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Dont forget that you can and should claim money off Orange for lieing to you and for the fun of it report them to Trading Standards.

If you want I can create a small document for you to send to Orange?

I'll take all the help I can get as I am up against it at the moment. I have no doubt I will win this battle in the end but I think it may take a while. I have send a letter today to the store, orange Cust service and their CEO. The store just won't budge on their position.
 
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Reply from their so called executive office,


Thank you for your email dated 28 March 2011, which was addressed to Tom
Alexander, Chief Executive Officer UK.  I have been asked by Tom to respond
on his behalf and keep him informed of all actions taken.

I am sorry you have experienced issues with your iPad account and that you
feel that the level of service which you have recently received has not been
of a satisfactory level. I assure you that your comments are taken very
seriously and have been highlighted to the relevant departments making them
aware of the impact of this incident, with the aim of continually improving
our customer experience.

Upon investigation I have identified that you have been in contact with our
iPad Support Team, who are making contact with you regarding the unlocking of
your iPad.  I must stress that if the iPad remains locked to the Orange
network, an unlocking process may only be presented after three full months
and a payment of £20.40.

I acknowledge your frustration in relation to this issue, you state if you
had known your 3 network SIM Card would not work in the iPad you would not
have made the purchase.  It is however unreasonable for Orange to provide you
with a refund for the iPad when there are no faults found with the equipment
and it is fit for purpose.  You have a working Orange SIM Card that works
with the iPad provided.

Whilst I appreciate this may not be the response you had hoped for, I trust I
have explained the reasons why I am unable to refund your payment.

Yours sincerely



Donna Wigglesworth
Executive Office

c.c. Tom Alexander, Chief Executive Officer UK
 
My Orange contract ends in May/June and although I was thinking of doing so anyway, Their awful attitude to you has convinced me to cancel my contract in sympathy.

Trouble is, they rest of them aren't much better!
 
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iZac said:
My Orange contract ends in May/June and although I was thinking of doing so anyway, Their awful attitude to you has convinced me to cancel my contract in sympathy.

Trouble is, they rest of them aren't much better!

IZac

Thanks for the support.
 
I'm really sorry you didn't get the answer you wanted from Tom and his team.

It's true that it is "fit for purpose", although it is not working as described by the sales team.

I'm wondering though if you can try and play them at their own game......

Tell them it's not fit for purpose!
Tell them you are unable to obtain a satisfactory signal strength in the locations you spend most of your time. As your previous phones, and those of your family / close friends are on Vodafone, you were unaware that there is limited signal in your area.

This reason should carry some weight with them, as although there is no 14 day return policy for the device itself, I believe there is for signal issues.
(or at least there was while I worked there)

Or alternatively you could suggest that there is a problem with the Wifi on the device and it is not compatible with your existing wireless setup at home.

Beyond that I think they may have you over a barrel I'm afraid and it would need some clever talking to CS, and closing your account with them in order for you to request the unlock code sooner than the three month.

I wish I could help you more. If I still worked there I would without any hesitation.
 
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I have kind of tried this already. Faulty items get referee onto apple and not dealt with in store and the regional manager knocked back a return due to signal issues.

I have given them 7 days to resolve the matter prior to me starting legal proceedings. I have a legal assistance policy via my work who appear to be interested in Taking the case on. Just going to take a long time unfortunately.
 
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30 days notice given on sat.

Only issue is that I will never get it unlocked with them unless I have been a customer for 3 months!!!!! @£&!&&&£(;£&
 
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GeekPill said:
gavcur do you have iWork, as am creating a letter for you to use.

Yes I do. Do you need me to pm my email?

Thanks
 
Letter sent to your email address gavcur, good luck. :)

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Yes I do. Do you need me to pm my email?

Thanks

When did you get that email from the Ex Office?

And I will get it from you when I am finished or I could upload it to Dropbox or another service if you dont want me to have your email. Or just post in here in quotes. So it could help others.
 
Last edited:
Letter sent to your email address gavcur, good luck. :)



When did you get that email from the Ex Office?

And I will get it from you when I am finished or I could upload it to Dropbox or another service if you dont want me to have your email. Or just post in here in quotes. So it could help others.
I would quite like to see your writing too. Sadly I don't have iWork.
 
I would quite like to see your writing too. Sadly I don't have iWork.
Ok here you are, at least it can be edited to help others.
Orange
St James Court,
Great Park Road,
Almondsbury Park,
Bradley Stoke,
Bristol
BS32 4QJ

LETTER BEFORE ACTION
Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to you in an effort to bring this matter to a close before the Small Claims Courts get involved.
On Friday 25th March 2011 I went into your Orange Store in , to buy an iPad 2 32GB WiFi+3G as most others where sold out. I first asked the sales staff if I would be able to use my prepaid Three UK sim. And the reply was there shouldn't be a problem with that.
To buy the iPad 2 32GB WiFi+3G I was told that I would have to take a 30 day contract that would only be £5, since I wanted the device I decided that it was worth the £5 extra to secure the iPAd 2 since it is in high demand.
I PAID in FULL for the iPad 2 32GB WiFi+3G which was £579, (So the iPad 2 32GB WiFi+3G fully belongs to me and has NOT been subsidised by Orange UK).


