Orange 'Free' Broadband

retsbed

Got my BB extended till the end of my contract.... come Feb I will say "bye bye Orange Enough's Enough!"

Thanks to everyone for standing together against these sharks :beer:

BoatMan_3

Paully232000 wrote: »

We should make some sort of tally to see who has had there BB continued to the end of the contract, and had this template letter from Orange. Be interesting to see the numbers.

Count me in.

That's the same letter I had from Adele (after the individual one from Chris Seal in the Exec Office confirming the same thing but without all the warnings and T&C's).

Thanks again to all on here who have helped to start the landslide. Let's make sure it keeps going!:beer:

SuperAllyB

Can anyone tell me what will happen if Orange decide to enforce the data limit on those of us who have had out continuation granted? I don't mean will we fight it, i'm taking that as read? What i'm wondering is, does BB just stop working when the limit is reached? Or do Orange hit you with a big bill for the extra data?

ioscorpio

I have still not received a cancellation letter, but today received a letter inviting me to upgrade to EE fibre BB.

valleyanimal

Just got my email from Orange (EE) saying that they will continue my broadband till the end of my mobile contract in April 2013!

After getting put through to the Indian call centre, they sounded like they were aware of this issue and transferred me to the Glasgow centre. They asked 'what my issue is' and after stating that there was A LOT of traffic on this forum, mentioned Eva49( (thank you thank you thank you), Ofcom reference, letter to local MP and CAB.
They then said 'I have to read this to you'... then read out the prescibed response - saying they'll continue BB till the end of my contract.

Sounds like they're doing a BIG U-turn (just like the Govt !!!)

Keep up the fight, and keep an eye on the number of EE customers over the next 6 months - I have a feeling they'll be losing one or two (MILLION)

Thanks again all.

Will_B_Back

Hi SuperAllyB

Don't quote me ,I am no expert, but someone once told me that, measuring/monitoring would be almost impossible, due to the cost and complexity of the equipment and the sheer numbers involved.

Perhaps one of the more technically minded members can confirm or correct this.

Regards

Will

MrMister

SuperAllyB wrote: »

Can anyone tell me what will happen if Orange decide to enforce the data limit on those of us who have had out continuation granted? I don't mean will we fight it, i'm taking that as read? What i'm wondering is, does BB just stop working when the limit is reached? Or do Orange hit you with a big bill for the extra data?

I was told verbally by Phillip in the Prague call center that my broadband would be unlimited with no FUP applied. He is putting this in writing for me, but no letter has been received yet.

gawebber

As for others here, Orange have finally changed tack and agreed to continue my free bb until end of my mobile contract. For reference I dialled 150 on my mobile, asked for the 'free broadband team', and spoke to Adele.

No apology for the hours of calls over the past few months - listening to that awful hold music, controlling my shivering fury when dealing with customer services, making formal complaints only to be told they will be closed immediately, calling Ofcom and CISAS to be told my complaint is the wrong type. Basically finally being driven to give up.

What annoys me more than the end of the free deal is the difference between the image these organisations present to the wider world through their media outlets, marketing guff, etc. and the reality that we poor customers live with. Are the people at the top so disconnected that they actually believe their messages or are they having a big chuckle about us? Either way we are treated like fools.

Boardlady

Thanks to all on this forum for the very useful advice. I have now had my free broadband extended until the end of my mobile contract (July 2014) EE have confirmed that the BB service will stay exactly the same with unlimited data (yet to be confirmed in writing but agreed on the phone with Adele from the BB team).

I'm sorry to see that others have not had their complaint upheld by CISAs. May be helpful to make 2 points:

1. Free Broadband FOR LIFE is what was offered in the marketing materials, with a clause in the T's & C's enabling a change upon 'reasonable notice'. To pass a 'reasonableness test' EE would have to consider the fact the free BB was contingent on maintaining a mobile tariff above £30 a month. Therefore 2 months notice of the removal of the free BB is not reasonable when enforced under a 2 year mobile contract.

2. Mobile contract renewals were missold on the basis that the free BB would continue for the life of each new mobile contract.

Best of luck to you all. It's frustrating that Ofcom do not seem to be doing more to help here.

OrangeLiedToMe

Will_B_Back wrote: »

Hi SuperAllyB

Don't quote me ,I am no expert, but someone once told me that, measuring/monitoring would be almost impossible, due to the cost and complexity of the equipment and the sheer numbers involved.

Perhaps one of the more technically minded members can confirm or correct this.

Regards

Will

As far as I know, it's certainly possible, but in many circumstances it's not worth the effort/expenditure. Given that so many customers currently with the Orange BB have come from Freeserve/Wanadoo and the network has been passed around/on and occasionally management has been handed off I'm sure Orange have an incredibly hard time even keeping up with even figuring out what people should actually be using, never mind enforcing it =D

I know a few of my friends are still on legacy contracts from Freeserve/Wanadoo that don't resemble anything available today.

Also worth noting that each time the service transferred, we checked to see if the usage would change, and how we could monitor it so we didn't exceed the usage; every time we were told that there wasn't a reliable way they could recommend, and not to worry because they had no way of monitoring it. They said we'd be contacted as soon as they started monitoring/enforcing usage - still waiting on that :P

Nearly forgot my reason for posting, another friend has just phoned up the 0800 9801716 number and had the free BB re-instated after a brief discussion comparing prices. He did also phone Ofcom and get case numbers for Withdrawal and miss-selling, but Orange didn't seem to ask for them.

Apparently they mentioned that free bb was a "Promotional offer" that hadn't been explained particularly well/that people had misunderstood. Clearly it was repeatedly misunderstood by everyone at the time of renewal :P

A repeated big, big thank you to all the stalwart Perry Masons that have managed to get us to this fairly simple state of affairs (a few minor steps for reinstatement). I think I posted around page 18 after a few thousand views and have delighted in the traction the thread has gained, whilst being equally disappointed in the response from official channels. It does make me smile wryly that you can effectively now phone Ofcom/Orange and just start with "It's about the Free broadband withdrawal" and no-one skips a beat.

Shocking how terrible Ofcom has been with this, it seems like the most support is to be gained from competitors, BT/O2/Vodaphone etc. should be pushing Ofcom (particularly BT with the loss of line rental).

Cheers! :beer: