A possible new logo for the combined companies

They’ve both tried to shaft their customers in the past year by changing their terms and conditions detrimentally, and now it seems that an Orange/T-Mobile superpower is just days away from birth.

The EU have given them authority to fast-track a merger which could happen as soon as this week, in spite of concerns from the OFT and Ofcom. The merger will give the depressing duo a huge 37% share of the UK mobile market, making them comfortably the biggest operator around.

But if you’re an Orange or T-Mobile customer, what do you think it will mean for you? More competitive pricing for handsets and tariffs? Less choice in the marketplace and therefore worse value for money. A larger customer base for the new company to handle leading to out-and-out chaos and a string of unbelieveable fuck ups? Or no change whatsoever?

And what the hell are they going to call the new company? T-Orange? Orangemobile? The Orange Mob? Surely it can only end in horrible tears…

Data protection – it’s hard work, isn’t it? Having to find somewhere safe to keep all that customer information, and then making sure nobody inadvertently emails it back to the customers. For example, if you’ve contacted Orange through their website recently, you may have received a short email from the service provider, because Orange are wanting customer feedback to improve the experience:

Hello from Orange

Thank you for your recent email enquiry. In order to improve our service we would like to take the opportunity to ask you a couple of questions regarding the way in which you have contacted Orange.

In the pursuit of improving service provided to our customers, Orange are intending to update and modify the ‘Contact Us’ section of the Orange website that our customers use to email their queries to our Customer Service Representatives.

It would be greatly appreciated if you could reply to this email with your thoughts on the ‘Contact Us’ section by answering the following questions.

How easy was the ‘Contact Us’ section of the Orange website to navigate?

Was your query included in the options available?

Did you find it easy to locate the ‘Contact Us’ section?

Do you have any suggestions or comments on how we can improve this service?

Your feedback is important to us and will be passed on to our Development Teams, so thank you for taking the time to reply.

Kind regards

Orange Online Services Team

Avid Bitterwallet reader Mark knew he wasn’t alone in receiving the email – partly because it wasn’t personalised and the contents were generic, but mostly because the address field contained over one thousand email addresses aside from his:

Those on the list are already emailing one another wondering why Orange has sent their email details to a big ol’ bunch of strangers. And despite the data protection gaffe, users are yet to receive an apology from the company. At least you’ve all made some new friends for Google Buzz, eh?

There’s been plenty of bullshit-baffles-brains concerning whether Apple will or won’t launch a tablet PC, whether anybody cares and whether it fulfills a consumer need blah blah blah. No more. It’s definitely on it’s way and it’ll be here within days. The source of this outlandish rumour? YouTube? Twitter? Something your mum whispered in our ear last night? Nope, confirmation comes from the incoming CEO of Orange, Stephane Richard.

During an interview with French radio station Europa 1, the interviewer thought he’d slip in a question he stood no chance of getting a straight answer to. And in a spectacular turn of events, he actually did:

Interviewer: According to the magazine Le Point, in a few days your partners at Apple will launch a tablet equipped with a webcam?
Richard: Yes.
Interviewer: Will Orange customers get to use it?
Richard: Of course. Especially since the webcam gives you real-time video streaming.

Perhaps Richard is reveling in that well known French sense of humour, but it’s more likely that since the interview was with a high profile journalist, that he’s just oui oui’d all over the non-disclosure agreement that Apple will have forced Orange to sign. Start saving, fanboys. Apple haters, form an orderly queue here.

And so we reach the official end of 2009, with a look at the two top stories that you, the faceless readers have been clicking on more than any other. Check out the rest of the top ten here.

2: Thousands can cancel Orange contracts after loophole is opened

Back in August, silly old Orange tried to change the terms and conditions of their customers’ contracts, substantially increasing the cost of minutes above and beyond the customers’ monthly limits.

In other words, they were breaking their part of the bargain and Orange users immediately had the right to cancel the contract without any penalty charges.

At first Orange weren’t having it, but before long, masses of you, armed with our cancellation guide were cancelling in your droves. Then Orange went and sealed up the loophole and everything went back to normal. But it wasn’t the most popular story of the year. Oh no, that was…

1: Probably supposed to be ‘ready for a shot’

Yes. This is the big one. A misprint on a camera box. A swear word. Possibly photoshopped. The most popular Bitterwallet story of 2009. Almost 110,000 hits. Seriously. Heaven help us.

