I've just got off the phone with Orange customer care.. I started by ringing tech support to tell them they hadn't sorted my line out within 5 days as promised, AGAIN! I was told that there was an ongoing nationwide speed issue that BT engineers were working on and that if I could just bear with them the problem would be resolved soon.. Maybe a few days but she didn't want to make false promises.. She also told me that my previous stuck fault had cleared.. There was nothing else she felt could be done for me so I thanked her and hung up..
I then phoned customer support and asked to talk to customer care to request my MAC code..
The guy I talked to at customer care wasn't very helpful (or caring) and told me that if I took my MAC code I would no longer recieve technical support and would be entering into a state of migration.. I told him I didn't necessarily intend to use it but wanted it incase I found no other option but to migrate.. I informed him that I'd put in an official complaint on the 9th and nothing had been done about it and I'd now be contacting OFCOM & the ISPA.. He told me that I hadn't given them the chance to perform diagnostics on my account.. I said that I'd had broadband for over a month and asked how long it actually took them to do diagnostics.. To which he responded by telling me that I'd only had broadband since the 1st of May.. I told him that infact I'd had it since 14th of April.
"But we only got a confirmed speed for your account on 1st of May." Was the reply.
"Well, you've been happy enough to bill me from the 14th of April so thats when I consider my broadband to have started from." I said.
"It doesn't work that way sir".
"Can I have my money back then?"
"It doesn't work that way either."
"I think you'll find it doesn't work at all. Thats why I'm calling."
Ufnortunately he didn't have a sense of huour so didn't like that much.
He told me that although I'm only getting speeds of 250k max they don't guarantee what speed I'll get and as I actually had internet I shouldn't be moaning.. There're people who don't have any internet at all.. When I said that they guaranteed to give at least 512kb on a line he said that meant they wouldn't take on customers who's line couldn't manage at least 512k..
I told him I couldn't believe his attitude.. The fact that their big selling point was that I at least had broadband.. Who cares if I'm only getting dialup speeds, at least I'm getting something.. They want me to wait indefinitely for it to be fixed, no idea when that'll be but it'll definitely be fixed oneday.. If I cancel they want £199 off me.. If I request my MAC code they'll stop doing anything for me and resign themselves to the fact that I'm cancelling..
I like to remain calm when I'm on the phone and this was getting me absolutely wound up so I thanked him for his time, told him I'd call back later and hung up..
What do I do? Get out now seems to be the right option.. I kind of want to contact OFCOM and ISPA and see if they can do anything for me but I also feel abused by Orange now and don't really want to be with them.. Even if they solve my problem I can't justify being with a company that acts that way towards its customers.. I just don't like the idea of owing them £199 and having to deal with that, my credit rating is just starting to improve and they're almost forcing me to put a black mark against it again..
I have sent several emails and one letter to them.
It's the only way to show the senior managers/directors that it's not just Orange's poor connection performance but the (sometimes) rude and arrogant style of the Customer and Technical support depts.
The customer should perceive that questions and complaints are being received and processed competently.....and they're not.
"I think you'll find it doesn't work at all. Thats why I'm calling."
First of all the guy you spoke to must not have any sort of human contact. (apart from over the phone of course)
Quote:
What do I do? Get out now seems to be the right option.. I kind of want to contact OFCOM and ISPA and see if they can do anything for me but I also feel abused by Orange now and don't really want to be with them.. Even if they solve my problem I can't justify being with a company that acts that way towards its customers.. I just don't like the idea of owing them £199 and having to deal with that, my credit rating is just starting to improve and they're almost forcing me to put a black mark against it again..
I took my complaint all the way to ISPA. Had to wait 10 days though but it was satisfying when i got a letter from someone in the higher complaints dept. Stateing that "I am sorry for the slow speeds you have experienced with your broadband connection. This issue is being addressed and we are working to improve the experience that our customers are having. I have not yet received confirmation of when this problem will be fully resolved, but work is currently being carried out to improve downloadf and upload speed"
It then goes on to say " As a gesture of goodwill I have credited your account with 2 months free broadband" They did not do this I had already got this prior to sending of thge complaint.
It then says I fI have any other questions please call us...So I did and asked for my MAC code. Which I got within 30 mins.
So what Im saying is go through the ISPA way you should not be charged for the cancellation.
Also try giving the Customer Relations team a call. 0845 070 2976
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Orange Tech support do not know what they are doing...My advice get out while you can.
Already in the process of drafting an email to them.. Thanks for the advice..
darrenwindle wrote:
I took my complaint all the way to ISPA. Had to wait 10 days though but it was satisfying when i got a letter from someone in the higher complaints dept.
