The Future's Shite - The Future's Orange

This is a large-scale rant at the incompetence of Orange, the multinational communications company.

Since I moved to the South Coast I have been using an Orange pay-as-you-go SIM card for my mobile phone. No real problems, easy to top up, cheap calls - everything was going along smoothly. Most of my texting and calling was to the Isle of Man, intially Jackie and since April to Sarah. I was able to 'buy' 500 texts for £15 meaning a single text was as low as 3 pence....

...then it all went pear-shaped. Last week I purchased another 500 texts. I tried to text Sarah but it wasn't sending properly. After a bit of investigation I realised that Isle of Man texts were now costing me 20 pence, Orange's international rate, and my 'free' texts were not being used up. Naturally I was furious. Had the Isle of Man suddenly floated away from the coast of Great Britain? Did I need a passport and visa to step off the ferry? I phoned Orange's 'help' line...

...35 minutes later and a lot of hair pulling I was told that my problem has been passed to the billing department. I would receive a response within 48 hours and any appropriate refund would be made to my account. This is the text message I received two days later (written EXACTLY as it was sent):

Hi, regarding text message getting charged when sending outside...the billing team enquired that multibundle that's been added is only for uk...no refund...thanx

Imagine getting a message like that from a supposedly worldwide firm. Not only was it poorly written, it didn't even answer the right question. I had to call back...

...After another 35 minute conversation I finally managed to get the operator to understand my problem. When he looked back at a previous text to IOM he could see it cost me 10 pence, and last week the same number had cost me 20 pence. Initially he was looking at a text I sent to Ireland. Neither this staff member, or the previous one could get their heads around the concept of the Isle of Man. Again he said he would pass it on to the billing department so I wait with baited breath for another wonderfully crafted message from them.

...rant over (unless the problem doesn't get fixed soon)