Orange Broadband better than Talktalk?

gino_76ph

Hi there!

I have been with Talktalk for more than 3 years now in total and so far our broadband has been fairly "fair". speed upgrades has been very slow (have 5-6MB max from an advertised "up to 8MB" basing on the tariff i'm on) and have had the same speed for more than a year now al though fibre optic is now available in my area (i.e. telephone number) for an additional £10/month which after checking the website would mean 26MB. better than the 5-6MB one but havn't jumped into the waters yet. i'm paying £25 for landline & boradband together.

what i do like from TT is free customer service number, free international calls to 30+ countries, free calls to 0845 & 0870 numbers and so on.

but a recent news article/review i saw on the papers says that Orange Broadband is tops in speed, customer service and overall features in its packages & tariffs.

is this true?

anyone on Orange broadband who likes to share their experience(s)?

and what would be your suggestion? would you advice me to switch now or later?


i'm always reluctant in switching phone+bb companies as it takes days (up to 2 weeks i think) with the switch and activating your home services.

i currently also have an Orange mobile phone account.


please help......


Thanks.

spud17

Not definitive but........

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

macman

gino_76ph wrote: »

Hi there!

I have been with Talktalk for more than 3 years now in total and so far our broadband has been fairly "fair". speed upgrades has been very slow (have 5-6MB max from an advertised "up to 8MB" basing on the tariff i'm on) and have had the same speed for more than a year now al though fibre optic is now available in my area (i.e. telephone number) for an additional £10/month which after checking the website would mean 26MB. better than the 5-6MB one but havn't jumped into the waters yet. i'm paying £25 for landline & boradband together.

what i do like from TT is free customer service number, free international calls to 30+ countries, free calls to 0845 & 0870 numbers and so on.

but a recent news article/review i saw on the papers says that Orange Broadband is tops in speed, customer service and overall features in its packages & tariffs.

is this true?

anyone on Orange broadband who likes to share their experience(s)?

and what would be your suggestion? would you advice me to switch now or later?


i'm always reluctant in switching phone+bb companies as it takes days (up to 2 weeks i think) with the switch and activating your home services.

i currently also have an Orange mobile phone account.


please help......


Thanks.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:I can only assume that the publication this appeared in was 'Orange Monthly'...
Please tell us which paper this was. In all the recent consumer surveys I've seen, Orange is bottom or near the bottom.

Viper_7

I've Been on Orange Broadband (max) customer for about 10 years. Never had a problem. 8mb/s connection and see about 6mb/s
No fair usage BS Free phone calls with VoIP.

Their customer service via phone is pap. Call centres just follow scripts, basically reading the Q&A from the website. Their call centres are over seas,
so communication has its challenges in both directions.
Any queries via E-mail though are answered swiftly. (Communication barriers reduced) For example, changed phone number and they had me up and running again in 24 hours.

Pay around £15.00 a month. Called to leave a few times which got it down to that price. I save more than that on the free phone calls.

No experience with TalkTalk.

All the comments I've seen regarding Orange is that it's great when it works - but have a problem and their service desk are pig awful.
If you half know how things tick though should never need to call em.

brewerdave

Freeserve/Wanadoo/HORRANGE were great for several years, no issues with connection or billing........BUT when I had problems with the second phone line & the (lack of) speed of my connection they (Mumbai Customer Services)were absolutely useless and EXTREMELY frustrating to "talk" with.
Made a move to Plusnet when I instantly got a speed boost from 2Mb to 6.5Mb (which HORRANGE insisted was impossible on my line!!!). I then suffered 3 months of purgatory trying to get my final billing sorted as HORRANGE referred me almost immediately to the debt collectors for a non existent debt!
I would never use HORRANGE for anything ever again!
In contrast my Plusnet connection has been fine for nearly 3 years now and on the 2 occasions that I have contacted them the issue has been sorted within 2 days.

gino_76ph

I just had a horrible experience with Orange customer service yesterday whilst downgrading my mobile phone tariff. and the way their monthly broadband packages have been clearly printed on the website i still feel TalkTalk is the way forward.

I've been with them for almost 3 years and being a loyal customer i have the privelage to have my say on things.

I just renewed my contract with TT for another 18 months with a discounted line rental for the next 12 months and also a discount on the fibre optic broadband. so, instead of paying £37 (for landline + FO BB) i will be paying not more than £30 per month which sounded a very good deal.

I felt i made the right decision.

gizzi.n.lemon

spud17 wrote: »

Not definitive but........

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

When you look at this site more clearly the majority of these ratings are years old... The broadband market changes so quickly that site seems a little dated. I am aware that Talk Talk came bottom of an Ofcom survey of customers on their broadband services whereas Orange came top. One thing to bear in mind though is that O2 and BE were not in the survey. The results may have been different if they had been. My previous Talk Talk experience has been awful to say the least.

spud17

gizzi.n.lemon wrote: »

When you look at this site more clearly the majority of these ratings are years old... The broadband market changes so quickly that site seems a little dated. I am aware that Talk Talk came bottom of an Ofcom survey of customers on their broadband services whereas Orange came top. One thing to bear in mind though is that O2 and BE were not in the survey. The results may have been different if they had been. My previous Talk Talk experience has been awful to say the least.

Hence the 'not definitive', however the comments are bang up to date,

e.g.http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings_comments.php?isp=83

macman

The latest Which broadband survey has the worst 4 providers as TalkTalk, Supanet, Orange and AOL. From 39% down to 27%.
Top 3 are Zen, Be, and Eclipse (84% to 77%).
02 trails in 5th after Utility Warehouse, but as we all know, UW subscribers have their own reasons for talking up their service...
So no surprises there then.

System

Well I have just moved my broadband and landline to Orange and couldn't be happier. Customer service has been great and you can talk to someone in provisioning who deals with the landline within a couple of rings of the telephone.

I was with O2 for broadband and changed when I found out that Orange are now using the BT white-label service to run their broadband operation rather than doing it themselves. This means that if you have a 21CN exchange you will get pretty much the maximum speed your line can cope with and without any of the BT limitations in terms of capped download or traffic management. Apparently other companies who use BT Wholesale don't use the white-label service so are much the same as each other.

Using the same router, I got around 11mbps download with O2 but with Orange I have seen speeds in excess of 16mbps, but normally 13-14mbps. These speeds are as measured by speedtest.net.

I now get with unlimited calls to landlines, 0845 and 0871 numbers, line rental and unlimited broadband for just £21.50 a month (you need an Orange mobile to get this price, otherwise it is £5 more).

Check that your exchange is 21CN enabled by visting the SamKnows website. If it isn't, I wouldn't go with Orange because you will just get the BT re-branded 'up to 8mbit' service which hasn't much of a reputation.

Worth noting that the bad reviews Orange got were for their old service. they are now getting award for the most improved broadband service!

bod1467

Anecdotally their broadband service was so bad that ANY improvement was bound to be noticeable. But I'm glad you're happy with the service - after all, that's all that matters.