Orange Broadband… Just When You Though It Was Safe, They’re Back!
The sponge-brained halfwits at Orange Broadband have made a spectacular, tumbling re-entry into my life this evening, with a letter demanding that I pay them £40. And after a particularly useless telephone call to them which got me not one millimetre closer to sorting out their mess, I feel it only right to inform my tiny readership about them and their foolish ways.
Let me begin by putting their customer-service shoddiness into context: As someone who has worked in a variety of public sector settings, each one devoid of any sense of urgency, and frequently entirely bereft of staff from about 14:30 on a Friday, I have encountered my fair share of dodgy customer services. As a Councillor trying to get Bury’s Six Town Housing to remove its head from its backside for half a second, I have experienced even worse. But Orange Broadband make even the most lethargic Housing Officer at Six Town look like a fawning, bowing, scraping butler who has just graduated summa-cum-laude from the Harvard School of Brown Nosing.
They are, without exception, buffoons. I must have spoken to thirty of them in my time, and not one of them has done a single thing remotely useful for me. I would have had as much joy speaking to the dialling tone. Their know-nothing, slack-jawed idiocy goes beyond the annoying and is actually a joy to behold, simply because it confirms my suspicion that even if I were to sell my brain to the highest bidder on eBay, and then look for a job with nothing in my head but the stitches, I could still find gainful employment working in the Orange Broadband call centre.
At one point last year, they cut off my broadband service for three months for no reason. Each time I rang their far-off call centre, I was met with a different baffled joker without the foggiest grasp of what my problem was or how to fix it. The excuse changed every day, the promises got more outlandish as I got more angry, and the solution arrived without warning or explanation after three long months. I still don’t know what went wrong or how it was fixed.
When I moved house I vowed to leave the world of Orange Broadband behind, and so whilst the ink on the property contract was still wet, I joyously rang my far away call-centre friends and told them that I was cancelling.
But alas, yet oddly predictably, the message appears not to have got through. And so today I was sent a bill for £40, and a letter telling me that because I hadn’t paid them anything for six months, they had had to close my account. Of course, had the lady in the call centre understood my phone call when I cancelled, she would have gathered my intention to cancel my account and the impending cancellation of my Direct Debit. But clearly the language I used in the phone call was in a code beyond understanding. After all, I said “I intend to cancel my account, and thus inform you of the impending cancellation of my Direct Debit,” which is highly ambiguous and open to various interpretations.
Silly me, because when she said “Fine,” I imagined she meant “Fine.” Whereas in fact, of course, she meant “I have no idea what you are talking about. Goodbye.”
So now apparently I owe them £40, and they are threatening to “take legal action.” Which would be amusing, if the bureaucracy involved weren’t so annoying. I have no doubt whatsoever that if I were ever to get a court summons, I could muster about 10,000 people to testify to the general awfulness of Orange’s Customer Services, and demonstrate with diamond-solid proof that the chances of my cancellation instruction finding its way from The Call Centre At The End Of The Universe all the way back to Accounts was nil. Sadly, it probably won’t get that far, and the bill will lay on some credit reference agency’s file somewhere, meaning that their error will cost me the chance of a cheap mortgage in a few years.
The thought of dealing with that makes me full of rage.
And yet I can’t solve it. I tried to tonight, but the guy in the call centre genuinely had not a clue what I was on about. He asked me for my land line number three times. Three times. And then, in the ultimate irony, my attempts at being helpful backfired spectacularly: I only received the bill when my former landlord posted it through the door of my new house today. We’ve moved on, you see. So, after our man in with the Brintey Spears headet in the call centre far, far away re-affirmed the looming court case and the outstanding bill which he said “must be settled in full as soon as possible,” I offered him the opportunity to take down the new address so as to allow me to engage in conversation with Orange without the landlord as an intermiediary. “No,” he said “We can’t take any new details. Your account has been closed.”
Idiots.
Rick
5 Comments
have your say
People often ask me, “As a non-Doctor, how do you suggest I can safely continue knocking my head against
a brick wall, with my Broadband provider?”
Quite honestly, I always suggest a simpler, more effective remedy.
Write a letter to the Customer Care Department. At the top of the letter, be sure to put your full name,
date of birth, email address to which the letter refers, your password, your current home address, the
address for which the letter refers… and sometimes even your shoe-size is helpful. Make sure all of that
information is BIG and BOLD - just in case they miss it.
Patiently and politely explain to them the facts; point out to them, as politely as you can, that you do not
wish to spend your time making total fools of them in Court; and then mention the fact that you are minded
to refer the matter to the “Regulatory Authorities”.
Finally, inform them that you expect a full response to your letter, within five working days, stating clearly
that they are withdrawing their demands for payment, and are offering a full apology.
