Orange Signal Poor to Non Existent: Can i Cancel??

5Rivers79

Hi guys,

Im on an Orange contract with over a year still to go of a 24 month contract. The signal in the past 3-4 months has gone very bad and after ringing Orange i have been told there is a network hole in my area. This was never the case when i first had the contract and the signal was fine. They have offered a 20% discount for the remainder of the contract however il still be paying for something i can rarely use.

What i would like to know is if there is anyway i can have the contract cancelled as right now im paying for an almost non existent service. Thank you.

peterod1

I recently had the same problem with 3. At first they said it wasn't the signal it must be the phone. So took the phone to be serviced but all was OK. Did some research and found that the 3 mast had been removed and thus explained why the signal was poor, and no longer the quality I received in the past. You can check the nearest mast at www . sitefinder . ofcom . org . uk also check the orange site for their coverage checker to see it has changed for your area. Anyway, the upshot was that 3 gave me my PAC codes and let me out of my 2 contracts early without penalty only after I confronted them about the mast being removed. Bottom line is if they can no longer provide the service then you should be entitled to leave.

Techhead_2

You need to stick scrupulously to Orange's complaint procedure.
Before you do, you need to be sure that you have no signal in the vast majority of places you go, otherwise the best you can hope for is a reduction.
Write to Orange, a letter headed Formal Complaint. Tell them you no longer receive coverage as you are now in a network hole. Tell them you are rejecting their offer of a reduction and request that the contract be cancelled.
Do not enter into a discussion about other issues, just a straightforward statement of your position.
If you do not get the response you want, then you can progress the complaint to the Ombudsman. https://www.cisas.org.uk
Going to the ombudsman does not stop you from taking legal action in the future should you wish to.
One other thing to be aware of is that there was a widely mis-reported court case against orange a couple of years ago. Which some forum members like to bring up. The chap was not awarded compensation for loss of coverage, but because Orange didn't follow their procedures.

Money_Grabber13579

What's T-Mobile signal like in your area?

makavelianz

5Rivers79 wrote: »

Hi guys,

Im on an Orange contract with over a year still to go of a 24 month contract. The signal in the past 3-4 months has gone very bad and after ringing Orange i have been told there is a network hole in my area. This was never the case when i first had the contract and the signal was fine. They have offered a 20% discount for the remainder of the contract however il still be paying for something i can rarely use.

What i would like to know is if there is anyway i can have the contract cancelled as right now im paying for an almost non existent service. Thank you.

By orange giving you a 2o% they have already admited fault you just need to push through and phone them up and say it is unaceptable and ask for a pac code.

*Kat*

In my house I've been getting NO signal at all. Just my houes though? Is it worth attempting to complain about it?

gjchester

No network guarantees coverage indoors, there are too many variables. If you have coverage outside even one bar, then thats enough for the contract to be considered active.

This has been discussed many times, you have no legal right to cancel the contract if you have no coverage, the way cellphones work no network will guarantee 100% network coverage over the UK.

That said call your provider and see what they suggest, in some cases (like three recently) it's down to removal of 2g services, but in most cases unfortunatly you are stuck with the situation.

I wish there was some sort of network performance promise but unfortunalty there is not, the only thing you can do is appeal to the goodwill of your network provider .

5Rivers79

The phone will drop calls, not allow calls to be made or to be received, text messages arrive a couple hours late and i wont receive calls even when the phone shows 2-3 bars of reception. It is not the handset as Orange has swapped it 3 times and i have also tried different types of handsets and they still suffer the same problem. The problem is just not in my house but it also happens outside in my area. Surrounding areas are fine. The problem even seems to have got worse since Orange merged with T-Mobile. Its all very frustrating because the Orange website shows my area as "excellent"...

*Kat*

I'm in the exact same position 5Rivers : since the T-mobile merge I have noticed a lot less netowrk coverage. It says online I have "excellent" coverage. Which clearly I don't.

I will write to them and just ask them why my signal has turned to !!!!. See what they have to say for themselves. Paying £35 a month for something that works when it feels like is really annoying

baldelectrician

Find which mast is closer (using sitefinder) and lock the phone to that mast

Menu>Settings>Network>Manual>then pick the strongest out of T-Mobile / Orange

You may have to reset these settings when you move out of the area

I am presuming you have registered for the roaming with T-Mobile See HERE