I have the same problem. E-mail account deleted with no notification. Apparently it was 'suspended' 40 days ago because I was no longer dialling in, however I had no idea as it continued working. Previously when it was suspended it would stop working until I reinstated it. Not this time.
I've had this address since the start of freeserve and am livid that Orange can do this. Anyone get the impression that they're trying to discard excess baggage? ie freeserve and wanadoo customers. All new orangehome accounts can be retrieved if deleted but apparently not the older accounts.
What a pain the backside, to put it politely.
I'll give Watchdog a go.
I have discovered this morning exactly the same probems as other people on this forum. After 10 years with freeserve, and having not dialed in for at least the last 5 years, I was told this morning that my account had expired/been deleted.
Why on erth could they not have sent a warning email. The excuse I was given by "technical support" a rather dim sounding woman in India, was that I had not provided an alternative email address so that they (Orange) could do this.!! Wonderful. Yest, strangley, she asked me to verify myself with password etc, so presumably she COULD see my account details.
Like many others, I am FURIOUS and it will cause an awful lot of work.
I have been trying to find out what the Orange complaints procedure is, but can I find out how to contact them - no I can't.
Did they have a sudden mass clearout last night - it is certainly beginning to look like it.
I will investigate how to get my information off their servers as per the Data Protection Act - but frankly, where does one start. Orange Customer services do not seem to exist.
Still, I suppose there is one consolation - I will no longer receive the 400 odd spam emails a day that I was receiving.
I'm in the same boat - fsnet.co.uk email address deleted without warning.
Here's the unhelpful reply I recieved:
Quote:
Thank you for your email.
We understand your concern.
If you don't connect to a Dial-up Pay As You Go account at least once
every 260 days, the account gets expired and will be deleted from our
system.
We advise you to re-register for a new pay as you go account and read
the PAYG terms and conditions which state that you must regularly dial
into your account to prevent it from expiring. (refer the clause 6.2 and
6.3 in your terms and conditions)
We as a web support team do not have sufficient access to the required
systems to proceed with your request. Hence, we advice you to call our
narrowband technical support team on 09062 517517 who'll be able to
help you .They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, calls are
charged at 50p per minute.
If you have any further queries then please do not hesitate to get in
contact with us again.
Kind Regards,
Christina
Broadband Support
REF:WOOBB
Before this I had nothing against Orange, now I am vowing never to use any of their internet services again. I'm sure I won't be the last customer they lose over this fiasco!
Well Hutchy - at least you could find someone to write to!!
I have just remembered that one of the first things that I was asked by tech support - was, did I want to migrate to Broadband? THe implication here is surely that if I took their broadband package my email account may mysteriously be re-activated?
And why does this Orange Problems (see below) keep putting adverts for Orange on this forum?
I am utterly disgusted with Orange - their reply to you is pathetic - no apologies etc etc.
I lost my freeserve email account too on the weekend of the 12/13th August. Rang technical support Monday evening when I first discovered the problem and demanded to speak to a manager/supervisor, after a long time on hold I finally got to speak to one who informed me that it was a problem with their system deleting suspended accounts after only one day instead of the usual 60 days and that their technical support are looking into the issue. I was told to call back the next evening for an update. I then asked if they could call me back the next day rather than me spend another fortune on phone calls only to be told this wasn't possible due to the volume of calls they had been recieving about this very issue!!
I have recieved no further information in 2 weeks of calling and email. When ever I ask them if they would be able to restore my account they refuse everytime saying it is not possible. As I administer several domains of my own and know how easy it is to manage email accounts I know that this is simply not true.
I have already moved most of my email to a new email address and have no intention what so ever of going back to Orange for my main email account despite there obvious sense of humor trying to sell you broadband when you call up with a technical support issue! I would however like access to my emails to check I am not missing anything so will explore the issue of getting access under the data protection act.
Orange Address for compliants:
Customer Action Team, Orange, PO Box 73, Leeds, LS10 1WZ
And from the Orange privacy statement:
7. If You have any questions about the handling or protection of Your Personal Data or Your rights under this Online Agreement please contact Customer Services by writing to PO Box 10, Patchway, Bristol BS32 4QJ.
8. You have a right to ask for a copy of your information (for which we charge a small fee) and to correct any inaccuracies.
The fee is capped at £10 by law. However this is for the data they hold on you, they may argue that this doesn't include emails but you could always send a letter with a £10 cheque asking them specifically for copies of your emails and see what happens. Your letter should be addressed to the 'Company Secretary' at 50 George Street, London W1U 7DZ (their registered address).
Example letter:
Dear Sir or Madam
Please send me the information which I am entitled to under the Section 7(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998.
If you need further information from me, or a fee, please let me know as soon as possible.
If you do not normally handle these requests for your organisation, please pass this letter to your Data protection officer or another appropriate official.
