I'm not really that knowledgeable with Broadband contracts, and having been with Orange/Wanadoo/Freeserve since goodness knows when I received a phone call last night informing me that my contract was due to expire. I've never had such a phone call before, but the guy who contacted me was more interested in flogging me a Livebox with some deal they're doing rather than renewing my existing £17.99 package. They've sent me a Livebox before (without my consent) and I returned it (at my expense no less) because it didn't work and the whole thing was far too confusing, so when he offered it to me I politely declined. He then said he'd phone back at a later date and put the phone down at his end - nothing was said about renewing my existing contract.
I've read a few horror stories here about the service Orange provide, and other than taking money from my bank account on seemingly random days every month I've had no problems, but as my contract is up I was thinking about using the opportunity to change services to something like BT in order to combine my existing phone and Internet bills. Orange offer this service but not without the Livebox - something which I really, really don't want. So, a few questions:
1. Because my contract will expire soon (I can dig out the paperwork and find out exactly when) will I merely be disconnected from Orange and free to find a new Internet service like BT without any hassle?
2. Is switching services easy, and how long will I be without the Internet for (my wife needs it for work most importantly)?
3. As my knowledge on this subject is limited and I don't want any problems if I can avoid them, would it be easier to simply renew my existing contract and keep my phone and Internet bills separate?
Thanks in advance for any replies, and apologies for the length of my post.
Joined: 13 Aug 2006Posts: 1689Location: Marylebone Central London
Quote:
1. Because my contract will expire soon (I can dig out the paperwork and find out exactly when) will I merely be disconnected from Orange and free to find a new Internet service like BT without any hassle?
Nothing will happen your broadband will just carry on as normal if they say otherise its a load of rubbish. they simply don't like people being out of contract as you then can leave of your own accord the phone call was just to get you into a new contract.
Quote:
2. Is switching services easy, and how long will I be without the Internet for (my wife needs it for work most importantly)?
Switching is usually easy these days just request a MAC code and give it to your new chosen provider your downtime should be no more than a couple of hours on migration day, if Orange say otherwise its rubbish.
Quote:
3. As my knowledge on this subject is limited and I don't want any problems if I can avoid them, would it be easier to simply renew my existing contract and keep my phone and Internet bills separate?
That is entirely up to you. im sure others will give their opinion on that.
_________________ ex Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange Blog
I had a feeling my contract would simply carry on after it had apparently expired, after all I've been with Orange at my current address for over Three years and I've never been asked to renew it before. I'll simply ignore the calls or tell the representative where to shove his contract when I'm next contacted, at least that means I can switch ISPs whenever I want to rather than waiting for a new contract to expire.
3. As my knowledge on this subject is limited and I don't want any problems if I can avoid them, would it be easier to simply renew my existing contract and keep my phone and Internet bills separate?
Thanks in advance for any replies, and apologies for the length of my post.
A very safe stance is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". So if you're happy with what you have now, don't change anything.
Your contract does not expire, it just continues until you don't want it anymore.
That's why Orange will try to "sell" you a new one but this ties you into a new 12 or 18 month contract period.....which is silly if you're currently happy with what you've got.
Thanks for the advice, what I'm currently using certainly isn't broken which is why I needed to be totally sure if I wanted to change service providers or not while I had the chance - which I now don't want to do knowing what I know now.
One thing to note with BT is all the current packages include a home hub, which is a disguised livebox. It's just a router though and really they're all very similar overall.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum