Hi everyone,
I shall be posting a letter of complaint to wanadoo on thurs but wondered if any of you could have a quick glance at it as I'm not the best person at writing complaint letters. Thanks a lot, Nicola.
Dear Sir,
I recently decided to get broadband and after seeing some advertising of yours decided to go with you. How I wish now I had researched you further, a quick look on the internet shows how any people are unhappy with your service and have experienced the same problems as me.
Having received my pack and on being told my line was ready, I attempted to get online,
I have followed all the instructions given on your website and through email support to no avail.I was then told that I had to ring the technical support in order for them to do a line check. So I have to pay fifty pence a minute to check something which you emailed to tell me was fine on the sixth of April. As I understood it, in signing up to this package I was entitled to free email support, all the time, not to receive emails telling me to ring the helpline. If not maybe you should make that clearer.
However as this seemed the only option I have now made several calls to them.
I assume that you will be reimbursing me for calls made requesting a line test, I shall be sending you my phone bill when I receive it. As stated in your contract:
“1.2 Before we can be sure that we can provide you with the Broadband Access Service we must:
1.2.1 check that you are in a geographical area where you can receive the Broadband Access Service;
1.2.2 perform a satisfactory telephone line test;”.
The following is a description of the calls made to technical support, times are approximate as I have not yet received my phone bill:
22th April - Call tech support requesting line test. 15 mins.
23th April - Am told there is a fault on the line which BT will take care of. Ask me to call back in a few days. 10 mins.
28th April - Am told to ring back in 3 days for a progress report. 10 mins
1st May - Am told fault is fixed, they ask me to shut down computer and put modem in....still getting flashing green light. Man I speak to (John) tells me to swap filters, I tell him this will cut him off, he says it won't. Unplug phone and he gets cut off which means having to ring back and wasting two minutes giving details again. Am told they will redo line test phone back in 24 hours. 15 and 10 minutes..
2nd May - phone up just to be told line test results aren't ready and I must ring back in 24 hours. 10 mins.
After several phone calls I am no nearer to getting broadband than I was on the 6th of April.
If the problem is not resolved soon, I am left with no choice other than cancelling my broadband direct debit due to you breaching the contract. I cannot afford to pay for an unusable service. I will of course return any equipment you sent.
I am currently seeking advice from members of WanadooProblems.co.uk in who to contact and shall be emailing them a copy of this letter. I am also in the process of meeting with Citizens Advice Bureau in order for them to advise me on my rights.
I cannot tell you how disappointed I am with Wanadoo and the “service” I have received, I just hope everything gets resolved quickly as I’m sure you do.
Site AdminJoined: 07 Apr 2006Posts: 784Location: United Kingdom
Hello Nicola86
The letter seems fine. All salient information has been pointed out. You are best to write the letter yourself, as you have done (on the first occasion) and then perhaps seek advice on a "professional" letter thereafter. The letter you are sending is a personal letter from you to them pointing out the lack of service (and Wanadoo breaching their contract) from Wanadoo.
I would leave it as is. If you do not get a response, then appropriate steps should be taken to send them a more "professional" letter.
It is extremely frustrating sending Wanadoo letters as many customers have reported not getting a reply! So... I would send it recorded delivery if I were you... And add that to the bill to them (which they probably will not pay)!
There are quite a few letters on the WanadooProblems.co.uk website... Take a look at them for some advice if you are not entirely happy with your letter...
I think I may set up an area where people can post their letters on-line... Removing all personal information of course... They seem to watch this website (particularly MY posts!) more than their own postbags so their customer's letters may get a better response from here!
RE: Lack of communication, lack of customer support, inability of staff to do any task or job requested, general total unhelpfulness and poor attitudes of customer service staff.
Even though this letter will no doubt fall on deaf ears, or never get answered in the same way as previous complaints have been void of acceptable answers or plain ignored, at least when I take this complaint further I can say I tried.
The customer service I have received from Orange in the past 2 months has been totally unacceptable and in some cases unbelievable.
My first “run in” with incompetence was in 1999 and it continued until I left Orange to join a rival service in 2003 however as the reception for this service in the area where I lived was not very good, I was forced into returning to Orange as this was the best reception received on my phone.
Unfortunately, the customer service problems started again, the first instance was in 2005 when I changed my telephone number instead of porting my current one to a new phone. However when I tried to register this new number online, having had online access for the previous year, the system refused to let me register my new number and then stopped recognising my old number as a contract phone number. I appreciate that technology can sometimes seem to have a mind of its own; however that was only the beginning of the problem.
I was told by customer services to ring a technical line, which was charged at £7.50 per minute. I rang and explained my problem to the technician who said we’d have to start again and that he would delete my details from the online services altogether and if I tried in ten days to register as a new account I shouldn’t have any problems.
However, ten days came and went. I was still getting the same messages, and unable to register my new number online.
I again rang the high cost technical line and asked why nothing had changed from last time I spoke to someone. I was told the same thing would have to be done again and that was the only thing they could do; I would have to try again in yet another ten days.
