Orange Pay As You Go

Summary: Mathematically flawed to use this network on a PAYG Basis.

I had no choice but to temporarily switch to an Orange SIM only phone.

After topping up for the first time, I shortly received a text message (with in a week) saying that my credit had run out. Yet I had barely made any calls, and about a dozen text.

After inspecting the call rate without any taffis, I quickly found out, that it's one of the most expensive PAYG networks in the UK, that is to call from an Orange phone to any other UK network.

As of July 2014, which appears to still be in effect the following will apply:

"Before choosing your animal you’ll be on Orange

Starter, with calls 30p per minute and texts 12p.

And that’s to any network, any time."

30p/min is extortionate!

They offer three animal packs, which are supposed to make using their network more cost effective. This however is a complete joke!

The 'Raccoon' pack offers the lowest flat call/text rate, but is still priced at 14p/call and 14p/text, which is nowhere near the cost of other providers, such as Three(which charge 3p/min).

The biggest joke of them all, is that they charge a flat rate just to listen to your voice mail! Most services offer this for free.

The add-on bundles that at most last a week, have almost of no value.

Overall; Mathematically it doesn't make any sense to use this network for on a Pay-As-You-Go Basis.

My £10 Orange voucher for pay as you go is not lasting very long at all i.e only 2 weeks when they used to last me for months. What is going on? I shall have to change to another network if Orange are going to charge me like this.

Bought a phone from phones4U with 10 pounds pay as you go credit from Orange.

Within 2 hours, i was notified by sms that my credit was 85p.

Brilliant.

When i phoned Orange they said they would refund the amount. Well done for not advising that merely being connected to the net chews money....really, just being connected and not surfing?, Three days later i am yet to see the amount topped up. When i tried to call support, surprise surprise when there was not enough credit to make the call. Long live the Queen.

Never coming back to this operator again.

I remember the adverts in the past: the future is bright, the future is orange. Seems that the past was brighter for orange.

This is rubbish. It doesnt top up, it takes ages to top up. I dont receive calls and i cant make any calls. OMG so rubbish and useless!

I tried to find information about Orange Dolphin before I set this up, and found some people discussing how this was a good option for a pay as you go customer. I think these reviews may be old and outdated, as the experience i've had with them has been pretty horrendous.

Confusing set up:

I've never been with a phone company that made it so completely confusing when it comes to setting up with them. When you get your new Orange sim you don't have your benefits automatically when you activate the sim, you need to send a series of jargon texts to a number to add on your 1 gig of data, 100 mins and 400 texts. If you don't it will just eat away your credit and you'll find you have to top up the next day because your bundle wasn't added correctly. When I called, they never could clearly tell me what was included in my package either which was a bit of a worry.

Poor customer service:

Everytime I called the orange customer service team, they sounded like they were either avoiding answering some of my questions or that they purely didn't know what they were doing. It took me 2 phone calls just to try and set up my online account because I wanted to see what they were charging me for as my account balance kept depleting besides the fact that 2 operators had already told me my benefits had been added.

Ridiculous costs:

It really annoys me that they charge you to call their help desk or to access your voicemail service when every company i'v been with before has this as a free service. It really annoys me, as often the website is hard to navigate and doesn't give you enough information so you often have to call the help desk several times to get the answers you need. It also doesn't cost a flat rate of 25P per call as stated in the T&C's, it charges you per minute which is a rip off.

48-72 hours to add benefits:

The other annoying thing is that it takes a long time to add your benefits were as if you go with O2 they are automatically included and you can start using your phone straight away!!

Pro's: After you get over the hurdles of misinformation, stress and annoyance, it does have good reception in most places and the 3g does work well. Unfortunately the con's far outweigh the pro's and I will be switching to O2 when my credit runs out.

I'm not a frequent Mobile user, and this used to be okay until it became EE or whatever. Now, if I try to make a call, or a text, it's "No network Coverage." Useless. I even tried to phone my 'balance' number this morning. Still the same.

What's the point? Do it, or not. I took great pleasure in putting a hammer through my useless phone this morning. Who needs it?

I'm not a frequent Mobile user, and this used to be okay until it became EE or whatever. Now, if I try to make a call, or a text, it's usually "No network Coverage." Useless. I even tried to phone my 'balance' number this morning. Still the same.

What's the point? Do it, or not. I took great pleasure in putting a hammer through my useless phone this morning. Who needs it?

I hate orange with an absolute passion!!! Had a contract with them (and EE ) & was ripped off,customer services were dreadful & didn't know what they were talking about!! Terminated contract...didn't want to have phone unlocked,so thought "orange pay as u go can't be that bad,at least I'll have more control over my credit"....WRONG!!! I had £5.67,sent 2 texts,then was told I had 41p left,& would I 'like to top-up with another £10?'...no I bloody wouldn't!!! Not only that,but when I tried to call 450 customer services,it said I didn't have enough credit...so that means more had been stolen from me,cos it costs 25p to call them!!! Angry,so v v angry!!! :((

I topped up my basic orange payg mobile by £5 before I went on holiday for two weeks in the UK. I have a 5 free text per day package on this phone. I sent only a few texts during my holiday and never exceeded 5 texts per day. I also never made any calls or used the internet. When I got home I checked my balance and it was down to 1p!There is something seriously wrong with the Orange network and they are ripping people off.

Dolphin tariff be aware that the bolt ons don't become active immediately but you will be charged for their usage. So you could find yourself in a position where

1. you top up with credit

2. your phone starts using data due to downloading emails

3. you're charged for that downloading as the data bolt on hasn't been activated yet

4. by the time the data bolt on is activated you're out of credit which means that the data bolt on is invalid anyway.

A right rip off!!