Orange broadband/mobile contracts

[kateandpete]

The problem I have is with my Orange broadband connection. I have signed up for an 8mb connection, but since mid June have been getting speeds of closer to 56kb. Needless to say I’m not very happy about this. The first three times I spoke to their technical support I was told that they knew of the problems and they should be resolved in the next few days. Today I have been told that in fact it is likely to take up to another month to fix. Whilst I may be able to end my contract with them for broadband on the grounds that they are not fulfilling their part of the agreement, the £5 per month package I have with them is dependent upon my having a £35 per month mobile phone contract which I cannot end for another 14 months. Of course the value of the broadband is offset by the cost of the phone. I do not need a £35 per month contract. The problem arises now when the cheap part (ie broadband) is not provided. Does anyone here have any experience of a situation like this? Basically I would like to cancel my phone package on the grounds that I was mis-sold it by promises of a reduced price broadband connection which they have subsequently failed to provide. Alternatively I would accept them paying me the difference between the cost of the broadband they have offered me (£5) and that of another ISP (£20-25) for the remainder of the mobile contract. What do people think? Do I stand a chance, or do I just have to lump it?
(Oh, and after speaking to the guy who told me it would be at 56kbps for around another month I phoned their “new customer” line who took my phone number and said they are able to provide 6.5-8mb in my area at the moment!!)

[path_finder]

It is very unlikley that the mobile side will be willing to cancel your contract due to the fact that the 2 services are completley independant of each other. The free or £5 per month broadband is an offer because you have a mobile contract of £30 per month or more, it is not a package. Their small print says speeds of up to 8mb but does not guaruentee it. It is probable that you are on their LLU system, try asking to be removed from it

[martin2006]

I managed to do exactly that. Although i didnt have the upgraded £5 service, i had the free 2mb service tagged onto the £35 per month contract.
When they cocked my line up i asked to go back to my original contract and to cancel the free service, surprisingly they did. And i moved to cable

[LittleMissSunshine]

Hi kateandpete

well i have similar problem although i dont even have broadband at all at the moment!!! (well not for the last 5 weeks).

They have been messing around with upgrading/migrating etc which seems not to have been gone correctly. I have send an angry/nastly letter to the client service contact and the managing director which they should have by now. Awaiting reply. If its something usefull i start a new post here as it is a long story and better not to interfere with yours

And pathfinder, you are right about the LLU!!! although god knows what it means (my other half does) but its a right mess at the moment at Orange.

LMS

[lilal]

it,s been a mess since they took over wanadoo.make sure you keep pestering them and use your orange phone to ring c/services, that way the call is free i have been on hold upto 2 hours when we had problems with orange,yep we took up mobile and broadband ,although with 7 months left on the phone contract we bought out ,just couldn,t take anymore crap,gonna be interesting to see what happens to the free broadband for life when the 18 month phone contract which would have ended in 7months time.what turned out to be £30 per month when we signed up to £37.50 first because we didn,t say we didn,t want upto 8 meg(even though our phone line can only carry 2 meg=£5)and that we paid by bank giro not dd =£2.50.not my favourite isp

[peed orf]

Hi, my OH and I have had a similar problem resolved, not without a fight of course.
My oh had a mobile with Orange, and took up the free broadband service, this was done over the phone, and no terms & conditions were implied or supplied, after a couple of weeks, Orange phoned and asked, would he like to take out the extra package for £5 per month? we could cancel at anytime, no other terms and conditions were implied or supplied.
Things were going pretty well, when my oh tried to cancel the extra service, they did not cancel it and tried to take another £5, whilst the DD had been cancelled, and when the DD had not been paid turned off the broadband.
After a pro rata arguement, my OH agreed to set up a direct debit to pay the final £5 and use the extra service until the pro rata month had expired. Again they tried to take the DD & argued the fact that they could not down grade the service, and I had to do it online.
My OH had to argue with the operator, and finally had to speak to a supervisor. The Supervisor tried to argue the terms and conditions of our agreement, and stated the T&C's were online.
The service was down graded and any charges were removed from the account because the SOGA states ,the terms and conditions must be clear and made available to the consumer, the fact they write to the user via email annoucing the upgrade, gives them ample opportunity to supply the T&C's, failing to do so, warrents a complaint to the OFT or trading standards for breach of SOGA.
The free broadband does not effect your mobile contract in anyway, the reason is, on the cd to load the orange software, before you install, you have to agree to the liscencing/terms & conditions before instalation comences, in those T&C's it states that the free service can be altered or cancelled at any time, and the agreement is not an exstention of any other agreement with orange (not quoted).
Still its easy to see why Orange scored the lowest customer service score in a recent servey by the Watchdog program, I am sure that French director bloke said the service would improve, Hmmmm perhaps thats why the French are always striking lol