I then received a message from a technician, ‘could I ring back with my contract account number and just ask the person to pass it immediately to the lady that rang, giving me her name’.
When I did ring back the person on the end of the phone did not even seem to know who he worked for yet alone how to do anything or pass a message on.
I was kept on hold for nearly ten minutes at £7.50 a minute while he asked someone how to take a message.
However this was still not sorted out after even all of these calls, I sill could not access my account online, it had now been nearly six weeks since I first reported the problem but nothing had been done.
This leaves me to believe that either no-one knew what they were talking about and had no idea what to do, they knew what needed to be done but could not be bothered or, that Orange customer services are trained to keep fobbing customers off with great technical sounding stories but not to actually ever do anything, in the hope that the customer will eventually tire of complaining and let it go. Unfortunately for Orange, I am not one of those customers.
The online problem was finally sorted out after about five calls to the overpriced technical line to which I was assured that some of the charges would be refunded as I had been messed around for nearly two months. I then had to ring again when I received my phone bill as this was not done and all charges to the technical number had been put on my bill. Yet another instance of being fobbed off by incompetent staff.
Most of the instances and grievances have been more recent when I renewed my phone contract, and set up the offer of free broadband that came with it. I have had nothing but problems, lack of communication, and general incompetence with setting up the broadband since the beginning.
When I signed my new contract I was told that the computers were having problems and that my broadband would have to be set up at a later date, and was told a note on my account had been put there to that effect.
When I later rang a few days later no-one seemed to know anything about any notes or that I had wanted to set up broadband at all. I was told I needed a MAC code from my previous provider. I had with me at the time having already requested it and gave this code again during that first phone call. I was told that the equipment needed and notice of when my Orange broadband would activate would come in the post within ten days.
After four weeks of hearing nothing at all, I again rang broadband services to ask if there was a delay for some reason only to be told that the broadband account had been closed, as the MAC code had been invalid.
At this point, I voiced complaints by e-mail about why I was not informed of this so I could get a new code. I was expecting a prompt reply that fully answered my questions, as stated in your codes of practise, but was fobbed off with a speech that did not answer my questions at all and when I replied stating this, I was ignored.
I then requested a new MAC code from my previous provider and started the whole process again. Only this time, when I rang the registration line I was told that I had come through to the right department but that they could not set it up and I had to ring a different number! To me this sounds completely backwards and implies that the person on the end of the phone just could not be bothered to do anything to help or even to do their job.
I have now finally got my broadband service only to find out yesterday that so called FREE broadband is being charged at £17.99 a month!!!
Again, I have been forced into ringing customer services for an explanation, which was again met by a fob off speech and included rude and uncooperative comments from the person who was being so unhelpful.
I was told that I could change my package online by signing in and picking the relevant option. As I was sat at my computer, I tried this whilst on the phone and found that in fact I could not do this.
When I informed the customer service assistant I was met with “I don’t believe you” He then carried on to insulting me, basically calling me a liar in a completely sarcastic tone and telling me that I must have done everything wrong and he couldn’t do anything about it. He was not helpful in the slightest and several times I requested to speak to a supervisor or manager, as stated in your code of practise, and was told that he would not put me through to anyone as they would say the same thing. I find this kind of service totally unacceptable.
By this time I was no longer interested in finding out why my broadband was incorrect but, being totally flabbergasted and not sure if what I was hearing was correct, wanted to put in a complaint about the customer service I had just received. Due to the shock I was experiencing having being spoken to like a piece of dirt, I am only sorry I did not get the name of the rude, incompetent man.
This is more than proof of the incompetence and downright unhelpfulness of staff at Orange customer services. I myself work within one of the biggest customer focused industries in the world and if I was to speak to customers the way I have been spoken to recently or to be as unhelpful as possible, as I have found Orange staff to be, then I would certainly be severely reprimanded if not dismissed from my employment.
The man finally put me through to someone I could complain to who immediately said they would refund the charges on my account and put me on to free broadband. If it was that easy, why could he not do it?
I would like to written confirmation that this has been done within the next seven days, as I do not yet trust that I have not been fobbed off yet again.
My new contract clearly states that I have signed up for FREE broadband, and this has now been confirmed on the phone today that it will finally be set up correctly.
To the best of my knowledge, if Orange now attempt to take any payment from me for Broadband services, then Orange will be in breach of contract and I will take the matter to my solicitor and trading standards.
I will also cancel the direct debit instruction to prevent this from happening.
After numerous years of being a customer and putting up with the excuses as to why simple jobs cannot be done, I now find Orange’s promises and advertising slogans preposterous, my future maybe bright, but it’s certainly not going to be with Orange if problems continue.
Last edited by deep_steam on Thu Sep 21, 2006 5:13 pm; edited 2 times in total
Orange codes of practise also state that they will reply to letters, emails comments, questions and compaints within 5 working days. ....I'm still waiting for my reply!
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