Orange España review: Linea + servicios de internet + llamadas

I signed up for a 'linea + servicios de internet + llamadas' contract for 12 months at €30.95 at an Orange shop on Blasco Ibañez in Valencia on the 2nd November 2022 with a young woman called Aîtana. I had the router and line fitted the next day as promised. I had some minor technical issues at first relating to my landline not working, but these were resolved after I called the +[protected] number. However, I then had a problem with 'packet loss', which was making my internet connection unstable and preventing me to successfully do some more intensive online tasks. None of Orange's technical team could resolve this issue, but fortunately, I had a friend who has experience as an IT engineer and he was able to rectify the settings on my router to fix the problem. Though not before I had to purchase an ethernet connector for my Mac.

My real problems began when I received my first complete bill, which was €49.95. At this point, I was able to get my bill from the Orange website.
According to the bill the figure comes from this:
Cuota mensual Bono nacional horario reducido fijo a móvil 1.000 min 12/11 a 11/12/22:- - 15,00'
Cuota mensual Fibra + línea + llamadas 12/11 a 11/12/22 [protected]:- 40,95
Promoción 100% Bono nacional horario reducido fijo a móvil 1.000 min:- -15,00
Plus IVA (21%):- 8,60

None of this made up an amount of €30.95. In particular, the section:- Cuota mensual Bono nacional horario reducido fijo a móvil 1.000 min 12/11 a 11/12/22:- 15,00' - was not related to the contract that I agreed to sign up for.
I called the +[protected] number again on the 28 Dec 2022

and spoke to someone called Juan from a customer service team in Colombia. He told me he didn’t have the capability to access my account and I would have to go back to the shop. That the telephone customer service staff couldn’t access my account details didn’t seem possible. But Juan insisted that was the case. Juan couldn’t explain why a multibillion telecoms company with a telephone customer service line was unable to gather billing data for customers. He decided he didn’t want to discuss it and cut me off. That's not customer service. So I called back, spoke to someone called Michelle, who told me that she could see my contract and confirmed that I had indeed signed up for a 12-month contract for €30.95 and that there was a mistake with my bill. She told me I would receive a call in the next few days or week and it would be resolved. I never got that call. So on the 3 January 2023, I called the +[protected] number again. The person I spoke to insisted that there was no record of my call with anyone called Michelle, again insisted that my billing could not be accessed at his end and again insisted that I had to go all the way back to the shop on Blasco Ibañez; so I did.

At the shop I spoke with a sullen, tattooed girl called Tamara who confirmed that my bill was incorrect and completed a ‘Consulta de Peticiones’ to have it rectified. She told me that I would receive a call within the next 24 hours to confirm that the issue was being addressed. I asked for a print of the Consulta de Peticiones as well as some way I could make a complaint directly to Orange. She gave me the print out and this email address: gestionrec. [protected]@orange.com. This email address proved to be useless. Twice I tried to make a complaint and twice I got this automated message:

Hola,

recuerda adjuntar en el campo asunto el código facilitado por Orange en la conversación telefónica en la que te hemos solicitamos la documentación. Este código es imprescindible para tratar este correo y sin él no podemos gestionar tu solicitud. Puedes contactar con Orange a través de www.orange.es

Since my incident wasn’t dealt with on a phone call, I had no 'codigo'. Furthermore, it’s patently obvious that all that is required is my identification number (passport/DNI/NIE) and/or the number the account refers to.

A few days later, when I still had not received the call that I was told I would get, I checked the Consulta de Peticiones’ document and realised that Tamara had given me the wrong one – I had a document ‘Identificador: 1-[protected] for someone called Jonathan Steven Jimenez Merchan! I decided that the best way to resolve the issue was to have someone who spoke perfect Spanish to help me.

