Feb 10, 2006 09:20 AM
4913 Views
(Updated Feb 10, 2006 09:22 AM)
Hi all. I don’t have any problems with Orange network coverage. But, this review is to just caution everybody about Orange’s new money making plan (They are very creative and innovative in this field). More than six months back I had an Orange prepaid card. After many calls from Orange (those telemarketing people really pester you, I used to receive at least 3 calls everyday) I changed the talk “plan” to postpaid. In this talk plan I was supposed to pay Rs.500 as a deposit (the catch, the problem creator) and Rs.99 towards Sim card but no rental for first 6 months. I was promised that any time after six months if I wanted to go back to Prepaid or if I wanted to cancel my connection I would get back my deposit in cash (sounds odd but this is what I was informed) or the deposit would be adjusted to the last bill. One important thing is that whenever these fellows introduce any offer they do not give any details to you in the written form, forget it to be signed by some authority. Hence, you are at the sole mercy of their call center employees (“parrots”).
The problem began after 6 months. The 6 months period was from December to 24th May. I called their customer service (9820098200) after 24th May so that the stipulated time was over so that there will be no ambiguities. I gave a request for discontinuing the services from 24th June and told them to adjust the deposit (Rs.500) with the last bill. I was told that I would receive a call from their side within 48 hours and after which the connection would be disconnected. On that day itself I received a call from them (No. was 56976200 and the executive’s name was Neha). She told me (rather ‘bluffed’) that the 6 months time would get over on 24th July (Can you believe this!! They don’t know simple calculation)
I tried to explain her that 6 months gets over on 24th May but she stuck to her view. Later, rather a bit rudely she said if I cancel before 24th July I would not receive a rupee back of that deposit. And so I had to continue the services…..
As I had expected, in the next bill I was charged Rs.150 as monthly rental.
Immediately I called the Hotline and told about this discrepancy. The reply, which I received absolutely, stunned me. They told me that I was given wrong information and just told a “sorry” but asked me to pay for the same. Fed up by all this I decided to close all the services at once. This time there was another incident.
The executive says that even though the bill cycle is on 24th I should call only after 1st of July in order to get deposit. I surely know the reason why he told this to me as I had given the request on 29th June. They are leaving no stone unturned to see that they do not part with our money. What a disgrace for such an international company that there is no coordination among themselves and so easily they blame each other without understanding that they are the ones who are tarnishing the image of the company. The problem would never have existed if they had followed a few basic rules
Give everything in the written form. Give all the details of the talk plan which one is opting for and if it has deposits involved in it, they should clearly explain the terms of refund. I know Orange will never do this because this is the place where they are getting easy money.
Have trained executives. Only those knowing the details should be allowed to take calls. Not the ones who keep you on hold for minutes together (Once I had to wait for 1 hour to get the manual settings for activating GPRS). Otherwise, they just read whatever comes on their monitors like a “parrot” which has by hearted something. Till today I have not been fortunate to speak to any sensible so called “executive”. As you all have seen from my experience they take their work lightly because there is no accountability and no one to question them unless they don’t attend a call. They might be monitored for the quantity of calls they are handling but surely not for quality.
