I refused to phone the premium rate number and used http://www.saynoto0870.com/ to find a cheaper number. Fat lot of good that did me, the response I got was basically 'we've deleted your email account, we won't do anything about it, unlucky!!' (obviously not in those exact words, but that was basically the gist of it).
I'm more than happy to join any group of people to take some action, and will be emailing Olaf to help jam his inbox with complaints.
Let me knwo if anyone has any success with Data Protection Act or anything else.
Joined: 26 Aug 2007Posts: 35Location: Wiltshire UK
Elhana wrote:
After all they don't want to have a techie sat there retrieving your auntie's emails because you deleted her infamous hotsauce recipe along with 1000 other requests. They draw the line and if you want to step over it there needs to be reason for it and a legal request for it would be the answer.
Ah so they may still have the emails, but it depends on how relevant the information is as to whether they will try to retrieve it....who decides what is relevant ?? the Orange god maybe..?
And add another. Freeserve address since the days of steam internet deleted today.Havent used dial up in years and they deleted it after 259 days. No email sent and according to the Supervisor (lol) i talked to they dont have to send one because according to the terms and conditions we all signed up for ( that must have slipped my mind) the can actually delete us after 90 days if we dont use dial up. Oh and Help and Technical Support pages on the site are "for guidance only"
Joined: 29 Aug 2007Posts: 9Location: Brasilia - Halfway between the Amazon and the South Atlantic!
Can't remeber the last time I dialled up (or when there was a modem card in my PC!!), had a shortcut on the desktop to reset my account, but after almost 10 years they have deleted me without warning. At 8.15pm there's an email saying the cost of dialling has gone up, by 9pm they've deleted my account
I have emailed customer service (on-line), complained to ISPA and dropped Olaf a line. Fortunately I'd down-loaded all my mail to outlook, it's the loss of my prized email address that hurts.
Don't want to sound like an advert but just registered a domain name (with pop3 account) for £10 for 2 years - maybe I'm better off as a .org.uk than a .freeserve.co.uk Have a look at the many adds - wish I'd done it sooner and got the .net or .co.uk !!
I lost my account over the weekend so I have lodged a complaint with ISPA and written to Orange. I have also written to a number of the advertisers on Orange's Webmail pages suggesting that they don't want to tainted by Orange's problems. perhaps if a lot of people contact the advertisers Orange might take notice, who knows?
Ah so they may still have the emails, but it depends on how relevant the information is as to whether they will try to retrieve it....who decides what is relevant ?? the Orange god maybe..?
Yes they will likely have some form of backup but to get access to the specific accounts to retrieve the information will likely be time consuming and it's a cost they won't really want to pay. Hence why I mentioned the legal route to force them to do this, as this usually comes at a price it would weed out the people who just want their old emails from those who "need" them. Relevance has nothing to do with it.
Understand it's highly unlikely you'll get the account back working again. They simply don't want dialup anymore as it's profits are marginal at best, thats why the recent price hike. Any accounts that are used without the dialup, just being reactivated every so often, will be seen as expenses without any real income. Sure there are free email accounts online but few of then provide pop3 access and their business models are designed for that purpose.
Yes the T&C's allow them to delete them after 90 days, it was changed a couple of months ago "up" to 290, so it's not like they're acting unfairly but from the way this has cropped up (there's not been any major problem like this on here before) it sounds like the accounts have been deleted in error.
Joined: 26 Aug 2007Posts: 35Location: Wiltshire UK
thanks for reply. I 'm not bothered about having the account up and working again I just want to copy all my emails off the account and then I don't care if it is deleted. Yes, the error was that some people never received the email 6 months ago, it was not clear enough, or it went into Spam. Even if we did receive it, we were not warned again on the day that our accounts had been suspended and therefore we were not given a chance to dial up. Is this a breach of Orange's terms and conditions? I am seeking legal advice now, so it would be useful to know.
but from the way this has cropped up (there's not been any major problem like this on here before) it sounds like the accounts have been deleted in error.
debbiec : if Elhana is correct re. the "deleted in error" comment then the legal argument may well go down the "negligent act" route and I'm certain Orange during their current customer relations crisis would not have deliberately opened another complaints floodgate.
I don't believe you'll succeed using the Data Protection Act nor will you be able to prove negligence, so a court order for the release of the emails to you is probably your only recourse.
_________________ An ex-Orange guinea pig
"The first third of our lives is ruined by our parents, the second third by 0range then along comes 02 and you die happy."
Joined: 29 Aug 2007Posts: 9Location: Brasilia - Halfway between the Amazon and the South Atlantic!
Got an email reply from Olaf Swantee this morning.... "I really appologize" and a promise that his executive team will look into it asap. This afternoon a phone call from a very polite gentleman calling himself John saying that it was a mistake and that they are taking steps to remedy the situation but it couldn't happen immediately. Maybe some hope? What was more interesting was the 10 minute phone call made to me in Brazil where I'm currently working. Seemed to be international rather than Voip. Ouch! probably cost them more than any revenue ever generated by me dialling up. Don't they have a livebox at HQ?
Thank you for that information. I am just about to email Olaf .... Like everyone else on this site, I discovered my email account deleted yesterday (fsnet), although my freeserve.co.uk and fsmail.co.uk are still active (shhh ... perhaps Orange haven't noticed). I use these addresses on a daily basis and did not receive any warning emails at all. I contacted the aforementioned Indian call centre and the helpful man there told me it was an Outlook Express problem and I'd have to call them! Thank goodness I found this forum. I have not used dial-up for years as I have Orange broadband and have just agreed to take a Livebox contract from them (more fool me!) but should this prove to be anything other than a reversible situation (ie our accounts are retrieved) I will never use or recommend Orange again . As my freeserve and fsmail.co.uk addresses are still accessible does this mean that Orange have been selective in deleting only some of the accounts or was it an error and deletions have been random? I have quickly printed out my contact addresses from the remaining accounts in a belated effort to minimise damage should these too go. Will be happy to add name/complaint/help to any campaign to flag up this disgraceful treatment by Orange and have also submitted a complaint to the ISPA. We need more publicity about this!
Just had my account deleted as well! Well annoyed. Have written a shirty email and will be discontinuing my pay monthly Orange mobile contract if I get no joy. Very angry and voting with my feet!
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