Orange email account deleted / £30.50 tech support !!!

My orange.net email account stopped working suddenly two weeks ago. I
was an Orange pay monthly customer for 7years and finally moved to
another network in Aug 2005. I had 2 handsets on the account and spent
on average £150/month. I was a satisfied customer until the beginning
of 2005 and I have had some serious problems. I felt that Orange
(including their award winning customer service) have become the worst
network. I couldn't put up with them any longer and felt Orange didn't
care for their customers. I moved to t-mobile and I am glad I did. I
wanted to keep the orange email account so I kept my orange Sim on
PAYG.

Couple of weeks ago, I started getting phone calls from my contacts
telling me that my emails are bouncing back. I started calling the
PAYG customer service. Well to keep it short, I have spent £30.50 in
total on calls to Orange Customer Service, Orange Data Team and
Orange web tech support. I have spoken to at least 10 different people
in Orange. Simply they don't know their elbow from their a**e. My
email account is still not working. I have simply given up hope.

They came up with the most ridiculous excuses and explanations every
time. Few times they told me that the problem is with my notebook or
my Internet connection and had me looked in to it without checking
their side first. It took me 3 calls to convince them that the problem
is on their side. They simply don't listen to you. Finally they admit
to the failure and still couldn't figure out what went wrong. They
told me today that i have to wait another 10 days for someone to get
back to me. They promised to call back many times in the past and
never did.

They've dropped the calls. Charged me 25p every time I called Customer
service and 50p/min tech support. Every time I called I have to
explain the whole issue again and again. The idiots don't leave any
detailed notes on the 'system'. I have never come across a bunch of
empty headed dummies who taken up jobs that requires skills.

I want to claim my money back. Can someone please tell me how can I
achieve this. I have asked them and they refused to refund. The
problem is still not resolved. The fault is on their side and they
admit to it. They have no explanation to why the email account just
accidentally vanished.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
My orange.net email account stopped working suddenly two weeks ago. I
was an Orange pay monthly customer for 7years and finally moved to
another network in Aug 2005. I had 2 handsets on the account and spent
on average £150/month. I was a satisfied customer until the beginning
of 2005 and I have had some serious problems. I felt that Orange
(including their award winning customer service) have become the worst
network. I couldn't put up with them any longer and felt Orange didn't
care for their customers. I moved to t-mobile and I am glad I did. I
wanted to keep the orange email account so I kept my orange Sim on
PAYG.

Couple of weeks ago, I started getting phone calls from my contacts
telling me that my emails are bouncing back. I started calling the
PAYG customer service. Well to keep it short, I have spent £30.50 in
total on calls to Orange Customer Service, Orange Data Team and
Orange web tech support. I have spoken to at least 10 different people
in Orange. Simply they don't know their elbow from their a**e. My
email account is still not working. I have simply given up hope.

They came up with the most ridiculous excuses and explanations every
time. Few times they told me that the problem is with my notebook or
my Internet connection and had me looked in to it without checking
their side first. It took me 3 calls to convince them that the problem
is on their side. They simply don't listen to you. Finally they admit
to the failure and still couldn't figure out what went wrong. They
told me today that i have to wait another 10 days for someone to get
back to me. They promised to call back many times in the past and
never did.

They've dropped the calls. Charged me 25p every time I called Customer
service and 50p/min tech support. Every time I called I have to
explain the whole issue again and again. The idiots don't leave any
detailed notes on the 'system'. I have never come across a bunch of
empty headed dummies who taken up jobs that requires skills.

I want to claim my money back. Can someone please tell me how can I
achieve this. I have asked them and they refused to refund. The
problem is still not resolved. The fault is on their side and they
admit to it. They have no explanation to why the email account just
accidentally vanished.


I can never quite understand why people use email accounts
that depend on them using a particular ISP, let alone a
particular mobile network.

Having said that, my two main email accounts are Freeserve.co.uk
ones (Orange, via Wanadoo), but I don't have to use any Orange
service to keep using them, I just need to go to the orange.co.uk
website every 90 days and click "restore internet account"

I don't know if your account is provided on a different basis
to my free account, but you could try the above and see if
it works for you.

