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Orange Broadband - a tale of woe (long)
viktory
Posts: 7,635 Forumite
Consider this a warning to all considering using Orange. It is a long post, so if you get to the end (and I will be asking questions) you are to be commended for your staying power.
In April 2006 I moved house and also left behind my expensive, but peerless Telewest Broadband service. Therefore, I needed a new ISP. My mother in law uses Orange (Wanadoo as they were known then) and had no problems. Equally, Orange appeared to offer a good service and could get me connected quickly. I therefore opted for Orange. From the very first day I had problems. Connected did not take place when it should and from day one the service was atrocious. The modem was hideous. A huge, goliath of modems, with a flashing W in red. The internet service was equally hideous. Day after day I suffered with dropped connnections, sometimes for hours at a time.
After a few months of this, countless phone calls and endless frustration I thought that a new modem might help, so I bought a Netgear router. It made no difference to the service. Still I had more time off line than I did on line. My son and I became expert in running the diagnostics, unplugging the modem, waiting then plugging it back in. Rarely did I have a day that I could go to the computer and get instantly on line. I wrote letters, made calls, and got nowhere. I was told that if wanted out of the contract I would have to pay the remainder of the contract. I even thought it might be my computer and considered restoring it to factory settings.
Eventually, though the happy day arrived that my contract was at the end of the year. I called Orange and advised that I would be leaving them. I asked what I needed to do and they advised that they would send me my migration code and I needed to pass this onto my new provider. 2-5 days for this to arrive, they said. 3 telephone calls and 3 weeks later I received the migration code. Happy days.
I then contacted Pipex and asked them to provide my Broadband service. Certainly, Mrs Viktory, they said. I duly received a date for the connection with Pipex to being. 9th May, they day the contract with Orange expired.
Nothing. Nada. No service. I called Pipex (who, of course, had not bothered to call me. Oh dear, they said. There has been a problem with the migration code. Please talk to your former provider. So I called Orange for the millionth time, checked the code and got back to Pipex. They said it would be another 10 working days. My new date was 22 May. On 10th May Orange cut off the service, which was fine with me as my new provider was goingto take over on the 22nd. Or were there? No, of course not. The happy day arrived and lo and behold no service.
I called Pipex. Sorry, Mrs Viktory, there has been a problem. There is a tag on the line, please call Orange. At that point, I told Pipex to forget it and called Orange who adamantly denied that there was anything on the line. The only thing on your line is a fibre alarm service. (Are you still with me?? Well done!)
So I called BT who provide my phone line. Eventually, after going through many departments I got through to the BT Wholesale Fulfillment Department who confirmed that there is indeed a tag on the line and it belongs to......yep, you guessed it..Orange. There is no such animal as a Fibre Alarm Service.
I called Orange again and eventually they admitted that there was still a tag on the line. They said that they would remove the tag but it would take 10 working days.
Eventually, I decided to go with BT for my Broadband and placed the order. Service should have started on 07/06. There was another delay (thanks to Orange) and I finally went live on 15/06. Since this date, my service has been impreccable. No downtime, fast service and BT's customer service is excellent.
The moral of this long tale? Don't touch Orange with a bargepole and if you have and it is laready too late, make sure you make notes of every conversation you have.
Oh and finally, remember the mother in law at the start of the story who is with Orange? She has started having conenction problems. Here we go again.
In April 2006 I moved house and also left behind my expensive, but peerless Telewest Broadband service. Therefore, I needed a new ISP. My mother in law uses Orange (Wanadoo as they were known then) and had no problems. Equally, Orange appeared to offer a good service and could get me connected quickly. I therefore opted for Orange. From the very first day I had problems. Connected did not take place when it should and from day one the service was atrocious. The modem was hideous. A huge, goliath of modems, with a flashing W in red. The internet service was equally hideous. Day after day I suffered with dropped connnections, sometimes for hours at a time.
After a few months of this, countless phone calls and endless frustration I thought that a new modem might help, so I bought a Netgear router. It made no difference to the service. Still I had more time off line than I did on line. My son and I became expert in running the diagnostics, unplugging the modem, waiting then plugging it back in. Rarely did I have a day that I could go to the computer and get instantly on line. I wrote letters, made calls, and got nowhere. I was told that if wanted out of the contract I would have to pay the remainder of the contract. I even thought it might be my computer and considered restoring it to factory settings.
Eventually, though the happy day arrived that my contract was at the end of the year. I called Orange and advised that I would be leaving them. I asked what I needed to do and they advised that they would send me my migration code and I needed to pass this onto my new provider. 2-5 days for this to arrive, they said. 3 telephone calls and 3 weeks later I received the migration code. Happy days.
I then contacted Pipex and asked them to provide my Broadband service. Certainly, Mrs Viktory, they said. I duly received a date for the connection with Pipex to being. 9th May, they day the contract with Orange expired.
Nothing. Nada. No service. I called Pipex (who, of course, had not bothered to call me. Oh dear, they said. There has been a problem with the migration code. Please talk to your former provider. So I called Orange for the millionth time, checked the code and got back to Pipex. They said it would be another 10 working days. My new date was 22 May. On 10th May Orange cut off the service, which was fine with me as my new provider was goingto take over on the 22nd. Or were there? No, of course not. The happy day arrived and lo and behold no service.
I called Pipex. Sorry, Mrs Viktory, there has been a problem. There is a tag on the line, please call Orange. At that point, I told Pipex to forget it and called Orange who adamantly denied that there was anything on the line. The only thing on your line is a fibre alarm service. (Are you still with me?? Well done!)
So I called BT who provide my phone line. Eventually, after going through many departments I got through to the BT Wholesale Fulfillment Department who confirmed that there is indeed a tag on the line and it belongs to......yep, you guessed it..Orange. There is no such animal as a Fibre Alarm Service.
I called Orange again and eventually they admitted that there was still a tag on the line. They said that they would remove the tag but it would take 10 working days.
Eventually, I decided to go with BT for my Broadband and placed the order. Service should have started on 07/06. There was another delay (thanks to Orange) and I finally went live on 15/06. Since this date, my service has been impreccable. No downtime, fast service and BT's customer service is excellent.
The moral of this long tale? Don't touch Orange with a bargepole and if you have and it is laready too late, make sure you make notes of every conversation you have.
Oh and finally, remember the mother in law at the start of the story who is with Orange? She has started having conenction problems. Here we go again.
0
Comments
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oh dear
i did you not get any form of comp for the downtime?0 -
Wow...interesting hmmm.0
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^ indeed *rolls eyes*0
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I've got no problems with Orange.
For some reason when one person has a problem with a company they assume everyone else will, this is simply not true.
I've said this before on here if you listen to everyone on this forum and followed their advice not to buy from a particular company you'd never be able to buy anything again.0 -
Out of the frying pan into the fire, Pipex are even worse than Orange.0
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dangeroussports wrote: »Wow...interesting hmmm.
Sarcasm? If so, utterly needless.^ indeed *rolls eyes*
I repeat. This is the vent board. Hence my venting about the service I received.I've got no problems with Orange.
For some reason when one person has a problem with a company they assume everyone else will, this is simply not true.
I've said this before on here if you listen to everyone on this forum and followed their advice not to buy from a particular company you'd never be able to buy anything again.
I am very glad you are not having problems. You are lucky though. Orange did not end up on Watchdog for providing an excellent service! Personally, if my story can help one person, then it was worth writing.Out of the frying pan into the fire, Pipex are even worse than Orange.
If read the post properly, you will see that I didn't go with Pipex.0
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