Orange Broadband Reviews
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  • unhappy

    by TomKat at 22:05 on 18 May 2012Report abuse

    Hi I've just found this forum using my phones connection as once again my orange internet has disconnected. Like many of you Ive been with Orange since it was Freeserve and had a reasonable service until more recently when it became more and more erratic. Ive got 2 liveboxes and a Netgear router sat here now. i was going to leave but they convinced me to try the Brightbox. it was ok for a few weeks but now again every evening my internet disconnects. Even when it says its connected on my devices I still cannot connect to anything. its driving me nuts and I have to bring my desktop downstairs to connect by ethernet so I can get on to the configuration pages and try a different channel again. spent hours on the phone to India but have given ip with them now. I told orange I want to leave but they said Im tied kn again until August 2013 and will have to pay £135 to leave. I wish I had gone to another isp now when I had tge chance :(

  • neutral

    by brendan mahoney at 21:29 on 18 May 2012Report abuse

    im having all these problems,ive spent 5 hours this past week to india,all very polite and helpful.had the remote operation of computer twice,plugged directly into test socket.had a new router now.brightbox so we'll see what happens. been lied to a fair bit too,got to say its stressing me big time.was with bt before and regretted the day i asked for my mac code from them.waited 2 weeks just to get online despite being assured i wouldnt lose my connection.
    thing is its just so cheap compared to bt.and their tech staff are in india too.but i never had a problem with bt .not once.

  • neutral

    by Lyndsa at 14:24 on 12 May 2012Report abuse

    Hi, after a fault on my mini livebox, I received a refurbished older type livebox in replacement. On trying to set this up, it wouldnt work, so the usual phone orange, told to take box right back to the line coming in etc etc and still it wouldnt connect to broadband, was told they would do a line test, which they said proved there was a fault on the line and an engineer would be sent at my expense. I insisted no fault before I tried to install the refurbished live box and I would, before an engineer was to be sent, revert back to the original 'faulty' live box - guess what?? Worked perfect proving no fault on the line at all.
    Orange then said the refurbished box was faulty. What a good job I refused an engineer!
    Sadly Im still waiting for the replacement box again. Ive been with orange since it began as freeserve and Ive always found them to be good with broadband customer service faults but sadly on this occasion, they failed to impress

  • happy

    by Stephen in the Hills at 17:40 on 11 May 2012Report abuse

    As I promised you earlier this month, I would wait for the bright-box to arrive and adopt a 'wait-and-see' attitude...and having waited and seen the results which are as equally unimpressive as with netgear, I have taken a leap of faith and registered with another company...I will be breaking my contract with Orange and will no doubt incur a penalty fee but they can whistle for it. I do not see why I should have to pay compensation money to a company that has seriously undercompensated me for all the hours I have spent trying to log onto the internet, download websites and ringing call centres who really don't give a s**t about the horrendous problems you, the paying customer, are experiencing...as I pointed out to one representative when she was apologising for Orange's failures; 'It's not like the Internet is a new concept, an idea that was only invented yesterday, where there will be teething problems to be ironed out for some time to come. The Internet has been around now for more than 15 years, so one would expect that any major company worth its salt would be able to deliver a sound and reliable service...' Evidently Orange is taking it's loyal customers on a journey back to the Dark Ages. I for one am glad to be free of its clutches...

  • neutral

    by Gromit77 at 20:27 on 10 May 2012Report abuse

    Been with them since Freeserve and moved house 3 times, service was always everything I expected from my location and proximity to the exchanges. Currently my 20mb broadband is pulling in a speed of 11mb to 13mb which is very satisfactory.

    So all good yeah?

    Eh NO!!......since the back end of 2011 they started throttling P2P traffic and thus using any kind of P2P after 4pm or so takes my speed down from over 1000kbs to 1kbs. I respect this kind of ussage is frowned upon anyway, but when you buy an UNLIMITED account you dont expect limitations. The other thing is, since the throttling I have found that some websites that stream you tube style videos buffer terribly, and also my online gaming has been losing connection a lot when it never used to. I expect better and am currently looking to move away from Orange.

