Origin Broadband - Stay Clear

keithcomben

I cannot believe a UK company can do so bad and keep trading, ,why, read on.


I had been with Origin since Jan 2017 and they were as expected a super Yorkshire company, yes there “was” another apart from Plus net! It all went wrong when Origin “upgraded” their service on 26th September 2017 and informed users this was happening and connectivity would be lost but no problem check this and if still problems contact them.


This happened and because I was away I did not report it until 30 September when I spent around 5 hours on and off the phone talking to various departments. I add that all the people I talked to were very polite especially the engineer who got me to make sure BT socket was good, (new Jan 17), and to try another router, filter and leads which all to no avail. At the end of all the conversations they said they needed to send an engineer round on either Monday 2 Oct PM or Tuesday 3 Oct AM or PM to check the line, why I do not know as phone was still working and the router was plugged directly into the BT socket. I stated I did not believe an engineer visit inside my house was needed but that was ignored. They also had the cheek to say if the fault was not my line I would have to pay for the visit. After I let my feelings known they reneged on this as stated I would not be charged in any case. I had been away for a week and needed to catch up on work and personal on line so agreed. I emphasised the fact that I needed the broadband ASAP. I used my mobile broadband to do the essential items but over the next few days had to pay over £30.00 to do this. After the first week of waiting for Origin to do anything I mitigated my mobile costs by changing my tariff to a much higher data allowance, 100Mb to 2.5Gb.


Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd went without any engineer visit or contact from Origin. I emailed on several occasions but got no reply. I decided that was enough so I emailed a final chance for them to sort it by making my house available on 15 minutes notice all day Monday 9th Oct. No reply to email and no contact. I informed them they had failed to keep their part of the contract and I was cancelling it. I signed up to Plus Net although this could not be activated until 25 October 1 month after Origin caused the issue.


I had a couple of emails saying I could not cancel as I did not give them the chance to fix the fault by allowing them into my house. I gave them ample opportunity to enter my house but suggested in writing to them that the fault was not in the house as the phone was working perfectly all the time. The new Plusnet service was also started without a visit to the house; I just plugged the router in and it worked as I believed it would. I believe the fault was further back up the line from my house and probably in the exchange where some setting or configuration was not checked or changed. I also believe they have not “upgraded” but changed their supplier to Talk Talk; in mine and thousands of others opinion the worst supplier in the industry. Another item is the deadlock letter which was supposed to be issued 5 days from 19 October and still not received, I emailed them on 29 Oct to chase this as well. They did offer me a 1-month refund and £20.00 but stipulated if I referred this to Ofcom this would be withdrawn, to me a bribe but unfortunately for them it was in writing. I have now referred the matter to Ofcom and they are now carrying out an investigation.

AVOID this once great company like the plague.

keithcomben

Following my last post it is time for an update
The Ombudsman has ruled and found in my favour instructing Origin to refund, apologise and pay compensation. Lets see how long they take to comply; I will update this site when they do or otherwise. My advice to anybody having similar problems with Origin is don't let them get away with it and don't be afraid to refer it to the Ombudsman, it is a straight forward process. Great shame as there are so many nice people working for Origin, pity the company cannot provide the service. Thank you Ombudsman.