Bad experience with Orange International Travel phone plans

[TMHCamino]

The €49.99 Orange International Travel eSIM that I bought never worked and they won’t refund me. They keep telling me I used data and made calls when I was stuck with WIFI for two weeks because the eSIM never worked. There is no customer service phone number, they won’t speak to in store and they take 24-48 hours to respond to emails. If you’re on the Camino from Australia, just use WIFI or turn on roaming from your provider. Not worth the hassle of going local. It just cost me $80 for nothing.

 

[Anniesantiago]

I am sorry this happened to you but I just have to wonder if something could have been lost in translation?
I don't use Orange, I use Vodafone, but I know a lot of pilgrims who have used Orange with no issues.

 

[Pathfinder89]

I’m sorry you had this experience. I’ve used Orange a couple times and I found it worked very well for me in multiple countries. But the set up of their eSIM is complicated with lots of detailed steps to follow. If you miss a step it may cause the eSIM to not be activated. This happened to my wife’s phone. And then one has to register the account with passport information after using it for two weeks.

 

[naplesdon]

Where did you purchase your plan? I have never had a problem when I got my simcard in France.

 

[Sanman]

I used Orange this year for an E-sim and they were terrible. They didn't send me the bar code I needed to activate the SIM and when I reached out by phone, text and e-mail for customer service no answer and no live chat! A week later i received a cut and paste answer to the issue. I swallowed teh $50 and went to another provider

 

[Rav]

I’m sorry you had that experience. I’m on the camino now, using the Orange e-sim that I bought in an Orange store in Pamplona. The staff was wonderful and set it up for me, even taking a pic of my PIN code so I’d have it handy. It was 20€ for 28 days. In León, I stopped at another Orange store and was glad I had a Spanish speaking peregrina with me, as the clerk thought I wanted to buy a new e-sim, which they didn’t sell. I only wanted to renew my e-sim for another 28 days, which they did when they finally understood.

 

[trecile]

It sounds like @Sanman and @TMHCamino probably bought their esims online, not from an Orange store in Spain.

 

[AnaRosario]

The €49.99 Orange International Travel eSIM that I bought never worked and they won’t refund me. They keep telling me I used data and made calls when I was stuck with WIFI for two weeks because the eSIM never worked. There is no customer service phone number, they won’t speak to in store and they take 24-48 hours to respond to emails. If you’re on the Camino from Australia, just use WIFI or turn on roaming from your provider. Not worth the hassle of going local. It just cost me $80 for nothing.

I’m sorry, yes can be annoying… I just opted to use my provider and pay the fee…$100 a month… life is too short to squabble, and ruin your camino

 

[Vancouver Rose]

The €49.99 Orange International Travel eSIM that I bought never worked and they won’t refund me. They keep telling me I used data and made calls when I was stuck with WIFI for two weeks because the eSIM never worked. There is no customer service phone number, they won’t speak to in store and they take 24-48 hours to respond to emails. If you’re on the Camino from Australia, just use WIFI or turn on roaming from your provider. Not worth the hassle of going local. It just cost me $80 for nothing.

I too, had a terrible experience with Orange last year. Bought a physical SIM card delivered to my home in Canada, through Orange France, as that was where I was starting my Camino. The bar code had been damaged by their own labeling such that I couldn't make it out. It took weeks to get the info to activate it, which I did when I got to France. Then, 2 weeks later, when I had to add $ to the account to keep it active, I did so online on the CF (around Belorado). And the next day, I had no connectivity. I made it to Burgos, with no connectivity, and went to the Orange store there. I told them the plan was working fine until I topped it up and now it wasn't working. They said they were Orange Spain, NOT connected to Orange France, so all they could do was sell me a new plan - not get the plan I'd just put more money into, to work! One would think that an organization that is from the same chain (Orange), would be interested in customer service, regardless of borders, but evidently, not Orange. I refused to give them more money, and would definitely never choose that plan again.

 

[VaughantownHiker]

The €49.99 Orange International Travel eSIM that I bought never worked and they won’t refund me. They keep telling me I used data and made calls when I was stuck with WIFI for two weeks because the eSIM never worked. There is no customer service phone number, they won’t speak to in store and they take 24-48 hours to respond to emails. If you’re on the Camino from Australia, just use WIFI or turn on roaming from your provider. Not worth the hassle of going local. It just cost me $80 for nothing.

My husband and I just used orange esims this month on the norte with great results. Sorry it didn’t work out for you.

 

[KiwiRon]

The €49.99 Orange International Travel eSIM that I bought never worked and they won’t refund me. They keep telling me I used data and made calls when I was stuck with WIFI for two weeks because the eSIM never worked. There is no customer service phone number, they won’t speak to in store and they take 24-48 hours to respond to emails. If you’re on the Camino from Australia, just use WIFI or turn on roaming from your provider. Not worth the hassle of going local. It just cost me $80 for nothing.

