The largest mobile operator in Romania, Orange, recently introduced a series of new services, which I at least noticed today when I went to pay the bill. Services are part of the program OrangeCare and there are 4 of them: Buy Back, SIM Agenda Back-up, Content Transfer and Insurance for phone, data card and modes. Let's take them in turn.
Through the Buy Back service, Orange undertakes to buy your old phone, after a brief evaluation at any Orange Shop, in exchange for it giving you a discount coupon, with which you can buy any other phone from the Orange store. The offer is applicable both to Orange customers and to any other person who wants to buy a phone from Orange stores throughout the country. Orange has also introduced a calculator on the website that estimates the value of the discount coupon and can be accessed here. Expect some "very good" estimates, for a fully functional 3GB iPhone 16GS the coupon offered on the website is €150, embarrassing.
The service for backing up the SIM directory is not new, it has been in the Orange offer for some time, but I will talk about it because it is part of the entire Orange Care program. Practically, this service will ensure the saving of contacts from the SIM card on the Orange servers in case of loss. To benefit from it, you need to exchange your current card for a Smart card, in any Orange Shop, activating the service costs €3, the monthly fee being €0,4.
Insurance for phone, data card and modem
Here is something relatively new on the mobile phone market, the idea of insurance was initially introduced by Say and another company, but without much success. So, Orange offers insurance for the phone, data card and modem for €1.95 per month (VAT exempt). Phone insurance applies to any phones except the following: iPhone, RIM, HTC which can only be insured upon purchase, in case of total damage you will have to pay a franchise fee of 40 lei, and the amount offered as compensation will be a maximum of 4000 lei. But the total damage is not the only thing covered by the insurance, you can even repair the phone as often as needed within the maximum limit of 1000 lei, I'm curious how "correct" these estimates will be, but until another warranty does not oblige them to the same thing only as it is Free? Anyway, the idea must be welcomed, but with a limit, because we live in Romania and Orange has never been the kind of company that really cares about its customers.
As for the data card and the modem, they can be insured upon purchase, in case of total damage they will be replaced on the spot, it is not written anywhere what happens to the lost data, but I assume you can say goodbye to them in case you don't have a back-up.
And this service has been in the Orange offer for some time, practically for 5 euros you can transfer all the data from your phone to a USB stick or, if you buy a new phone, to it. I want to inform you that if you have an iPhone and want to copy the data from the phone to the card, it is not possible, so, FAIL Orange!
Anyway, the ideas with the buy back and the insurance should be welcomed, only that there is still a little work on them, especially the one with the buy back.
