orange broadband.

[ozzywizard]

Hiya, a friend of a friend has signed up for orange broadband. She is running windows 98 and was not advised by them it was not compatible. She received the disk of them and it would not work so phoned them up and was told it was not compatible.
She then asked to cancel as the service was nissold and she had never used the service. Then she was advised it would cost 204 pounds to cancel.

She received a letter stating "At the beginning and during the registration process it is clearly stated our boradband equiptment is incompatible with windows 98.as you chose to continue with the registration process we cant be held responsible for any cancelation fee you will incur should your account be closed. If you still like to cancel you can choose to continue making monthly payments for the remainder of your contract or make a one off payment. Your cancelation fee currently stands at 204 pounds"

This is not affordable to her and I believe to be wrong for a service she never had or understood. Any help in advise or a way to write a letter would be appreciated, she has no clue how to deal with this and I promised to help her but im not sure if their is anything I can do.

[andyorch]

Hi
Why is it not compatible? is it the usual ADSL modem? Could she not find a driver from the manufactures site to run it on 98.?Failing that try an upgrade to win98 SE or even Xp can be picked up quite cheaply.As long as her computer has USB connectivity and even it is hasnt you can pick up a USB PCI Card for a Fiver takes 2 min to fit,Theres nothing special about Orange Broadband works the same as tiscali/virgin/bt and all the rest of the ADSL crew.



Regards
Andy

[ozzywizard]

She was advised by them it is not compatible by there 50p a min tech support line and also confirmed in the letter above. She wishes to cancel the service now due to her having no way of connecting but she did not know about the cancelation charge.

[Conniff]

The site says:

A computer with:

• CD-Rom drive
• ethernet
• Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000 or Apple Mac OS X (except for Intel Base Apple Macs for Broadband Starter customers).

You don't have much choice other than to upgrade or pay the fee. It does say the above on the introduction page as well as the first sign up page, (I didn't look any further than that).

Seeing as you will be paying for it take it or leave it, your best bet is to upgrade.

It could be that the PC is old seeing as she is running Windows 98, and does not have ethernet.
It is a very outdated and insecure operating system and not even supported by Microsoft any longer, so there are no security updates.
You will also find it very hard if not impossible to find any firewall or antivirus software to run on 98 either so leaving herself very vunerable and wide open to all the viruses, spyware and adware evils the internet throws around the world.

[ozzywizard]

It could be that the PC is old seeing as she is running Windows 98, and does not have ethernet.

Yeah very possible, thanks for the advise. I will get back to her and check her computer specs and look at a possible upgrade. She says she was never informed but as you have pointed out it is very clear in the reg process. I will discuss this with her.

[andyorch]

"It could be that the PC is old seeing as she is running Windows 98, and does not have ethernet."



Dosent require Ethernet for ADSL only USB and their are Firewall/Antivirus and adaware available for Win 98 but as Conniff states quits rightly no support or updates for Win 98 vis a vis Microsoft


Regards
Andy

[ozzywizard]

Cheers Andy, I do need to check her system, it probably is very old. I think her main worry though is paying the 200 pound cancelation. Seems best way around this is to try and get her the service she signed up for.

[kopw]

Just a thought......If your friend's pc is old then it is unlikeley that it would run the latest windows i.e. Vista. However, has your friend ever thought of running Linux on her machine? It could be set up as a dual boot system and it's open source, meaning it's free. You might find that Orange Broadband would be compatible with Linux. Please also bear in mind that Microsoft no longer provide updates for windows 98 meaning that her system, if hooked up to the internet via LAN would be a goldmine to hackers.

[chesham]

Hmm, without sounding patronising, if she still runs Windows 98, then she may have a hell of a time with Linux! Plus Orange don't support Linux/Redhat OS's either.

I don't see why she can' connect through either the livebox or an USB modem though? If she has a CD, then she must have the livebox, and I don't think the CD would run on Windows 98.

Bearing in mind, Windows 98 is a very old, insecure and unstable system, I wouldn't advise using the internet on it due to how vulnerable any details she puts in would be!!

Ok, over to the legalities side of it - Orange are, unfortunately, not liable for any costs or in the wrong here. When you buy a piece of software, the EULA (end user license agreement) and shop policies state that it is the buyer or user's responsibility to make sure they have a compatible system, hence why the specs are always made clear prior to buying it. Software is also partially exempt from certain Acts which contain provisions for buyer protection, because of it's nature - it is easily copied and open to forgery or counterfeiting.

If it is going to cost her £204 to cancel the contract, then £200 (or not much more) will buy her a brand spanking new up to date computer with either Windows XP or Vista on which she can run almost anything and everything on.

Time to upgrade I think - not just for the internet, but for her own enjoyment, Windows XP/Vista is a lot better than a 10 year old OS!!