T-Mobile picks Orange for merger T-Mobile and Orange are merging their UK operations to create the largest operator in the UK, with ownership split between France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom. The companies reckon that by merging the networks they can save €4bn running a new operation owned 50:50 by the current parents. That new operation will be the UK's …
I'm not happy about T-Mobile and Orange merging either - I left Orange to go to One2One (yep, that's how long I've been with them!) because the customer service was shocking and I could never get a signal. It makes you feel much better driving down a country road in the middle of nowhere in Winter at 4 in the morning when your mobile phone actually works!
On the plus side at least it isn't a tie up with Vodafone. My wife used to work for a company that they bought because "they liked the way they did things, especially with regard to customer service". 6 months later they were forced to change to the Vodafone way of doing things and their appalling customer service. Not only did this mean a lot of very unhappy customers, many of whom left, but also unhappy employees as they often had to deal with the Head Office staff themselves. If you work for them and get appalling service then what chance do you have as a customer?
yes One can only speak as one finds...
I've been an Orange customer for over 10 years and have found that while I've never had a problem with coverage, customer service has gone from bad to dreadful over the last 2 or 3 years, to the extent that even if they gave me my current plan for nothing I doubt I'd stay with them now. They've only kept me the last 2 years through bribery.
The problem is of course, that for every happy user for any network there will always be an unhappy user... so where does one put ones monthly money?
In my experience mergers of this sort rarely if ever improve anything for anyone.
The reason for this "merger" thing is that if it were an outright sale of T-Mobile, Deutsche Telecom and hence the German government would have to take a very large write down in their books immediately, and they don't want to. By retaining half the equity for now they can either amortise their loss slowly or postpone the writedown some distance into the future. Really,though, this is a takeover by Orange/ France Telecom. In 18 months the T-Mobile brand will be gone, and they have probably already agreed that Orange will take at least a majority stake then. This makes me pessimistic. Orange has by far the worse customer service and their "Animal" plans are stupid, whereas T-Mobile's Flext deals and Web 'n' Walk are good value. and sensibly constructed.
T-Mobile Customers should be very, very, frightened. Orange started out with decent customer service, but since then, I've experienced:
* A billing system that sends bills to someone I've never heard of, at my address
* A billing system with painfully obvious IT problems, not properly handling payments
* A SIM card which when transfered to a newer phone caused numbers from one UK exchange to be rejected as NU, but only if the phone was turned on (voicemail if off)
* A bunch of harrassed sounding staff who seem too overwhelmed to give proper support
* A (mobile) support number for my phone which seemed to be the private number of a relative of the support person.
* Idiotic SMS messages telling me what bonuses I haven't earned, this month
* An inability to respond to any communications, latterly, even when threatened with Oftel
* An opaque charging structure, entangled with "no way back" options
* And those idiotic animals
Abandon hope, all ye who enter here...
I used Orange->Virgin (T-Mobile) and just moved to 3. In cities the coverage seems the same, but in rural areas I get good Orange/3/O2 and no T-Mobile.
I remember Orange's customer service being pretty awful, and they sent us several faulty phones which we spend a lot of time messing around with sending them back again, which eventually prompted me to move to Virgin Mobile.
I think Virgin have great customer service, poor network (T Mobile's network is sooo shit!) but they've pretty much lost their differentiation now their plans are so complicated. And I really hate Virgin Media, who signed us up under a special offer they then claimed didn't exist costing us an extremely large sum of money (maybe around £150?).
The biggest shocker for me was 3: really good customer service, great value pay-as-you-go and indispensable free Skype coupled with very good network coverage. Amazing.
If anyone's looking for a new network, I highly recommending having a look at Three!
(1) The Monopolies and Mergers Commission is called the Competition Commission these days.
(2) What's happened today is that two private companies have announced a *proposed* merger. No regulatory body can possibly stop them making such announcements.
(3) The regulators will undoubtedly be all over this, be in no doubt. The current word is that the European Commission's competition bods are going to be taking the lead (as it has pan-European ramifications), and will be looking at it in conjunction with OfCom - a timetable of six months of so until they give their verdict is being talked about.
(4) As well as either blocking or allowing the merger, the regulators can also conditionally allow the merger to proceed so long as the parties agree to a number of stipulations. I dare say this is the most likely course of action.
Anyone yelping about the lack of regulatory oversight at this point in time is entirely missing the point.
"The Monopolies and Mergers Commission is called the Competition Commission these days."
"Anyone yelping about the lack of regulatory oversight at this point in time is entirely missing the point."
Words upon words, when the average citizen is looking for reassurance, in a political climate where takeovers and mergers are increasingly perceived - rightly or wrongly - as a source of concern.
The only thing I - or any of us - are "missing" is an immediate and clear public statement of the state of play from whatever the Competition Commission calls itself these days. Not unreasonable and not rocket science.
Be in no doubt? I doubt everything from govt these days other than the glint of silver in their palms...
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