Orange 'Free' Broadband

FAITHNOMORE

Does anyone know what happens to your MAC code if you let your contract expire?
I don't really want to speak to Orange ever again and my mobile with "FREE" broadband expires the end of January but my upfront line rental with BT ends March.
I may subscribe to a payg sort of broadband deal and see what BT can offer in March or try living without broadband until March.

FAITHNOMORE

moon777 wrote: »

FAITHNOMORE wrote: »

Or - you could just ring Orange CS and ask for the unlock code - used to be £20 - safer than some other unlocking options!

Thanks for that, didn't know that was an option but then again getting help from Orange Hmmmmmmmmm

moon777

FAITHNOMORE wrote: »

moon777 wrote: »

Thanks for that, didn't know that was an option but then again getting help from Orange Hmmmmmmmmm

Its only a call to india cs 150 - a common process whether in contract or out - many do it for many reasons!

moon777

FAITHNOMORE wrote: »

Does anyone know what happens to your MAC code if you let your contract expire?
I don't really want to speak to Orange ever again and my mobile with "FREE" broadband expires the end of January but my upfront line rental with BT ends March.
I may subscribe to a payg sort of broadband deal and see what BT can offer in March or try living without broadband until March.

If your BB expires it will be removed from your line in the exchange - you will then get a £29 disconnect bill from Orange - and will have to pay a re connect fee with a new ISP.

If you use the MAC there is no disconnection and no associated fees. A MAC lasts for 30 days and you can ask for it as many times as you like every 30 days

So if you dont use it and the service ends there will be no MAC and you will get disconnect bill.

Eva49

RobbedRobbins wrote: »

why oh why are the press not covering this story? I am getting very, very angry that they seem to pick and choose who to lambast on consumer issues. Why not Orange? Can anyone out there help with this? Surely someone must know someone in the press to lean on?

Dear Sir

I write to you regarding an article you ran on 31 August 2012 by Tara Evans entitled “Orange axes free broadband for monthly mobile customers – it will now cost £160 a year (in line rental)”.

It will cost more that this as no calls are included in that price!

I am one of the consumers affected by this; along with, I suspect, thousands of others.

There is currently a thread running on MSE forum https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4133021 which at the time of writing has attracted some 39,854 views in a month.

To date, I personally, along with many others have followed the Orange Code of Practice Complaints procedure.

This has involved contacting Ofcom to obtain a case reference number which then allow contact via phone to Orange Executive Office; having been appointed a ‘case manager’ and my complaint being logged, I then followed up with a written letter of complaint which I emailed to my case manager.
All of the above was actioned on 28/09/2012.

I renewed my contract in January 2012 by way of an early upgrade, and am in contract with my mobile phone until March 2014; at the point of renewal, I asked and it was confirmed my free broadband would run concurrently with that mobile contract.

Orange now say this was an ‘Offer’ and could be withdrawn at any time, and appear to have this covered in their T&Cs, however, at the point I renewed, they ‘offered’ and I ‘accepted’ therefore a contract was formed.

The ‘free for life’ broadband was explained to me as being free for as long as I continued to renew my mobile contract.

I have spent hours researching and consider this to be a mi-sold contract.

I consider Orange retained their Mobile Contract Customers by offering ‘Free BB for Life’ as an inducement to renew their Mobile Contract for a minimum term, and most of us relied upon that representation that Orange would not remove this incentive, certainly, it was not foreseeable at the time of renewal this would be to my detriment some 5months into a new contract.
Customers are now under duress to accept the current offer which is a substantial variation in terms, and has to be acceptable……which for me, it is not.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/englan...d_internet.htm

The law says that a service provider or shop must not try to sell you a contract which is misleading in any way.
This page tells you what to do if you think your contract or product has been mis-sold.

Your contract doesn’t reflect what the salesperson said

If your written contract does not match the terms you agreed with the sales staff when you bought the service, you may have been mis-sold the contract.
You should make a formal complaint to your service provider. You can ask that the terms of your contract be changed to match what the sales person said. If they do not resolve your complaint satisfactorily, you can report them to the Office of Fair Trading.
If your service provider has a term in your contract which says they disown statements made by sales staff, that would be un unfair contract term.
If the statement made by the sales person is false and it influenced your decision to buy the service, this is called misrepresentation. If this is the case, you can cancel your contract without charges and may be able to take legal action for compensation. A false statement which influenced your decision to enter into a contract is also an example of an unfair commercial practice. This is a criminal offence.

