Orange - The worst provider ever!

[jbrooksuk]

Hey,

I posted this on my blog earlier - see here.

Since Wanadoo changed over to Orange, the broadband provider has lowered its services further and further down in quality. A few years back, Wanadoo was one of the best providers out there, however after Orange bought the company, its become one if not the worst provider around.

A few years back, the service was impeccable, no down time, fast browsing and an overall good connection. These days however are just totally different.

Over the past year and a half, I’ve had bad internet problems:

* Immense down times – lasting all day to 2-3 days

* Absolutely horrific support – Indian call centre: “Is the power light on?” – What do you think I am? The village idiot?

After my Dad contacted Orange about the problems, everything seemed to work fine, for a week or so – they were even kind enough to offer us 6 months free 8 megabytes, nice of them, we received only 0.65kb (on average).

Now I know, from time to time companies have problems, they’re service breaks for an hour or so, but everything is working fine shortly after. With Orange, this is not the case. Sadly, you get a problem and that’s it, it’s like a rabbit has been startled. The same with Orange, they just sit there… For days.

I contacted Orange yesterday on behalf of my Dad. Firstly, the number they provided was only useful if you had one of their Speedtouch routers – we sent ours back (it worked no differently to our Belkin N1 Vision Wireless). I was then told to ring another number (it was indeed the same as the first) but told to use different option numbers. I finally get through to another place, 5 minutes into the call. A woman answers and takes down the details. The first technical question they ask me, after spelling BROOKS to her a few times is, “Is the power light on?”, I sat in amazement that they would ask such a stupid question. When I replied, “Yes, of course it’s on, it’s the ADSL icon which doesn’t show.”, there is a long pause as though she is using a database to understand what ADSL means…

Thankfully my Dad has registered for Talk Talk broadband, whom have very good reviews from friends and on the internet.

So, what’s the point of this article? The point people is firstly, to express my anger and secondly, never use Orange broadband.

Anyone else had similar problems?

James

Edit: Formatting.

[Phemo]

You think that Talk Talk have been getting good reviews? Everything I've read about them trashes them and makes out that they're just as bad as, if not worse, than Orange. It doesn't surprise me though - poor speeds and poor support are common on Orange.

[jbrooksuk]

Surprisingly, my area is good for Talk Talk, tested on other peoples connections.

[RadishTM Veteran]

Should have gone with O2 - http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4005-is...09-winners.html

Radish?

[jbrooksuk]

Should have gone with O2 - http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4005-is...09-winners.html

Radish?

We shall see how Talk Talk goes.

[Max Veteran]

Oh god.

Orange are awful, especially with their horrible Liveboxes. Talktalk are just as bad. Virgin: offering the low cost, ultra low speed service. Tiscali: Huge downtime and silly customer service.

BT is the only provider I have not had a single problem with. I recommend them to all my customers and they don't have any problems either. The only people that have problems are the ones who didn't plug their filters in properly. I always laugh to myself when people phone me up and say "My telephone is all interference, and my broadband disconnects every time the phone rings!" :p

[-KJ]

Add Hughesnet to the list of worst provider.

[Lee G. Veteran]

I doubt you'll be with Talk Talk for long. My dad recently got my grandparents connected with Talk Talk, but their internet usage is very small.

I agree with Max™ and Radish™ - BT and O2 are very good choices (not taking into account the cost). Sadly, at home I'm with Tiscali, and have been since 2002 or so, but my parents aren't willing to switch ISP :/

[Sn00pY]

Be* ftw. (same as O2...)

get either Be* or O2 - NOW. DO IT. TalkTalk is a useless pile of turd - I had it at my mothers house for a while - It's CRAP. Sky is decent for her now though...

[Calum Veteran]

I've heard O2 is fantastic for their broadband, but Orange are terrible. That's what I've heard off friends who know what they're talking about, but I haven't had experience with either of those.

[Mieky242]

O2 is by far the best. I used to work for Samsung tech support and we hardly ever got calls from O2. 75% of our calls were from Orange customer (basically Orange fobs them all off or refuses to help them!).

[King Antonius]

Thankfully my Dad has registered for Talk Talk broadband, whom have very good reviews from friends and on the internet.

OH GOD YOU FOOL!!!!! NO!!!

They are TERRIBLE. You think Orange are bad? At least they are in the top 50 ISPs in the uk (46). Talktalk isn't even in the list.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top50.php

[Farchord]

Thankfully my Dad has registered for Talk Talk broadband, whom have very good reviews from friends and on the internet.

OH GOD YOU FOOL!!!!! NO!!!

They are TERRIBLE. You think Orange are bad? At least they are in the top 50 ISPs in the uk (46). Talktalk isn't even in the list.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top50.php

You say 'The worse provider ever' so I assume you mean everywhere.

Ever heard of Bell Canada?

[ToneKnee]

I believe Talk Talk is being split from the Carphone Warehouse, obviously the CPW know that Talk Talk is a pile of crap.

Sorry to say this about BT though, they are pretty bad. I'm sick of being throttled when I watch BBC iPlayer, buffering issues and stuff, same goes for Bit Torrents, Usenet, general downloads and so on. Stupid traffic packet shaping.

Be* (or O2) are far the best, when I was with them, I have literally no problems with them. And their connection were set to Ludicrous speed. No packet management or any thing. I think a Be* employee once said that they don't care what people are downloading, or how much, as long as they don't have the police knocking on their door. They're network is very well built with a huge backbone. Remarkable stuff.

[jbrooksuk]

Be* seems to sound quite good. We're with Talk Talk for our phone line, so shouldn't be to bad. And I know someone who works in the tech department =]

They are TERRIBLE. You think Orange are bad? At least they are in the top 50 ISPs in the uk (46). Talktalk isn't even in the list.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top50.php

TalkTalk is 34...