  • neutral

    by Dan at 16:34 on 10 May 2012 | registered | 1 postReport abuse

    I have been with Freeserve / Wanadoo / Orange for over 10 years and I have never (I mean NEVER) had any issue. The connection was fast & stable.

    In the last 2 months alone, I have experienced a capped line speed some paltry, 1/2 meg per sec (so basically dialup speed) on my usually stable 8mb/s speed. The oddity here was that my upload speed as faster than my attainable download rate. This was somehow corrected after the "wait 3 days" fix.

    I am now stricken with the dreaded "PPP Server Down" authentication issue. So basically no connection at all.

    I like to hedge my bets with Orange CS. I emailed AND called. During my phone call, I was told in no certain terms that there was an Exchange Fault and I was not the only person affected. Fine, I'll accept that once from CS India.

    Then, almost instantly, a callback from my email message. This time UK based support. Get this, "There is no current exchange fault listed with ourselves or BT".

    Nice. ;) I like being lied to.

    I am due to call them again tonight and if I am not satisfied with the action taken, I shall ask for my MAC code there and then. I do not like being fobbed off, especially when I know more about the technical issues of broadband protocol and router functions than the monkeys in 'tech support'. :(

    P.S. Started Neutral but as I wrote this, definitely became Angry.

  • unhappy

    by Ben at 22:10 on 9 May 2012Report abuse

    Well its good to know im not the only one being mugged of by orange. I was receiving O.5m downloas spees, complained for weeks to india with no prevail. Finally had an engineer out, useless. 2 more weeks had another out, nice friendly chap everthing was fine with the line oranged had capped out he popped back from the transfer centre with my PROMISED speed of 4meg. Few months on im back to where I started, the exactly same low speed. Been on the phone to india again too much and they are useless cant transfer me to anyone english at a higher level. Im certain its been capped again. Surely they have violated the contract!!!!!

  • neutral

    by susan at 14:52 on 5 May 2012Report abuse

    ive been with orange for 15 months and i had a few hicups at the start but when ive sent them a email there always called me back and its not from a indian call center its from this country , and there solved my problems for me , they even refunded my credit on my mobile when i lost it when i brought a smart phone did give me no headaches what so ever not like vodafone when my husband had a problem with his new mobile
    and i pay £21.50 amonth for my phone line .broadband and calls i was paying £23 just for the line and calls with bt ,

  • unhappy

    by Carl at 11:23 on 28 Apr 2012Report abuse

    This is the worst ISP I have ever experienced. The thing that annoys me most isn't the absurdly long time it took to get connected, it isn't the clueless staff, it isn't even the constant disconnections. It's the fact that we were promised 15Mb/s (already down from the advertised speed of 20Mb/s) and yet over the past 7 months the connection speed has never risen above 5Mb/s, with the average being significantly lower. If I could get Orange done for false advertising then I would because it's an absolute joke. I understand that various factors can influence connection speed but when your maximum speed is two-thirds lower than what was promised then it says only one thing - that the promise was a lie.

  • unhappy

    by M Squires at 06:38 on 27 Apr 2012Report abuse

    Hello as with most of the posts I am having trouble with Indian call centres. Does anyone have a telephone number I can ring in the UK for help? Many thanks.

  • unhappy

    by Stephen in the Hills at 00:31 on 26 Apr 2012Report abuse

    I came back to Orange because my previous experience of them was good (I was seduced away by BT) but since my return so much has changed and NOT for the better...appalling broadband, any and every website taking an age to download (and usually it simply does NOT!), equally appalling customer care (I wonder why they call it that, when really it is 'customer un-care'), Indian call centres (yeah, they do their best, they're polite, but let's be honest, they don't solve the problems!)...but I think, after numerous fights and exhausting arguments with front-line staff (whose cavalier attitude really does NOT help!), that Orange are simply too big and cannot cope with its volume of customers...I am now going to wait until I get my new Orange bright box (apparently I am out-of-date with what one level 3 support staff referred to as 'the bain of my life!', the Netgear router) and adopt a 'wait-and-see' attitude' but if it does not solve the immeasurable problems I have been having (which have been going on for months), I am outa here!!!!