My complaint has been ongoing since 28/08/2012 and I am of the opinion Ofcom and Orange has a very ‘cosy’ relationship!

I am of the opinion this is all connected to the 4G announcement by Ofcom and prior to the 4G auction as reported by the guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/20/4g-mobile-internet-everything-everywhere 20/08/2012.
I wasn’t until after this announcement that Orange started notifying customers of free broadband withdrawal! Of course, it could be coincidental and I may be wrong.

To date, my understanding is that an ‘Outbound Team’ has been set up to deal with logged complaints.

This was set up following a meeting on Friday 21/09/2012 between;

1 Value Team (responsible for Brand Damage Limitation0
2 Business Team
3 Legal Team
4 Ofcom

My case manager assured me this team had multiple offers at their disposal and would be in calling me to see if resolution could be reached.
The executive office (case manager) was neither present at the meeting nor privy to any offers that may be available.

To date, no such contact has been made, those who have contacted Orange for an update are being given many explanations including, the leagal team are still in discussion with Ofcom.

I write to you in the hope you may feel inclined to take up this story and give it the publicity it screams for

Yours sincerely


The above was sent 29th September 2012


to the Editor This is Money = to date - No reply

FAITHNOMORE

moon777 wrote: »

If your BB expires it will be removed from your line in the exchange - you will then get a £29 disconnect bill from Orange - and will have to pay a re connect fee with a new ISP.

If you use the MAC there is no disconnection and no associated fees. A MAC lasts for 30 days and you can ask for it as many times as you like every 30 days

So if you dont use it and the service ends there will be no MAC and you will get disconnect bill.

Thanks for all you help moon777, will hang on until nearer the date from Orange and make sure I don't let it lapse .
Will try the 150 number nearer the time as well, cheers.

RobbedRobbins

I have just heard from a DM financial journalist who is interested to look into this now it has grown to the level shown on this forum.I think if those who have fought the good fight so far and especially those who have moved to court proceedings now email their stories to [EMAIL="r.lythe@dailymail.co.uk"]r.lythe@dailymail.co.uk[/EMAIL] we may see some press response.Please try again!

Eva49 wrote: »

Dear Sir

I write to you regarding an article you ran on 31 August 2012 by Tara Evans entitled “Orange axes free broadband for monthly mobile customers – it will now cost £160 a year (in line rental)”.

It will cost more that this as no calls are included in that price!

I am one of the consumers affected by this; along with, I suspect, thousands of others.

There is currently a thread running on MSE forum https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4133021 which at the time of writing has attracted some 39,854 views in a month.

To date, I personally, along with many others have followed the Orange Code of Practice Complaints procedure.

This has involved contacting Ofcom to obtain a case reference number which then allow contact via phone to Orange Executive Office; having been appointed a ‘case manager’ and my complaint being logged, I then followed up with a written letter of complaint which I emailed to my case manager.
All of the above was actioned on 28/09/2012.

I renewed my contract in January 2012 by way of an early upgrade, and am in contract with my mobile phone until March 2014; at the point of renewal, I asked and it was confirmed my free broadband would run concurrently with that mobile contract.

Orange now say this was an ‘Offer’ and could be withdrawn at any time, and appear to have this covered in their T&Cs, however, at the point I renewed, they ‘offered’ and I ‘accepted’ therefore a contract was formed.

The ‘free for life’ broadband was explained to me as being free for as long as I continued to renew my mobile contract.

I have spent hours researching and consider this to be a mi-sold contract.

I consider Orange retained their Mobile Contract Customers by offering ‘Free BB for Life’ as an inducement to renew their Mobile Contract for a minimum term, and most of us relied upon that representation that Orange would not remove this incentive, certainly, it was not foreseeable at the time of renewal this would be to my detriment some 5months into a new contract.
Customers are now under duress to accept the current offer which is a substantial variation in terms, and has to be acceptable……which for me, it is not.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/nirela...d_internet.htm

The law says that a service provider or shop must not try to sell you a contract which is misleading in any way.
This page tells you what to do if you think your contract or product has been mis-sold.

