Orange 'Free' Broadband

Eva49

virgin11 wrote: »

I think if it was possible to get some type of group action we might start to get listened to.Have no idea where to start has anyone any ideas

I have contacted Watchdog, as have a few others I believe?

The more that do the same, the more likely they are to investigate.

Media coverage is what is needed and especially as the rebranding of Orange/T-Mobile/EE and 4G is very current at the moment.

Would be so good to rain on their parade!:rotfl:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/

montage

Is this in reference to the current situation or a previous one?

diamonds wrote: »

Oh I know, until the "legal team" discovered I was more educated than a irate customer they treated me with discontempt....then after several throws of their "ball" it was bouncing straight back at them till they agreed they were in the wrong I had had my terms breached to my detriment & each consecutive point I challenged was correct & I was free to leave with no termination charges (14 months if i remember correctly)....given they admitted such I upgraded as I was free to leave & accepted to the new terms on a new contract with a new mobile just to prove my point

I'm the male bit ch you dont mess with legally or otherwise

diamonds

montage wrote: »

Is this in reference to the current situation or a previous one?

Previous 07 prefix, Orange's "legal team" could not even outwit me out & that was before I started legal studies....C'est IDIOTS !

Gadgetmaster

Eva49 wrote: »

I have contacted Watchdog, as have a few others I believe?

The more that do the same, the more likely they are to investigate.

Media coverage is what is needed and especially as the rebranding of Orange/T-Mobile/EE and 4G is very current at the moment.

Would be so good to rain on their parade!:rotfl:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/

Yep, I also used that site to alert Watchdog, and agree that the more of us who who do so, the more likely they are to take up the story

David_P_4

I sent a letter of complaint to Ofcom: Feel free to plagerise, or copy it.

contact@ofcom.org.uk

I write to highlight my complaint regarding Orange’s attempt to cancel my ‘free’ broadband
I received a letter from Everything Everywhere on 3rd September 2012.
Which is a fabrication of *misnomers. [*A term which suggests a meaning which is known to be wrong.]

Letter 03sept 2012:
As a business we have reviewed the services we currently offer our customers and unfortunately it is no longer viable for us to offer a FREE broadband subscription.

Broadband with Orange was never Free.

I paid £15 pcm with Orange for my pay monthly mobile phone contract from 1999 through to 2006. [As did the majority of Orange Customers on a basic pay monthly contract]

And £17.99 pcm with Wannadoo and Freeserve for my internet connection.
In 2005/2006 when Orange acquired Wannadoo, they increased the cost of their pay monthly contract to £30 pcm, for anyone who wanted 'Free Broadband'

ExampleA:

Quote:
2006: Customers signing up to a pay monthly mobile contract over £30 per month will get free broadband. The broadband package (previously £17.99 a month with Wannadoo) includes a wireless modem and Orange Wireless & Talk - Orange's VoIP service, which offers free evening and weekend calls to UK landlines. For an extra £6 per month, customers can sign up to the Orange Anytime package which gives them free calls to UK landlines.

After Orange acquired Wannadoo/Freeserve, [2005/6] the next time my pay monthly contract became due, Orange increased that cost from £15pcm to £30pcm to cover the internet charges. As is clearly stated above.
The Orange customer rep specifically told me this.
[They also added this broadband was free for life]

IT WAS NEVER FREE. Surely a court would rule that the definition of the term FREE, would mean that anyone, even a person, who does not have an Orange account could use Orange's internet service?

That would seem to be the widely held definition of the term FREE. Would it not?
The Oxford Legal dictionary states 'Free' means : At no charge/Associated concepts: Free Access...

Letter 03sept 2012:
As the removal of a FREE product is a business decision we are unable to offer customers deadlock to take the matter to independent arbitration.

[Ofcom must know this, yet they are advising you to take your complaint to a higher level inside Orange. In other words you are giving people the runaround]

So by claiming Broadband was a Free product, Orange think they can avoid offering an independent arbitration. And Ofcom support this by allowing, or not stopping, Orange falsely claiming that the Broadband for life was a FREE product.

[Orange are in breach of a number of mis-selling and misrepresentation acts here.]

Your Industry is a corpotocracy, where regulators are dominated by corporate Influence.

Orange should be dragged through a court, and held accountable.

Also, Orange released the news of their cancellation of the broadband, to coincide with the 8 week CICAS ruling. They are cancelling the broadband in October, 8 weeks after the letters were sent out.....Yet CISAS will not look into your complaint, until after 8 weeks has passed!

By which time they will have cancelled the Broadband.

It’s a Sick Joke.

Obviously orchestrated by Ofcom and CICAS and Orange prior to notice of Oranges intent to cancel [!Free!] Broadband even being sent out.

I have sent a letter of complaint to my MPand various others, including Watchdog, which highlight the fact that this will affect hundreds of thousands of people currently receiving Orange BB.

Ofcom regulations are most certainly NOT in place to protect consumers as you have stated. Its a blatant lie. The opposite is in fact true.

Orange should be dragged through a court, and held accountable. Because Ofcom are most certainly useless when it comes to regulating the industry.

MrMister

DavidP. While I dont think the tone of your letter is the best way to make a formal complain, you do raise some very good points there.

You are in a very strong position if you were previously paying £18 for your broadband, and £15 for your mobile, and this rose to £30 for both, then that certainly doesn't fall within the definition of the term 'free'.

Maybe you should approach orange, and ask them to reduce the price of your mobile contract back down to £15 and see what they say. Although this might be a difficult argument because you have probably had a handset upgrade since then, and because you were on a £30/mnth contract not a £15/month contract you would have been offered a more expensive handset at upgrade time.

You still have a very strong case to prove that the home broadband is not, and was never 'free'

MrMister

Also, I found these old links on the wayback machine advertising freeBB


http://web.archive.org/web/20060901152830/http://freebb.orange.co.uk/offerinfo/default.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/20060901190704/http://www.orange.co.uk/time/compare/freebb_lander.htm

http://web.archive.org/web/20070102155200/http://freebb.orange.co.uk/offerinfo/
http://web.archive.org/web/20070104085711/http://freebb.orange.co.uk/offerinfo/comparebb.cfm?bbProduct=starter


And this page readlly made me laugh.

http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/phones/breakcoverhbb?ref=oukhbb

"it's all good news for you

Everything you love about your Orange broadband will stay the same."

YEAH RIGHT

youcangoogleit

Ugh, just had the letter this morning about it. What a pain the proverbial. I need to check when I'm out of contract. I've got a problem in that I live in the sticks and since they bought T-mobile it's the only decent reception available. All this goalpost-shifting really bugs me.

montage

Was you a free broadband customer or one of the £5 variants?

youcangoogleit wrote: »

Ugh, just had the letter this morning about it. What a pain the proverbial. I need to check when I'm out of contract. I've got a problem in that I live in the sticks and since they bought T-mobile it's the only decent reception available. All this goalpost-shifting really bugs me.

montage

I've just spoke to the CICAS and they are under the impression they only rule of individual cases and not ones covered by a business decision that effect many. They are contacting Ofcom and getting back to me.