  • neutral

    by yorkialan at 14:56 on 21 Apr 2012Report abuse

    well just to let you all no about my orange saga, it never ends, all the reviews on here are correct to a tea, throttling,bad weather, the list is endless, its the weekend again and having to turn of the Internet at the mains to get connected to the net, being going on for weeks now, and now having to do it in the week also, the other night 25 mins to get connected to the net, its been taking me from 5 mins to 30 mins, well call the Indian call center, i got a lovely Indian lady, who i'm sorry to say just didn't have a clue, over 1 hour on the phone, told me it wouldn't happen again, but it is still, this company is horrendous, all the staff are complete lies, well there have to be or there will get the sack if there told you the truth,there will never tell you what the problem really is its ORANGE, keep well away from orange, cheap & nasty,

  • unhappy

    by Mark at 05:14 on 21 Apr 2012 | registered | 1 postReport abuse

    Beware Orange throttling on torrents/p2p. Has been happening consistently since I started using orange, torrent starts off at 200+kBs then drops over a minute or two to typically 1-3kBs. using encryption seems to slow this down but doesn't cure it so i'm guessing it's some packet filtering not port based.

  • neutral

    by Riccardo17 at 23:03 on 20 Apr 2012Report abuse

    I have been with Orange since it was wanadoo and I agree with all the bad reviews. I have had nightmares with Orange on both my phone and broadband. The Indian call centres, which I’m sure, try their best but are pretty much useless and their command of the English language is for the most part pretty awful. A few months ago I was without or had intermittent Internet with impossibly low speeds for six weeks. During that time I spent almost 30 hours on the phone wasting my time talking to idiots who I could not understand who kept telling me I had an internal wiring problem even though I had replaced everything and was plugged into the back of the main socket with nothing else connected, Also the connection always got worse when the weather was bad, windy and raining. As much as they may try the Indian call centre staff are for the most part useless and never once returned calls that were promised. The English call centre was not a lot better, again there were some fair people but one guy tried to sign me into a new contract and actually lied to his supervisors saying I had asked for a new contract even though I am on their homemax package £15 monthly for phone line and unlimited broadband plus extra line for free calls although they have taken that off me now by making me take a new router. With my iPhone I was unable to get a 3G signal from the beginning for almost six months and again spent the equivalent of days on the phone to their call canters which were again rubbish and kept telling me the problem was a result of something I was doing which is insulting. Now here's the good part. On the iPhone front they eventually sorted it out and gave me six months with no contract fee and were willing to let me out of the contract a year early without penalty and I got to keep the phone. Unfortunately I didn't take this offer as I kinda have a twisted thing about loyalty but they did and still do give me a 25% discount on my mobile phone monthly fee instead. Re the broadband issue, that also eventually got sorted out and although I lost my extra line with the free calls, they did give me four months contract free of charge. At the moment my broadband gives me a good download speed of up to 15meg and unlimited usage plus all line fees for just £15 monthly so I will stay with them as I don't think that can be beat. My mobile contract is almost up and I will move that to pay as you go because I think they are all as bad as one another, I don't ever use anywhere near my allowance and I'm not willing to sign up to another two year contract, thieving S*its . The reason that I got satisfaction in the end is that I gave up with the call centres as they really is rubbish for the most part and started sending in my complaints by royal mail and recorded which they have to respond and they have to keep a record. It is a tedious process but in the end I have done well out of it. The other thing that helped this along is that during that letter writing process I was put in touch with one Orange manager in the UK who has been extremely helpful and went out of her way to make sure that everything got resolved, so just getting though to the right person makes all the difference. So there is light at the end of the tunnel but really you have to send your complaints in my royal mail. Would I recommend Orange, without a doubt absolutely and definitely not, you would have to be crazy to join them unless you have too, 99.9% of the time they are a waste of space company who do not give a sh*t about any of us. As for the anonymous call centre guy who left a message here, well doesn't that say it all, I just hope he believes in Karma.