So what Im saying is go through the ISPA way you should not be charged for the cancellation.
Also try giving the Customer Relations team a call. 0845 070 2976
Thanks Darren.. I will give the ISPA and OFCOM route a try.. I've got broadband, its just not very broad so I can cope with it for a while anyway.. Got any contact addresses or numbers for the ISPA?
Customer Relations dept might be an interesting call to make too..
Incidentally for others reading this I called Orange this morning on their local rate number that I got from another post and it worked fine.. Its not free but its cheaper than the 0870 one..
Orange Customer Service and Tech @ Local Rates - 0845 6717125
Usually the request of a MAC doesn't mean support won't help you further, just if it's used it means faults can no longer be logged as there'd be a migration order there. Also not everyone uses MAC's so they no further support would be silly!
Usually the request of a MAC doesn't mean support won't help you further, just if it's used it means faults can no longer be logged as there'd be a migration order there. Also not everyone uses MAC's so they no further support would be silly!
Thats what I said to him.. He said I'd have no chance of my line getting sorted out if I requested a MAC code it'd stop any work that was ongoing from being done.. So I left it for the moment and I'm going to try complaining further..
Tonight my connection has been almost non existant and my noise margin has dropped a bit again.. yet my downstream has gone up a bit..
Ooh.. and having just done a BT speedtest it would appear my profile just jumped up to 500 at last.. for how long I don't know.. it was up there a week ago for about half a day and then went back down to 250k..
Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 500 kbps
DSL connection rate: 224 kbps(UP-STREAM) 960 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 448 kbps
Thats what I said to him.. He said I'd have no chance of my line getting sorted out if I requested a MAC code it'd stop any work that was ongoing from being done.. So I left it for the moment and I'm going to try complaining further..
I'm not sure on that, I know it pretty much blocks things once it's used but I didn't think generating it had any effect on any pre-existing faults that were ongoing.
Todays stats (Tues, 22nd) - Or yesterdays, depending on how you look at it..
Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 500 kbps
DSL connection rate: 256 kbps(UP-STREAM) 544 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 411 kbps
IP profile for your line is - 250 kbps
DSL connection rate: 224 kbps(UP-STREAM) 704 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 216 kbps
Yet my attainables higher again.. Although it was on 1048 or so earlier on..
Right.. Thats another 1/2 hour of my life lost to phoning Orange..
Phoned tech support as they'd told me to call back in a few days to check on my lines progress.. Nothings changed.. They still reckon I'm part of their networks ongoing speed fault and that engineers are working round the clock to sort it out.. Their advice? Wait Longer.. When asked how long I should wait I was told that she couldn't really say.. Maybe 3 days, maybe 10.. I asked if maybe I should just wait 11 months till my contract expires and see if I had broadband by then but I think it went over her head.. She was able to tell me that the speed they've determined my line is capable of is 2272kbps.. She also told me that I should ring customer service as they have packages in place to compensate people effected by this problem.. (And also gave me the ref:kb165 to check up on the help pages to see if clearing my cache would speed things up!)
Next call customer service..
Spoke to a girl, Kerry, in customer support and she was as helpful as she could be.. She told me that there wasn't a lot of point in compensating me at the moment, better to wait till I was properly sorted and then compensate me for all the problems I've had.. She had a look through my details and told me that I had definitely been escalated a while back.. And that things had been going on.. No real mention of the current fault though but she confirmed the ongoing speed issue with the network.. Also admitted that they're struggling to deal with it and they have no date for it to be fixed.. She suggested she put me through to technical support in her department and I talk to them..
One quick transfer later and I was talking to a girl in an English tech support dept.. She had a look through my notes and agreed that not a lot was being done.. She said she was registering a fresh fault and escalation.. I asked if this'd really happen this time and mentioned the previous "stuck" fault.. She said she'd keep an eye on it to make sure it wasn't stuck and all going well it'd go through to head office where the escalations dept would deal with it and give me a ring.. She took my mobile number just incase they needed an alternate number to contact me on.. I'd be encouraged by this if I hadn't already been through it 3 times at least..
So.. Here we are back at "Call back in 72 hours", AGAIN!
I've been really busy and not had a chance to send off my complaints to OFCOM, the ISPA and the Orange email addresses but hopefully I'll have the time later on today.. I've certainly mentioned it to everyone I've talked to though..
Can Orange seriously expect people to just hang around waiting for a fault to be fixed with no time frame?? If they'd give a time that this problem would be sorted and put it up on the website that'd be a start..
Joined: 18 Dec 2006Posts: 13Location: Kent, England
I am in much the same boat. Once my years contract is up Orange will no longer be on my menu!!
The futures bleak if you stay with Orange. The don't care ISP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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