Three weeks ago I landed in Paris and, having had a good previous experience with Orange, went to their big store on Plaza de la Republique. Because I was going to Spain to hike the Camino, I needed assurance that the card I bought and had them fit, would work in Spain. I was assured it absolutely would. A week later in Roncesvalles, Spain, it all fell over! When I got to an Orange agent in Spain, they said no, it can't work. You have to have an Orange Spain sim. So I had to start again, which meant, of course, yet another new phone number. Everything now works fine, but Orange France sold me a dud with a lie. Not happy.

 

[Geebee]

I am sorry this happened to you but I just have to wonder if something could have been lost in translation?
I don't use Orange, I use Vodafone, but I know a lot of pilgrims who have used Orange with no issues.

I bought a physical sim at CDG a few weeks ago, I’ve topped it up online and it’s working fine. Now in Trabadelo using it.

 

[Viscount Gumpy of Ol']

It is worth mentioning that the world of international communications continues to evolve. It is worthwhile having a look at the international plans offered by your home provider. Many of them are now offering international plans or bundles that are not unreasonable.

For example, here in Australia, Amaysim offers international calls/texts/data at prices ranging from $25 (1Gb data/50 texts/50 mins) to $70 (5Gb data/100 texts/100 mins). These plans last for 365 days and can even be rolled over.

After many years of using various methods of communications, on my last trip I used this plan and it was such a relief to not have to worry about anything - it just worked from the moment I landed. A huge advantage is retaining your own phone number.

 

[Sandra Wolf]

Hi Viscount Gumpy of Ol great news regarding Amaysim I'm in! for our next Camino to Portugal.
We have used Vodaphone on the last three Caminos and did have trouble and where looking at Orange next. After quite a few glitches and lack of support and misleading plans in the past I am looking forward to using Amaysim as two step verification should be a breeze especially while overseas when dealing with banks etc.. Most of our comms use is using WiFi and What-sup. But on occasions needed two-step verification with my locale mobile number.
Great news thanks again.

 

[Richard Smith]

They said they were Orange Spain, NOT connected to Orange France, so all they could do was sell me a new plan -

Yes, in 2016 I found out that Orange France and Orange Spain are totally different. The scratchie top-up cards in Spain don't work if you bought the plan in France (but the French ones do if you thought to buy them prior). I could have tried the on-line French top-up but back then the language was too hard for me.
I just bought a new Orange plan in Spain, it was cheap (and cheaper than France).
This was with a physical Sim.

 

[Suzanne A]

I have a French Orange Holiday Zen E-sim which I purchased in the US before my trip and activated upon arrival. I also registered my passport with them prior to departure. My only issue was I could not call Spain from France without incurring an extra charge. It worked fine once I was in Spain. I liked the ease of not having to go to a store nor remove and replace the Sim physically.

 

[el-pe]

I used the French Orange Holiday Zen E-sim this spring, purchased and set up in the US before my trip and activated upon arrival. Also used the same e-sim in Croatia with no problems.

 

[tomnorth]

In my case, the eSIM setup process is determined by Apple. Once you scan in the QR code from Orange you’re into the iPhone setup process. You also need to unlock the eSIM with the default PIN provided by Orange, which is always 0000. I’ve had great success with Orange eSIM.

I’m sorry you had this experience. I’ve used Orange a couple times and I found it worked very well for me in multiple countries. But the set up of their eSIM is complicated with lots of detailed steps to follow. If you miss a step it may cause the eSIM to not be activated. This happened to my wife’s phone. And then one has to register the account with passport information after using it for two weeks.

 

[Pilgrim9]

" ... They said they were Orange Spain, NOT connected to Orange France ..."

Your experience is consistent with mine.

In about May 2022 I bought a physical Orange SIM from the automatic dispenser inside the Orange store at Sol, Madrid, Spain. The dispenser scanned my passport OK. The SIM seemed to work OK in Spain. I am going to call it an Orange.es SIM.

Since then I have been keeping that Orange.es SIM account alive from within Canada by making the required periodic account maintenance payments online to Orange.es. If I correctly understood the Orange.es website, my account should have worked seamlessly in Spain, France, and many other EU countries.

In May 2023 I went to France. My Orange.es SIM worked perfectly there for about a week, then abruptly completely stopped working. I checked my Orange.es account online and it showed the SIM as being still valid. Even so, I made another payment, "just in case". That did not help. My attempts to get help online and in Orange stores in France failed. If I correctly understood the quite unhelpful clerk in the Orange store in France, Orange France is a separate company from Orange Spain.

I got the impression that although the Orange.es website might promise pan-EU service, Orange.fr and perhaps other Orange companies might not feel obligated to fulfil those promises. For all I know there might even be local legislation that creates a problem for foreign-issued SIMs.