Your contract doesn’t reflect what the salesperson said

If your written contract does not match the terms you agreed with the sales staff when you bought the service, you may have been mis-sold the contract.
You should make a formal complaint to your service provider. You can ask that the terms of your contract be changed to match what the sales person said. If they do not resolve your complaint satisfactorily, you can report them to the Office of Fair Trading.
If your service provider has a term in your contract which says they disown statements made by sales staff, that would be un unfair contract term.
If the statement made by the sales person is false and it influenced your decision to buy the service, this is called misrepresentation. If this is the case, you can cancel your contract without charges and may be able to take legal action for compensation. A false statement which influenced your decision to enter into a contract is also an example of an unfair commercial practice. This is a criminal offence.

My complaint has been ongoing since 28/08/2012 and I am of the opinion Ofcom and Orange has a very ‘cosy’ relationship!

I am of the opinion this is all connected to the 4G announcement by Ofcom and prior to the 4G auction as reported by the guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/20/4g-mobile-internet-everything-everywhere 20/08/2012.
I wasn’t until after this announcement that Orange started notifying customers of free broadband withdrawal! Of course, it could be coincidental and I may be wrong.

To date, my understanding is that an ‘Outbound Team’ has been set up to deal with logged complaints.

This was set up following a meeting on Friday 21/09/2012 between;

1 Value Team (responsible for Brand Damage Limitation0
2 Business Team
3 Legal Team
4 Ofcom

My case manager assured me this team had multiple offers at their disposal and would be in calling me to see if resolution could be reached.
The executive office (case manager) was neither present at the meeting nor privy to any offers that may be available.

To date, no such contact has been made, those who have contacted Orange for an update are being given many explanations including, the leagal team are still in discussion with Ofcom.

I write to you in the hope you may feel inclined to take up this story and give it the publicity it screams for

Yours sincerely


The above was sent 29th September 2012


to the Editor This is Money to date = No reply

The_Future_is_Bright

Taken from WHICH? website:

"Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 Banned practices
Pyramid selling has been outlawed

In addition to tackling misleading and aggressive behaviour, the CPRs outlaw 31 specific practices – such as claiming something is free when it's not and persistent cold-calling. With these 31 practices it is enough simply to demonstrate wrongdoing, and there is no need to show that it influenced the consumer's decision in any way.

The banned practices are wide-ranging and include:

• misuse of a trust or quality mark
• saying something is free when it is not
• persistent cold-calling
• falsely claiming someone has won a prize
• false 'limited time offers' like 'opening' sales
• pyramid selling
• false 'closing down' sales
• ignoring requests to leave someone's home
• inertia selling
• claiming that a failure to purchase will jeopardise the trader's livelihood
• masquerading as a consumer
• using scare tactics to give the consumer the impression their safety will be jeopardised without the product

LOOK AT THE SECOND LINE DOWN ON THE LIST:

"Saying something is free when it is not" this is a banned practice. If that is the case why oh why is orange still selling free BB. They are also using scare tactics with the threat of cutting our BB off unless we switch our landline to them.

EVA49 you deserve a medal for your input along with many others as well.:T

The_Future_is_Bright

PS Nearly 100,00 following this forum

nobby1963

nobby1963 wrote: »

Hi All,

So, although I have done the deal with Orange I still had my CISAS complaint in - after 8 weeks you are able to complain to them even if Orange do not issue you with a deadlock letter.

I have had a response from them today ;

Dear Mr Me



Rejection Reference No: 15***





Thank you for your recent application to the above scheme. Unfortunately we are unable to

help you in this matter as your complaint concerns a business decision taken by the

company you are complaining about. Business decisions fall outside the scope of our

scheme and we have no power to deal a complaint of this nature.

We suggest you contact your local Citizen’s Advice Bureau who may be able to advise you

how to pursue your complaint.

We are sorry we cannot be of further assistance on this occasion.

Yours sincerely

Blah Blah



I have emailed back ;

I find this hard to believe, are you telling me that it was a business decision by Orange to `miss - sell` to me ?

---

Just had this response from CISAS today ;



Dear Mr Me,

Thank you for your e-mail.

In essence it is, which makes it a valid complaint but we are unable to deal with it because it is also a business decision that affect hundreds of Orange customers.

The fact that it is a business decision places it outside the remit of CISAS. We however suggest you seek independent legal advice in the matter.

While we understand your frustration, we trust the above clarifies matters.

Kind regards,






So we really need to rule out CISAS as being an option to settle any Orange dispute here.

Nobby.