training, I don’t think these people must get more than a week at the most and are pretty much left to their own devises after that as the amount of inaccurate information I have been given is incredible. I can’t count how many times I have been told “I cant believe you were told that, but I am telling you the truth”. The worst bit of this is, they have an antiquated system that enables their advisors to look at your account, tell you anything they want, and then close your account with absolutely nothing saved there so say they were there at all. I find this completely against their supposed care and seriousness of their customer service (which you are constantly reminded of when on hold to get through to them) and provides you with no comeback on anything that has been said. My advice to anyone who finds themselves in this predicament is to mention that when you (finally) speak to a supervisor and they have no comeback.

So, the customer service is utter crap however, I have found that if you go on at them enough you usually find that they will eventually and reluctantly give you what you want but I feel it is highly out of order that you have to go through all that to get the problem fixed, let alone have the problem in the first place. So, I have found that the only way to combat this problem is to make sure you write down the time and name of any advisor you speak to and make a point of telling them to make a note on your file. This way they cannot get out of saying that they cant find the person as you will have it all there in front of you.

What about when my contract ends?
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After all that moaning I bet you are wondering why on earth I am still with them, aren’t you?

Well when it comes time to upgrade your phone whether you have had any problems with them or not (although ironically this helps!) always, always phone the disconnections department and ask to cancel your contract. At this point they will ask you why so it will help to have done a little research into what is available and tell them you are planning to move elsewhere. The advisors will then literally throw stuff at you to make you stay and I have had some pretty great deals from them by doing this although, as in any negotiation, don’t accept the first offer and push for as much as you can get.

My contract has just expired and I went straight to them and have come away with a new phone for free (would have been £50), and extra 500 texts on top of my current deal which was already better than average as I did this the previous year, plus they agreed to add £35 of credit to my first bill after the upgrade goes through. Not bad at all I think! I have done this everytime my contract has expired and so far, it has not failed and I have been quids in. A good point to argue to them is that you want a special offer they are doing for new connections (they never offer them for upgrades) and they will try and match this to them as best they can.

My conclusion?
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Well, Orange really is a mixed bag of very good service plans and network performance, coupled with a truly abysmal customer services department. However, as long as you know how to deal with them and do NOT take no for an answer, you can usually get the fair result and when it comes to upgrading a pretty damn good deal to boot. This is why I am still with them however I will only recommend them if you keep in mind what I have said as otherwise, they will walk all over you.

A reluctant 3 stars from me, but ONLY because of the great deals you can negotiate with them.

drew