  • neutral

    by Martin at 08:28 on 20 Apr 2012Report abuse

    I am saying goodbye to Orange broadband. Here's a message I'm trying to get through to them:

    My contact with Orange support was completely useless, and I have decided the only way to solve my internet connection problem is to switch suppliers. I found myself talking to a lady in a call centre in India, who was laboriously working her way through a question sheet. The line was so bad I had to ask her to repeat almost everything, usually twice. Here is a sample,

    (indecipherable)
    I'm sorry, could you repeat that.
    indecipherable)
    I'm sorry, could you repeat that.
    How many computers do you have in your house?
    Several, but that is irrelevant. I only have one connected to Orange broadband.
    (indecipherable)
    I'm sorry, could you repeat that.
    indecipherable)
    I'm sorry, could you repeat that.
    But please, ow many computers do you have in your house?

    After 30 minutes of this I gave up.

    My internet supply is slow and keeps cutting out. It has been doing
    that for weeks. I've tested it out with several DSL filters, two
    netgear routers, more than one computer, and two phone points. It is definitely a problem with the supplier. Orange need to run a test and sort it out, and do it here in England. A lady in India, however well intentioned, cannot fix it.

  • happy

    by diamondgeezer at 11:29 on 17 Apr 2012Report abuse

    It's simple DO NOT sign up with Orange.
    I was with them for years & the service went down & down.
    Changed to BT in Feb NO PROBLEM.
    Now i just use the internet any time I want at speeds that are 9/10
    Don't even get me on the Indian Call Centre

  • unhappy

    by Leighann at 02:00 on 6 Apr 2012Report abuse

    I'm with Orange, had major problems with these since i joined last year. All i can say is, roll on June when i can switch without cost.
    The router is having to be switched off numerous times to get connection. Its ridiculous.
    soke to orange frequently about this and no joy, constantly being told theres nothing wrong, clearly there is.
    Biggest pain in the backside ever.

  • unhappy

    by Gerry Broad at 12:47 on 4 Apr 2012Report abuse

    Been with this lot since Dixons " freeserve" never had any problem till i changed phone to orange and upgraded my package now can not watch football streams and sometimes it`s worse than it used to be with the old dial up connection. Will be leaving orange as soon as possible if i can find what number to call

  • unhappy

    by Dave W. at 22:49 on 28 Mar 2012Report abuse

    It,s easier to make an appointment to see the pope than it is to get orange to fix its problems and as for the technical services call centre in India ...... IT,S A JOKE.

  • neutral

    by yorkie alan at 02:56 on 26 Mar 2012Report abuse

    Hiya all, just to update every one, on my orange saga, the worst IPS provider ever, as i have said before i have had to turn off and on the router on the weekends just to get my Internet, well now i have to do it most days as well, the service just seems to be getting worse and worse,this could be a local issue) i just can't say,and now it is interfering with my software as well, it as been taking 15 to 25 mins to load up, to get on the Internet at times, even the Indian call centres don't know, there have blamed my computer & things & my computer is not that old, there blame every thing else but ORANGE, i talked to an English call center the other week, & i got him to admit that ORANGE where having BIG problems at the moment,and he insured me when there are sorted out ORANGE would be a good IPS provider, he was cut off by someone while talking to me ?, honest lad,wish there where more like him, as most of them are lie rs, ever time i say i want you to cancel my contract as your not providing a service, that i'm paying for,bang cut off, put me through to cancellation, bang cut off, im so sick to death of ORANGE, there are really doing my head in, just can't Waite to get rid of them, i did manage to get a free month, which just shows you that things are wrong with them.

  • neutral

    by Jammo at 00:48 on 24 Mar 2012Report abuse

    Dear "orange employee who hates your sorts!!!! " !