Another possible issue is some sort of conflict between normal Orange.es SIM accounts and Orange Travel SIM accounts. My Orange.es SIM account seems to somehow have been (partially?) converted into an Orange Travel SIM account. I can log into my Orange.es account and also log into my separate Orange Travel account.

A third issue is linguistics, i.e., me not fully understanding the Orange.es and Orange.fr and Orange Travel websites. IME Chrome auto-translate would not translate all of the pop-ups and sub-windows on the various Orange websites.

It is all fairly baffling, but because the Orange.es website shows that my account is in good standing, and the required periodic account maintenance payments are both infrequent and quite economical, I plan to continue making the payments online and then see how the SIM works next time I am in Spain. If it does not work in Spain then I guess I will cut it up and buy another one from some provider yet to be chosen.

 

[Pilgrim9]

Has anyone had success adding money to (i.e. recharging) an Orange.es sim prepaid account online from Canada? If yes, how did you do it please?

My attempts to use a valid Canadian Visa credit card on the Orange.es website to make a €5 payment to keep my account alive are "in effect" rejected by Orange.es. Specifically, my credit card company's online transaction display screen shows that the payment has been completed but it also shows that the payment is then immediately refunded back to me by Orange.es (i.e. two transactions: payment, and immediate refund).

My credit card has Interac and PLUS symbols on the back.

My credit card company has repeatedly confirmed that it has set up Orange.es as a valid merchant for charges on my card and that the credit card company is not flagging payments to Orange.es as fraudulent transactions.

I don't know what I am doing wrong.

The Orange.es website chat help system points me back to their online payment system, which is exactly what is not working for me. Orange.es also offers a method to make payments via a mobile phone but the phone used to make such payments must have the Orange.es SIM in it. I am situated in Canada and doubt that the Orange.es SIM would work in Canada and suspect that even if it did work, the international roaming charges would render the process not cost-effective.

If there was a telephone number to call to speak to an actual Orange.es Customer Service Representative (CSR), I might be able to make the payment that way, but I cannot find any Orange.es CSR telephone number.

Helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[VaughantownHiker]

Has anyone had success adding money to (i.e. recharging) an Orange.es sim prepaid account online from Canada? If yes, how did you do it please?

My attempts to use a valid Canadian Visa credit card on the Orange.es website to make a €5 payment to keep my account alive are "in effect" rejected by Orange.es. Specifically, my credit card company's online transaction display screen shows that the payment has been completed but it also shows that the payment is then immediately refunded back to me by Orange.es (i.e. two transactions: payment, and immediate refund).

My credit card has Interac and PLUS symbols on the back.

My credit card company has repeatedly confirmed that it has set up Orange.es as a valid merchant for charges on my card and that the credit card company is not flagging payments to Orange.es as fraudulent transactions.

I don't know what I am doing wrong.

The Orange.es website chat help system points me back to their online payment system, which is exactly what is not working for me. Orange.es also offers a method to make payments via a mobile phone but the phone used to make such payments must have the Orange.es SIM in it. I am situated in Canada and doubt that the Orange.es SIM would work in Canada and suspect that even if it did work, the international roaming charges would render the process not cost-effective.

If there was a telephone number to call to speak to an actual Orange.es Customer Service Representative (CSR), I might be able to make the payment that way, but I cannot find any Orange.es CSR telephone number.

Helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

I had difficulty and had to try three different cards before it worked.

 

[Pilgrim9]

I had difficulty and had to try three different cards before it worked.

Thank you for this, VaughantownHiker.

I have been trying various cards without success but your comment motivated me to try another one; one that was issued by a retail store and that I had never tried with Orange.es. In contrast to all the previous failures the payment with this card seemed to go through and has not yet been rejected by Orange.es.

 

[trecile]

Do they take PayPal? That's what I've used with Renfe and other Spanish business that I had trouble accepting my American credit card.

 

[Pilgrim9]

Do they take PayPal?

I wish they did but based on the attached screenshot of the payment process, Orange.es only accepts Visa and MasterCard credit cards, and Bizum.

 

[Pilgrim9]

For those wresting with the Orange.es Spanish-language website, I discovered an English version:

Love plans, mobile plans, broadband & landline Orange

Discover in Orange Spain our products tariffs and services: Mobile plans, love tariffs, broandband & landline plans. Everything you need to be conected

en.orange.es

Also, there are two telephone numbers available to speak to an Orange.es CSR in English, French, or German.

 

[Edupuschi]

I bought a physical sim at CDG a few weeks ago, I’ve topped it up online and it’s working fine. Now in Trabadelo using it.

Hello Geebee,

I'll arrive from CDG as well in april, and I was wondering if I should get a sim card right at the airpport upon arrival or wait until I get to Pamplona to have a spanish simcard. I was happy to see that it worked fine for you, as it would be more practical to have the simcard since the beginning...

Could you kindly share the carrier/plan and where they are located at CDG?

Many thanks and buen camino!