I've had ongoing issues with PAYG (pay as you go) dongles. I have discovered how much more PAYG customers pay - eg a contract customer I know with the same company pays the same monthly amount and gets 5x more data! But then is charged £25 for exceeding it, without warning. I passionately believe that the prices should be the same - why are those who can't or won't go onto intrusive contracts less valuable? What kind of a value system is this?! It means that those who can't afford contracts are, like prepay electric meters, paying the most, and often not getting a very good signal or speed. PAYG dongles - typically only 2-3G per month - are not viable for keeping safe online. it's the security updates that are mostly responsible for sucking our allowance. We also can't control the traffic online whose heaviness effects our download/browsing allowance. Most contracts will be 15-20G a month. There are big issues re auto charging, holding people into durational contracts, valuing those who spend the most - all of which are general consumer and outlook issues. I've found Three, who were sometimes better than other phone companies, to have lately been awful with customer service. Their Executive office who deals with complaints to have no idea how to speak to a customer or have any comprehension of my real issues, and try to evade the long term problems and discourage ombudsmen, perhaps even not telling you they exist. Ombudsmen are a whole other post but I increasingly believe they are not independent, fair, and staff are encouraged to throw out cases or rule unfavourably to customers (sometimes whilst sounding as if they've been reasonable) and are frankly obtuse. I'd like to make the community aware and hear other people's stories as a campaign really needs launching about these fundamental imbalances between the public, companies and government related departments.

I thought that I should start a fresh thread regarding the on-going, Orange PAYG mobile phone misery as the one started on here by another user, is somewhat out of date, and seeing that problems with Orange remains unresolved for many, myself included; best to re-address the problem again. My situation: I purchased a neat affordable PAYG mobile phone from Tesco Direct in Dec 2012. It had come with a complimentary free £10.00 top-up that, once the new Sim was inserted into the phone, the credit would thus be activated. However, this never occurred, and I had spoken to Orange, who stated that Tesco was responsible for the free credit. I sort of went round in a few dizzy circles with both Orange and Tesco, and never did get that free credit placed on my phone, regardless of who I spoke with. Then, just recently, I topped up my mobile phone with my Orange Top-Up card that has not yet let me down, only to discover that the credit I placed on it, did not go onto my mobile phone. Because I don't have the credit to call Orange - not a free customer service number exists for them; I managed to find their executive's email address and reported the complaint via email to them - I am yet to receive a response, yet a little hopeful of one. As you may be aware, if you are an Orange customer: their website that coexists with EE - it is not a communication platform for general inquiry into problems with phone credit etc. You cannot email them whatsoever, and just click appropriate links if you have had your phone stolen for instance. This now leaves me in a miserable predicament, having to take the issue up with my very trustworthy shop-keeper who topped my phone up, I have since lost the receipt of the transaction that took place on 20/06/2014. However, it clearly went onto the Orange Top-Up card that Orange themselves will have a database log of all consumer purchases they cannot erase at least until six years under the data protection act. The proof of payment is not really the issue here, with the above in mind, yet the fact that Orange have been doing this to consumers since 2008-9 if I read the complaint pages that are dedicated to the Orange PAYG misery - are truly astonishing to read. So what do I do or any other Orange customer, when they are unable to make free calls to their customer-service numbers, other than compose a letter of complaint?. I had once wrote to them before a few years ago about a different phone issues, and sent at least two recorded-delivery letters, they never once responded.

Hi all, I'm not getting anywhere with dealing with Vodafone so thought someone here may have some advice. At the beginning of December 2013 Vodafone requested that I needed to have my SIM card replaced as the old one would expire at the beginning of January 2014. The new card arrived (after asking them again) and I wanted advice in transferring my number and the PAYG credit. The nightmare began with being passed from department to department (they had a special number set up to deal with this, but they only had five members of staff and only open office hours, so the phone was seldom answered). Eventually Vodafone suggested I take my phone to a Vodafone shop and they would do a SIM swap. I did this, but now my number doesn't appear to exist at all. Also, the temporary number issued on the new SIM no longer exists. I wasn't allowed to talk to a supervisor and only one of my letters of complain has been answered - they said that they had tried to contact me on the temporary number but it would not connect and that they would investigate. I'm not a massive user, but I certainly used to use the phone to make chargeable calls regularly and, more importantly, receive calls related to my business. I have had to remove my mobile number from my websites, social media and my business cards all need to have the mobile crossed out prior to giving them out (very professional looking that is). I'm appalled by the customer service from Vodafone and completely at a loss as to how to resolve this. I tried the ombudsman, but they wouldn't help before Vodafone had been given two months to resolve it from my first complain. One of my letters was addressed to the CEO, the other addressed to the Customer Relations Manager (same address). If anyone has any suggestions that may help, I'd be very grateful. Thanks in advance, Dayve

