I recently changed from O2 to Vodafone.  I’ve had crappy reception in my house with O2 for a while, suffering one-way conversations where the person on the other end couldn’t hear me properly even though I can hear them perfectly, so, I decided to try some other providers.

I have been out of my O2 iPhone contract for a short while (having already changed to a cheaper tariff – note to other iPhone users:  if your contract expires, call your provider, they will always be able to give you a better deal) so I decided to give Vodafone a try first.  Honourably the O2 retentions chap tried asked why I wanted to switch networks so I explained about my reception problems.  He understood that there was nothing he could do about it and so very soon my PAC (Porting Authority Code) was winging its way to me via SMS.

The sign-up process was easy with Vodafone, though the answer to my question “which wireless providers can I use” didn’t get a resoundingly clear answer.  In any case I signed up and all seemed ok.  Ok that is, until I tried using mobile data.  Call reception is largely improved and I can now get signal in some places I previously couldn’t, but sometimes the experience of using the mobile data network, even where I supposedly have full 3G coverage, is utter shite.

Having suffered this for a few weeks I thought I’d jump ship to Orange to give their network a try-out (as I’m out of a long term contract I can opt for 30 day SIM only contracts).  So, this morning I called Orange to check out their offerings.  ”All our tariffs are on our website” the recorded message sounded.  ”They aren’t” I thought, “as I’ve looked and there aren’t any specific SIM only iPhone tariffs listed that include data plans.”  This is also a website, so my experience shows me, that you can’t even browse tariffs on from your iPhone: they have  bastardised version of the site for the iPhone which misses the sections out where you can browse Orange products.  Smart marketing.

Having waited 4 minutes on hold to the sales team (have you ever waited that long for a sales call to be answered?  They are always the quickest calls to be answered…) my call was answered and a lady told me the most sensible tariff for the iPhone.  600 minutes, unlimited texts, free internet and wifi, £25 per month.  Great.

“Who is the wifi partner for Orange?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Which wifi operators can I connect to, you know, BT Openzone, The Cloud etc?”
“The wifi is free, I’m not really sure what you mean….”
“Well, if I go to Starbucks and there is a BT Openzone network available, can I use it for free?”
“Well there might be a charge for that.”
“Ok, so what do you mean by free wifi?”
“Well, you can connect to wifi for free.”
“But I might have to pay….?”
“Hold a moment.”
[A few minutes on hold....]
Ok, so we give you a passcode, which you enter when you connect to a wifi network.  If that code isn’t recognised, then you have to pay.”
“I’m sorry, but that sounds a bit wrong.”
“Ok, let me transfer you to the iPhone team.”
[Several more minutes on hold]
“Hello sir how can I help?”
“Can you please tell me who your wifi partners are, which networks can I use when in public?”
“What is your mobile number sir?”
“No, I don’t have an Orange contract, I’ve just been put through by sales so you can answer this question.”
“Ok sir, please hold.”
[Several minutes on hold]
“I’m sorry sir but I need to transfer you to sales, I’m not allowed to answer your questions as you don’t have a contract with us.”
“No, no, no wait, I’ve just been transferred to you by sales because they don’t know the answer to this simple question, they can’t help me.  You’re telling me you can’t tell me this simple thing?”
“I need to transfer you to sales sir.”
“No, they transferred me to you, they told me they couldn’t answer the question so they were transferring me to the iPhone team.”
“They told you you were being transferred to the iPhone team?  This is customer service.  I’ll transfer you to sales.”
“No no no….  I’m not waiting in line, spending money on this call, only for someone else who doesn’t know the answer to my question to fob me off with some other rubbish.  Unless you can help me now Orange loses this sale.”
“Ok can you hold please sir?”
“No more than 10 seconds, I’ve already had enough this.”
“Ok no more than 10 seconds sir.”
[30 seconds later, I hang up.  Total time on call over 15 minutes]

The moral of the story is, don’t use Orange, they don’t know what the hell is going on, the staff don’t seem well briefed or even well trained – heck, they can’t even transfer a call to the right department, and everybody hates that.

I’m actually thinking of going back to O2, the network has been built to withstand all the iPhone users so the mobile data experience is better, and at least their customer service works.  I’m moving soon, so as long as I can get reception at home and in my new office they’ll do me just fine.

/Rant