My 8 Meg broadband connection has been down for 10 days now. After numerous calls to technical support and being told repeatedly that there was no fault on the line, I realised the only way out of this circie of doom was to cancel. Luckily, I was out of contract and would not have to continue paying Orange for their (now non-existent) service.
Last Thursday I got through to the cancellations department and was told they would be sending a MAC code (in the post).
Still no sign of the MAC code yesterday (Weds) so I rang up CS to be told the person I spoke to last week had apparently not put through the request. So I asked for my MAC code to be sent out again.
The operative told me, however, that there was no point getting a MAC code as I am an LLU customer (I never asked to be upgraded from 2 MB, by the way). Instead, he told me I would have to cancel my Orange account and wait for the line to be cleared.
Not content to take Orange's word for anything, I checked with BT and it is indeed the case that if you want to switch Orange's LLU service a MAC code is now use to you.
Today (hooray!) Orange have confirmed (via a different e-mail address to the one I asked them to write to) that my account has been cancelled. But it seems I will now have to wait for either 10 working days (say Orange) or 2-3 weeks (according to BT) for the line to clear.
Despite the numerous inconveniences of having no internet at home for several weeks, I am so happy. I had a good deal of goodwill towards Orange before this fiasco and stuck with them despite a previous break in service. I have nothing against the TS people, but Orange as a company is apparently getting away with a scandalous level of service.
Someone high up should come clean about the problems afflicting all the poeple posting on this board and explain what has been going wrong and what they are doing to resolve it. Sadly I expect they will remain well hidden while the footsloggers in the TS department cope with our demented ire and will no doubt get generous Xmas bonuses at the end of the year for the success of the Orange rebrand.
I've just applied for my code after 6 weeks down (as well as 2 months previously). To get my MAC code though I need to be put back to IP stream which takes 15 working days (apparently). As well as the (up to) 10 days to migrate once the code has been passed on.
I could always cancel my account, but that may take 10 days plus I'll have to pay the new ISP their startup fee as well.
So it looks like I'm stuck broadband free for about 5 more weeks
Joined: 13 Aug 2006Posts: 1689Location: Marylebone Central London
Hi seems Orange dont know there a***e from their elbow i recently migrated from Orange with an LLU MAC code from the time i gave the MAC to my new provider it took 12 days (with no downtime) till the migration was completed.
Regards
Steve
Last edited by stevelondon on Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:18 am; edited 1 time in total _________________ ex Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange Blog
...Sadly I expect they will remain well hidden while the footsloggers in the TS department cope with our demented ire and will no doubt get generous Xmas bonuses at the end of the year for the success of the Orange rebrand.
I know myself and many others would be happy with a Christmas bonus let alone a generous one!
Joined: 21 Apr 2006Posts: 94Location: Fallowfield, Manchester
Insupportable wrote:
Not content to take Orange's word for anything, I checked with BT and it is indeed the case that if you want to switch Orange's LLU service a MAC code is now use to you.
That wasn't totally true. There are some ISPs, Zen for example, who will accept an Orange LLU MAC. When I switched to Zen I needed to ring them up as their website wouldn't recognize the LLU MAC as valid. Their customer service were excellent though and a refreshing change from Orange.
For most other ISPs you do have to cease and reconnect.
IMO it's wrong that by changing people over to LLU that Orange customers have their choice of alternative ISPs limited and/or the cost and inconvenience of switching increased. I did wonder when I switched to Zen whether what Orange did was legally defensible.
For most other ISPs you do have to cease and reconnect.
IMO it's wrong that by changing people over to LLU that Orange customers have their choice of alternative ISPs limited and/or the cost and inconvenience of switching increased. I did wonder when I switched to Zen whether what Orange did was legally defensible.
I'm in the process of switching ISPs.... curiously the only thing Orange did in any reasonable time was to supply MAC code.
Having endured many weeks of no service and useless 'support', I basically said to customer care, if it's not working tomorrow, I want a MAC code, when they called back the next day with the usual no information, they supplied the code over the phone.
I think Orange should be held to account by someone over this LLU fiasco,
1)They didn't inform customers it was going ahead (well not until it was already under way)
2) Customers were given no choice to go with this, stay with current, or 'get out'
3) Once LLU upgrade started (and failed), this left customers with very few options on where to go if dissatisfied with Oranges offering -
Switching - difficult, and choice of alternative ISPs limited, only other option is to cancel and bear the cost (and time) of diconnection and re-connection.
4) Information flow and any customer support all but useless and continually evaded the root cause which they MUST have known about.
Badly planned, badly executed and (I hope) a considerable loss of custom might make them think about who pays their wages and treat them with respect.
Technically customers are supposed to be emailed before the change to let them know. Seems like this doesn't always go as planned but thats what is supposed to happen.
Apart from being a service provided over your phone line there's nothing saying what technology or what sepecific service they are required to use to provide it, thats upto them really and it works with their standard hardware.
ISP choice to choose after being on LLU is not limited in any way, simply the migration choice is, inconvience will make some feel they have no choice but it's all subjective. AFAIK there is no formal code of conduct or practice for LLU migrations like there is with IPSteam connections. As for cost there are many ISP's who, like Orange don't charge for line activation/setup, again it's a choice people choose to make over which ISP they select.
I personally don't see how there's any legal case for them to answer, for that there would have to really be set guidelines or laws they have broken. Plus a case like that would be against a large portion of the ISP industry and they'd fight pretty damn hard for that not to set a precedent! Until the industry as a whole sort out LLU migrations they'll always be inconvient, with limited migration choice and take longer. Ofcom are supposed to be working on it so all we can really do is wait for the situation to be "fixed".
And just so you know, I do agree with many points that have been made about the LLU situation, it's far from ideal at the moment.
Absolutely right... and its a very fluid situation in the LLU marketplace with BT chipping in with 21CN!!!
Elhana wrote:
Playing devils advocate a bit...
Technically customers are supposed to be emailed before the change to let them know. Seems like this doesn't always go as planned but thats what is supposed to happen.
Apart from being a service provided over your phone line there's nothing saying what technology or what sepecific service they are required to use to provide it, thats upto them really and it works with their standard hardware.
ISP choice to choose after being on LLU is not limited in any way, simply the migration choice is, inconvience will make some feel they have no choice but it's all subjective. AFAIK there is no formal code of conduct or practice for LLU migrations like there is with IPSteam connections. As for cost there are many ISP's who, like Orange don't charge for line activation/setup, again it's a choice people choose to make over which ISP they select.
I personally don't see how there's any legal case for them to answer, for that there would have to really be set guidelines or laws they have broken. Plus a case like that would be against a large portion of the ISP industry and they'd fight pretty damn hard for that not to set a precedent! Until the industry as a whole sort out LLU migrations they'll always be inconvient, with limited migration choice and take longer. Ofcom are supposed to be working on it so all we can really do is wait for the situation to be "fixed".
And just so you know, I do agree with many points that have been made about the LLU situation, it's far from ideal at the moment.
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