Orange Text Alerts - Spring Marathon

AA.

19/04/2004 at 13:30

All the hoo-har about the text alerts and what a load of pants they were!
Mr AA was alerted that I'd started running at 10.31!!

Darren F

19/04/2004 at 15:05

Thanks Orange!
And the excuse on their website is not cutting any ice with me neither.. The three people who came to watch me yesterday did not catch one glimpse and i lay the blame firmly at orange's doorstep. We had decided to use the text timing service to plan different viewing locations depending on split times i was acheiving. Well the only message they received was me phoning them after i had finished wondering where the hell they were. In hindsight it probably was a bit silly to plan viewing points using this technology but Orange had made such a song and dance about how good the service was going to be that i did not think for one minute that it would go 'pear shaped'. The text message from them at 5pm stating there was problems was not much help neither, how about sending that at 10am????
Maybe i will stick to the Berlin marathon where the German text service is tip top...

"The Future is bright, the future is Orange"???

How about BOLL***S!!!

TF1

19/04/2004 at 15:06

I'm still out there!

gtir

19/04/2004 at 15:08

Had no probs with mine at all,didnt rely on it either as i doubted it would work very well,and it was free

Darren F

19/04/2004 at 15:11

'gtir' that is a fair point but the fact is
A) Orange had made a big issue that it would work, so the price is irrelevant.
B) Anyone who has ran the Berlin marathon will know it works perfect every year.So there is no excuse.

If cannot deliver the goods then don't promise!!!

If i did that in my job then i would be sacked!

Pantman

19/04/2004 at 15:14

Good points, Darren.

Service was not brillo and got me unnecessarily worried about DNFs

Sean Mitchell

19/04/2004 at 15:28

Actually I wonder if it was the chip timing bods that got it wrong.

My published time was revised between 08:00 and 11:00 this morning from 3h28 to 3h26. It has made me look a fool with friends who were having a friendly bet on my finish time.

Did anyone else have this problem, I know I am not going mad because I cut and pasted the page.

Needless to say I believe the revised time is correct.

Scallop

19/04/2004 at 15:33

Sean - the initial times up this morning were clock times. They have since been updated with chip times. I assume in your case it took 2 mins for you to cross the line?

Sean Mitchell

19/04/2004 at 15:38

Scallop - Many thanks for clearing that up for me. That would explain it.

I am still a bit narked with them though.

Scallop

19/04/2004 at 15:49

Yeah i know what you mean - they did the same last year also (put wrong times up) and it stayed like that for at least 36 hours which was even worse!

As far as the text alerts go - i didn't hold out too much hope for them, and Orange have just confirmed to me why i should stick with O2!

AA.

19/04/2004 at 15:56

There must be some real red-faced Orange execs around today.

My friend was running and had an injury, so wasn't sure how he was going to get on. His wife was waiting at home for the texts and never got one, so after 2 hours was pretty worried. Fortunately, when he started walking at 17 miles he rang her and reassured her. But I bet she wasn't the only one who was a bit worried having heard nothing.

ian wood

19/04/2004 at 17:35

Mrs W was concerned as well - berlin and Paris worked like clockwork last year.

MarkM

19/04/2004 at 18:15

Not surprisingly pretty rubbish !

My parents missed me at their first point because they didn't think I'd passed 10K yet and the 'passed the start line' message they were given (via text) was wrong !

Ethel

19/04/2004 at 18:49

Absolute rubbish.

My family heard I had started at 10.30, at 10.34 they heard I had gone through 10k. According to Orange I haven't finished yet or gone past any subsequent points on the course.

(BTW - according to Orange my husband hasn't even started yet!)

I'm warning Orange now... I ticked the box on their website saying I wanted no further offers mailing to me... If I get even just one A5 flyer through my letterbox advertising their services - I'll get very very annoyed...!

The fact is they will struggle to do it next year because everyones opinion will be that it won't work.... wonder how much they paid London Marathon to do this promotion? It was a big waste whatever it was.

K C

19/04/2004 at 19:14

Orange messaging messed up my day. None of my supporters saw me at all because of wildly incorrect messages. Without the service we would have relied on conventional estimates and succeeded. Very upsetting as probably only opportunity to run the FLM.

Orange say it was the official timers

Does anyone know how I can contact the FLM to ask further explanation?

Darren F

19/04/2004 at 21:06

KC This is exactly what happened to me. I had people out looking for me and due to Orange they didnt catch one glimpse. If i had relied on conventional methods we would of arranged a set place.

It has nothing to do with network overload neiher because as Ian states, Berlin worked perfectly and i can vouch for that personally.

What a suprise that Orange blame the timers....

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