Business customer accuses operator of failing to properly inform customers of data roaming charges
Orange has been accused of deliberately failing to inform its customers of the danger of data roaming charges and of neglecting client relationships in favour of large bill payments.
The claims come from one of its business customers – Sovereign Rotating Machines – after its managing director Richard Welland was billed over 11,000 in data charges for 2500MB during a business trip to China.
The charges are a result of Welland’s iPhone automatically updating itself every half-hour for nine days straight.
Welland said his company pays more than 2,000 a month to Orange, and is upset the operator made no effort to tell him of the spiralling costs, and only discovered the fee when the money left his account.
He also said the attitude towards any correspondence he has made to Orange regarding the issue has been poor, claiming Orange had not attempted to keep his business when he threatened to leave the operator.
Portsmouth-based Easy Group, which connected the customer, said Orange’s actions had been disappointing and seemed resigned to losing the customer in December when its contract expires.
An Orange spokesperson said: “We have a number of initiatives in place to help customers control their costs.
“We advise customers to always call customer services or check our website before travelling abroad, to find out about the charges and services available – iPhone users, especially.
“We are following up with the indirect dealer (Easy Group) who sold Richard Welland his bundle to find out what exactly he was advised regarding his needs. Naturally we review all complaints on a case-by-case basis, and are working with both to come to a fair resolution.”
