Orange mis-selling higher speed package

[beachkat]

We were completely mis-sold the Orange Home Phone with Broadband package on the basis that we'd receive a much higher speed (16-17mb) if we transferred phone billing from BT to Orange.

 

Big mistake. the reality was we lost our connection completely after transfer was screwed up and when it came back it was half the speed it used to be.

 

Numerous tech support (30-45 minute) phone calls to level 1&2 techs + ADR + Orange Helper emails + head office letters have so far produced only vague assurances that speeds will improve some time in the future when they transfer us to the WBC network (that already exists) in our area. The network is apparently oversubscribed. This begs the question: why sell a package you can't actually provide?

 

Really interested to find out if anyone else has experienced similar?

Edited January 11, 2012 by beachkat
typos

[watchinginvestigation2011]

Record all your calls with orange, that way if later they admit or you get proof they were selling speeds they had no definate way of giving you, then your contract is miss sold. If you can get them to confirm on tape that you were promised a certain speed and they then add certain issues which could be a problem, then you could surely ask to leave the contract and go elsewhere.

 

Bit like their unlimited internet usage on mobile phones, that was uuummm, hhhhmmm, welll limited, but they still were happily selling it as unlimited and they sort of neglected to mention fair usage, wonder why? Told me they have a right to describe it as unlimited when definition of the word is without limit, haha. If they are awkward with you and dont let you go if they cannot improve for you, you could ring their sales team for the service you bought, say you want to hear what they can offer for the monthly ammount, and if they say a speed ask I will be able to get that once set up, if they say yeas, gotcha............

 

You see at a guess they might argue 'up to' was said and its your word against theres. Brill when drop to head office you have them on tape confirming your argument, they dont like it.

 

Got to be clever to record them as once they say no we will not let you out of your contract, they can get horrible and its up to you to prove you were miss sold.

 

If up to was said in the sales pitch, they pretty much are covered I notice the other thread you posted on suggests they might have said up to, they only have miss sold if neglected to say that in the sale, even though I agree it is frustrating that these fast figures are quoted with them not knowing what you can actually get dependant on cables and cabinet etc.......

 

Best of luck, its up to you wether you stay and give them a chance or want to leave now.

 

You might gather I dont like orange Some love them, havnt a clue why:madgrin:

Edited January 13, 2012 by watchinginvestigation2011

[beachkat]

WI2011 thanks for your input. Interestingly we started receiving calls from Orange recently (!) They've acknowledged the shop staff should never have promised a speed increase without checking local exchange network first to ensure it was indeed possible.

 

We haven't recorded conversations to date because we found calls a waste of time that just cost us money by hanging on for ages for tech support people that don't know their ass from their elbow. Also it was noticeable that whenever we talked about speed, they were very very cagey and wouldn't admit to any drop. The standard reply (paraphrased) was always, we pump it out at 20mb across the board and can't be responsible for what you receive at your end so it must be your equipment.

 

After many months, we began online campaigning and writing a series of formal letters as part of a second wave of resistance. It now seems to be slowly getting Orange's attention.

 

Having said that, the speed situation is actually worse than we originally thought because we recently noticed our speed logs are measured in megabits and what we quoted in correspondence to Orange was megabytes.

 

The upshot is we're not receiving anywhere near the 8 megabyte IP stream package they dumped on us. Our actual throughput is in reality only averaging 0.89 megbyte/sec which is crap when we were getting a healthy 12-13 megabits (1.5 MB) before they screwed up.

 

SIGN THE BROADBAND SPEED CON PETITION

[beachkat]

Please sign this petition against misleading speeds quoted by deceptive ISP's (like Orange Broadband)