13 replies to this topic

[mike.]

I've got a mobile phone contract with orange.

I'm happy with the phone, the price and the tariff everythings been fine for the first 9 months or so of the contract. Then about mid may the signal just dropped off completely at home. Most of the time the phone didn't even know what network it was on it had so little signal and when it did manage to get a signal I was bombarded with texts informing me of all the calls i'd missed by having no signal. I'd been having problems with the phone so just put it down to that at the time, but the phone fixed itself and it still had no signal at home or around my local area.

I then found out that my dad had had the same problem (also on orange) and his signal had dropped the same sort of time as mine. Also when friends were round, they all had no signal (again all on orange) however if you drive a few hundred metres down the road, you get a full signal.

It then clicked that a pub round the corner from my house which used to have masts on the top of it, had recently become a protected historic building and the masts got taken down. They were temporarily mounted on a pole in the car park off the pub but were then taken down. So my dad rang orange and asked if a mast had been taken down and they confirmed that a mast had been taken down. They said they had a new location sorted and they were waiting on planning permission for a new mast to go up. So we stuck with it for another few weeks having no signal until I got fed up and rang them to see what was going on. I rang from my friends house (only place I could get signal) and asked about getting some discount/refund on my contract because I couldn't even use the minutes/texts I was paying for! The dozey women on the phone started off saying 'oh well the computer doesn't say we've had any masts down in your area' tp which I told her that they had had a mast down because I knew where the mast was and orange had confirmed to my dad a few weeks before it was down.

She gave me some crappy advice on things I could try to fix it. It involved manually disconnecting from orange and searching for available networks then reconnecting to orange. This was suppose to connect me to the nearest strongest signal mast, and fix the problem. It didn't at all - Absolutely no improvement what so ever. She told me that the mast was due to be replaced/fixed on the 12th of July. It was the last few days of june when I rang...

So here we are on the 22nd of july and my signal has now somehow gone even worse. I used to be able to wave the phone about/put it on a window ledge/walk around in the garden to get a signal. However now, I can't get any signal at all and when the phone says I have a signal, it still can't send texts and when you try to phone somebody it says emergency calls only.

So now i'm just completely fed up with orange and this whole no signal thing. Its been going on for months now and even after admitting a problem at their end, it still hasn't been fixed. I'm paying £25 a month for minutes and texts that I can't even use and a phone that's only use is as a camera in this state.

I've been doing some reading up on cancelling contracts and things. Some websites say that mobile contracts all have a 'walk out clause' in them and that by simply stating the term 'I want to cancel my contract' I should be able to have it cancelled or get what I want from orange. Other websites say because i'm signed up for 24 months, the only way I can get out is by paying the remaining bills for the next year or so off in one lump sum.

What are my rights and what can I do about this?

At the end of the day i'm happy to stay with orange aslong as they give me a signal - Its not alot to ask!

Sorry for the essay but i'm going to ring them tomorrow and see what they have to say. I want to know what rights I have before I kick off if they tell me theres no mast problems etc etc

Thanks

[hammoj28]

Hmm, Im wth orange even though I dont want to be.

Over the winter months the the network kept dropping out wth the slightest of snow whereas other networks didnt. iv had loads of problems.

I tried to cancel my contract but they keep telling me i need to pay a cancellation fee. iv argued and argued with them over it because my reasoning is that how can i pay for a contract that doesnt work. Iv tried to speak to higher levels, but I just cant get through. I gave up eventually fter spending hours on the phone on numerous occasions.

Once my contract ends in September, im never going near the blasted company again. iv been a good customer over the past 5 years probably.

Orange, are useless and their customer service is pitiful

[Ethel]

I'd be very surprised if there isn't a clause in the contract that absolves them of responsibility for network outages . It's probably available online. Even so, you should be able to expect a reasonable service http://www.otelo.org...nsproviders.php may be a good place to start.

