As I wasnt getting anywhere at all with my dealings with Orange, I decided to visit the OFCOM website.
It stated that they did not take on individual cases but I called anyway. They told me that they would make an 'exception' for me and would contact Orange on my behalf. Orange would then have to respond within 5 working days. That takes us to this Friday. Havnt heard anything as yet.
I just hope they dont email me as I have cancelled my account on 8th May, I no longer seem to be able to access anything. I never used my Orange email anyways, preferred Google mail.
So, as I left it in the hands of OFCOM, I have had a relatively Orange free few days, for which I am grateful. I am sure that this time next week I will be back in rant mode though!
I gave OFCOM my email address and phone numbers etc and I have a reference number to chase up on Friday if I havent heard anything. We are coming to the end of week 12 now without any access.
My case was apparantly highlighed on Radio 5 a couple of weeks ago but still that hasnt helped me.
You can read my previous posts under LLU disaster for a run down of my situation.
I am hoping that I will soon be safe in the arms of BT (or similar) and that LLU will eventually be erased from my mind and this will all seem like a bad memory.
Well, the deadline is up tomorrow to hear from Orange and to date I have had no contact at all.
I noted that someone who had been disconnected since 27th May had written to Eric Abensur and received a reply!! I wrote weeks ago and heard nothing at all, I have emailed him yet again in the hope that I too could be released. Dont hold out much hope though.
Am I really in a unique position??
Others seem to just have problems about the speed and inability to connect to certain sites.
Surely someone else must be going through the same as I am? Is that why nothing is being done do you think because I am a lone voice??
Nothing. I rang OFCOM on Friday and did the usual speed story (I have it off to a fine art now). They say they will get someone else to write to someone else at Orange and that they will then have another five days to respond. If nothing happens then, they will get someone even higher to write to someone even higher etc etc...
So, decided to take further action. I emailed my complaint to ISPA and I have a confirmation email back - guess what - another 5 days. If no response I then log a second complaint with ISPA.
Week 13 now, wonder if it will be a lucky one?
Thank you for asking - I really do appreciate it. I will keep this updated as I progress (if only!).
I only have Three more Fridays before I go away. This will be for most of July. Hopefully, it will be fixed by then as we want to use skype.
Had a call from Orange today as a result of OFCOM chasing them up. They have looked into my situation and rang the company that deal with their lines - Magdalene. Magdalene told them to ring back on Thursday as they may have some news then!
I told the Orange contact that this was a well known game of theirs called the Monday/Thursday game (they always say ring back on one of these days to anyone at Orange). She said that they had to wait until Thursday as its the first time it was chased up by their dept. Fair enough I suppose. Anyway, someone is going to call me back on Thursday, probably to say that they will ring me back on Monday.
Fingers crossed that something is in the offing - any suggestions of where I should migrate to?? I have seen mention of Be but dont want to get caught in the LLU situation again. I had thought about BT.
Had a call from Orange today who explained that there was a problem connecting me and that electronically they were finding it difficult to rectify so this had to be done manually (hmmm now why hadnt I thought of that!!!!) A cease order has now been put on my line and I should be free by midnight on 19th June.
Am a little narked that all my calls asking them to cease the line fell on deaf ears, I was constantly told that this couldnt be done and I reported as much to the gentleman I spoke to.
I have asked for compensation as by the time the line is ceased I will have been 14 weeks without Broadband. He is getting a colleague to call me on Tuesday regarding this. My phone calls alone must be astronomical.
I asked if I were to ring BT Wholesale they would be able to tell me if the marker had been put on the line. Apparantly if it were BT equipment this would be the case but as its Orange equipment in a BT exchange the contact is BT Openreach. As he didnt have a number for them he gave me the number for BT Tag on the Line Team - who I duly rang and they have confirmed that the cease order should indeed have gone through on Tuesday. I will call him back on Weds just to clarify that this has happened.
If I hadnt involved OFCOM I would still be sitting here bemoaning my lot.
I have, throughout this ordeal, acted in a polite, yet firm and assertive manner and that appears to have got me nowhere. Introducing OFCOM was indeed the best thing I have done.
So, by next week I shall be free to roam wherever I so chose. No MAC code required.
Freedom beckons
I will update this post though, hopefully with more good news.
This is all due to OFCOM intervening. Miraculously my account is cancelled and as of this morning the tag is off my line. Leaving me free to chose a different provider. Which I already have done- BT. I dont want to risk any LLU issues again!!
Thanks to everyone on here for their advice and support, it was really appreciated.
I have to wait a week before my equipment is delivered but whats another week on top of what I have already waited.
I am waiting to hear from Orange to see what compensation they are going to offer me - true to form no one rang me yesterday when they were supposed to. Looks like that falls to me to chase up.