Orange and T-Mobile haven’t had an easy year and now some paper-pushing killjoys are attempting to ruin it completely. The proposed merger of the two telecom companies is being challenged by Consumer Focus and the Communications Consumer Panel (who they?) who suspect the deal will be fast-tracked without the impact on British consumers taken into account.

The parent companies of both Orange and T-Mobile (France Télécom and Deutsche Telekom) generate two thirds of their revenue outside the UK, so the merger is likely to be investigated by a European commission – that’ll occur far quicker than any review by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Competition Commission. The mainland bureaucrats can choose to “repatriate” the investigation to the British authorities, which is what the consumer champs are hoping for.

Why stand in the way of the merger? Amongst the reasons, the Consumer Focus and the Communications Consumer Panel believe:

• reducing competition in the market will hamper the expansion of 3G network coverage
• smaller service operators will be lost (in the case of 3, we don’t think there’ll be many tears shed by Bitterwallet readers if that happened)
• the new company would control a particular part of the mobile phone spectrum, which could hinder the government’s rollout of broadband services across the UK
• the merger may affect virtual network operators such as Tesco Mobile and Virgin Mobile, who lease capacity from the service providers

From the point of view of Orange and T-Mobile, this is something that has to happen as far as their UK interests are concerned. T-Mobile is about as popular as a brass cloud and neither it or Orange will come close to challenging market leader O2 without merging with one another.

[The Guardian]

It’s proving to be the most controversial poll since the Christmas number one battle even though it’s, well, about ten thousand times more important. Yes, it’s the Bitterwallet Worst Company In Britain 2009 competition – the public vote that’s led to almost six inches of rabid complaining. Maybe Bitterwallet should have been included in the line-up? A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

Just a reminder that you’ve still got until midnight to cast your vote in what, lest we forget is JUST A BIT OF FUN REALLY AND NOT ACTUALLY THE GENERAL FUCKING ELECTION. Then, we’ll announce who you’ve voted as the worst company of the past year and the head honchos of said company will at best raise an eyebrow and carry on being shite.

Undaunted, we’ll soon be accepting your nominations for the Best Company in Britain 2009, and we’re REALLY looking forward to the warped arguments that competition will lead to.

Oh you lot: we love you to bits but GAAAAHHHHHHH!!

Apparently, there may be some of you still reading the site over Christmas, so the boss is demanding we tumble arse-over-tit down the ungritted path to the BW office, so we might continue to ladle news from simmering consumer tech broth. And so it’s to the iPhone and news that Vodafone is gearing up to begin selling the iPhone from Janaury 14th.

Orange and Tesco have entered the iPhone market in the past few weeks – whereas Orange could offer little extra than and slightly cheaper tariff and the hope of better coverage, Tesco went for a tariff that undercut both O2 and Orange – if you were prepared to pay through the nose for your handset. So what’s the good news from Vodafone? A £35-per-month tariff for a free 3G handset (on a 24 month contract) puts Vodafone on a par with O2 and Orange (and to get a free 3G handset through Tesco means paying £60 a month), but unlimited texts on Vodafone may suit plenty more punters:

[Note - whether any of these tariffs are a good deal or not depends on whethr you accept a 24 month contract as the norm now and don't roll your eyes whenever it's mentioned]

Courtesy of TechCrunch Europe

The major fly in the ointment is that rather than offering unlimited* (*fair usage shenanigans) data usage, it’s capped at 1GB. As applications become increasingly data-hungry, it’ll be interesting to see how many regular customers hit that ceiling in the months to come.

At long last, we bring you the final of Bitterwallet’s Worst Company In Britain 2009 competition, and not without a smattering of controversy. After studying our reports of voting patterns, we learned that the results of the second semi-final were tainted by multiple votes for DSGi, a stunt that was probably pulled by a bored paedophile or someone with an unfeasibly tiny penis, like a chipolata as viewed through the wrong end of a telescope.

