Orange Wins the Worst Service Title

What I am about to write is a list of events. Any one, maybe two of these could happen to any company. But looking at the list, Orange is the absolute worst company I have ever dealt with. Worse than the airline that cancelled our flight and didn't tell us.

Orange had a new phone line installed at our new place in mid-July. It was checked by the installer (subcontractor) and he said "the line is good, they will connect it in 2 to 10 days". When we left on vacation on July 31, it still was not connected.

We were gone six weeks. During that time, the line still wasn't connected since when I tested it on Sept 1, it still was not working. On the other hand, Orange managed to disconnect our primary regular phone. Although Orange and France Télécom like to have different logos, they still are basically the same company. So after about 5 emergency calls, where each number I called either hung up on me after a 5 step IVR or told me at my expense that I was calling the wrong number, and at about 30 cents per minute, I managed to get someone to promise to reconnect the line. Before that person, I was told to go to the store and given the address of the nearest Orange store that could help. Walking by that location a few days later, I saw that the store had moved weeks before. Good thing I didn't decide to go over there for help.

All through September and October, I called once or twice a week. I was told that any day the line would be connected. Yet, nothing and each time, I was wasting my time, employee time and my own money since the calls are charged at a premium rate.

I also tried email support - let me pause for the laugh track - where I was subscribed to a mailing list about Orange cell phone service. Too bad I already am aware of it since they send unsolicited SMS every few weeks. Email support is worthless on Orange, but then at least here in France, so is most email support.

During the last three calls I was told that the trouble was reported to a special advanced troubleshooting service. I was read a script that guaranteed a phone call or SMS back to me within three working days with a report on what was happening or a connection.

Well, after three of these calls, we finally decided to end the contract with Orange who were incapable of connecting that line for some reason. I was told to go to the Orange store. AT the store after waiting in a long line and watching people try new expensive phones, I was informed that they can't close our account. I told the woman, "the service I called sent me here and you can't close the account?". "Yes," she said, "they don't know what they're talking about."

On the verge of going postal in the store, and by the way I have never regretted not having my little Flip Video so much since there were at least 5 other furious subscribers there for various reasons, I politely but firmly told the woman behind the "services" counter that they would be taking my modem back and giving me a receipt. "Oh, I can do that." And she did.

Orange wins the incompetent title of the year. Orange is the worst company I have ever dealt with and believe me, I've dealt with many, many others including international ones like AOL and Compuserve as well as several other national operators.

There should be a law about services. I know for a fact that Cox Cable has problems, but even they were better at at least appearing to care. Employees of Orange I spoke to were all polite and apologetic, some seemed more competent than others but they all said they were powerless to help and didn't understand why the problem wasn't fixed.

Need I mention that I sent a few registered letters as well?

What happened to the "whatever it takes" philosophy? It isn't worth it for a lousy $25/month? Then charge more and give decent service. I now use a smaller operator. Although they resell the same services at a higher price, they also have a regular phone number (free call sice we have VoIP with them anyway) and they answer the phone and deal with trouble on the spot.

Orange is the most incompetent and deceptive company I've ever dealt with. I'm not trying for a writing style here, I'm trying to make sure that the fact that Orange has the worst customer service in the world, appears in every paragraph.