After have the usual hideous problems with Orange Broadband over the last 4 months (I won't bore you with the details but basically about 3 weeks total service out of the 4 months) I've had enough. I've spent countless amounts of time and money on their no-help overseas 0870 premium rate lines. So I threw a wobbler and wrote them a very snotty letter, and complained to the ISPA at the same time. Lo and behold I then get a reply from them and all of a sudden the connection is live. This time it lasted exactly 1 week before the dread 'PPP server down' message once again appeared and the connection died.
Phoning Orange again today I reminded them that last time we spoke I'd be asking for a MAC if it failed again, and they told me that there was no need - the account would be cancelled and the line would be clear within 10 days, then I could go to another provider. It would take almost as long for them to provide me with a MAC (according to them).
After reading comments on this board I've gone for Be.
So, do I need a MAC or not?? What I don't want to happen is for me to wait the stated 10 days, call them up and have them tell me I need a MAC after all. The downtime doesn't bother me - after having so much downtime over the past few months another few days without a connection won't bother me at all.
Thanks for your comments! Hopefully the future will soon be bright!
I left Orange last year after 2 weeks with no connection and they messed me about not sending a MAC so I cancelled and waited 10 days for the line to clear.
It was cleared in 10 days, as this is the rules, so I would say
yours should be cleared in this time period.
I have no faith in Orange due to their devious ways and constant lies.
So personally I would ring them to check your account has been cancelled.
What they tell you on the phone and what actually happens are often worlds apart.
So.... If you ring and the cancellation has gone ahead they will give you an estimate (10 working days maximum for the line to be free) when you will be fee.
If it isn't free by this date then ring them and inform them they've broken the rules, report them to OFCOM and it should go through OK.
Be have great reviews and stevelondon, who posts on here regularly, recommends them highly.
You won't regret leaving Orange and it is so refreshing & a huge relief to go with a company that provides & cares for its customers, not just their money.
So many people, including myself, leave Orange, post back here with immediate speed increases & stable connections.
Funny how the 'line faults' disappear so suddenly when people leave them!
Well, I recieved a reply to the snotty letter I sent to Orange. In it there was an apology for the poor service and they have credited 2 months broadband access fee to my account (£10).
As the title says, once again they have completely missed the point. I don't care about the money (after all at a fiver a month it's hardly going to break the bank), what I need is a reliable broadband service, which seems to be the one thing that they cannot provide. OK, I appreciate the offer and am glad they're making some effort, but I'd much rather they kept their 10 quid and spent it on fixing my problem instead!!!
I shall be writing them another letter shortly once I get my BT bill to claim back all the call costs to the 0870 number - at least now I have a name to write to. Once they've done that then they can have their 'dead-box' back and I'm off to Be!!
They have to provide a MAC code within 5 days of requesting it by law. Its part of the ofcom regulations. However, if they've cancelled the account and the connection is terminated, you can't get a MAC code (it has to transfer over from a live account I think).
I suggest contacting them, clearing stating that you've been with them for so long now, that out of that time they have failed to provide reasonable service and that you still don't have an active connection. You want a MAC code, and if they give you crap on why they can't give it, ask to speak to the ombudsman, and get in touch with ofcom afterwards. That should get it sorted.
However, you may be at liberty to pay the remaining part of your contract.
Even at £5 a month its not money you really should be paying. So, if you can get a line stable enough and don't mind waiting a bit, my suggestion would be to start heavilly downloading linux distros or something, try to get over the usage limit. 2 months of this and they should terminate your contract (and connection), and they'll stop taking payments.
Chance would be a fine thing
The line is completely dead, as it has been for the last week or so, as far as I know once you get the PPP server down message, that's it, you 'aint getting any conenction until they tweak it at their end. Having said that I've done my nth livebox reset but still the same error.
There's no way that I seem to be able to get a stable connection, so allowing them to cancel it seems to be the best way to go to me at least. OK so I'll be without a conenction for a while (but I am anyway at the moment) and I'm sick of the hassle of phoning the 0870 numbers!! Also there will be no charge from Orange as they're cancelling it, not me (that's what they said anyway!!). Only a few days to go now and the line will be clear - I've already signed up to Be now and they're just waiting for the line to clear before they enable it themselves.
Halleujah! My line cleared yesterday, my Be Box is on it's way today, and Be have given me a go date of 14/9/07!! How quick is that??? (Orange took nearly a month).
It's early days yet, but I have to say I am utterly gobsmacked by the level of service I've received from Be, fantastic communication, SMS updates on the problem ticket I raised re: the MAC issue, and they are doing what they said they'd do, when they said they'd do it! Freephone UK support with people who actually know what broadband is too.
OK, so this is really not that much to shout about - it's what we should all expect from all companies but the thing is it never happened with Orange-far from it in fact. If it had, then I wouldn't be leaving would I??
Oh, and I only came back over to Orange mobile because of the free broadband offer, so guess what, I'll be leaving Orange mobile too as soon as the contract is up.
Message to Orange - wake up and smell the coffee guys, why doesn't one of you sign up to Be and see how a broadband company should work?
The future is bright, but it's definitely not Orange!
Paul
I have to say, following on from my last post, given the stress and hassle and sleepless nights I've had with Orange, I was given an activation date of the 14th, I got text this weekend saying I'd gone live, so I followed the instructions with the Be Box, and within 5 mins I was up and running...the connection is reporting about 7.5 MBps which is better than with Orange, and the install worked (which it didn't with Orange..the old Flash 9 problem)!
So, altogether I have to say, I'm as happy a a pig in the proverbial sh*t!!
I know that I must be starting to sound like an employee of Be at this point in time, but I can't sing their praises enough, they do what they say, and it works!!!
I'm going to drop them an email saying thanks.
For anyone still even bothering to try and get their Orange broadband sorted I say this, don't bother, walk away NOW, whatever it takes, and join a decent provider!!!
Fabulous, just fabulous!!
Paul
For anyone still even bothering to try and get their Orange broadband sorted I say this, don't bother, walk away NOW, whatever it takes, and join a decent provider!!!
Trouble is you may get harrassed by Moorcraft in about 3 years time
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