my oh has a mobile contract with orange, which includes free broadband. in february they sent her a text saying a mistake had been made on the account & a day later someone phoned about increasing the download speed on our broadband at £5 extra/month.

after a couple of months we decided to cancel the extra £5 service, but then in august they sent a letter saying there was a £35 cancellation charge!!!

this was not mentioned before, and they threatened to cut off the conection 0n 21/08/07.

they did cut it of on the 17/08 & when she phoned they couldn't tell her why she had been put on the £5 contract but refused to re instate it. eventually she contacted the orange phone( rather than broadband)section & they put the internet back on saying it should never have gone off.

they have turned it off twice since & then she has phoned to re instate. now they have turned it off & say she has to re register which will take 20 days

has anyone any ideas what she can do, they seem very unhelpful at orange & she spends hours at a time trying to get thru to them!!!!

my oh has a mobile contract with orange, which includes free broadband. in february they sent her a text saying a mistake had been made on the account & a day later someone phoned about increasing the download speed on our broadband at £5 extra/month.

after a couple of months we decided to cancel the extra £5 service, but then in august they sent a letter saying there was a £35 cancellation charge!!!

this was not mentioned before, and they threatened to cut off the conection 0n 21/08/07.

they did cut it of on the 17/08 & when she phoned they couldn't tell her why she had been put on the £5 contract but refused to re instate it. eventually she contacted the orange phone( rather than broadband)section & they put the internet back on saying it should never have gone off.

they have turned it off twice since & then she has phoned to re instate. now they have turned it off & say she has to re register which will take 20 days

has anyone any ideas what she can do, they seem very unhelpful at orange & she spends hours at a time trying to get thru to them!!!!

smiffy - Hi,

I think you need this post to be moved to the consumer section on CAG this is the bank general forum; if a MOD or site helper has not seen this and moved it just cut&paste and start a new post on the consumer section :)

my oh has a mobile contract with orange, which includes free broadband. in february they sent her a text saying a mistake had been made on the account & a day later someone phoned about increasing the download speed on our broadband at £5 extra/month.

after a couple of months we decided to cancel the extra £5 service, but then in august they sent a letter saying there was a £35 cancellation charge!!!

this was not mentioned before, and they threatened to cut off the conection 0n 21/08/07.

they did cut it of on the 17/08 & when she phoned they couldn't tell her why she had been put on the £5 contract but refused to re instate it. eventually she contacted the orange phone( rather than broadband)section & they put the internet back on saying it should never have gone off.

they have turned it off twice since & then she has phoned to re instate. now they have turned it off & say she has to re register which will take 20 days

has anyone any ideas what she can do, they seem very unhelpful at orange & she spends hours at a time trying to get thru to them!!!!

If they do not inform you of the cancellation charge before the contract is made then they are not entitled to require it later on. Have you paid it? If so you can get it back.

Let me say that this cancellation charge which suddenly appears without warning is not uncommon amongst broadband suppliers. It is a dishonest [problem] and should be challenged every time.

I would suggest that you telephone the regular straightaway and make a complaint over the telephone to them. I have found them to be very good and they clearly have some kind of direct access to these companies and problems are often sorted out very quickly.

You are also entitled to receive at least your money back for the periods during which your service was interrupted and even some compensation and you might want to mention this to the regulator. Don't get greedy but a small amount of compensation may be achievable although the regulator may tell you that they have no power to order it..

You may like to change supplier and this can be done quite quickly by obtaining a MAC code from Orange which they are obliged to give you regardless of any dispute as to money.

One interesting supplier seems to be - BE (check our review section). Their prices and speeds seem to be quite amazingly low and high respectively. If they supply your area you could give them a go.

we haven't paid the cancellation fee, only the £5 monthly fee for a couple of months. yesterday they sent an evelope with which to return our livebox within 28 days,otherwise they will charge us £100.

the contract my oh has is for her mobile & doesn't finish until april 2008, how will this be affected??

I'm only just starting to understand this case. I don't think that I read it properly or appreciated it properly before.

Do I understand that the Broadband was included free of charge with the mobile contract and that they are now trying to renege on the entire free broadband offer because you decided you didn't want to continue with a paid upgrade which was foisted upon you without your consent?

If this is correct - then firstly it shouldn't affect the mobile contract at all.

However, I am incensed that they are now trying to get out of the free offer and I think that you have a very good case on this.

I think that they need a short warning before you require a MAC code and you move to another supplier and go on to sue them for the cost of the new supplier.

you have a duty to mitigate your losses so it is reasonable for you to find another broadband supplier ASAP. However, as it seems from what you say that you are entitled to a free broadband service for at least the life of you mobile contract, I would have thought that it would be quite reasonable for you to sue Orange for the cost of your new supplier's broadband service.

If you respond to this, please ask one of the mods to call my attention to it.

thanks

yes it is a mobile contract with free broadband.

my oh has contacted ofcom (not sure what advice they gave her) & written to orange but has had no response from them as yet!!

So you are disconnected from your broadband service.

you need to decide whether you want to wait sometime while you take action against Orange, or you want to move to a different supplier straightaway and take action against Orange for compensation.

Decide which way you want to go and then we can tell you how to go about it.

yes, no broadband at moment. on sunday they said we had to re register & it would take at least 20 days.

Hi, we too have free Orange broadband with the mobil phone. We had someone phone and offer us free phone calls through the broadband for the extra £5 per month. We had a dd bounce and they cut the broadband off. The OH phoned demanded it to be put back on as he needs it for work, they only agreed when he set up a new dd, to pay off the outstanding money.

We didn't use the calls, so he tried to cancel it. They tried to charge the cancellation fee, but the OH explained as they hadn't suplied or implied any terms and conditions at any time, they were not binding. Nice man agreed to cancel it without charge! (Will have to wait to find out if it has been cancelled!)