Hi All
Well below letter explains it all. Send to Orange (Customer service AND managing director) on the 17th and guess what...... still no reply. Which is direct break of their own clauses as they say they reply within 5 working days. Other letter will have to follow soon, but maybe someone can be of help here how to help.
We do have internet now, but connection keeps on breaking up, speed is about 3Mb at 4 in the morning and the phone connection is rubbish. So complete downgrade, whilst they promised upgrade!!
Have fun with the below letter
Its a bit long but than the story is long and seems to become a never ending story.
Dear Sir,
Continuing Disruption of Service
I assume you have already checked e-mail this morning…
As a long time customer of the remarkably advanced wireless telephone service you provide, I was pleased to discover the option for a home broadband Internet service when I renewed my contract earlier this year.
Migration from my previous supplier went smoothly and the quality of speed and accessibility, were as expected from a company I had come to trust. I am used to travelling abroad and communicating with various people with a variety of technologies. Often I will share home videos and conference with my family overseas, to me, and BROADBAND INTERNET access has reached the status of A UTILITY, that is to say something I cannot do without. With this in mind I put my trust in that once Anglo/Dutch, now French company – Orange/Wannadoo.
Suddenly on the 26th June 2007, without any warning, the Internet for me, stopped.
WHY?
There wasn’t even a telephone call or a text message, even though you already have my (mobile) number!
Whilst I understand there may be some technical challenges in providing a broadband service to a number of people at any one time, Orange is a company which has been trustworthy in the past.
THE INTERNET: A BRIEF HISTORY
Designed to withstand the worst outcome of a global nuclear war during the 1960’s, a means of communicating between computers which did not need to specify the chosen route first.
Works perfectly until ‘someone’ technical (?) at Orange breaks the link between me and the rest of the web.
As I didn’t hear anything from Orange, I immediately went to the phone to try to find out what happened. Apparently Orange decided to migrate my service (2nd time as I already migrated in March) and this had gone wrong, which we only discovered after two days of calling and waiting. The call centre explained that after going several times through the standard procedure (test Livebox, reset Livebox, test line) that the migration had to be redone and my internet service all of the sudden was regarded as a new connection/upgrade….. down from 24Mbs to a staggering 8Mbs. This meant that I had to wait 5 days before I was connected again. I thought, ok weird but not too much of a problem.
But how wrong I was… it meant a start of a whole saga, which still is unresolved and of which you can find the outline if you continue reading.
On the 5th, my Livebox still didn’t blink normally so I decided to call Orange to get an update, and surprise, the call centre contact said “oh well, that happens, you have to wait another 5 working days!!!” This of course was totally unsatisfactory and I decided to write a letter to the Customer Care Manager.
Following my letter from the 5th July, I was told by Martin Dale on 18th July 2007 transferring from IP stream to the other system (?) usually takes around thirty minutes…
…this interruption occurred around 26th June 2007, at the time of this writing approximately some
TWO-THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED - 2,400 times longer than usual. FIFTY DAYS, despite the many, many
promises of ‘
5 days’ then ‘
5 working days’ then
‘7 days’, ‘
7 – 10 working days’ after speaking with a wide variety of ‘customer service agents’ whose competencies clearly lay in an altogether different field, I escalated the matter.
Surprisingly, the help I received from the UK based call centres was based on an ability to try and understand the customers problem – quite refreshing considering the hours spent listening to your ‘music on hold’ from places where language skills cannot cope with accents outside their own.
Sadly, the experience and seemingly greater level of competence was utterly undermined by a complete lack of technical skill. My trust and faith in Orange has been roundly smashed.
At this point, I enlisted the help of someone who is technical
and knows what they are doing. Providing communications for the BBC in live event scenarios and in places where electricity is provided by pedalling a bicycle. One of the key technologies is telephony and all its associated throughputs. The basis of which relies on connecting two devices with each other. Within about 20 minutes he had ascertained what the various international flavours of helpdesk had concluded after hours of calls.
Orange broke something and it can’t find a way to fix it!!!!!
Armed with this new knowledge I pressed for a technical explanation of what
exactly had caused the initial problem and why wasn’t it fixed within a single working day. No one at Orange had any concrete answers; everybody it seemed became an expert in passing the blame.. Eventually, and giving short shrift to any call centre person who wanted to run through their pre-printed script, my aide secured what he believed was a competent person, Mr Lee (no surname), who agreed ‘to take charge of this problem personally until sorted’.
Midway through July, I informed Orange that I was going to be moving by the 1st August. I arranged with all my other utility suppliers to provide they promise from that day on, and they all honoured their promise. My aide was promised that if the phone was working on the 1st, Orange Broadband would be available from the 8th. Yes, I thought finally the problem is solved!
The 8th came and when, and
no Broadband. Exasperation had reached the point of declaring war!
Again the delightful message following a phonecall
from me, stated the ever so useful phrase; Broadband will be available within the next 5 working days!!! This sounded uneasily familiar by now and did not give much confidence in Orange’s ability to deliver.
And behold the surprise, the 13th went, and guess……… Yep you are right; again I had to call to ask where my broadband connection was. And the reply …… another
7 to 10 working days!!!!!!!!
Imagine yourself ordering a sandwich and no one in the shop knows what bread is.
This is my experience with Orange broadband.
By this point we have been virtually out of communication with family and friend across the world for
TWO MONTHS!!!!. Unexpected expenses, such as international call cards, tickets for internet café and landline calls, have been made, without any offer Orange to compensate. Mr Dale offered a compensation of one month free broadband, and charging again from the 12th August. Even though during a conversation with call centre members, 2 months were offered.
Well, during this month I didn’t have broadband, so free of charge is not really an offer and as there doesn’t seem to be connection by the 12th, charging from them seem ludicrous.
In reply to the quote of the letter ‘…. Allowing us to improve our service’ I expected a professional level of service and a very swift solution of this easy, fundamental problem
caused entirely by Orange (as admitted by my personal contact).
Bearing in mind I have been a loyal customer of Orange for many years and am also a shareholder I would delight in being able to present a positive statement at the next AGM. Unfortunately at this moment I feel there will be a strong objection as to why Orange sees fit to try to destroy its loyal customer base.
If
you feel that the compensation offered by Mr Dale would
satisfy you, please tell me the reasons that you would be happy with that. For my part I would expect more than not charging someone for something they didn’t have.
I will accept no more excuses and I also require a full explanation into the technical cock up that I am sure that I am not the only one experiencing.
I look forward to having an uninterrupted Broadband service again by
20th August as promised in the last phonecall with Lee.
Looking forward to your reply by return (not 7 to 10 working days later!)
Kind regards,
LMS
or in other words a very angry and dissappointed Orange customer
Orange Broadband Nightmare 
Re: Orange Broadband Nightmare 
