Orange.........you suck

The BBQ Pit
1

On August 9th I tried to log on and received the message that my username and password were not registered on the domain :eek:

I phoned the Orange helpline, premium rate number :smack: to be told that BT Wholesale had informed Orange that my account had been cancelled, which it hadn’t. I told the person this and she asked me to phone another number…another fucking premium rate one. :smack:

I phoned and was then told I’d been sent a MAC code and it had been used…bollocks, I’ve never and it hasn’t.

I was asked to phone the first number again, I did and now I’m told that Orange had had a system error which resulted in the plug being pulled on my account. In other words it aint my fault and I’ve been lied to twice

Thus far I’ve spent 1 hour and 14 minutes on the phone at 50p per min.

I ask that they plug me back in, they can’t do that until all info has been cleared from my landline, this will take at least 10 days :mad:

They tell me that I’ll get 1 months free broadband, I haggle and manage to get 3 months free plus the cost of my phone calls reimbursed.

The 10 days elapse, I phone again and I’m told it will be at least another 15 days before I can re-register, I’m also told that I only get 1 month free and no reimbursement of my calls.

At this point I’m fucking annoyed and tell them to shove their service were the sun don’t shine.

I contact Virgin Media on a freephone number and ask for cable broadband to be installed. It takes them 2 days to install and I’m back on, up and running.

Yesterday I get a call from Orange telling me I can re-register in 2 weeks, I tell them to go forth and multiply.

This morning I check my bank account and find that the princely sum of £5 has been credited to me, my phone calls alone cost me almost £25 and in addition as I pay almost all my household bills/credit cards online this whole procedure has left me fuming.

What was really infuriating is the fact that every time I phoned I got to speak to some Asian who seemed to have just a basic grasp of the English language, I couldn’t understand half of what they said

2

Someone worse than Virgin Media/NTL? :eek:

The change to premium rate numbers for support calls is worth pitting by itself.

3

Cost of my premium rate calls was not almost £25 this was wishful thinking

It is in fact exactly £38.50…I just checked online with BT :frowning:

Pushkin Please don’t say that about Virgin…please!

Please tell me they are OK. I agree about the premium rate for support, it’s diabolical.

What makes it even worse is that normally my phone bill is below £1 as I use my internet phone for all outgoing calls.

4

That’s what I was thinking. Congratulations on escaping the frying pan, Chowder, and welcome to the fire.

5

(Congratulations, Virgin Media, on attaining such a high standard of incompetence! - The BBQ Pit - Straight Dope Message Board)

6

Don’t worry Chowder. When I move house15 months ago I went on to NTL now Virgin Media. I have had no complaints whatsoever, and no service outages.

7

OMG what have I done :smack:

Fuckety fuck.

But wait…at the moment it’s costing me just £10 per month and I can cancel after 12.

My fingers are crossed, so are my eyes

Ahah …good news from our Boltonian friend*

whose footie team is languishing at the bottom, mine is riding high ::smug smile::

8

When it works, it will be just fine. I concede that the my problem was most likely a statistical outlier.

9

Unfair Sir! Was I ragging you the last decade that Bolton have been above City? :wink:

10

Hey man gimme a break here.

I mean I’m just as flabbergasted that we are where we are to be honest with you.

Still when you think about it the combo of Frank and 'Ol Blue Eyes has just gotta bode well for us :smiley:

I reckon Little Sam is on his way out if things don’t improve at the Reebok, Big Sam he just aint unfortunately

11

we have 2 home games next. I predict he will be on shaky ground without at least 4 points from them. A lot will depend on if Diouf & Anelka & Jaaskelainen are still with us in September.

12

Virgin Media fucked up my installation royally (but not as badly as BT had the year before).

They cancelled two Saturdays in a row.

On the third Saturday they turned up and drilled a hole in the wall.

They installed the modem and phone cable.

I wanted to make sure there was no conflict between the IP of my wireless router and the modem (which had happened with BT) - and they didn’t even know what an IP address was.

