Its now 19.2 Euros/min to call a UK 03 (see
http://movil.orange.es/tarifas/llamar-a-otro-pais/tarjeta-sim-mundo/) - so I have sent the below email to Orange Spain's CEO.
To: jean-marc.vignolles@francetelecom.comFurther to my previous below email of Sunday February 2nd 2013, to your colleague Benoit Scheen, perhaps it may be helpful for us to now focus on the core issues. It would appear that you, as Chief Executive Officer for that territory, would in fact be best placed to answer my various previous questions to Orange about certain aspects of the operation of its mobile phone brand within the Spanish marketplace.
Most of these issues unfortunately seem to involve discriminatory mistreatment of non Spanish residents and/or non Spanish speakers from other parts of the European Union who are customers of the Orange Spain mobile brand. They also involve a serious potential violation of the EU Directive restricting the maximum cost of calling ordinary landline numbers in other EU member states to a maximum of 24 cents (+VAT) per minute at the present time as well as an apparent attempt to impede the operation of the European Single Market by refusing to accept credit and debit card payments to top up Orange mobile accounts from citizens of other EU countries not permanently resident in Spain.
In descending order of seriousness from most serious downwards my current issues with Orange Spain would appear to be as follows:-
1. Overcharging Orange Spain customers at 15.40 Euros Per Minute For Calls To UK 03 Customer Service Numbers In Violation of The Spirit and Purpose of Ofcom General Condition 17 - see
http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2007/02/13/ofcom-introduces-uk-wide-03-numbers/ This action would also appear to breach the EU's current Directive restricting the maximum cost of calls to ordinary landline numbers in other member states (in this case the UK) to no more than 24 cents per minute (+VAT) if this 15.40 Euro per minute charge is also levied on any customers of networks in other EU countries who are currently roaming in Spain with Orange. These UK numbers commencing +44 3 need to all be reclassified in your Orange Spain call charges database to be only charged at the same rate as any other ordinary UK landline number.
2. Discriminating Against Any Non Spanish Resident, Including Citizens of Other EU Member States, Wishing To Use an Orange SIM Card By Refusing To Allow Non Spanish Credit And Debit Cards From Other EU Member States To Be Used To Top Up Any Orange Spain SIM Card Balances. This Seems Completely Unacceptable Given That Your Recently Launched Orange Top-Up Product Actually Encourages Use of The Orange Mobile Network As A Means Of Making Cross Border Payments. Please Therefore Make Up Your Mind Whether You Are A Large Cross Border Multi National Mobile Phone Brand Or Only A Small Parochial Xenophobic Spanish Brand Only Interested Only In Serving Spanish Resident Customers? Your Ban On The Use Of Credit Cards From Other EU Member States May Well Also Violate Various European Directives Aimed At Creating A Single European Market.
3. Discriminatorily Charging Customers Who Need Customer Service From Orange Spain In EU Languages Other Than Spanish By Refusing To Deal With Customers Who Do Not Speak Word Perfect Spanish On Your Free 470 Customer Service Line And Instead Immediately Cutting Them Off And Sending Them A Text Telling Them To Call A 902 Number Run By An Outsourced Call Centre Bureau In Their Own Language Without First Telling Customers The Cost Of Making These Calls Is 58 Cents Per Minute Plus Connection Fee of Up To 30 Cents Per Call. In The United Kingdom It Is Illegal To Give Customers Premium Rate Numbers (902 numbers called from mobiles are clearly charged at a substantial premium above the cost of other ordinary calls from mobiles to business and residential numbers in Spain) Without Also At The Same Time Alerting Them To The High And Non Standard Call Cost Of Using Such Numbers.
4. Only Providing Orange Spain Pay As You Go Customers With 3.5 Months of Online Call History To Review Their Billing Records. This Policy Will Have A Greater Impact On Overseas Orange Spain Customers Who May Only Use Their SIM Card For One Month A Year And So Will Never Have Any Significant Billing History They Can Review. However This Policy Is Generally Unnecessary and Undesirable For All Pay As You Go Customers Of Orange Spain and Since Hard Drive Space Is Cheap But Call Centre Worker Enquiry Time Is Expensive The Company Should Make The Necessary Investment To Allow Customers To Review Historic Billing Records For Up To Six Years. This Is In Line With An Agreed Industry Standard Between Large European Banks For Online Account Record Keeping Where Six Years Of Customer Account History Is Made Available Online To Avoid Customers Continuing To Need To Keep Paper Based Records. This Is Also A Green Policy Since It Encourages Customers Not To Have To Print Out Records In Order To Maintain A Full Billing History.
I must apologise for needing to raise these matters with you personally but as you can see from the below previous email chain I have tried to raise these matters in the past with your Spanish customer service staff without any success as they unfortunately appear to act in a discriminatory manner towards customers who they see as either non Spanish speaking and/or customers who are permanently resident overseas but who still use Orange SIMs.