When I got home and inserted my Three UK sim it was rejected as the iPad 2 32GB WiFi+3G was LOCKED to Orange UK. So I called yourselves up to ask what the matter and was told that all iPad 2s are locked and that I would have to remind an Orange UK customer for three months before requesting the iPad 2 32GB WiFi+3G to be unlocked, and to pay a fee of £20.
This I find is totally unacceptable as I PAID for my iPad 2 32GB WiFi+3G OUTRIGHT and as such Orange UK has NO LEGAL right to place a SimLock onto said device.


On Sunday 27 March 2011 I returned to the Orange Store to return it as it was MIS-SOLD to myself and the staff of the store refused.
To provide more details the Orange Store did bring a sealed box out BUT did MY unboxing and activated in store, so this would led me to believe that Orange put the SIMLOCK on the iPad 2 32GB WiFi+3G when activating said device.
I therefore am using my legal right set out under the Sales of Goods Act and I am REJECTING the iPad 2 32GB WiFi+3G as it is NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE as Orange placed a SIMLOCK, when they told me that it was unlocked and that I PAID for it in FULL.
Also please note that since your staff didnt disclose that they would place a SIMLOCK on the device it is a clear breach of the FRAUD ACT 2006 FAILURE TO DISCLOSE INFORMATION. And I will be pleased to past ALL information onto any and all about the actions of Orange.


On Tuesday 29th March 2011, I received a reply to my email to MR TOM ALEXANDER, Chief Executive Officer UK, from a MS DONNA WIGGLESWOTH that just said how sorry they are and that upon them “investigating” that they haven’t managed to understand my complaint and to go on to say that my iPad 2 32GB WiFi+3G will remind LOCKED to Orange unless I pay the fee of £20.40.
This however does NOT provide a REASON or REASONS for me being LIED to by ORange UK staff and that a device that was PAID OUTRIGHT has a SIMLOCK on it, when Orange at no stage have subsidised the iPad 2.
Also please note that you have SEVEN days to replay to this with the UNLOCK system in place or to provide me with a new UNTOUCHED iPad 2 that has NOT been tamped by Orange UK. Or I will start Legal Action against yourself. I will also pass costs onto Orange of £40 per email, letter, telephone call and when I was instore.


I will report Orange to my local Trading Standards and the Office of Fair Trading as well as BBC’s Watchdog.
I look forward to your reply.

Yours faithfully
 
Sounds good!

Some typos to clear up:

* Location of Orange store to be added
* where - were
* some double caps, eg iPAd and ORange
* 'remind' for 'remain' in two places
* apostrophe in didn't
* lead me to believe
* pleased to pass information on
* reply rather than replay

I'd say "I called the store..." rather than "yourselves", and '"me" rather than "myself", etc.

You'll want it to be clean as possible. ;)
 
£40 per letter?

Are you a bank in disguise. That is totally unreasonable and a punitive cost which would not be held up in court.

Just go to the small claims court website and begin proceedings http://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/

You don't need a lawyer or a legal expert. Just fill out the information on the website and let them deal with it.

I would however urge you to contact Apple and escalate any complaint with them.

One of the previous posters got a refund over the phone for Apple for the locked iPad and I got a brand new unlocked iPad from a genius appointment at Apple.

I have also in ten past dealt with corporate executive relations at apple.
At the time when the original iPhone was released the screen was yellow compared to my US unlocked iPhone. I emailed sjobs@apple.com complaining about the screen and as a result Apple sent me 4 replacement iPhones one after the other because I had the same problem. Eventually they told me that the phones were fine but gave me 1GB of MacBook RAM as a gesture of goodwill.

Apple have exceptional customer service so chase them up!
 
Some typos to clear up:

* Location of Orange store to be added
* where - were
* some double caps, eg iPAd and ORange
* 'remind' for 'remain' in two places
* apostrophe in didn't
* lead me to believe
* pleased to pass information on
* reply rather than replay

I'd say "I called the store..." rather than "yourselves", and '"me" rather than "myself", etc.

You'll want it to be clean as possible. ;)

£40 per letter?

Are you a bank in disguise. That is totally unreasonable and a punitive cost which would not be held up in court.

Just go to the small claims court website and begin proceedings http://www.money claim.gov.uk/

You don't need a lawyer or a legal expert. Just fill out the information on the website and let them deal with it.