As a result, the DSGi votes have been disregarded and Paypal and Orange have been put forward into the final, where they join eBay and Royal Mail. Bitterwallet’s decision is final but feel free to mewl on about it until 2010 if it’ll make you feel better.

Voting will go on until midnight on Tuesday, offering you ample time to try and hack this poll as well. But we don’t care because we have SO many other methods of determining a winner, some of which involve a pin and a top hat. Bitterwallet’s decision is final so etc etc etc…

Thrill yourselves skinny with the results to date, which are here and back by popular demand for the final is the picture of the large toy giraffe lurking outside a Travelodge. Go on then, VOTE!

EDIT: After studying our reports of voting patterns, we have learned that the results of the second semi-final were tainted by multiple votes for DSGi, a stunt that was probably pulled by a paedophile or someone with an unfeasibly tiny penis, like a chipolata as viewed through the wrong end of a telescope.

As a result, the DSGi votes have been disregarded and Paypal and Orange have been put forward into Monday’s final. Bitterwallet’s decision is final so don’t even bother not shutting the fuck up about it. This is not Tehran – democracy will prevail.

Welcome, dear reader, to the second semi-final in our Bitterwallet Worst Company in Britain 2009 spectacular, with the remaining TWO places in the grand final up for grabs from today’s contenders.

We would like to apologise again for yesterday’s cock-up which saw the voting scrapped shortly before noon after it was discovered that Barclays had mistakenly snuck into the draw instead of Royal Mail. Voting has been extended until noon today if you’d still like to join in.

So, with all mistakes behind us, we look forward to today’s juicy tear-up between the four other companies who have staggered through rounds one and two – namely Clarks shoe shops, Marlboro, Cheltenham Town FC and Echo & The Bunnymen.

Hang on – that’s not quite right. In actual fact, you can choose between Orange, DSGi, Sky and Paypal. A motley crew and no mistake, and, unless some kind of unseen screw-up is spotted, the voting will end at midnight tonight. Remember, the two highest-polling companies will reach the final.

The final will commence on Monday and voting will go on for the whole of 2010. Not really. You can check out who the victors of the first semi-final were here from noon and go down memory lane with all of the results so far here.

Well – what are you waiting for? START VOTING, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARDS!

Right then – we’ve just got one more match-up in the second round of our Worst Company In Britain 2009 contest, and we thought we’d save this one till last as it’s got added spice about it.

For you to choose between, we give you two mobile service providers who have both shafted their paying customers over the past few months. There’s Orange, who shipped a huge amount of customers after we helped readers to get out of their contracts early thanks to the arrogance and incompetence of Orange themselves.

Then there’s T-Mobile – they pulled a similar trick when they increased their international roaming charges but when customers tried to get out of their contarcts, T-Mobile stuck their head in the sand and went ‘la la la la la la la’ until most of them went away.

So which of them do you regard as the enemy of the consumer? You’ve got until midnight to cast your vote. You can catch up with the outcome of Paypal v Vodafone from yesterday here, and while away some quality time checking out all of the results to date here.

The end is nigh – soon it will be time to choose the four companies who you’d like to see in the grand final….

Last week we reported on the rock-vs-hard place conundrum faced by Bitterwallet reader Robert, whose daughter cancelled her Orange mobile contract in August and received verbal confirmation she was canceling-without-fee. The mobile service provider then proceeded to charge her £164 for the remainder of her contract and passed the debt onto Moorcroft Debt Recovery Ltd – not one of the favourite debt collection agencies judging by your comments.

The situation was causing Robert and his daughter a barrel of grief and sleeplessness, but happily Orange have come up trumps after we contacted them regarding the situation. A spokesperson told Bitterwallet:

“We have reviewed the case in question and are contacting the customer to apologise for any confusion this matter may have caused them. We can confirm the charges associated with the issue specific to this account have been dropped.”

We’ve popped out and bought a hat specifically to doff it in Orange’s general direction. Dealing with debt collectors is never fun, especially when there’s a question mark over the debt. We’ve some advice for folk finding themselves in a similar position here.