On Saturday the 7th of January 2023 I tried to resolve the problem on the phone, but after 40 minutes of frustration, I got nowhere. So I was forced to returned to the shop on Blasco Ibañez with my Spanish speaking friend and was fortunate enough to find the young woman called Aîtana who had originally signed me up for the internet service. My friend and I explained my situation, both in English and Spanish. through my, let’s say ‘interpreter’. Aîtana looked on her computer and found that there had actually been a ‘Consulta de Peticiones’ input on the system by Tamara, but didn’t know why Tamara had given me the wrong one. That was one problem resolved. She also told me that Tamara had not completed the ‘Consulta de Peticiones’ on the system in her own name, but used Aîtana’s name instead. I don’t know whether this is the policy of Orange employees who work in the shops, but it didn’t really make much difference. While I was there, I also asked why the customer service people on the phone could not do all of this. She said that they should have been able to and were maybe just lying!

Finally, I got an explanation from Aîtana about what the problem was. When she had signed me up for the contract she had input something wrong which had put me on the wrong tariff. She also explained that she only worked in the Blasco Ibañez shop on a Saturday and normally worked in the Orange shop in Cabanyal, which is close to where I live. She said if I had any other problems that I could go to see her in that shop rather than go all the way to the Blasco Ibañez shop, which is well over a mile from where I live.

To be fair to Aîtana, although it was her mistake, she was polite and very helpful and I never really had a problem with her attitude. In fact, she was the only person who ever apologised. The only apology I have had after four months of problems, at least a dozen phone calls and perhaps 5 or 6 hours of my own personal time – which I will never ever get back – wasted.

I later received emails detailing that my tariff was being changed and notifying me of refunds to my account. However, when my next bill came on 17th January 2023 and I clicked on the link to access it, I could not. I couldn’t access it on the app on my phone or on the orange. es website because it simply was not there. So, I decided to go and visit Aîtana in the shop in Cabanyal.

Aîtana told me that she didn’t know why I couldn’t access my bill on the app or the website, she made a phone call to someone and when the call was finished, she told me that I would receive future bills directly as pdfs in my email. She also printed my existing bills. But then when the next email for my bill in February comes on the 14th, there is no pdf bill in the email, just that same link that takes me to the website/app in which there is no bill. So, again – using my own time, which I will never get back - I have to resolve yet another issue.

I call the shop in Cabanyal on the 14th of February and speak to someone called Lorena. I explain everything to Lorena, including how here colleague Aîtana had assured me that I would receive my bills in my emails. Lorena contradicts this statement and tells me that I cannot get bills sent directly to my email. She doesn’t give any explanation why such a simple thing cannot be done - despite the fact that I can’t access bills for a service I’m paying for in the way I've instructed - and then tells me that I can get bills posted, but this service would cost another €2.00 or €2.50 per month – I can’t remember.

As you can imagine, I’m really frustrated with my Orange experience at this point, I’m frustrated not just with the mistakes with my bill, but just the lack of accurate information, the obstructive process, and the general attitude of pretty much everyone I speak to who works for the company. Put primarily, I’m furious because I’ve wasted hours of my time which I will never ever get back dealing with problems that are no fault of my own. So I hang up the phone and decide it best if I go to the shop.

On Saturday the 18th February, I go to the Cabanyal shop at around 1 o’clock, hoping to get Aîtana, the only representative of Orange España I have found even remotely agreeable. Unfortunately, Aîtana is not there, but this Lorena is. There's a line of three customers in the shop, so after waiting 15 minutes, I relay my billing issue with Lorena. She is sullen and curt and decides that she wants to spend five minutes checking my Orange app to confirm what I have already told her. She doesn’t find the bill, reiterates that I can’t have my bill sent as a pdf as I was assured and tells me that the shop is closing and I have to leave. Totally fed up at this point, ask for ‘hojas de reclamaciones’. She tells me that I can’t have it. She tells me I have to come back on Monday. I demand the hojas de reclamaciones. I’m not prepared to waste anymore of my time returning to the shop. She tells me that I can go to another shop in the Colón in the centre of town about 5 miles away – again, wasting more of my time for for problems I am not responsible for! The other alternative is to phone 1470.

In the end, I leave the shop, get on the phone to 1470 and managed to get someone called Heidi to issue me a bill by email. However, I STILL do not know why I can access my bills, I still do not know whether I will get my bill via email next month and have to waste more of my time yet again. It's just a joke. The 'customer service' from this company is no more than an oxymoron.