Orchid Dialler Discount 10 December 2004 at 7:57PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Phones & TV 871 replies 150.2K views

Heinz

Arcadian wrote: »

Heinz, many thanks for the quick reply. If I could trouble you for a bit of further advice...

I've been looking for a reason to quit NTH(HEL)L/virgin for a while and from what you suggest this could be a good reason. I have phone/BB/TV with them and I pay ~£55 p/m in subscriptions ALONE. I now have freeview so I don't need the tv. The only thing keeping me with them was/is the reliable BB even tho' it's not the cheapest (~£25p/m for 4Mbps).

What worries me is the cost of switching back to BT. We have the old BT socket, I would need another line installed and this is prohibitive.

What are my options?

You could phone BT and ask about coming back - their systems should be able to identify that old BT socket and tell you whether you're eligible for free reconnection or not.

Your problem is that second line. If you have to have 2 lines, a second BT one would cost £124.99 even if the first was a free reconnection. Do you need 2 lines or would a second number on the first line suffice? Or would VOIP do?

Living in a small village I have taken the coward's way out and stick with BT for line rental (but not for voice calls) and BT Total Broadband Option 1 (£17.99/month for 'up to 8Mb' [I get 6.5Mb] with 5Gb download limit). The BB has failed once in 3 years (when some kit at the exchange fell over). Took a day to fix.

Arcadian_2

I don't think I actually need a second physical line - just a separate number (my office is in the attic, if that helps!) When we switched to NTL back in the day, they installed a second line free).

At the moment I'm paying in excess of £50p/m to VM in subscriptions ALONE! (for phone/cable TV/BB). Add to this an average monthly call spend of ~£55 and you'll see why I need to do something fast!

Ideally I'd like to ditch VM altogether (I have freeview so the cableTV can go). I'd like to have two numbers (can I port my existing numbers?) both on Orchid set ups - and using the Heinz program for ease of use/peace of mind!

As for BB - I currently pay £25pm for 4Mbps. I use the internet all the time though mostly for browsing, research. not gaming or heavy music downloads. But I need reliability. Your comment about BT's BB service is reassuring...

So, to recap, I could switch entirely to BT for my main phone line and get a second (virtual) number. And BT BB is worth a look.

What about the logistics of switching - how fast can I do it, and do I need to give VM notice? (I've been with NTL/VM forever).

Many thanks for your excellent advice - and also a massive thumbs up to the wonderful people at Orchid, who not only answered my queries in the middle of moving office, but also phoned me back today as promised last week. Why can't all companies have customer service lik this?

deefadog

Anyone know if they are back up and running now? i still can't get through on the client. Maybe the address has changed is it still this - http://82.68.122.157/

Cheers

BritBrat

Anyone know if they are back up and running now?

Not yet. I would not think the IP would change.

What was going to be a day is now a week.

The day I went live with Primus and have not been able to reset the Orchid.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=393721&page=3

Infidel

So what's new on the orchid dialler front? It seems like i could do with one of these. Sorry, i don't have time to read through 40 pages here. Any chance of a summary?? :-p Are they still in good working order with no compatibility problems and worth buying?

Heinz

Infidel wrote: »

So what's new on the orchid dialler front? It seems like i could do with one of these. Sorry, i don't have time to read through 40 pages here. Any chance of a summary?? :-p Are they still in good working order with no compatibility problems and worth buying?

Yes, yes, and yes (see HERE).

BritBrat

If you have a BT line and option pack yes they are worth it.

If you have cable then no I would not think so.

deefadog

Still no joy with the client, the serial number on my account is the old V4+ dialer box i had, so when i update I may be changing someone elses configurations!

When i update mine i am getting theirs!

Really desperate for the manual instructions for programming the V4 box as i can't make any calls to mobiles, 0845 numbers at the moment

Can some one post it on here or send my a link or something please?

Thanks in advance!

Heinz

A quick phone call to Toby or Maggie at Orchid (18185 01572 717888) should sort the wrong serial number issue out and save you messing about with trying to manually program it.

BTW, you should be able to download the V4 and V4 Plus Manual Programming Guide from page 3 of http://www.orchid-electronics.com/CWClientQuickStartUG.pdf but the link is broken - returns a '404 page not found'. I have e-mailed Orchid to report that problem.

deefadog

Thanks, spoke to Maggie, very good, now they have confiemed i ahve the wrong serial number to the box i have , so they are going to try and sort something out and get back to me!