Misled and let down by Orange

[azzabat]

Several months ago, I visited the Orange shop on Princes Street in Edinburgh to discuss an upgrade to my Orange contract.

 

I am visually impaired and, as such, require an accessible phone.

 

I was assured by one of the staff that the Motorola DEXT would be suitable for my needs. I was informed it has TTS (Text to Speech) installed. After much effort on my part it became clear that the DEXT is not, in fact, accessible and is completely unsuitable. It does not include any TTS system.

 

I attempted to raise this matter with the shop, and was told there was nothing they could do to help. They were very dismissive.

 

After emailing customer services I got a phone call and was told to go back to the manager of the shop and that they cannot help me. They said their hands are tied and they could not assist me.

 

I went into an Orange shop in Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow recently. They tried their best. They contacted the shop in Edinburgh. The member of staff in Edinburgh at first claimed he could not remember me, and then insisted he told me to contact Customer Services for advice.

 

I then contacted Customer Services again by phone. They were rude, to the point that I was in tears, and insisted there was nothing they could do.

 

It has become clear that I was misled regarding this phone, presumably in an effort to get me to renew my contract. Nobody in Orange is now prepared to do anything about this.

 

I regard this as mis-selling.

 

This is the second time Orange has erred with an upgrade. On the previous occasion I rang Customer Services upgrades department and explained I needed a phone running either a Symbian or Windows Mobile operating system. They told me the LG Viewty was accessible and on Windows Mobile. When I received the phone it was quite clear this was not true. I returned the phone and eventually upgraded to an SPV-650 which, when speech was eventually installed, ran very slowly and actually worked, after a fashion, despite regular firmware crashes.

 

I am currently having to use a phone that I purchased privately, as the DEXT is unusable.

 

Personally, I don't believe a word of what is said in the sticky notice in this forum by Orange Customer Service. They certainly haven't done their best to resolve the issue. In point of fact, I would say they have done nothing to resolve the issue.

 

I would advise people thinking of taking out a contract with Orange to think again. At least some of their staff are willing to mislead to get you to renew a contract, and Customer Services seem to exist only to deal with technical problems, not to handle mis-selling by their shop staff.

Edited September 24, 2010 by silverfox1961
Removed identity

[locutus]

Read this

http://www1.orange.co.uk/documents/regulatory_affairs/orange-consumer-codes-of-practice(v1.7).pdf

 

Page 9 is the interesting bit.

 

Now if you do follow a complaint within Orange to "Alternative Dispute Resolution" with CISAS, it will cost Orange money to have the complaint listened to, so there is a good chance they will look at this fairly before this happens. The "Orange Response" team do seem slow, but have helped some customers, so if they do appear on this thread there is a good chance that they will be able to help. (the more people trying to resolve tis for you the better IMO)

 

Best of luck, Locutus.