SAYNOTO0870

[DeeGee]

I may be the last person in the universe to hear about this, but just in case there is someone else suffering from the same problems as me, I must shout this message...

I am in France, my Orange mobile suddenly wanted a PUK code to start working again. The Orange website gives an 07.. number (ie a UK mobile number) to ring. After hanging on for just over 100mins (!!!!!), I had to ring off to have my dinner. The abortive call cost me (on Skype) just over £17. I sent them an email, which they ignored.

This is not the first time 'Big UK Corporation' has treated me thus, stressing me out to unusual lengths.

<span style="color:red"> Yesterday, a friend told me about SAYNOTO0870.COM, </span> where he thought I would be able to find an alternative number.

I did, I found an 0800 number and got through to someone in a few mins, who transferred me to someone else (no waiting) who then gave me the code. I was in and out in 11:33mins.

 

[steve_cronin]

Last evening a young french lady stoped her Renault outside our gate to ask the way. She was trying to find a friend's house in our village and I asked her why she hadn't thought of using her mobile to contact her friend and get directions. Her reply was that it was a "French Orange" and it just didn't work in the UK.

What with Secam and the spurring of domestic power circuits (no ring main) in france, I get the idea that they ALWAYS want to be different. (DeGaulle - Vive le Difference!)

Steve Cronin

 

[Lakesailor]

Do they have Betamax over there as well?

 

[DeeGee]

Ah, Steve, that could have been the other way round. The number of my friends who dont bother to activate roaming when they come over and then tell me their phone doesnt.... ! Orange France does work in UK, but Orange France operate the old scam of putting a time limit on your PAYGo minutes, which really p**SS**S me off.

I sent an email to Orange UK, pointing out that I had spent £16 on NOT getting my phone sorted with their 07973100150 service. They have just replied, saying that account queries cannot be sorted by email and I should ring the following number.... yup, you've guessed it /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[steve_cronin]

Denbigh,

Ever tried getting support from McvAfee?

Another story,

G'night

Steve Cronin

 

[LeonF]

All this faffing around.. I have just had Canadian visitors who happily left their mobiles at home. I know they are damned convenient but hey we can exist without them !!!

 

[DeeGee]

So you are the lucky one who never has to use these 087 numbers? Or have to wait for hours for customer services, listeneing to the piped musak? You have presumably missed the point - my context of LIVING (not on holiday) in France obviously confused you - this is a service which is to get round the current maze of pricey delaying mechanisms, where all the money made on the call is shared between the mobile or service companies and the company you would much like to talk to.

The people who will gain most from this are the Great British Public (of which you are possilby not a member?)

The worst are public or quasi-public bodies. This site is anything but faffing around.

 

[Anonymous]

To be brutally honest, I think you muddied the water with talk about Orange etc.

The point is that all 087 and 084 prefix numbers are premium rate revenue-sharing between the phone company and the company, and cost far more than an ordinary landline number. The scandal is that most government departments use these premium rate numbers so the public has to pay to speak to the servants they already pay for out of taxes!

SayNoTo0870 is pushing for a change in the law and also provides a lookup tool to help find alternatives to 087/0845 numbers if such exist. Definitely worth looking at the site and supporting.

 

[DeeGee]

To be brutally honest, I think you are right... but anyone with half a brain would have seen through the muddy water /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[LeonF]

You are quite right.. I went off at a tangent.....I use the website all the time.....when I complained to one of the mail order chandlers they said it cost them money to not use an 0870 number!!! It is a superb site for everything from banks and shops to repair services for domestic equipment etc etc. I do, however, sometimes feel a slave to my mobile phone..how often do we return home to collect it having forgotten it ? And a friend will not drive down the A2 without her phone....