--

Graham.
%Profound_observation%

"Graham." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:fccht3$cp0$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> My orange.net email account stopped working suddenly two weeks ago. I
> was an Orange pay monthly customer for 7years and finally moved to
> another network in Aug 2005. I had 2 handsets on the account and spent
> on average £150/month. I was a satisfied customer until the beginning
> of 2005 and I have had some serious problems. I felt that Orange
> (including their award winning customer service) have become the worst
> network. I couldn't put up with them any longer and felt Orange didn't
> care for their customers. I moved to t-mobile and I am glad I did. I
> wanted to keep the orange email account so I kept my orange Sim on
> PAYG.
>
> Couple of weeks ago, I started getting phone calls from my contacts
> telling me that my emails are bouncing back. I started calling the
> PAYG customer service. Well to keep it short, I have spent £30.50 in
> total on calls to Orange Customer Service, Orange Data Team and
> Orange web tech support. I have spoken to at least 10 different people
> in Orange. Simply they don't know their elbow from their a**e. My
> email account is still not working. I have simply given up hope.
>
> They came up with the most ridiculous excuses and explanations every
> time. Few times they told me that the problem is with my notebook or
> my Internet connection and had me looked in to it without checking
> their side first. It took me 3 calls to convince them that the problem
> is on their side. They simply don't listen to you. Finally they admit
> to the failure and still couldn't figure out what went wrong. They
> told me today that i have to wait another 10 days for someone to get
> back to me. They promised to call back many times in the past and
> never did.
>
> They've dropped the calls. Charged me 25p every time I called Customer
> service and 50p/min tech support. Every time I called I have to
> explain the whole issue again and again. The idiots don't leave any
> detailed notes on the 'system'. I have never come across a bunch of
> empty headed dummies who taken up jobs that requires skills.
>
> I want to claim my money back. Can someone please tell me how can I
> achieve this. I have asked them and they refused to refund. The
> problem is still not resolved. The fault is on their side and they
> admit to it. They have no explanation to why the email account just
> accidentally vanished.
>
>
> I can never quite understand why people use email accounts
> that depend on them using a particular ISP, let alone a
> particular mobile network.
>
> Having said that, my two main email accounts are Freeserve.co.uk
> ones (Orange, via Wanadoo), but I don't have to use any Orange
> service to keep using them, I just need to go to the orange.co.uk
> website every 90 days and click "restore internet account"

Thats changed now. The 'timeout' period is now 240 days and your account
gets deleted at that point rather than disabled. My Dad has just hit that
deadline and the account is gone. TheRegister ran an article last week or
so regarding the purge Orange had done to a number of accounts. You have to
dial in every 240 days or you may find yourself email less.

>
> I don't know if your account is provided on a different basis
> to my free account, but you could try the above and see if
> it works for you.
>
> --
>
> Graham.
> %Profound_observation%
>
>

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
WCZ <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
> Thats changed now. The 'timeout' period is now 240 days and your
> account gets deleted at that point rather than disabled. My Dad has
> just hit that deadline and the account is gone. TheRegister ran an
> article last week or so regarding the purge Orange had done to a
> number of accounts. You have to dial in every 240 days or you may
> find yourself email less.
>>
>> I don't know if your account is provided on a different basis
>> to my free account, but you could try the above and see if
>> it works for you.
>>

There's been a recent development on that front. Orange have been getting so
much flack about deleting accounts without warning that they have relented
and agreed to restore then all - allegedly by yesterday.

Mine's back anyway!

When mine first disappeared, I emailed the Orange Helpline - and kept
getting replies telling me to ring the extortionate Technical Support line -
for which "calls cost 50p per minute, and last less than one hour". An
*hour*!! - that's 30 quid with no guarantee of a result - so I declined and
decided to forget about the Freeserve account, which receives loads of spam
anyway. It's back, but do I care?!
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!