I would also recommend that you do some bedtime reading: www.orangeproblems.co.uk is always uplifting
to the spirit!!
Do please let me know how you get on. Make an appointment at Reception for a further consultation.
after months and months of trying to cancel i find myself no further as Orange say the MAC address (??) should have been used, in total Orange have charged my credit card 27.99 since jan and continue to do so , they are verging on the criminal !
Dear Vijit ,
I am now using a hotmail account as i cant send any mail from my orange account.
We accept your apology and assume from your reply that Orange admit they have been at fault here in failing to cancel an account.
We are no longer willing to call the number you have provided. We called this number on Saturday afternoon spoke to 3 people and got no where at a cost of 5p per minute for 45 mins !!!!
This call proved to be very stressful, we where extreemly vocal on the call to Scott, who refused to give his surname and, when we asked to speak to his senior who may have understood the issue, put us on hold, after 10 mins of waiting we hung up.
As you have stated below, the account should have been closed but never was. We don’t care why it wasn’t closed, something to do with MAC codes not being used ?? This is a concern for Orange and their internal business process as to why an account can be left open when the user has clearly requested and attempted to close the account.
We request that this email and the related below replies are forwarded to your seniors, head office, and accounts department, my credit card should be reimbursed ASAP as from the request date of termination. There is no excuse for taking money from someone’s credit card when they have clearly followed the guide lines to cancel an account.
I must stress, there is no where any mention that if a MAC address isn’t passed onto a new provider or that 3rd party not use or communicate to Orange that they have / have not used the MAC address, that a users service will remain active and that account be charged for.
If this is not resolved within 24 hours I will without any hesitation be reporting this to the necessary ombudsman , newspapers and, if necessary, take legal action for reimbursement.
We look forward to your swift reply and hope a speedy resolution will now commence !
A
==================================
Hello Andrew,
Thank you for your email.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused to you.
As per our records a 30 days cancellation notice has been applied
earlier, however the notice was removed.
Hence, we request you to contact our Broadband Customer Support Team on
0844 873 8586 (option 1 and 4, lines are open from 7AM to 11PM, seven
days a week, calls charged 5p per minute) for further assistance to
close the account and for the refund. As a webmail support team we have
limited access to the required systems and are unable to process your
request.
If you have any further queries then please do not hesitate to get in
contact with us again.
Kind Regards,
Vijit
Broadband Support
REF:WOOBB
Original Message Follows:
————————
since sending the below I have now found out that 27.99 has been taken
from my account since Feb 2008 , when i clearly asked for the account to
be closed.
I never requested a MAC address for some reason this misleading way of
closing has gone about and my account has still been chraged as the MAC
code was never used.
Speaking to the most unhelpful person in the world being Scott Sat 20th
Sept 2:30 pm he made it clear no refund was going to be given.
1. why wasnt my account closed, my mail below clearly asks for this and
not for a MAC code.
2.is my account going to be refunded,
this is now most urgent,
PLEASE CLOSE MY ACCOUNT !!!!! NOW !!! IF ANY MORE CHARGES ARE TAKEN I
WILL TAKE LEGAL ACTION
> Message Received: Feb 29 2008, 02:01 PM
> From: andy@.freeserve.co.uk
> To: customer-service@uk.orange.com
> Cc:
> Subject: FW: RE: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Re: Re: Email from Help =C2=A0
(KMM12108573V58254L0KM)?=
>
>
> PLEASE ANSWER THE MAIL BELOW SENT 22/2/2008
> WE REQUESTED THE SERVICE BE CANCELLED 10/01/2008 YET A PAYMENT WAS
TAKEN ON THE 2/2/08
> REPLY PLEASE
>
>
>
> Message Received: Feb 22 2008, 08:41 AM
> > From: andy@.freeserve.co.uk
> > To: “Customer Service”
> > Cc:
> > Subject: RE: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Re: Re: Email from Help =C2=A0
(KMM12108573V58254L0KM)?=
> >
> >
> > Hello,
> > Whay has a payment been taken of 27.99 from my account when i asked
for this to be cancelled ?
> > Regards
> > A Rusher
> >
> Message Received: Jan 10 2008, 09:53 AM
> > > From: “Customer Service”
> > > To: “Andrew ”
> > > Cc:
> > > Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Re: Re: Email from Help =C2=A0
(KMM12108573V58254L0KM)?=
> > >
> > > Hello Andrew,
> > >
> > > Thank you for your email.
> > >
> > > We are sorry to hear that you have chosen to leave Orange.
> > >
> > > We have forwarded your MAC(Migration Authorisation Code ) request
to the
> > > concerned department and it will be processed within 5 working
days.
> > >
> > > If you have any further queries then please do not hesitate to get
in
> > > contact with us again.
