In an earlier post I whined about Skype and Orange.
Without fanfare, SkypeIn now seems to be working. It’s still a little slow connecting first time and sometimes requires a second connection to get the link up but that’s progress at least.
Now. Orange.
They didn’t get back to me.
They sent me another bill for £174.
That means they lied twice. Firstly in saying they would get back to me, secondly in promising that everything would be fixed in the next bill. Their solution now is that their billing integrity team will work it out by the NEXT bill and I have to cancel my direct debit to them. So there’s a good chance (based on the fact that they’ve been unable to keep any promises so far) that I’ll be cut off when they try to get payment on the 2nd June despite their assurances to the contrary. And apparently giving them a month is not enough for them to have sorted out a problem.
Orange will tell you, when you call them, that they are dedicated to providing great customer service. Absolute rot.
I’ve spent countless minutes on the phone to them and right now I hate them. Passionately. It didn’t help that I had three call drops while on the phone to their customer services people. And I wasn’t moving. It meant explaining the issue in full FOUR TIMES. It brings into sharp relief the OTHER problems I’ve been having with:
- Dropped calls while moving. Every time. Seems the software used to handover calls from tower to tower is simply just shit.
- Poor connectivity in Lisburn. And Mallusk. And East Belfast. Which I presume is pandemic because they couldn’t just be picking on me, eh?
- Fast downloads are impossible as every time it fails over from GPRS to GSM and the data rate is pitiful. This happens everywhere. Centre of Belfast. On a hill with direct LOS to a tower. Everywhere. It’s pathetic.
- The general crappiness of the Sony Ericsson K800i. It’s refusing to charge from the wall charger this week and the joystick seems to take notions on when it’s going to work. And the keylock isn’t reliable enough for keeping the phone on your pocket. Muting the sound means you can’t get keyclick back. And the button for surfing the internet is too close to other important keys so I’m continually connecting to OrangeWorld when I just want to hit the “back” button. I won’t wax on about how clunky the email client is or how poor the battery life is. It’s just a crap phone. And I’m beginning to hate it.
So, what are my options. Looking at the other providers, there are very few compelling deals for the UK and the myth of 3G connectivity is proving to be just that.
I’m being enticed by the thought of the Nokia e65 or n95. A phone with decent WLAN would be nice. But is it worth waiting for the iPhone which will undoubtedly be crippled by our local providers insisting on branding it or will it even have a sniff of 3G coverage.
Until our mobile operators sort this out, we’re forever going to be in a technological backwater. It’s certainly not the kind of result you want if you’re a bedouin worker wanting a a good service from a respectable telecoms provider.
As for Orange. They’ve certainly made me passionate about them since they convinced me on bended knee not to leave them in January. Avoid them like the plague. I stayed on with them and talked about the great tariff I was promised. I was very passionate about it. Now – after months of bad billing and customer services representatives who freely admit they’re only there to TALK to you and not actually to SERVICE you, I’m at the end of my tether.
They’re going to have to pull something out of their ass to change my mind now. Starting with their finger.