In news: (E-Mail Removed) om -
(E-Mail Removed) wrote :
> My orange.net email account stopped working suddenly two weeks ago. I
> was an Orange pay monthly customer for 7years and finally moved to
> another network in Aug 2005. I had 2 handsets on the account and spent
> on average £150/month. I was a satisfied customer until the beginning
> of 2005 and I have had some serious problems. I felt that Orange
> (including their award winning customer service) have become the worst
> network. I couldn't put up with them any longer and felt Orange didn't
> care for their customers. I moved to t-mobile and I am glad I did. I
> wanted to keep the orange email account so I kept my orange Sim on
> PAYG.
>
> Couple of weeks ago, I started getting phone calls from my contacts
> telling me that my emails are bouncing back. I started calling the
> PAYG customer service. Well to keep it short, I have spent £30.50 in
> total on calls to Orange Customer Service, Orange Data Team and
> Orange web tech support. I have spoken to at least 10 different people
> in Orange. Simply they don't know their elbow from their a**e. My
> email account is still not working. I have simply given up hope.
>
> They came up with the most ridiculous excuses and explanations every
> time. Few times they told me that the problem is with my notebook or
> my Internet connection and had me looked in to it without checking
> their side first. It took me 3 calls to convince them that the problem
> is on their side. They simply don't listen to you. Finally they admit
> to the failure and still couldn't figure out what went wrong. They
> told me today that i have to wait another 10 days for someone to get
> back to me. They promised to call back many times in the past and
> never did.
>
> They've dropped the calls. Charged me 25p every time I called Customer
> service and 50p/min tech support. Every time I called I have to
> explain the whole issue again and again. The idiots don't leave any
> detailed notes on the 'system'. I have never come across a bunch of
> empty headed dummies who taken up jobs that requires skills.
>
> I want to claim my money back. Can someone please tell me how can I
> achieve this. I have asked them and they refused to refund. The
> problem is still not resolved. The fault is on their side and they
> admit to it. They have no explanation to why the email account just
> accidentally vanished.

Is it not time to move away from so called free isp email account-Buy a
domain name and you can keep your email address for-ever.
Read more here: http://www.kick-butt.co.uk/help/

Chris

--
Cheap As Chips Broadband http://yeah.kick-butt.co.uk
Superb hosting & domain name deals http://host.kick-butt.co.uk

>>
>>
>> I can never quite understand why people use email accounts
>> that depend on them using a particular ISP, let alone a
>> particular mobile network.
>>
>> Having said that, my two main email accounts are Freeserve.co.uk
>> ones (Orange, via Wanadoo), but I don't have to use any Orange
>> service to keep using them, I just need to go to the orange.co.uk
>> website every 90 days and click "restore internet account"
>
> Thats changed now. The 'timeout' period is now 240 days and your account
> gets deleted at that point rather than disabled. My Dad has just hit that
> deadline and the account is gone. TheRegister ran an article last week or
> so regarding the purge Orange had done to a number of accounts. You have
> to dial in every 240 days or you may find yourself email less.
>
>>
>> I don't know if your account is provided on a different basis
>> to my free account, but you could try the above and see if
>> it works for you.
>>
>> --
>>
>> Graham.
>> %Profound_observation%
>>
>>
>
>

Thank you for your email.

We understand your concern.

If you don't connect to a Dial-up Pay As You Go account at least once
every 260 days, the account gets expired and will be deleted from our
system.

We advise you to re-register for a new pay as you go account and read
the PAYG terms and conditions which state that you must regularly dial
into your account to prevent it from expiring. (refer the clause 6.2 and

6.3 in your terms and conditions)

We as a web support team do not have sufficient access to the required
systems to proceed with your request. Hence, we advice you to call our
narrowband technical support team on 09062 517517 who'll be able to
help you .They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, calls are
charged at 50p per minute.


If you have any further queries then please do not hesitate to get in
contact with us again.

Kind Regards,
Christina

Broadband Support
REF:WOOBB

By the way I used 0870 8720099 and not sure what option.