Given that it’s December, we honestly thought we’d seen the last of any complaints regarding Orange and their attempt to change contracts without offering the right to cancel-without-penalty. That was done and dusted back in August, wasn’t it? Apparently not, according to Bitterwallet reader Robert:

My daughter cancelled her Orange contract on 8th August 2009 when Orange announced their proposed “Out of Package” increases.

Like many others she phoned to cancel because of these increases. She had six months left on her contract, but was told by customer services she could cancel.

Orange subsequently charged her £163.85 for the remainder of her contract. We have disputed this, but they have now passed this debt on to a debt recovery company, Moorcroft Debt Recovery Limited.

I have sent them hoards of information, mostly from your articles at the time, but they are insistent that Orange are continuing to say that the claim is valid.

Ah, debt collectors. Whether a third party has bought the “debt” from Orange or are being paid a percentage of any debt they  claim is owed, their involvement complicates matters.

So what can you do? First things first – call Orange and attempt to resolve the matter. Speak to a supervisor and escalate the problem to the Executive Office if you need to (08000 790 134). The difficulty is that at the time, Orange representatives were making things up as they went along, and often told customers information that may or may not have been correct. It’s possible that promises of termination were made to customers, but the customer’s file was not updated.

If Orange refuse to cooperate that’s potentially a matter to discuss with CISAS, but then you have the problem of the debt collector. The first thing you need to do is dispute the debt in writing. The collection agency must follow specific OFT guidelines regarding the matter and investigate as appropriate. You are within your rights to request details of the disputed debt from the collection agency – the details of the debt as specified by Orange – and details of the investigation they carry concerning the dispute. If they don’t provide this information and continue to actively pursue the debt, you can report them to your local Trading Standards Office. Finally, have a chat with Consumer Direct about other options open to you.

How many other former Orange customers are still have trouble regarding their account? If this happened to you, how did you resolve the issue?

Now then – there shouldn’t be any doubt about today’s first round showdown… or should there?

In it, one of the top seeds, Orange, go head to head with Dell, one of the lesser lights of crappy customer service.

Where will it end? Will we see our first 100% victory? Doubtful, but the bookies are keeping their heads down on this one. Could be because it’s the weekend like…

Speaking of which, the voting deadline has been extended until noon on Monday in order to give the Monday to Friday crew a go on the voting.

You can catch up with the result of yesterday’s tête-à-tête between Carphone Warehouse and T-Mobile here, scroll idly through the story so far here, and as ever, there’s a picture of a large stuffed giraffe outside a Travelodge here.

Bitterwallet reader Mark simply can’t get over what a great deal Orange have offered him. In fact that’s a lie, as he got over it in a matter of über-seconds. Mark recently just received his Best Plan review for his mobile phone contract. The thing is, as you may has guessed by now, Orange’s definition of best is far removed from any definition of the word we’ve ever considered:

On a day that the Inland Revenue wins an award for business innovation, you know the planet has been knocked off its moral axis and sent spinning into some special sort of Hell. In fact it’s the perfect opportunity for mobile service provider 3 to whine they’re been badly done to and nothing’s right or fair. Why? 3 is marching Orange to the Advertising Standards Authority for claiming that it has the biggest 3G network in the country.

Orange has spent over £4 million in advertising and marketing recently, to tell consumers its 3G network covers 93 per cent of the population. 3 obviously disagree, claiming it has the largest 3G network. A spokesman for 3 said:

“We’re confident that we have the biggest 3G network in the UK — both in terms of geographic and population coverage — built on a 9,192-site network that grows by about 150 sites each week. It’s no surprise consumers are being confused about coverage.”

We haven’t heard any customers expressing confusion but let’s put that aside for now. Orange, how do you plead?

“The figure that 3 has published shows that we have a greater 3G population coverage than they do. We think that’s something to shout about and that’s why we’re telling our customers — and theirs — about it. It’s not how many masts you have; it’s where you stick them.”

3 is arguing that there are different types of measurement for this sort of thing, each providing a slightly different set of results, and that an independent third party is required to measure coverage. Obviously Ofcom aren’t up to the job, then? In the meantime, consumers will just have to make their purchasing decisions based on other preferences, like customer service for example. On second thoughts, it’s 3 and Orange we’re talking about – that won’t work either.

[The Times]