Joined: 26 Aug 2007Posts: 1Location: North Hampshire
I had (note the past tense) a freeserve dial-up account for many years which I started accessing using broadband (NOT Orange) when my dial-up connection was superceded. At regular intervals the automatic expiry would kick in and I would simply reactivate the account online at the click of a button. This occurred with Freeserve and then Wanadoo and then Orange...nope sorry wait a minute I lied about the Orange bit.
These guys deleted my account last weekend without warning. I thought at first it was the usual 'you haven't dialled up for some time your account is expiring...' type of account access denial. I wasted too much of my valuable time vainly looking for useful help on their web site - of course it's changed now, but after the online reinstatement didn't work (apparently Pay As You go dial-up accounts could no longer be reactivated this way) it was suggested I acquire an Orange Broadband access CD and I would be able to reinstate my account that way. Good old WoolWorths had one of these freebie cd's, I tried to use this to reinstate my account. What happened? Well I got some REAL nice Orange advertising installed on my pc that popped when I accessed Internet Explorer...until I wasted still MORE of my valuable time figuring how to remove them...oh but no reinstated account funnily enough. The information about reinstating dial-up account using a CD was WRONG!
So I emailed customer support (can't find that email address on their site any more - been removed I expect). They replied, told me my account has been deleted and to telephone their 50p a minute support line. Had a slow and frustrating chat with someone in India who told me the account had been deleted...and to ring customer support! Of course I whined a little (and at speed - at 50p a minute I wasn't going to let them earn from me giving them a piece of my mind) and said I'd had no warning about it's impending deletion. I RANG customer support - hey, hey , no more 50p a minute nonsense here. And they said - yes my account had been deleted. Call me slow but I was beginning to notice a pattern here. My many years previous experience with the other service providers kept this account alive and that far from it being inactive I used it pretty much daily. The faceless 'they' aid 'they' would check it out and telephone ME when they found out whether it had really been deleted or if it could be retrieved.
Very strangely 'they' haven't called me back.
I have lost the will to pursue this with them further. I'd had this account for many, many years and it was a useful point of contact with former colleagues and with far-flung acquaintances I didn't know all that well but liked to keep in contact with. My myriad subscriptions to various websites were set up through this account and MOST importantly I shall miss the shed-load of daily spam that would always occupy MORE of my valuable time deleting it. ( I know I was a sucker for punishment).
Actually I have lost some contact addresses and some photos attached to email that I am a bit sad to lose but I guess that's my fault for relying on a facility provided by a large international company who obviously doesn't give a monkeys about customer service and would really rather not be bothered with all these free accounts it has inherited along the way.
If they had TOLD me they wanted me to go I would have taken my contact list and packed up my few sentimental photos...I think I would have left the spam...and gone to a bigger, better, free email account elsewhere. (Hello Googlemail!)
So well done Orange - you can rely on me for a negative recommendation in future and don't expect me to do business with you if I can possibly avoid it. I just hope you don't buy up my current broadband ISP...or my mobile phone provider or anything else I have anything to do with.
Thanks you for taking the time to read this
Rant over.
Joined: 26 Aug 2007Posts: 35Location: Wiltshire UK
The same thing has happened to me today - August 26th 2007.
I have been using my dial up fsworld.co.uk account for about 5 years and it bascially has my life on it, personal and professional. Got the same story from Indian call centre and told that I was sent an email to the account back in Feb 07 warning me of this rule. I don't remember it, never read it and probably deleted it thinking it was Orange advertising etc.
I am absoluteley determined to get my emails back, starting on Tuesday after the bank holiday and I will be contacting just about every department and causing a major fuss till I get them back, or else I will prosecute Orange for misleading me and stealing my property and I will take this to the press, my MP, Watchdog etc.
If anyone wants to join me in this, email me. I have a new hotmail account starting from today.
Thanks Deborah, Wiltshire UK
Just got off a call to India ref...yes you guessed it an fsnet e-mail account disappearing into a now obviously brimming pool of other accounts, this morning.
Nothing we can do, we had no other account, didn't have to tell you, heres the OFCOM number, etc etc........
I will be only to happy to get together with anyone else who wants to explore this sudden clear out.....I too have alternate addresses so not everything is too bad I guess but I did have some important stuff I could do without losing. I like the data protection angle so I will start with that.
Oh yes and just guess who took out Three new phone contracts with this company........can't wait for the phone bills to arrive......anyone no any way of getting out of a contract early???
The same issue as everyone else, happily downloaded my freeserve.co.uk email yesterday, unable to connect today. Tried & failed to re-enable my account through the Orange website, so eventually called customer services only to be told my account has been deleted because it had not been connected to (in fact I have not dialled up to this account for the last 4 years, always connected via another ISP & re activated the account every time it was suspended). I had the most childish argument with a manager at Orange customer services “Please restore my account – No, Please restore my account – No” etc. I asked if Orange still held the MX record for Freeserve.co.uk only to be told he did not know what a MX record was & that I would need to contact technical support at 50p per minute to continue this conversation – asked to be connected, was refused. After an hour of this I gave up.