TalkTalk Reviews - First page has one negative review.

[Crompee]

As everyone else has said, in the UK.. the only real decent provider at the moment is Be (or o2).

They dont throttle and are open about everything with o2 actually having a UK call center which is nice when there is a problem.

Im with TalkTalk at the moment and i'd describe them the same way you described Orange. Downtime can last for days, with the customer service never admitting there is a problem on there end and just following there script.

I'd highly recommend cancelling your TalkTalk contract and convincing your dad to try Be (or o2).

[Biohead]

Been on talktalk since late 2004, and yes they do have their periods of downtime (which really aren't that frequent, but they do last the best part of a day), but other than that I've found it to be top notch.

One thing you need to do is make sure you get the LLU unbundled and with talktalk too - they actually use their own modern hardware, and it pushed broadband speeds where I live from 2mb to just under 5mb. Really pulls latency down too, which is a godsend on Xbox Live.

[jbrooksuk]

Been on talktalk since late 2004, and yes they do have their periods of downtime (which really aren't that frequent, but they do last the best part of a day), but other than that I've found it to be top notch.

One thing you need to do is make sure you get the LLU unbundled and with talktalk too - they actually use their own modern hardware, and it pushed broadband speeds where I live from 2mb to just under 5mb. Really pulls latency down too, which is a godsend on Xbox Live.

Will do.

[King Antonius]

Be* seems to sound quite good. We're with Talk Talk for our phone line, so shouldn't be to bad. And I know someone who works in the tech department =]

TalkTalk is 34...

TalkTalk Reviews - First page has one negative review.

oops, my apologies. Missed that :p (I was tired) Still, i would reccomend o2. Also, if you have a mobile contract with them, you can get the net cheaper.

Also. Look at the user average. its got 4.5/10. I would say that is awful.

You say 'The worse provider ever' so I assume you mean everywhere.

Ever heard of Bell Canada?

Can you please point out where in

OH GOD YOU FOOL!!!!! NO!!!

They are TERRIBLE. You think Orange are bad? At least they are in the top 50 ISPs in the uk (46). Talktalk isn't even in the list.

I say 'The worse provider ever".

[jbrooksuk]

oops, my apologies. Missed that :p (I was tired) Still, i would reccomend o2. Also, if you have a mobile contract with them, you can get the net cheaper.

No problem :)

I will try O2 if this fails. We've only got a months contract, just in case.

[Lee G. Veteran]

Been on talktalk since late 2004, and yes they do have their periods of downtime (which really aren't that frequent, but they do last the best part of a day), but other than that I've found it to be top notch.

One thing you need to do is make sure you get the LLU unbundled and with talktalk too - they actually use their own modern hardware, and it pushed broadband speeds where I live from 2mb to just under 5mb. Really pulls latency down too, which is a godsend on Xbox Live.

That would be enough of a reason to turn me away :p

[Panacik]

I was with BT at first and never had a problem, other than when i left home and tried cancelling... they where a pain in the butt.

Was with Telewest and had a great service, until they became Virgin Media, suddenly i was talking to a lot of people in India who always tried selling me their own antivirus software because i have a virus on ALL my machines regardless of what free antivirus product i run and regardless of the fact i had only just done a clean install.

Now im with Sky and to be honest have got the best service from them ever. The customer service is local and technical and their speeds are exactly what they said it should be. They even said that i can only get 7 meg even if i pay for the 8 meg package, which was very honest of them, but for some reason i pay for 8 and adverage on 9! :).

In all, i am sure there are better and worse out there, but my experience with Sky is great.

[giggsey]

I'm on Talktalk, and the service has been fine for me. Speeds are good, I haven't had to use their support, and I haven't really noticed any downtime.

A good ISP that I was on is Eclipse, small, unheard of, but good.

[Noveed]

lol, lol and lol.

Why don't people understand the transition between Wanadoo and Orange?

Wanadoo was owned by france telecom, and so is orange as far as i can tell. Orange did not take over, it was more of a merge and Wanadoo started using Orange's name.

The staff remained the same, management remained the same.

So all these stories about "since wanadoo got taken over by orange" are BS. It is only what you percieve.

Im not going to stand by and defend Orange, i know they have problems, their technical support is bad (the indian call centre) however they have teams within the UK you can get through to who can sort things out aswell (First call resolution).

You would be suprised how stupid some of the British public actually is, so do not be offended if you get asked "is the power light on".

I had spoken to customers where they did not have a clue about anything, customer claiming to be IT specialists etc etc, however sometimes the most simplest of fixes is to check cables, restart (or factory reset) the equipment.

Some of my conversations in the past have gone like:

Me: What Windows are you using?

Customer: Double Glazed.

:blink:

...

Me: Can you move your mouse and click start?

Customer: I am moving it, nothing is happening.

............5-10 minutes of trying to figure out why nothing is happening

Me: Can you describe what make and model you mouse is?

Customer: Its go 2 green lights on it and says Speedtouch.

:omg:

get the idea?

Im with virgin media, they have an indian call centre. They always ask me is the power light on when i report a problem. I pay for an upto 10mb cable connection with them and i recieve 0.97 most of the time. WoW is generally unplayable. At the end of the day all providers have their ups and downs, its how you go about dealing with the situation or most of the time who you speak to when you get through to orange. Most of the time i found that people with lots of technical background were quite "cocky" and thought they knew it all.

[+KibosJ Subscriber²]

I have to say that O2 are the best provider I have ever been with :). From the day I connected to today I have never once had any problems whatsoever :).

I have had problems with Sky, Pipex, AOL, Tiscali and orange. Sky less than others, but O2 is amazing :)