    Then I tell You my experience with outsourced call centers...

    When I had any problem, they tried to help me till they realised there is somthing wrong in their company's system, then they started to protect the company, I guess because the supervisor attended the call or who knows why. 8 in 10 the girl or guy wanted to finish the phonecall as quick as possible. They were not helpful. In the other 2 cases I have told to a manager about the excellent service. But then again, this is just a job for You, but we, customers always meet with You guys, and You let us down even if we signed a f...n 2 years contract because we were trusted in your company and we dont have other option but calling You to have answers why is your bloody company not treating us as valuable customers?
    BTW I have never had any problem with Orange in the last 2 years since I'm their customer, but I wouldn't recommend THREE whatsoever, not for a fortune. They are crap useless bunch of idiot. Hey THREE! Learn the lesson! Even if your service is s**t (and it is s**t) with a good Customer Service You could extinguish those fires You set by your crap service. But You lost on both frontier... LOOSERS

  • neutral

    by RickyG at 14:42 on 5 Mar 2012Report abuse

    I was thinking of changing to Orange as they provide my mobile service (no complaints in 7 years) and they're much cheaper than BT. But on the basis they seem to employ cretins in technical support (plus where there's smoke there's fire), I don't think I'll bother.

    To answer some of this gentleman's illiterate rant, I think you're missing the point here mate - there should be no need for technical support in the first place - it should just work (as BT always have done for me), and none of these people should really need to understand the ins and outs of a broadband provider abilities - that's why you get paid. "You think the world owes you a living," - no they don't, they think you owe them broadband that's reliable and competitively fast, and as you accept their money, you do.

    The remarks about the Indian call centres aren't racist - saying you don't understand someone is both legal and fair comment - if it weren't, UK residents would be prosecuted on a daily basis for not understanding the broken English often spoken by EU nationals living in the UK. Tearing a strip off folks because of their skin colour or culture isn't legal, but I've got to say, the points the majority raise here are against the policy of farming out help lines to people whose primary language isn't English, not against the people who answer the phone. They do work hard and I'm sure they get paid in stale bread bearing in mind who their employer is, and it sounds like both you and they should throw in the towel and find a nice company who invests in human and material assets to work for.

    We've all worked for crap companies who we would never recommend, just take it in your stride, admit to yourself you get the sh@*ty end of the stick handed to you every time you go to work and relax - you'll live longer as a result. Thanks for banging the final nail into the Orange coffin for me though fella - that "67% would recommend" nearly had me convinced.

  • neutral

    by John Phillips at 19:31 on 4 Mar 2012Report abuse

    haha... he's made my day... he was was probably one of the inept teccies who kept me offline for two weeks.

    One little boy with a huge chip on his shoulder!

  • unhappy

    by liz at 19:14 on 4 Mar 2012Report abuse

    This comment is to the orange employee, I see by reading your remark that your not big enough to add your name.whats wrong scared incase orange find out and you get sacked as you need to be,You have really done orange proud by the remarks you have made about customers. remember we are the ones that keep the likes of you in a job you are a disgusting piece of work a real credit to your mother

  • unhappy

    by orange employee who hates your sorts!!!! at 14:39 on 3 Mar 2012Report abuse

    All ive read on here is a bunch of moaning idiots who wouldnt know how to work a kettle if there wasnt some form of technical support to hold their hands. I work for orange in tecnical support and as im not allowed to say what i feel when on the phone to you and your precious little lives then i'm taking advantage of the anonimity this page affords me. GET A LIFE, all you do is moan when in fact its you lot that think the whole world owes you a living "oh, my mobile wont work", "my internet wont let me connect" yet when we try to help you all you do is obstruct us at every turn and think you have to do sweet fa. as for threatening to go to another provider...GOOD, its one less moron ill have the displeasure to deal with. the remarks about the indian call centers are out of order, they do extremely good jobs and racist scum like yourselves who state when they get through to me "thank god its an english person i can understand" heres a wake up call for you...those guys work harder than you for a lot less pay for yourselves, why on earth your parents didnt abort whilst you were in the womb you is anyones guess!!!!

    we do our best to help you pathetic idiots....and i welcome the day you leave orange....its a happier day for me and my colleagues as we will get proper queries from people prepared to attempt to work with us and not queies from social rejects!!

