Where do I start? It's taken me 6 months almost to recover.
I called Orange on Dec 8th to explain I was moving house and wanted to take my broandband service with me. They confirmed, as I had checked already, that it was fine. I then asked them to go ahead, knowing that the switch over would take 10-14 days.
This was 8th Dec 2006.The day I actually moved house, (15th Dec) i called them just to check that everything was going ahead ok. I was met with a puzzled response...."Erm, what moving home request?"
I explained again about my previous call only to be told that they had no record of it. Undeterred, I again told them to start a moving transfer to my new address. There was NO other provider's broadband at my new address - the new address is also 104 metres from the BT exchange.
I called again on 23rd Dec to check progress and again, no notes, no movement of any kind. It was geting beyond a joke to be honest. At that point I really considered cancelling Orange but as I had the mobile with them, I persevered. I really should have binned it there and then.
I called AGAIN on the 29th Dec to be told there was an issue with the BT line and it was delaying the transfer. I called BT who tested the line, reported that there was NO issues with the line and the speed I should receive is up to 8mb.
I called Orange back to explain what BT had said, that they had carried out a line test etc....orange said BT were lying!
Undeterred, I then was told it would be up and running by 11th jan due to the "backlog" over xmas and new year....RUBBISH!
I called again on 14th jan, now losing the will to live as I often work at home on the PC. I was told there was still an issue with the line and I needed to get BT to check and return the results. I explained that I had already done this and BT had quite clearly said there was no issues. I rang BT back again and explained what Orange had said...they told me that Orange should be careful about where they apportion blame.
In the meantime, we've moved down the timeline to Feb 2nd.....2007!
I call and Orange tell me that the line is now active....no it's not I tell them...they then argue...I ask that someone call me back as I have been sat on the 0870 India number for nearly 3 hours trying desperately to get this issue resolved once and for all. No-ne calls back.
In total, I spent around £90 on 0870 calls when the free phone number to Garlands on Teesside would not connect me.
I spent over 38 hours in total on the phone, passed through 5 different depts and in the process speaking to over 18 different people dotted all over the world....I made in total 34 different calls and waited 55 DAYS for the broadband to kick in at the new address.
I literally have lost the will to live. I used to manage a mobile phone store in Newcastle, and when we were activating new Orange contracts, we would often sit in the registrations queue for up to 4-5 hours. That was the retail line!!!!!
I've also now experienced it from a customer point of view and my broadband speed to cap it all is stuck at 1.1 mb.
I know my way around the broadband services. I know about exchanges, routers and pretty much most things tech to do with mobiles, PC's and connections. I also used to work for Orange 3 years ago, (when they were half decent!) but the problems have arisen since they bought out Wanadoo. In their haste to get a foothold in the market, they bought Wanadoo, realised they hadn't enough money to employ the Wanadoo staff as well as run their call centres in Darlington, North Tyneside and Peterlee. In their wisdom, it appears they had to cut costs, so they shut Peterlee, explained to the staff that they were not being sacked, rather that they would have the option of working at North Tyneside, (25 miles north) or Darlington, (17 miles south).
obviously this is then going to encourage natural wasteage in terms of staff not wanting to move, so having shut Peterlee centre, they then took the existing Wanadoo call queues, and pushed them into Darlington and north Tyneside. This is now why you have such a huge wait, be it for mobile or Internet queries. They have now, I'm told, offered the old Wanadoo staff their roles back to head off the massive call queues.
They are useless and have gone from being top of the JD power surveys 6 YEARS in a row, only to destroy their reputation by making such a mess of everything.
There is a completely separate side issue of being lied to on upgrade when I spooke to retentions which is too long to explain, suffice to say what i was told would be my new package, wasn't. I spent 6 months chasing that trying to change it before they eventually did. the guy who said I could have the package, let me hang up after sorting it, only to find that the system would not give it to me. It's a points based system at Orange. Basically, the more you spend (Based on the last 3 months of contract) the higher your points, so the more they offer to keep you. A common misconception is that they reward long standing customers. In reality it counts for nothing. You could be a customer for 8 years, always pay on time, but if your bills are £30 per month, you'll be a low value band to them and it means that a customer who has their last 3 months bills at £50 will get more on upgrade.
It is ridiculous but on average, Orange say it takes them on average 4 years to get back the initial contract costs from an average spend customer.
Bottom line I suppose is, if they've done this to me, and I know how they work and I'm fairly switched on techy-wise, imagine the wool-pulling they get away with if you've no idea how it works?????
Avoid Avoid Avoid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rant over......
By the way, is 55 days the longest switchover time or has someone heard of longer???
Last edited by madlad on Thu Sep 27, 2007 1:50 pm; edited 1 time in total
You would need to have your new line up & running 48 hours before you can request a moving house. Which is probbably why it was'nt put through on 8th December. Orange tend not to blame BT but it them Orange rely on to carry out the work & over Xmas yes there was delays due to the Xmas holidays, BT informed Orange of this. When Orange tell customers this, they obviosuly think Orange is passing the buck but as you know every ISP that use's BT lines are under BT's thumb.
I agree with the person sticking up for Orange. i work for garlands in teesside on the Orange contract and know how frustrating it can be for customers all we can do is ask BT to activate the line we ask BT thousands of times a week to activat and move customers lines. BT own the telephone system so all Orange can do is ask BT so you may think you know what your talking about but no you dont
I work for them now!
BT Wholesale own everything from Exchange to property.
Global Services own everything in your home to do with the line.
As for garlands, I have spoken to your guys on a number of occasions.
Rude, arrogant, useless and a waste of money in outsourcing.
Also, judging from the way your response was written, you obviously didn't go to school either. Ever heard of full stops and punctuation?
Thought not.
I moved into a new house on the 23rd August this year (2007), and despite numerous calls to both customer services in India and the more helpful Home move guys in blighty, I am still waiting for my broadband to be transfered, which incidentally is still costing me £5 a month despite me not being able to use it!!! Admitadly I had a dunning level because of one missed £5 payment, but I cleared that on the 27th August. Orange Customer Service kept saying its a technical problem and call back in 5 days to try again. Each time I call the technical problem still exists. Each person I speak to gave me different days and times for a dunning level to be reset, and each time it passes I am still unable to transfer my broadband. Just today, I called again and they have now put the transfer through which they are now saying can take upto 25 days, let alone 15 days, and the guy suggested I called back in a couple of days, just to make sure it was going through!! I might even get a date for activation. Shows how much faith they have in there own procedure. My collegue at work had a similar problem, and made an official complaint which seemed to speed things up, but still took a month.
I am hanging in there as I too have an Orange mobile which I am tied into for another 6 months (of 1 and I am hoping there TV service will be worth it when its launched. However when my mobile contract runs out I will seriously look into the alternatives!
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