Trying to Cancel Orange due to poor Service

whitey012001

Hi,

Has anybody successfully escaped their orange mobile phone contract. I am only on my second month and I have a very poor service at my post code. It shows excellent 3G coverage on the coverage map on their website. My phone displays emergency calls only and occasional show a signal but when you go to use it drops out. I walk a 50 meters and the signal improves.

My main point is the majority of the time I am at my address and cannot use my phone. I understand the signal would not be as good in my house but would expect to get a couple of bars of signal, enough to send a text message. I want to go back to Tmobile where I had a full signal in my house, if they can do it why can't orange!

If anybody knows of a loop hole I would great appreciate it.

Many thanks

Neil White

staffie1

When you signed up to the service did you not have a cooling off period during which you can test the phone and the service to see if it meets your needs? You could have cancelled it with no questions asked if you had.

Orange will no doubt expect you to pay a sum roughly equivalent to the rental charge for the remaining term of your contract if you wish to cancel. Unless there is a fault on the phone. Have you tried the SIM in a different phone? Perhaps what I would do in your position is complain about the quality of the service rather than try to get out of the contract as this will undoubtedly be more difficult to do.

whitey012001

Thanks for the quick reply.

I was unsure if it was the phone or the network, so by the time I had solved this with phones 4u the cooling off period had expired. I sent my phone back to phones 4u and they sent out a new one, this took two weeks because of a problem. My wife brought an Orange PAYG and she has the same problem with connectivity.

I have emailed them complaining about their service. When I spoke with their customer services they said there was no problem with their network so it had to be my phone!

staffie1

Well it's clearly one or the other. At the end of the day if you can't get a signal it's not fit for purpose and Orange should allow you to cancel. What exactly is the problem with the signal? Is it that you have no signal or too weak a signal and therefore cannot use it, or is it that there is a signal but you expect to see full signal strength on the screen? Does the signal improve when you step outside of your house? If so it would indicate that some structure is blocking it, therefore Orange might argue it's not their fault.

I had similar problem on vodafone - I would only have a couple of bars but the signal was strong enough to use it without any problems.

whitey012001

Thanks, In my house my phone displays "emergency calls only". Unless I am near a window when it sometimes show full signal and other times "emergency calls only". The majority of the time it is "Emergency calls only".

When I go outside the signal does improve but does fluctuate, sometimes I get a full signal other times it "Emergency Calls Only".

I have done some research on the mobile phone masts in the area and my nearest mast is a microcell which from what I can gather is a short range mast, just under 1km away (as the crow flies). My next nearest mast is a macrocell which I think is the main mast for the area 15m high with two transmitters on it etc, 1.2km away. What I think is a problem is right next to the mast and between me and the mast is a large brick wall that is hiding a bypass. I'm not sure if the mast is taller than the bypass wall but there won't be much in it. Surely this wall is obstructing the signal, the wall was definitely their before the mast!

Dickieburd

It may be worth considering to anyone who is thinking of signing up to a contract with a new network that they get a PAYG sim card first and stick it in an unlocked phone and see what the signal is in places they will be taking the phone.

You may even get free sims if you look around or you can buy them for a few pounds, most do not even need to be topped up to show signal strength on that network.

Could save a lot of bother and money especially if like the OP the chosen network is no use.

staffie1

Mmmm...I would try going to the wall and see if the signal improves when it's not between you and the mast - just to determine if that is what's causing it. It seems likely though. Not much more I can suggest. It's odd how the T-mobile phones was OK though...? Unless there's another mast...but I always thought these masts were shared by various network providers.
I'm rambling now! Hopefully someone else can help.

Dickieburd

Some areas have good coverage for some networks but not others. It is wrong to think that if you get a great signal from one network then every network will be the same.

baldelectrician

Try going in to the phones menu

settings>phone>network>network mode>GSM

It may be on dual mode, change it to gsm

orange used to do a thing called 'everyphone' which diverts your incoming calls to a landline for free. It's a network service, not a phone based service

I have it on my business contract, thye may allow you to have it due to your difficulties.

I'm afraid they won'd allow you to cancel, but try the settings change. Hope it helps.

staffie1

baldelectrician wrote: »

Try going in to the phones menu

settings>phone>network>network mode>GSM

It may be on dual mode, change it to gsm

What does that do?

Merlinexcalibur

You know, never in my wildest dreams would I ever have started to think of 'Orange' as an expletive until more recently. Run, whilst you can.