They left the house in a total state, with the furniture all over the place, brick dust everywhere, and chunks of brick all over the driveway. The Virgin Media leaflet to which I had responded said “we’ll leave your house exactly as we found it”.

At the time they left, neither the broadband nor the phone worked.

They left a battery charger in my dining room.

When their manager called on the Monday to ask for the charger back, I said “you’ll have it back when you tidy my house up and actually install the services I ordered”.

The manager’s manager called me, screamed at me, said I was preventing other people from having their services installed, and accused me of theft. I screamed back at him, saying “at the end of the day, you’re still NTL”. He eventually concurred.

We came to a compromise: I’d leave the charger outside my door, and he would send a rep round to fix everything up.

On the fourth Saturday in a row, a very nice and helpful bloke came round and fixed everything.

I called customer services to complain and got three months’ free broadband.

Three months later, however, the temporary phone number I’d been assigned was still operational. It then transpired that Virgin Media couldn’t transfer the number from TalkTalk, something they’d never told me, so had never made the application to cut my line off, and I had paid three months’ line rental to TalkTaLK on a non-existent number.

I called customer services again and told my tale of woe again, plus the coda, and got three months’ free line rental.

The good news, however, is that the broadband is shit-hot, I’ve never had an outage, and it fucking rules. It’s only a 4 meg line but it’s way faster than the supposed 8 meg that BT claimed was going into my house. And I’m up about £26.

13

Awwww yeah! A thread to bitch about NTL! :smiley:

I had problems a lot of the time that I was still on dial up internet, the speed would drop, I’d ring up and they’d say that whoever was out and about would stop by our street and boost something on the line to help. It did help, we just had to do it a lot :dubious:

Their admin is worse than the tech people though. A cheery man came round and signed up other housemates for a new and expensive digital line telling me I could cancel my old analogue account. This turned out to be balls, I got to keep my account which I couldn’t use as both TV and telephone were on the new account but I had to pay for it all the same. Every time I tried to explain I got responses from the unhelpful (we don’t know who told you this, you’re still under contract) to the idiotic (so you say you can’t use your phone, oh, BTW we were trying to phone you about your account…) and I ended up just paying the damn thing at the lowest rate I could. Looking back I should have just let rip at them, but they were good at being threatening over the phone back then.

The TV boxes aren’t getting any better either, they still take an age to load and freeze and stutter all over the place :rolleyes:

14

jjimm I never had any of the hassle you had. Bloke turned up at about 10:15, drilled one hole in door jamb, fed cable through, connected everything up, job done in 30 mins and no mess whatsoever.

Have to agree about the broadband, it really is fast and beats the shit out of Orange, the wankstems.

If you still have the number for customer service what is it?.

I have one but it’s a …wait for it…premium rate number

Oh yeah, I wrote to Orange on Aug 11th and 18th complaining bitterly, no reply as yet…bastard ignorant plebs

15

Wankstems. Good word !

Anyroads, I’ve had NTL/Telewest/Virgin for the last ten or so years in various places and I’ve never had a serious problem with them. Broadbank rocks and you can get some pretty good package deals if you want TV/Phone as well.

It’s a pretty solid service once it’s going, so even if their support isn’t great you’ll hopefully not need it.

16

As an Orange Broadband customer, I can say with assurance that their customer service and their technical support suck.

But I’m afraid of the alternatives … all of them seem to be, well, equally crap.

17

Oh I thought the OP said “Orangemen… you suck”, never mind.

18

I just sent a photocopy of my BT account to Orange asking for a refund of ALL the charges made to their frigging premium rate numbers.

I am not hopeful :frowning:

19

Just on the off chance I e-mailed BT and asked for a refund of the premium rate charges.

I wasn’t expecting anything as has been mentioned above it wasn’t their fault.

Imagine my surprise when I opened my mail this morning, an apologetic letter from BT advising me that my account has been credited with £38.50 + VAT @17.5% a total of £45.24.

Now all I need is a cheque from Orange and I’m in front :smiley: