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Phone Woes
Jun. 15th, 2015 06:37 pmI have a new phone. A smartphone, no less, Motorola G. Bought by doubling up my Tesco clubcard points, so I didn't actually buy it with real money, but still, it seems like a nice piece of kit... I've dowloaded some nice apps and I'm getting good wifi connection at home.
But I haven't used it as a phone yet. I was going to go with Tesco because you get triple credit. Pay a tenner, get £30. Then I realised that the extra £20 evaporates after a month if you don't use it, and since I'm a low user... no point...
So I decided to stick with Orange since I've been with them forever and I get 14p minute phone calls, but this new phone needs a mini sim, so I can't just swap my sim card over from my old phone. And that's where it all falls apart. Has anyone ever tried to talk to a real person at Orange/EE customer services? It's next to bloody impossible. It took five tries to get to someone last week - the line kept cutting off to a long bleep right after: 'We'll put you through to someone who can help you,' And this after going through several frustrating menu choices on the automated systen, none of them seeming quite adequate for what I needed. Anyhow, eventually i got a real person who arranged to send me a new mini sim. All I had to do when it arrived - he said - was to phone on _this_ number to port the number over and activate it.
So today the new sim arrives. It's EE not Orange (contrary to what I'd been told) but it's just a plastic sim with a paper label cointaining the sim number stuck to it and no phone number or instructions attached. There's a printed impersonal Welcome letter and a number to call,
I called the number. Jumped through all the menu choices and... BEEEEEEP. Cut off, just like last week. Tried again. Same. Tried Customer Services number - got someone who couldn't help me. Call the shop. Called the shop. What's the phone number on the new sim? they ask. There isn't one, I reply. But what's the phone number they ask again. I describe what's in the envelope I've been sent. One bit of plastic, one welcome letter, no packaging, no phone number. Hmm, that sim seems to be a blank one that's not active, they tell me. You need to call the PAYG helpline. Called the PAYG helpline. No. No. You need to call the shop. THIS IS MY SIXTH PHONE CALL. ALL I WANT IS A NEW SIM THAT WORKS!!!!! (Yes, I'm getting a little tetchy by now.)
Eventually gent with heavy non Brit accent who was obviously having as much trouble with my Yorkshire as i was with his whatever, calls me back. They are sending me a new SIM. Great, what next?
When you get it call this number...
AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!
Dear Orange, I promise to buy £10 of credit a year whether I need it or not. Stop trying to sell me stuff I don't need and can't use. just send me a sim that, yanno, actually works and give me my old number. And also send me a new sim for my old phone because though I only paid £20 for it and have had it for three years, it still works a treat. Thank you Rio.
