Orange flavoured spam

Orange or Lemon?

On Mull, Orange is known as Lemon due to their lousy coverage. When we were on Mull last year, the nearest Orange reception was a half an hour drive away. However, Vodaphone had decent coverage pretty much everywhere.

However, one good thing about Orange is their pricing tariff. I'm not one of those people who is glued to the mobile all day txting r u gr8 lol wtf cu l8tr and other such nonsense. However, I do know the Gaelic shorthand SMS for tonight (an nochd) is an8. Nonetheless, between phone calls to business contacts, recruitment agencies, sending email from the mobile and browsing the web using mini Opera, my combined phone bill per month for two phones is invariably under £15. That's including line rental, because there isn't any. I'm not on pay as you go either, I get paper bills which get paid by direct debit a few weeks after they arrive.

Yes, Orange Value Promise Virgin tariff is the tariff where you have the convenience of bills (no top ups to buy plus pay in arrears) but without the expense of line rental and it's contract free. wtf? gr8!. lol :-)

However despite this, Orange really takes the biscuit when it comes to customer service.

Here's some sample correspondence I dug out of the archives:

10 August 1999: "Dear Orange, please tell me when I can receive emails on my mobile"
10 August 1999: "Dear Craig, I am afraid that Orange do not currently offer this facility and we have no information as to whether it will be available in the future."
5 September 1999: "Dear Orange, For your information, I now have the facility to send e-mail to my Orange mobile"


20 August 2003: "Dear Orange, please tell me when I can send emails from my phone"
22 August 2003: "You have now signed up for the text to email service"
26 August 2003: "Dear Craig, I would like to advise that you are unable to send send and receive emails through the messaging menu"
28 August 2003 : "Dear Craig, The only way Orange support sending and receiving emails is via WAP"
(maybe I should tell them I got it working on the 22nd, via SMS messaging. ROFL.)

However, more irrittating than the above tomfoolery is the repeated calls I'm getting trying to offer me a free upgrade on my phone. The so-called free upgrade involves emptying your wallet in line rental and then getting a free phone. Hmm, doesn't sound very free to me.

However, as related on uk.telecom I've been plagued with these calls for a while, despite being on the Telephone Preference Service.

I got another "free upgrade" call on Friday. This time, in the words of Bugs Bunny, it's war. Maybe Orange don't know I've signed up to the "fight spam legal action team" which via Nigel Roberts, successfully sued one spammer. I'm also active on the very useful grumbletext site.

Being incompetent is one thing, but repeatedly bombarding me with spam phone calls and offers I'm not eligible for is something completely different. Especially when these providers can also check my account details and what billing tarrif I'm on without my permission.

The future's bright, the future's SPAM FREE. XLNT.

If we don't take a stand now with mobiles, what will it be like with 3G and your phone going beep every 5 seconds when the next spam arrives?

If Orange get bad publicity for the spamming, I'll definitely be FOTFLOL. Really GR8.

BBFN.