New start for Orange with its new chief executive
Wednesday 04 June 2008 11:58:58 by Andrew Ferguson
Orange seems to be one large broadband provider that is shrinking while others are reporting growth. In September 2007 they had some 1.142 million customers, dropping to 1.107 million in March 2008. In the last quarter TalkTalk managed to add 107,000 broadband customers, and even BT Retail who one would expect to be facing the stiffest competition added 150,000 broadband customers in the last quarter.
The Guardian covers some of the new chief executives strategy, which will not be good news for those in management as several hundred managers out of a 12,500 workforce look set to be shown the door. At the same time the number of people in call centres will be increased, we presume in an effort to improve customer service.
The complexity of shopping for a mobile phone tariff would appear to have spilled over onto the broadband section of Orange's website. For example the cheapest price is £6 a month for the first three months, reverting to £12 a month thereafter, but if you sign up to an 18 or 24 month mobile plan it will be £7 a month. Only on reading the footnotes do you spot that these prices are valid in areas where Orange has its LLU network. The price difference for the 40% of the UK without Orange LLU is £4 extra during the offer period and £8 extra per month thereafter. Oh we almost forgot, down in the small print at the bottom of the page, there is a £30 connection fee and the broadband contract is 18 months long.
This is just one of three main broadband products, so one can perhaps understand why prospective customers may simply be confused and end up shopping elsewhere. Complex product pricing is not just an Orange problem; as bundles become more complex, spotting all the extra charges and caveats gets harder.
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Just how many people has Orange had in charge now???? One word IMO about them, avoid!
Given the freeserve/wanadoo/orange track record when it comes to lies and deception over the years why would anyone trust Orange with their broadband service?
They had their chance when freeserve were market leaders - but then they blew it with dire customer service, forced LLU switchovers and u-turns on their unlimited service which became anything but.
Lets hope that the new CE improves his customer services 110% and gets rid of its call centres in India. The British public want call centres in the UK and want staff who are helpful, knowlegeable and don't lie. We can wish!
Lets see if he has the guts to do this and get his telephone numbers to 01/02 geograpghical numbers so its not costing us an arm and a leg to call.
"The British public want call centres in the UK and want staff who are helpful, knowlegeable and don't lie."
So the main gripe is call centres in India I presume. And with a slant that they are unhelpful, ignorant and liars.
So MMRAJA would like the most competitive and cheap full British service since anybody else are unhelpful ignoramus liars (non-British). Could he also specify the ethnic origin or blood group of the people he would like to see at the call centres?
The issue here is not one of race. I myself had the unfortunte experience of being with Orange, when they reduced my speed from "upto" 8mbit to a speed that slow it would not register on a speed test. Everytime I spoke to the indian call centre, they could not, or would not assist me with my complaint. I also had difficulty in understanding them because of their accent.
If you are patient and a "loyal" mobile user you can negotiate with Orange over their packages.
I just got a new mobile phone with dolphin 35 (600 any network minutes + unlimited texts) plus a new 18 month contract for my broadband connection (6.9M up, 512K down) with VOIP free to 100 countries for £25/month.
When talking to India insist firmly that you are not going to ring off before speaking to someone that can help; they transfer you without warning back to the UK.
Orange are utter rubbish.
When they gave me the good news that "your broadband will be faster", I ended up with no broadband and no telephone line at all for at least 10 days.
Their support service is non-existent. I worked in IT support for 30 years - if I'd provided a similar service, it would have been "there's your P45, there's the door, don't bother asking for a reference".
I'm now with Zen (a professional ISP).
OMG i cant believe someone tried to say another poster is being racist just because they dont like India call centres. It doesnt matter if the call centre is in India or anywhere in the whole world. If the person on the other end is useless, doesnt understand you, lies, is not knowlegeable etc etc thats nothing to do with racism thats hate for stupidity and the stupid company that wants to take your money but not give professional service back to the customer. It just happens to be in this case the call centre was in India, not a hate for India itself.
My, oh my, when you have to explain something as simple as this to someone its no wonder companys employ non-helpful people, they are probably trying to customise the sevice level to the callers intellect level. Curse political correctness and the stupidity at times that invention truely is.
Orange is the only ISP to install any LLU in my local exchange. But there website confuses the hell out of me and so does the hefty contract term of 24 months!!! if they did evening and weekend calls and broadband for something like £19.99 12 month contract i would take it. Im sure there are plenty of people who are already tied into a mobile contract and dont want that!