This:

terminating your contract because Orange is no longer able to provide access to the Network

4.4 If, for reasons beyond our control, we are no longer able to provide Network Services, we will at our discretion either:

4.4.1 make arrangements for you to be supplied with equivalent Services by another network at no extra cost to you, or

4.4.2 accept written notice from you that you wish to terminate your Contract. In such cases we will refund any pre-paid Charges that have not been used up.


is taken from here

also of interest

[mike.]

Thanks.

Just had a look on that site. Looks like orange isn't a member on that site.

Although a few other major providers are:

O2
3
Tesco Mobile
Vodafone
Virgin

Infact the only company that isn't on there is orange and T mobile - Which I believe are basically the same company.

Shows how much orange care really...

[Ethel]

Ok, Silly of me to think such a big player would be. There's also www.ofcom.org.uk & I've added a bit more to my previous post.

[mike.]

Thanks alot. I'll see what orange have got to say tomorrow...

[davidv]

Good luck.Follow Ethels guide.Contracts can be hard to cancel.Most have a large cancel Fee.I tried to on mine and got told its cheaper to let the contract run out keep paying them then do not re-new it.I found i am still on with no contract still pay them for the time i use it.

[mike.]

Well just spoke to orange. It went ok.

They said they are aware of the problem and are trying hard to fix it. They've confirmed it was the mast on the pub thats been taken down and they said because they had to take it down, they have to put another up somewhere.

She said theres been 5 previous attempts over the last couple of months to get planning permission for a new mast - I assume they've all been refused. She said theres currently another planning application in the process at the moment, right near my house which would give me full signal again, but at the moment its just a waiting game.

She asked me what I wanted to be done to keep me happy and I said I just wasn't happy paying my bill for a phone I can't use. She said she'll give me next months bill free to hopefully cover the time whilst the planning application goes through. I asked about getting a refund on previous bills but she said since my last 2 calls were just enquiries rather than complaints, they've not been logged on the system as a problem. Basically meaning as far as they're concerned its only today that i've asked about this problem.

So i'll have to see how it goes. I might ring them again next week if my signal stays as low as it is, because like I said at the moment theres no signal at all, Normally I can walk around to find 1 bar of signal to send a text or something but at the moment theres nothing...

[t@z]

Orange are pretty bad recently. i have an ok signal at home and when i go to a friends house in Woking there is no signal at all. To top that all off just lately about the last month or two i've been having massive issues with my signal at work (and so has my boss also on orange).

Problem is i've been with them for so long that i have a good number of magic numbers & alot of my friends are on Orange :/. Plus can't beat the wednesday deal for a cheap night out.

But i have been wondering about this so good to know, if persists might call up and see what they can do for me.

Edited by t@z, 23 July 2010 - 11:12 AM.

[Ethel]

They must know how long their mast has been down so, unless she's suggesting you've moved, you must have had a reduced service for the same time. If they log your calls for billing purposes it would also show reduced usage. Is your phone locked to Orange, why not ask to have it unlocked for free so you can use another service while they get their act together?

[998dave]

You could try asking them for a discount until you get full usage again, suggest half the contract price or something?
I think they've done this before.

[stormintrooper]

Same thing happened to my uncle, he made a fuss about it and they offered to cancel free of charge (also orange) and give him his funny number code thing to take to a difference provider

[mike.]

Yeah they've given me the next month free which is quite good. But so far its been 2 months since the mast has been down. Think i'll ring back next week and see about getting a refund or something for the last month at least and as ethel has said might ask them to unlock my phone so I can use another network for the time being...

[skaterava]

How strange, i was just on the phone to Orange after a) i got no service whatsoever when i went to Ireland, and b) despite just putting our monthly phone bill payment through, they cut our line and because we were out, we couldn't even ring them to say we'd paid, please give our line back.

Plus my girlfriend gets a much better deal (with a better phone) for a lower price at T-Mobile, so i'll probably switch to them when the contract ends.