back to article Orange spent weekend spamming customers with TXTs

Customers of UK mobile carrier Orange have spent the weekend nursing their thumbs after receiving a deluge of unwanted TXT messages. The messages spruiked “Magic Numbers”, a service whereby it is possible to make “ free calls to your favourite Orange mobile and Orange Broadband Wireless and Talk numbers” that you nominate in …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Free , not for you it's not

    <quote>

    Remember: you're not charged to receive magic number reminders.

    </quote>

    My time is mine, it costs, so one you get for free, the rest there is a post processing cost of 1 GBP.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Boffin

      Re: Free , not for you it's not

      How about those Orange members who are overseas?? I can remember receiving a text costing me £1.50 while I was in China, so this would soon rack up a HUGE bill.

      Boffin Icon because we all need to know .....

      How much interest will Orange/EE earn before refunding everyone's money??

    2. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

      post processing cost of 1 GBP.

      Cheapskate. Mine's a tenner.

  2. Potemkine Silver badge

    Adding insult to injury

    Remember: you're not charged to receive magic number reminders.

    WTF?!

    Bring the rope, kid, we've got a salesman to deal with.

    1. Mark 85
      Flame

      Re: Adding insult to injury

      Hanging is too good for their kind, Sheriff. Maybe burning at the stake?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Mushroom

      Re: Adding insult to injury

      Naaahhhh... nuke 'em from orbit... it's the only way to be sure !

  3. dotdavid

    Pah, at least they're Orange customers

    I've been getting Magic Number notification texts quite regularly over the years despite the fact that I had cancelled my account and ported my number to T-Mobile...

    1. TheProf

      Re: Pah, at least they're Orange customers

      I ported my number to T-Mobile from Orange too. I don't get these Magic Number texts but I do get offers to buy tickets for shows. I tried texting the 'stop annoying me you feckers' number but was informed that it wasn't available from my number!

      I'm currently enjoying a borked attempt to transfer my number to Vodafone. Will I continue to be one of Orange's favoured customers?

      1. PeterM42
        Megaphone

        Re: Pah, at least they're Orange customers

        Orange? T-Mobile? Vodaphone?

        You obviously haven't tried GiffGaff.

  4. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Incontinent fire?

    Must be Putin's fault!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Broken by design?

    I was phoned three years running by Orange partners after cancelling my service, to see if I wanted an upgrade. That was despite having opted out of third party communication.

    I speculate that orange worked it like this: they sent lists of all customers, regardless of the opt-out to all their partners, and then sent a separate opt-out list. When I cancelled, I got removed from the opt out list, but partners kept the details of everyone they had ever been told about. Once I was off the opt-out list, they simply started using those details.

    I just heard a college complain on the phone to orange (he's been getting the texts for the last 3 weeks), and they basically said 'the computer done it'. He suggested they turn the computer off.

    1. SteveK

      Re: Broken by design?

      "I was phoned three years running by Orange partners after cancelling my service, to see if I wanted an upgrade. That was despite having opted out of third party communication."

      To be fair, all the networks are guilty of this. With Vodafone I would get on average 3-4 calls a week starting about 2 months before the contract expired and ramping up.

      With Orange, I started getting these types of calls in the first week, but that turned out to be that the number had been recycled so I was getting calls targetting the person whose number it used to be. After a week, my old number finally ported across.

  6. Velv
    Mushroom

    Orange (and now EE) really piss me off with these texts. Despite following the instructions to STOP, they continue.

    Why does it piss me off - well its not my phone, its my Mums, and she's not up to speed with this text thing yet. So I get a call - "my mobile's making funny noises, what should I do". I then need to go through the whole rigmarole again of explaining what SMS is and why she can ignore it

    EE - get your act together. Opt-out means OUT. No texts. None. Nada. Keiner. Aucun. Nessuno. Or do you like paying those Ofcom fines?

    1. Jim 40

      EE - get your act together. Opt-out means OUT. No texts. None. Nada. Keiner. Aucun. Nessuno. Or do you like paying those Ofcom fines?

