Orange 'Free' Broadband

rubyriley

Fitz 2012 - You have fought hard and I too am glad that you have a deal that suits you.

We shall miss you on this thread because you have been the constant voice of reason & good advice.

I still feel that Orange has wronged its customers and would like to see them held accountable and made to honour their contracts with us. I do see that you're kind of back to where you were before all of this, but your've had to work hard to get where you have (& weeks of stress!) and this is something that not all of its customers are prepared/have time to do.

I fear that if the loudest voices get "backhanders" rather than Orange honouring their contracts, then this matter will fade away much to their delight.

Eva49

fitz2012 wrote: »

Good luck to those who pursue further. I wish you all well and every success!

I too am pleased you have got a deal which suits you.

Thank you for all the advice you have freely given and especially on the buy out of my contract.

My issue is being bullied to hand my land line over to a company, that even though letters of withdrawal had gone out...........still offered free BB for a 24month contract to a forum member on 22nd August 2012.

OrangeLiedToMe

Just received a letter (it's not me who has the free broadband, it's my girlfriend), telling me about the exciting new services Orange is going to be offering as EE, and the fantastic opportunities for super fast 4G and fibre broadband.

I'll probably give that a miss ta chaps :P Odd they haven't sent my lady the same letter yet.

Just a slight aside for anyone like fitz that was gunning for an Orange Brightbox: A few months ago there was a broadband exchange that had issues and was reducing Orange internet speeds for lots of users, I phoned up and had a strange conversation with an Indian call center chap who insisted on telling me to check my Wi-Fi signal (I'm cabled) and check my router settings.

Despite me telling him the problem was theirs, and just wanting to know if it was likely to be fixed (I didn't expect an answer), he insisted on sending me a new brightbox, presumably because I was still using the old Wanadoo one. He even eventually confirmed the problem was their exchange, but still sent out the router. The service returned to normal after a few days, then my new router turned, which I've been using since. So in short, mention terrible internet performance and see if the nutty call centre chaps suggest sending you a new router.

Edit: Forgot to mention. I have no intention whatsoever of paying Orange for Line rental. I intend to switch supplier as soon as the free broadband ends.

Benno1uk

fitz2012 wrote: »

I understand others may not want to deal with Orange, but I give the above information, to inform those that still do. Maybe you can get a better deal! I tried my best and I am now happy to finally move on from this (albeit awaiting to check credits applied to my accounts!).

Good luck to those who pursue further. I wish you all well and every success!

Well done Fitz2012. It sounds like you got a good deal there. I just went for the straight £14 a month 'deal', but then again I was not tied into a contract with BT etc. Regards the Brightbox, which they sent me as part of the deal, you are right that it is a very good router. Where I was previously (with NetgearDG834 router) getting download speeds of around 6-8mb on average, it is now up around 15mb. Upload is also up slightly from around .89mb to 1.5mb. It is also VERY easy to set up - no manual entering of information - just plug it in and it works!

Others may be holding out for some mega compensation, but for me life's too short for all that!

moon777

Benno1uk wrote: »

Well done Fitz2012. It sounds like you got a good deal there. I just went for the straight £14 a month 'deal', but then again I was not tied into a contract with BT etc. Regards the Brightbox, which they sent me as part of the deal, you are right that it is a very good router. Where I was previously (with NetgearDG834 router) getting download speeds of around 6-8mb on average, it is now up around 15mb. Upload is also up slightly from around .89mb to 1.5mb. It is also VERY easy to set up - no manual entering of information - just plug it in and it works!

Others may be holding out for some mega compensation, but for me life's too short for all that!

Just a note - i have not seen anyone here holding out for mega compensation - all i have seen is people trying in vain to fight for justice.

To go from 8mb to 15mb is remarkable, its like you've gone from standard adsl to adsl2 just by changing your router.

rubyriley

The Brightbox sounds good, maybe in this sense it's time to move on, since my old Livebox is slow old technology but I'm really holding out for Orange to uphold their side of our contract. I'm going to see what happens closer to the deadline, not looking for compensation outside of what I'm currently paying for my mobile contract including broadband. I just want what I signed up for!

MissB_2

If I could take this line rental solution for the rest of my mobile contract and then get the hell out of all Orange dealings, it would be fine but they're not even tying it into existing contract lengths or anything.

But the real problem for me is that their line rental 'offer' does not work for me, as I will almost certainly have to move out of my property before the end of the contract and would not be able to take the BB with me as I would most likely be moving to a shared property that already has BB. This will therefore cost me a get-out fee that I was not going to have to pay up until they changed their policy.

I know that's very specific, but it's just the case!

However, Orange don't seem to give a Flying Fig and therefore refuse to let me out of the mobile contract which forces me to accept the line rental 'deal' that I don't want, in order to keep my BB (supposedly 'Free for Life') for the duration of my time at this property. This then, in turn, forces me to owe them a truckload of money when move out.


Fine, so I can move to another BB supplier that doesn't charge get-out fees.
But then I am stuck paying over the odds for a mobile to keep a 'free' BB service I can no longer use (because in order to get the terms of BB service that I require - and up until now, have had - I have to go to another BB supplier).

And they already know I am unhappy with my mobile contract - restrictions and changes to handsets have been forced on me.

So they can't find a settlement for that, because it's not as easy as offering me a 12month contract or to buy out my existing line rental

But they think it's OK...
MissB

rubyriley

I pay £8 a month for my landline & £5 on top for evening & weekend calls plus my "free" broadband hidden in my mobile contract billing. So the "deal" of £14 a month landline rental is pretty expensive over the 14 months left on my contract; about £80 over and above what I'm currently paying over the period. Doesn't sound much of a deal to me......

rubyriley

MissB - It's an impossible situation isn't it. They really shouldn't be looking at this case by case, everyone's situation is different, they should just be honouring the contracts! Does anyone remember signing one contract for their mobile & another for their broadband all those years ago?

MissB_2

rubyriley wrote: »

MissB - It's an impossible situation isn't it. They really shouldn't be looking at this case by case, everyone's situation is different, they should just be honouring the contracts! Does anyone remember signing one contract for their mobile & another for their broadband all those years ago?

Absolutely! And no, I don't think I ever 'signed' a contract as they took over from Wanadoo so I never had a specific contract with Orange, they just took it on.

I forgot to mention above, i also lose my free evening and weekend calls but they aren't even mentioning that!

At least with the issues with the mobile contract, although I have complained, I do blame myself for accepting their damned mobile contract again when I should have known better and just left, so I have accepted it thus far. These other changes to the BB - the only reason for staying - just make me resent it all even more.

Oh well. Maybe I will have to move out before the switchover date anyway. Now, that would put a spud up their exhaust...!
MissB