So does anyone think there is a way of recovering a deleted account through Orange? Obviously the account details still exist, I was asked to confirm letters from my password to prove who I was, the fact that Orange refuse to re-create any freeserve accounts is their way of removing any legacy non profit making accounts they inherited from wanadoo & freeserve.
I'm happy to join in with any protest to Watchdog etc.
Joined: 26 Aug 2007Posts: 35Location: Wiltshire UK
I really need to recover my account after losing 5 years of work etc. I reckon we might stand more chance if we group together somehow and approach Orange in a group..or make a legal claim that they have unfairly deleted our accounts without proper notice:- if the warning email they claim to have sent about this way back in February had been sufficient, then none of us would be in this situation...Of course we would have used dial up to protect our accounts if they had made it clear!!
Probably best to start action on Tuesday, when they are back in work properly. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to go forward. I have tried speaking to the manager of the technical help desk and he was apologetic but said he was sorry and there was no way i could get my emails back and they've been destroyed to protect me under the data protection act in case I had bank details etc on there!!
I'm not sure if they are telling the truth when they say they are completely deleted. I'm not a technician but can't even deleted emails be retrieved by an engineer?
I think they have made a grave corporate error and have treated email account holders with complete disregard and undue warning because we are not using Orange to connect to broadband. But they have not given us adequate notice and have no right to delete personal messages and documents of a personal, and irreplacable nature, such as photographs, work documents, emails from deceased people etc.
Is it best to group together with phone calls, press action or legal action??
let me know , thanx
I have experienced the same problem with my freeserve.co.uk address - gone! According to Ofcom they should have notified people prior to the implementation of this policy. That is the issue that they will be addressing not the decision to delete the accounts themselves. I am sure that this can technically be reversed, however the man from Ofcom seemed to think that there was no chance of Orange making that decision. Registered a complaint with ISPA and wrote to Watchdog - not sure what else to do. If anyone wants to chain themselves to a phone mast - count me in!
I, like so many others it seems, have had my fsnet.co.uk email account deleted, and I know for definite that I was never sent an email concerning suspension back in February (even though I was used to it being suspended over many years now). I am extremely frustrated at this, and contacted 'Customer Support' by alternate email, and received the same reply as 'Hutchy' did (earlier in the thread).
The thing is, I'm still on Orange Broadband! And have just been upgrading since the early days of Freeserve. That email account is my main one, which I use everyday and all my important emails concerning University have now all gone up in flames it seems!
Not happy.
Joined: 26 Aug 2007Posts: 35Location: Wiltshire UK
I am losing hope that we will get our accounts back, but I am going to wait a few days to see the response from ISP, ofcom, customer action team, orange bigwigs, You and Yours Radio 4 etc.
I think the main justified cause for complaint is that we were not given sufficient notice of this - their one email six months ago to our inbox that they said they sent was woefully inadequate otherwise we would never have let this happen.
I think what we should do if we get nowhere is all join together and issue a court order (costs £50 max - i will check it out again) jointly to force Orange to put this right.
We can start a contact list of anyone that wants to do this jointly and take it from there....
let me know what you think..
Same story for me. I've just been trying to activate my fsnet.co.uk account, which I've had for 10 years or so, and have found it has been deactivated. Having read the posts on this forum I now know why. I didn't receive any notifaction either and have lost emails from friends, email addresses, emails I wanted to keep etc. Had I known I would have arranged to move them elsewhere.
Casting my mind back, when I cancelled my Anytime account I opted to retain the account as a "webmail" account i.e. Wanadoo/Orange asked me if I wished to do that. It always annoyed me slightly that it would require reactivation every 219 days, as I'm sure a brand new webmail account would not have done so, but I got used to doing that.
I can live without the account - it is more the loss of email information and addresses, plus trying to remember what emails I had sent to that address and what companies I need to contact to give them a new address. In short, a load of time consuming hassle that could have been avoided.
like everyone else I have had my very old freeserve account deleted by Orange. this was my only email account and I have had it for many years. I have accessed it almost daily for years without using dial - up and I have never recieved an email warning me that any action was impending. My account was not 'suspended' because I have used it frequently. It was just deleted. Again like many people I have spoken to the call centre to be told my information is irretrievable. The problem is huge to me, I have flight information, hotel bookings, car hire vouchers all now deleted. As well as this, trying to change information for websites involves you putting in your oringinal email for them to send to send a 'confirmation' to which you need to reply regarding the changes (i.e. my new email address), or they won't activate the changes. I need HELP!! and quickly. I will never use Orange again for anything. My entire family will be closing their accounts and their mobile phones as soon as the contracts allow. This is an outrageous thing for Orange to do, without any notification or warning.
Happy to put my name to any action that could reclaim my emails.
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