      I complained about "magic number" txts from orange to OFCOM . Theu said it's not spam because it is informational! How the fuck OFCOM can think anything going by the name of "magic numbers" is anything but spam can only be due to either moron level IQ or corruption.

      That was when I ditched EE for Giff Gaff. Best move I ever made. if you are in a decent O2 coverage area do yourself a favour and move to Giff Gaff.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not only the EE customer forums but also the EE page on Facebook.. which is a prime example of how having a social media presence can go horribly wrong.

  8. SteveK

    I'm feeling left out, I didn't get a single one of these messages.

    1. Steve Foster
      Pint

      Happiness loves company

      Don't worry, you're not the only one who has not had their valuable time wasted (thereby leaving it free for more useful things [see icon]).

  9. GrayDan

    Gone on too long...

    Been receiving these texts since Saturday. Still getting them now about every 10-30 mins. This is getting very frustrating as i'm getting at least 20 a day.

    I've now had to put my phone on full silent to stop it constantly vibrating, ending up in me missing calls and actual texts from friends/family. Hopefully they'll sort this out soon as it should never have lasted this long!!!

    This is just another reason on top of a long list as to why I'm changing network as soon as possible. EE have completely ruined the Orange network ever since the merge. Very disappointed...

  10. MrDamage Silver badge
    FAIL

    Competance

    If they can't get a simple text message service running right, what sort of confidence are they instilling into their customer base that they can get anything technical on their network right?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Competance

      If you look at their fb page you'll see that they've already lost that ability.

  11. cambsukguy

    Don't other phones have Call/SMS blocking?

    I too received these messages. I was a bit surprised at first because I got the legitimate one a couple of months ago and am not use for another for a while or ever (I think there is a limit).

    Having not used it since I ran out of people with Orange numbers that I know well enough to add, I assumed it was a reminder to use it.

    10 reminders later and I thought "I will use that useful blocking facility", presumably reserved for maniac ex-s and cold callers that utilise a single number".

    This facility works for calls and, crucially, texts.

    Baked-in facility on Lumias at least, which means almost all WinPhones. I had assumed this was a standard facility on all OSs - is it not? Is there an App? Is the App from someone you trust to know everyone who calls you? Is it essentially part of the OS?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't other phones have Call/SMS blocking?

      Blocking is a standard feature on Android

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thank god its not Wednesday

    every 15 minutes

  13. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

    It's Orange.

    What did you expect?

  14. Jim 40
    Megaphone

    Orange are the shitiest of the shit

    I moved from Orange PAYG to GiffGaff about six years ago, mostly because of the Orange spam.

    I actually made a fomal complaint to the then regulator about it but the reply was that the Orange "magic numbers" spam wasn't spam because it was an informational txt from my mobile provider! I'm sorry but if anyone believes that something calling itself "magic numbers" isn't spam then they deserve all the scorn that they get.

    It wasn't till I'd been with GiffGaff for a month or two that I became aware the txt's never went missing nor were they delayed for up to several days at a time either. The GiffGaff service knocks seven colours of shit out of Orange's.

    My day job means I deal with clients who may have issues with creditors. Orange do not top the polls for worst mobile provider for nothing. The best thing anyone unfortunate enough to have business with them can do is leave for another provider as fast as they can.

    http://www.lovemoney.com/news/12583/the-uks-worst-mobile-phone-provider

  15. Lee Duckworth

    "All of which sounds like (a); a SNAFU at orange and ; (b) a fine excuse for being late to work today, in “ Orange kept sending me TXTs all weekend so I turned of the sound on my phone and slept through the alarm” kind of way."

    Muting notifications shouldn't mute alarms. At least it hasn't on any phone I have had this decade - is this an apple thing?

  16. jzlondon

    Anyone else remember when Orange first started up in the 90's? They were cutting edge, innovative, different. Wildfire? Inclusive minutes? Two phone lines on the same SIM?

    And the same is true of T-Mobile (or One2One as they were known). Completely free calls inside London.

    Now they're just sh1te. The MVNOs and Three are where the innovation is happening.

  17. F0rdPrefect
    Devil

    Spruiked!

    Spruiked ???

    For goodness sake, speak English, can't you?

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