Thank goodness this isn't my personal mobile provider as I wouldn't have lasted a day with it!! This is a mobile provided to me for my voluntary work, and every single time I use the antiquated top up abacus system on the net, it always always fails, even trying to ring the non existent 'customer care' team is fraught with inaccessible hoops and hurdles 'press 1' press 3' spin round and touch your left knee, oops, something went wrong, press hash to go back to the beginning and start all over again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:mad2: Angry, YES. Irritated, your damn right! Recommend you, NEVER!! Only to my enemies. All I need to do is top up my mobile using my credit card on your out of date system, and obtain a receipt so I am able to claim back my expenses, on two separate occasion, today being the latest, your system has failed to give me a receipt, in fact it doesn't even give me the option of getting a receipt. The last one being a top up of £10, but todays was for £15 and I'm not prepared to let this one go. How in gods name do I get a receipt out of your company? And why in all that is holy, is your system so antiquated? Do you only employ computers? I want someone to speak to on the end of the phone, not a computer!!

Found this very interesting Orange is a bit over zealous to keep you as a customer. I had a contract for my father in my name. He died in January and we called orange to cancel the mobile in March to give our 30 day notice. The adviser stated that we could change it t a PAYG, ok we can keep the number and should we wish activate the sim when needed. Alas this is not true, even after giving the 30 days notice Orange will not cancel your contract until such time that you activate the sim. Which was not stated when we spoke to them. They then proceeded to take out MAY and JUNE bill, which we disputed with our bank and received a refund. Alas ORANGE are chasing me for the outstanding bills and it has gone to debt collectors. Orange say they have sold the account. The DCA say they are acting on Oranges behalf, and have added a 10% admin charge to the account. a dispute has been raised with the DCA as advised by Orange. Let the games begin.

Hello I was wondering if anyone could help me. I bought a Pay as you go (PAYG) mobile phone on the internet two days ago. I get the phone this morning with a letter stating they have activated the phone. The last time i bought a phone from this company they never did this. I was wondering why they have activated the phone? The phone was also purchased for a friend of mine. Letter http://i46.tinypic.com/ndsv20.jpg Does this mean the phone has been activated in my name and address? Also, would it been registered in my name and address? Thanks

Hi, I’m hoping someone out there may have had a similar experienceto this and may be able to help me? I have been with Orange for 5 years andhave been very happy with the service I receive. I have a pay as you go phonethat I top up £10 every month. For that they gift you 100MB internet, 400 textsand 3 magic numbers. The problem I have is that I may only use £5 of my credit overthe month for calls leaving me with approx £5 still in credit. Instead of usingthe remaining credit I then top up another £10 to get 100mb free internet,texts etc. I have carried on like this for a period of years and now findmyself in a position where I have accrued over £100 surplus credit in myaccount. I called orange and explained all this and requested apartial credit for some of the outstanding credit I have. They said that as itwas such a large amount they wouldn’t be able to do this, if it’s a largeamount to a huge company like orange then what do they think it must be to me! Theyalso said that they can’t credit any amount and that I must use it all forcalls etc. Even if I cancel my account (which I don’t want to do) they won’tcredit any amount of credit left outstanding on my account. I feel a bit of a little guy being pushed around by a bigcorporation. Surely they can’t hold peoples money like this. I realise that I shouldn’thave let my account get so over credit but never realised that this was ever anissue. Has anyone been in a similar position and had any success challengingorange about this?

Calls are not really important, but data is needed for outside the hotel. Have PMRs for calls between each other when out "together". If the worst comes to the worst, I have a roaming sim at 15p meg^-1.

Bought a phone (Orange San Francisco) online a few days back from Onestopphoneshop.co.uk. As well as the phone, it was mandatory I bought a £10 Orange topup. Realised that using Orange would be too expensive compared to my existing provider. Phone now unlocked, rooted and fully operational on Asda PAYG. The mandatory topup (and Orange SIM) have never been touched/used. Its worth pointing out the topup and phone were shown as two distinct items on the invoice. I would like to reject the topup for a refund, under distance selling rules, as it is definitely not suitable for me. Since the topup exists only as data in Orange's servers, it could easily be removed from Orange's database. Question: Am I within my rights to do this and can I insist with the backing of the Distance Selling regs? If you know of any cases, please can you point me at them? Thanks everyone.