The Great Support Swindle !

[Neilm]

Was called out to help a friend with their broadband install, I dont normally do homers.. but because my business is IT I get all the calls.

Anyway, I go out there thinking its bound to be something stupid....

I arrived at his house at 5:30pm and left at 11:00pm....

And still he had no broadband.

Everything set up as it should at his end, used Dr SpeedTouch and that pointed to ISP every time, I could only assume it was one of two things, the line wasnt active or the username and / or password was incorrect. Neither was the case according to Customer Service and the correspondence received from Orange.

The swindle comes when you cant call anyone apart from a Premium Rate number and you end up talking to someone in India who's accent was only a shade thicker than the person himself.


The 1st trick..... go through a long message about the premium rate number etc and that will waste 30 seconds... then ask as many details as possible, repeating each one back as its said.... and then repeat it all back to you at the end.

Then tell you to wait, they are updating your file... more time wasting... then repeat again the problem...

Then you ask a direct question.... you get cut off.


You ring back... and it all starts again...

You then ask another direct question...

You are put on hold indefinately.... then cut off

So you ring back and the call is answered but no one there...


All the time the call charges are clocking up, one single call is only billed for a may of 20 mins.. £10

BUT..... multiple calls are not limited so this bills keep rising.


In the end, gave up, rang customer service, pleaded with a nice english girl for help.... begged not to be put through to india again....

NO JOY...

Got passed to another helpdesk, but told because this chap only had a Starter Pack.... there would be no help from them and you have to call the premium rate number and suffer India again.

This totally infuriating when you are paying £14.99 a month for the service in the first place.

Gave up

Told the fella to box it up and ship it back to Orange telling them to poke it.


Now a cynic would say... wouldnt it be a nice little money spinner if everyone who signed up had an incorrect password put on their account... a simple keying in error perhaps.... and then every user has to ring up because they cant get connected and they all go through this rigmerole.. all paying premium rate... all getting the run around

An easy way to make profit from a service that on the surface appears cheap.


be interesting to hear how many others have had similar experiences

[DarkDMG]

There is Nothing worse than paying for something your not getting so don't pay.....next time you have to call orange use this number 01642 732773(Middlesbrough not India). If you have unmetered telephone service it will cost you nothing to call. failing that go though the automated switchboard 0800 0790435 and ask to be put through to the right dept.

Hope this helps

David
MW1CVM

[everton66]

Whatever you do, dont damage your passport if you need an emergency replacement. I had to ring a £1.50 per minute phone number to listen to a pre-recorded 7 minute message before it gave me the phone number of the department I needed to speak to to arrange an appointment at my local office. What do we pay taxes for.....

[malcbwilson]

I had similar problems, for two months. . They made promises to ring back, but never did. Then when I rang the 090 number thay said that they could not contact me even though I had waited in for the calls. I gave up ringing the premium rate number and wrote to Orange twice complaining about the abuse of the premium rate sevice. I got a standard letter on both occassions saying they would be very happy to help and how all their customers are special etc, all I have to do is ring (you guessed it) 090 50 50 51 51
Arrg!! They are professionals in frustation. I could not wind anyone up as much if I tried.
In the mean time I used the "pay as you go" service which cost me more money. I am a comms engineer and the problem was external to my home, (the exchange).

Malcolm

[pjjclark]

Hi There,

Am interested in the problem that you had....

Did it ever get resolved? I'm having similar problems, where the diagnostics of my router is saying that it is not getting a reply from the ISP.

Having checked with orange, my Password and account are set up and correct.

Thanks in advance