I am not sure what to do with all this spare time that I have, I thought of taking up complaining as a hobby as I am mighty good at it now.
I hope that everyone else gets their issues sorted out and wish you all good luck.
If anyone requires help from me at any time please ask as I shall dip in here from time to time.
Joined: 13 Aug 2006Posts: 1689Location: Marylebone Central London
Hi Adrienne
I have been reading your posts from time to time and i am glad that this appalling saga is coming to an end how this company is still getting away with their dismal treatment of paying customers is beyond me, hope you start to enjoy trouble free surfing etc, good luck for the future.
_________________ ex Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange Blog
Was told by BT that my hub etc would arrive by Weds 6pm. True to their word it was here in the afternoon. My son got it all set up and before he had finished we had a text saying that it was now ready to rock 'n roll.
Phone was missing from my hub so I rang CS - no waiting, freefone number, its being delivered on Tuesday. What a difference!! Not sure of my speeds as I am using a lap top at the mo which is a little on the slow side but I will test on my PC in the week.
Oh its so wonderful to be free. It took 14 weeks of no access and two calls to OFCOM but I got here, so take heart everyone, perseverance, humour and above all determination to be free from them has eventually paid off.
Joined: 27 Jun 2007Posts: 21Location: Cheshire, England
Wow you have really been through it. I hope you get compensation I cannot imagine how horrible it would be to go 14 weeks without broadband and to have such appauling "help" and service Good luck with BT. I'm thinking of going to Be but then again it's the LLU..
It'll be great to hear how things are for you with BT. Moving to another ISP after troubles with one is still bad on the nerves. You can't trust anyone really and it's really sad. Orange gave me my first problems with an ISP and now I don't trust any of them and never will.
Joined: 13 Aug 2006Posts: 1689Location: Marylebone Central London
Deano wrote:
I'm thinking of going to Be but then again it's the LLU..
Hi Deano, I'm with Bethere and they are fine no problems at all and its very fast
I have also experienced Orange and believe me its nuffin like them lol i felt like you did about not trusting another ISP but there are plenty of good ones mainly the smaller ones with 1 or 3 month contracts i went from Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange to IDNet then Bethere both was excellent if you do a bit of research before you commit you can't go wrong good luck.
Good to hear your enjoying your new connection Adrienne
_________________ ex Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange Blog
Joined: 27 Jun 2007Posts: 21Location: Cheshire, England
stevelondon wrote:
Deano wrote:
I'm thinking of going to Be but then again it's the LLU..
Hi Deano, I'm with Bethere and they are fine no problems at all and its very fast
I have also experienced Orange and believe me its nuffin like them lol i felt like you did about not trusting another ISP but there are plenty of good ones mainly the smaller ones with 1 or 3 month contracts i went from Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange to IDNet then Bethere both was excellent if you do a bit of research before you commit you can't go wrong good luck.
Good to hear your enjoying your new connection Adrienne
That's true but sometimes the smaller ones start off great and a year down the line they go downhill. It's the old case of not being able to keep up the good standard for too long. Sometimes things that seem too good to be true usually are. Although I will say that Be aren't the cheapest but for what they offer they really are cheap and that does seem a little too good to be true.
Also, 3 months notice is quite different to a 1 year contract when you think about it. If a year down the line with Orange you get problems and you want to leave then you can because your contract is over but a year down the line with Be and things start to go wrong, you'll still need to give 3 months notice, meaning you're stuck with them for 3 months. However, the fact they have a 3 month notice could help with the fact that they are more determined to offer a better service to new customers so that they'll stick with them for longer than 3 months. If you're as bad an ISP as Orange, the 12 month contract is a good way of keeping you for 12 months and getting away with the bad service.
I did read that in February, a vulnerability in Be's routers potentially exposed subscriber networks to remote attacks. So yeah, it does help to do your research. Be sounds great, it's just when you see so many people making that extra effort to try and sway you over to one ISP it does make you wonder if maybe there is something more crafty going on.
Joined: 13 Aug 2006Posts: 1689Location: Marylebone Central London
Thats not entirely true most of the smaller ones are long established with good reputations they have to keep standards up or they will go bust as people would stay a month then leave just check out the relevent forums on DSL Zoneuk and ThinkBroadband and you can see for yourself who does well and who doesn't, like i said before i first migrated from Orange to IDNet it is an excellent ISP no call centres free support and they get things done,they even rang a few days later asking if i was happy with my connection, as soon as they knew i was coming from Orange the first thing they said to me was we will see what we can do as we usually get invalid MACs off Orange, i went to Bethere because of Be's upload speed and they have a good reputation migration went smooth and ive had no problems at all.
Good luck with who you choose.
_________________ ex Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange Blog
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.....according to speedtest.net they have the fastest download speed !!!!!!!!!!!!
Good luck with 
