The Sinister Side Of Orange Uk

0700700 · 22-02-2006, 22:34

Well as any of our regular uk based posters, you will know that orange uk spend the best part of 3 weeks "upgrading" their billing system, which meant that there was no info on minutes or anything like that for PM customers

The REAL and more sinister reason for this is the fact that orange has gone through all their customers usage records to record unusally high call volumes to specific numbers.Afterwards these numbers were screened and checked to see if they were calling card numbers..

Orange has implemented a ZERO TOLERANCE policy to calling card numbers, as they state that if you want to call international you should call from your orange mobile...

PAYG customers will not be warned to stop their usage and will if they call any calling card numbers (be it local , national, loca-rate) they will be charged for making a zone 1 call.

PM customers will be notified in writing to stop calling such numbers, and orange can then exclude such numbers from the inclusive minutes and charge them at 20p/minute...

This is coming from an inside source working for the orange customer services so i should say it is pretty accurate of what is going to happen

My my orange, how did you become so evil :meh:

MATHA531 · 23-02-2006, 09:14

..how disgusting.

UKSTEVE · 24-02-2006, 13:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by MATHA531

..how disgusting.

Sounds about par for the course for Orange.

This is the same company that zapped 0800 access free of charge to its pm customers late last year.

I've just dumped Orange as my primary UK network and moved to a discount deal with T-Mobile. I also use a spare office landline to `reflect' calls to useful 0844 and 0845 numbers for international calls.

It's getting tricky to avoid paying through the nose for anything other than standard UK calls...

Steve

andy · 24-02-2006, 13:47

I'm sort of semi-sceptical about this. If they wanted to track down calling card numbers, they could have done more at any time in the last ten years, and even subscribe to a few that kept changing 0800 numbers. And not all info in Orange is as easily obtained from CS.

It will be interesting to see if they will zap only 0800 numbers, or maybe 020 and all other callthrough possibilities as well, like 07744 numbers (having changed policy twice already).

There was a spam rash recently of Orange numbers diverted to another callthrough provider, perhaps by one of its affiliates, but Orange blocked these, and those of a different company a bit earlier. Maybe that was part of the rumour.

And there are other numbers which at the moment mean someone on prepaid can get for example unlimited int'l calls for ?5 for a weekend - these could only be omitted/barred generically, as people could set up a different number for every call.

** Edit - the unlimited calls options appear to have been ended

On another forum, someone said UK was too expensive for phones - I said it's one of the cheapest, with cheaper-than-free 12 month mobile contracts, and calls to over 200 international destinations possible from included minutes on some networks. I think you could have gone for O2 Steve

0700700 · 25-02-2006, 06:35

http://www.orange.co.uk/service_plans/paya...xtra_costs.html
yes they have pulled them off. And they dont appear when calling from 450...

Andy lets just say that my source at orange owns me about ?500 for somethign that didnt work out, so i dont think he would be lying to me... He told me nothing about 07744 numbers, just 0207/0208 local rate and also 0845 toll rate numbers

Well i dont know about you guys but i am in with orange for a while.. i have 3 contracts running and cant really afford to cancel them.. unless the inclusive minutes takes a while to update...

The way i do it (since the orange cards are not in use but are left in the drawer)
I check the amount of inclusive minutes i have (and dont call anyone)
i place a 1minute call exactly to a calling card number
The next day when the minutes have updated i call and check whether the 1 minute has been taken off from the allowance. If it has , then i presume its free. If is still says i have the same minutes, and the service has updated, i presume it has now

i tried 6 different calling card numbers, 4 very known , 2 recent ones. And from my preliminary estimates orange now charges you for 3 out of the 6 numbers....

If anyone from the UK wants some info about which calling cards ive been using with no problem so far, please let me know.

AS i have previously said there is a Unitel Lyca card that has access numbers in nottingham, birmingham, newcastle and in scotland.. As most people dont use them i dont think orange will add them to the blacklist any time soon

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	(#1)
0700700 (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Fan Posts: 196 Join Date: 14 Nov 2005 Country:	22-02-2006, 22:34 Well as any of our regular uk based posters, you will know that orange uk spend the best part of 3 weeks "upgrading" their billing system, which meant that there was no info on minutes or anything like that for PM customers The REAL and more sinister reason for this is the fact that orange has gone through all their customers usage records to record unusally high call volumes to specific numbers.Afterwards these numbers were screened and checked to see if they were calling card numbers.. Orange has implemented a ZERO TOLERANCE policy to calling card numbers, as they state that if you want to call international you should call from your orange mobile... PAYG customers will not be warned to stop their usage and will if they call any calling card numbers (be it local , national, loca-rate) they will be charged for making a zone 1 call. PM customers will be notified in writing to stop calling such numbers, and orange can then exclude such numbers from the inclusive minutes and charge them at 20p/minute... This is coming from an inside source working for the orange customer services so i should say it is pretty accurate of what is going to happen My my orange, how did you become so evil :meh:

	(#2)
MATHA531 (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Specialist Posts: 869 Join Date: 15 Oct 2004 Country:	23-02-2006, 09:14 ..how disgusting.

	(#4)
andy (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Prophet Posts: 2,128 Join Date: 10 Dec 2004 Country:	24-02-2006, 13:47 I'm sort of semi-sceptical about this. If they wanted to track down calling card numbers, they could have done more at any time in the last ten years, and even subscribe to a few that kept changing 0800 numbers. And not all info in Orange is as easily obtained from CS. It will be interesting to see if they will zap only 0800 numbers, or maybe 020 and all other callthrough possibilities as well, like 07744 numbers (having changed policy twice already). There was a spam rash recently of Orange numbers diverted to another callthrough provider, perhaps by one of its affiliates, but Orange blocked these, and those of a different company a bit earlier. Maybe that was part of the rumour. And there are other numbers which at the moment mean someone on prepaid can get for example unlimited int'l calls for ?5 for a weekend - these could only be omitted/barred generically, as people could set up a different number for every call. ** Edit - the unlimited calls options appear to have been ended On another forum, someone said UK was too expensive for phones - I said it's one of the cheapest, with cheaper-than-free 12 month mobile contracts, and calls to over 200 international destinations possible from included minutes on some networks. I think you could have gone for O2 Steve

	(#5)
0700700 (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Fan Posts: 196 Join Date: 14 Nov 2005 Country:	25-02-2006, 06:35 http://www.orange.co.uk/service_plans/paya...xtra_costs.html yes they have pulled them off. And they dont appear when calling from 450... Andy lets just say that my source at orange owns me about ?500 for somethign that didnt work out, so i dont think he would be lying to me... He told me nothing about 07744 numbers, just 0207/0208 local rate and also 0845 toll rate numbers Well i dont know about you guys but i am in with orange for a while.. i have 3 contracts running and cant really afford to cancel them.. unless the inclusive minutes takes a while to update... The way i do it (since the orange cards are not in use but are left in the drawer) I check the amount of inclusive minutes i have (and dont call anyone) i place a 1minute call exactly to a calling card number The next day when the minutes have updated i call and check whether the 1 minute has been taken off from the allowance. If it has , then i presume its free. If is still says i have the same minutes, and the service has updated, i presume it has now i tried 6 different calling card numbers, 4 very known , 2 recent ones. And from my preliminary estimates orange now charges you for 3 out of the 6 numbers.... If anyone from the UK wants some info about which calling cards ive been using with no problem so far, please let me know. AS i have previously said there is a Unitel Lyca card that has access numbers in nottingham, birmingham, newcastle and in scotland.. As most people dont use them i dont think orange will add them to the blacklist any time soon