> > >
> > > Kind Regards,
> > > Vijit
> > >
> > > Broadband Support
> > > REF:WOOBB
> > >
; > > ————————
> > > Dear Sir / Madam,
> > > I have called the customer help line and cancelled my account,
however
> > > please could you give me the details of my MAC address
> > > Many thanks
> > > A Rusher
> > > > Message Received: Nov 09 2007, 03:00 AM
> > > > From: “Customer Service”
> > > > To: “”
> > > > Cc:
> > > > Subject: Re: Email from Help (KMM11841131V74869L0KM)
> > > >
> > > > Hello Andrew,
> > > >
> > > > Thank you for your email.
> > > >
> > > > We are sorry to hear that your planning on leaving Orange.
> > > >
> > > > We would request you to have a look at the Orange Cancellation
Policy:
> > > >
> > > > 1.If you are within their 12-month contract you can cancel at
any time
> > >
> > > > but are liable for the remainder of that contract.
> > > >
> > > > 2.If you are outside their 12-month contract then you can cancel
> > > without
> > > > any fees, but has to give 30 days’ notice.
> > > >
> > > > We would request you to follow the link below for Cancellation:
> > > >
> > > > http://help.orange.co.uk/sessionBegin.do?solutionId=kb1868
> > > >
> > > > If you have any further queries then please do not hesitate to
get in
> > > > contact with us again.
> > > >
> > > > Kind Regards,
> > > > Neil
> > > > Broadband Support
> > > > REF:WOOBB
> > > >
> > > > Broadband Support: 0870 010 2462, lines are open 24 hours a day,
seven
t; > > >
> > > > Original Message Follows:
> > > > ————————
> > > >
> > > > Your question is about: Broadband
> > > > Description of query: what do I do if I move house or change my
phone
> > > > number?
> > > >
> > > > Please enter your name: Andrew
> > > > Please enter the email address we should reply to:
> > > > andy@.freeserve.co.uk
> > > >
> > > > Wanadoo / Orange username: andy@yamyam.freeserve.co.uk
> > > > Contact telephone number: 0121 423 3819
> > > >
> > > > What Operating System are you using: winxp
> > > >
> > > > Question or details of problem:
> > > >
> > > > how do i cancel my Orange Broadband account ? there isnt to do
this ?
> > > > willI havre to call the 7p a minute number ?
> > > >
> > > > Solution ID: kb202, kb8161, kb9099, kb9699, kb10573, kb11845,
kb18128
Hi Richard, I like this page. I used to live in Whitefield and I appreciate your contribution to real life issues.
My Orange broadband experience stems from a house move in July. Our new home is in a rural area and Orange told me that the line speed was too slow for them to continue to provide my internet access. By telephone I agreed with their operator that the account was closed and I would try to find another ISP. After a lot of chasing around, BT agreed to provide a connection. It is slow but it works. Today I received an inaccurate and threatening letter from Orange. Qu’elle surprise! They seem to have forgotten that the account was closed.
According to the letter ‘We recently contacted you about the outstanding balance on your home account’. Wrong - no previous contact! The letter was addressed to my new home (so they know that I moved to an exchange that they could not provide an internet connection on), but cleverly is dated ‘October 2008′ - no specific date. Because I have ‘missed another month’s payment’ they have added ‘another £5 late payment fee’ and if they don’t hear from me in the next few days ‘we’ll have to close your account and could take legal action’. There is no indication of how much I allegedly owe (so how can I pay?). I was given to understand that an ISP will know if another ISP is connected to my telephone line, so why does Orange choose to believe that my account is ‘inactive’ (and billing me) when it knows damn’ well that I have changed ISP? I called Orange ‘Customer (we don’t) Care’. Dominic explained that BT hasn’t told Orange that they have taken over the connection. I asked Dominic how BT could take over a connection that Orange refused to provide - i.e. there is nothing to ‘take over’. He didn’t seem to know, but was adamant that I must call in office hours (so much for calling any time, any day like the letter said) so that BT can confirm my story. He said (and I quote) “It isn’t Orange policy to take what customers say at face value”! Is this hopeless inefficiency or a corporate scam to try to extract money from ex-customers?
hi,
I think Orange must be taken to the court by everyone threaten like this. From my experience there working no others bu scammers and layer. First my internet connection went down for tree weeks. Second they lied to me that I can’t cancel my account. Third when I sent countless mails they told me there is 30 days notice period and they will not refund my 200 pounds and that my account was closed so they don’t know anything. So beware of Orange because this firm is a scammer. They don’t care about service just spreading advertising and torture people.
Mr Baum,
You have crafted a beautiful and lengthy statement on how bad these people are…..
I mean, someone so much higher up the social ladder than anyone else.
The day a anyone in the political system can insult ANYONE is the day of judgement.
The end must be coming in 2012.