I would however urge you to contact Apple and escalate any complaint with them.

One of the previous posters got a refund over the phone for Apple for the locked iPad and I got a brand new unlocked iPad from a genius appointment at Apple.

I have also in ten past dealt with corporate executive relations at apple.
At the time when the original iPhone was released the screen was yellow compared to my US unlocked iPhone. I emailed sjobs@apple.com complaining about the screen and as a result Apple sent me 4 replacement iPhones one after the other because I had the same problem. Eventually they told me that the phones were fine but gave me 1GB of MacBook RAM as a gesture of goodwill.

Apple have exceptional customer service so chase them up!

Noted about spelling etc and am sure that OP was reading it over and edited it to what he feeled was better.

£40 is a good way of putting Orange off from doing this again. A Judge would later decide if £40 is reasonable or not.

Legal action doesnt mean that you would pay a lawyer etc all it means that you would take it to the civil court etc.
 
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A glimmer of hope.......

I called orange Cust service again this evening and after department ping pong I got to speak to a very nice chap in iPhone support.

He agreed that yes indeed the iPad should be unlocked and I should be able to use any sim I wanted. He went away and confirmed this with his colleagues to double check. After a lot of head scratching he eventually decided to call apple directly to try and sort out.

He must have access to some high level tech support. I was eventually transferred to apple myself to sort out. Initially they said as I bought from orange I will be carrier locked etc etc however she checked with yet another dept in apple this time and I am correct I. What I am saying.

Upshot is they are taking the case on to investigate and hopefully resolve however it has not been yet.

Hopefully they will be able to unlock it?? We will soon see.

This still does not change the way orange have treated me and my complaint will still he persued. Fingers crossed that apple can unlock.

I had started going through the letter using most of it and twisting it to suit. I thought it was very good.

Will keep you updated with the latest development.
 
£40 per letter will NOT put off orange. They are a multinational corporation worth billions.

£40 will however make the judge think your unreasonable and difficult and make him dislike you which isn't helpful to you at all.

I imagine Apple will simply replace your iPad with a new one like they did to me.
 
It amazes me the arrogance of these Cellular companies. All they have to do is unlock your iPad and the problem is resolved, which in effect costs them nothing to do.

Yet they would rather stamp all over their customers in an effort to defend their actions which are quite simply indefensible.

Hope you get it resolved, as it makes me angry reading this !
 
£40 per letter will NOT put off orange. They are a multinational corporation worth billions.

£40 will however make the judge think your unreasonable and difficult and make him dislike you which isn't helpful to you at all.

I imagine Apple will simply replace your iPad with a new one like they did to me.

Well it all depends on the Judge but under the Sales of Goods act you can claim damages and the court will decide if your asking is too much or not.

If companies can charge whatever they like then people can do the same. Also Judges look at the facts and will not allow the little matter of asking for £40 a letter is over the top, as I said its up to the Judge to decide what is the correct amount to ask for.
 
My point is that your just asking for that extra money cause your annoyed and angry at orange but that doesn't show your best side.

If you win the case if you ever get to court (assuming you dont get an unlocked iPad) then you will get costs covered but your not worth £40 per letter or phone call and that's just immature to ask that. It would be more logical to claim interest as set by law against the money they owe you for a new iPad.

For the record I have a law degree and a solicitors qualification so just consider that I'm not talking out my arse here.

Personally I think Apple will sort you out and you will not proceed.
 
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spinstorm said:
My point is that your just asking for that extra money cause your annoyed and angry at orange but that doesn't show your best side.

If you win the case if you ever get to court (assuming you dont get an unlocked iPad) then you will get costs covered but your not worth £40 per letter or phone call and that's just immature to ask that. It would be more logical to claim interest as set by law against the money they owe you for a new iPad.

For the record I have a law degree and a solicitors qualification so just consider that I'm not talking out my arse here.

Personally I think Apple will sort you out and you will not proceed.

Hope apple do sort me out.

Apple have been very good with any other issue I have ever had. I did already try going direct to them and got no where but this time may be different? Hopefully they will keep up their good name.
 
My point is that your just asking for that extra money cause your annoyed and angry at orange but that doesn't show your best side.

If you win the case if you ever get to court (assuming you dont get an unlocked iPad) then you will get costs covered but your not worth £40 per letter or phone call and that's just immature to ask that. It would be more logical to claim interest as set by law against the money they owe you for a new iPad.

For the record I have a law degree and a solicitors qualification so just consider that I'm not talking out my arse here.

Personally I think Apple will sort you out and you will not proceed.

Agreed and I fully understand that civil law does not see stress of not getting the correct item etc (if you know what I mean) Plus it could be seen by some that you start off high and you then agree on a more sensible amount per a comms or all together. And IMO if you don't ask you don't get.
 
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