to be annoyed at Orange effectively charging me because I have an unusual surname

[prettybird]

...trying to top up ds' mobile phone for the first time. Voice recognition works fine (they get my address via the postcode and the house/flat number) until I have to say my surname - which admittedly is an unusual one. Doesn't give me the option of spelling or typing it and says it is transferring me to Customer Services but oops "You don't have enough credit to call Customer Services so please top up".

Yes you numpty, that is what I am trying to do

How annoying! What are you going to do?

That's ridiculous, and anyway customer services should be free!

I think you can top up online, directly from some cash machines, or buy a voucher from a shop if any use to you?

Do it online?

Why is it asking for a surname anyway?

Try it again but type on the keypad rather than using your voice, so it knows to allow you to type.

Given ds' current attitude, he can go and buy his own top-up out of his own money and avoid the issue totally.

He's currently blaming me for "not being able to use his phone" . This was just after his earlier diatribe about me not being able to speak "properly" (he then tried it himself and reached the same impasse)

I was still trying to help him by setting up his Orange account and asked him to sign into his phone (he has a complicated sign in) and he huffed and accused me of hitting the wrong button again. The fact that I hadn't touched it for 30 seconds and it had gone back to its security screen is of coursne nothing to do with it.

Oh well, it means he won't be able to go out and train on his bike tonight..... which will really piss him off

I was trying to set the phone up so that I could use my credit card in future for top-ups.

I was in the process of setting it up on-line via my pc to top it up that way when I got the latest diatribe.

Ds is on his own now - he'll have to wait until he can get to a shop to buy a voucher.

He's 13 so I suppose I should now by now that everything is my fault