  • neutral

    by John Phillips at 08:23 on 29 Feb 2012 | registered | 2 postsReport abuse

    Thanks Liz... i'm impressed that TalkTalk is getting a a thumbs up as they've had such poor press over the years.
    I sent a "Mr Angry" email into Orange customer services and lo and behold the service was back on that night... my reply to that was based on why suddenly after two weeks and four calls that were able to get me back on line straight away following an email!
    They sent me two new routers (unnecessarily) and am now using their new BrightBox and things are back to normal (throwing 5mbps-8mbps at me at all times), so I will be staying with them for now.
    They have offered me next month free as a compensation, but I will trying for more and will let you know how I get on.
    Regards, John

  • neutral

    by liz at 20:49 on 27 Feb 2012 | registered | 1 postReport abuse

    hi john, try talktalk ive had similar problems in the past so i know how you feel. Ive been with them nearly 2 years and so far no complaints, they,ve also got some good deals on at the moment,and no im not on commission to sell their products good luck

  • unhappy

    by Penny at 12:10 on 25 Feb 2012Report abuse

    Orange PROMISED me that they'd either fulfil their promises or refund my money. In fact, they did neither. The service is slow and sluggish, but the WORST THING is that they've been having problems with email and didn't admit to it for MONTHS! Other servers (AoL and Hotmail, for eg) are blocking emails sent BY and TO Orange users, but since no error message is sent out to that effect, nobody knows about it! I was WEEKS wondering why people weren't receiving my emails, then I wasted a further several weeks phoning their 'Helpline' (??!!) to try get to the bottom of the problem. EVENTUALLY, they admitted what the fault is and then for long enough, kept assuring me they were sorting the problem. I ended up using an old Gmail address and my email service would be restored in a very short time. I got sick of waiting, after so long. As far as I know, Orange STILL haven't sorted their problems. OFCOM said there was nothing they could do, because email is an EXTRA to broadband packages; and I'm imprisoned in an 18 month contract which I'd have to pay £250 to get out of! AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS!!!

  • neutral

    by Mel B at 08:08 on 24 Feb 2012Report abuse

    Orange VOIP Questions

    Can anyone help with these questions about the 2nd line?

    I've got the Broadband package that includes free calls over the 2nd ( VOIP ) line, and, surprise, surprise, it works absolutely fine. However, I've just had my faith destablised by Orange - they say "keep using the line or else, cut-off and NO reconnection", and I see that the VOIP feature does not exist on any current offerings - the BrightBox does not support it. Furthermore, as I understand it, if my LiveBox fails, then the replacement is a BrightBox and VOIP no more.

    So, should I give up now on Orange's VOIP? It looks as if Orange UK is going a completely different direction to Orange France who have introduced LiveBox 2 ( not the 1.2 that came out in the UK )

    Incidentally, does anyone know about how, technically, Orange currently does its VOIP? Does it still have LLU kit in the BT exchanges or does it use BT Wholesale's IP Exchange?

    Overall, it looks as if I'm being eased out of the Orange world - their VOIP product really was the only USP they had!

    Thanks if you can help.

    Mel

  • unhappy

    by John Phillips at 11:21 on 22 Feb 2012 | registered | 2 postsReport abuse

    Just to let you all know that I have been without Orange broadband now for 12 days and have been told today that the problem will not be fixed for another week!! They are uncompetent in the extreme, exacerbated by the total lack of communication, relying on me to go through the useless "checks" that they insist on doing every time you call them.
    I have been loyal to Orange since they started in the 90's and have had a generally uninterrupted broadband with them for 6 years.
    I told them that I am going to leave them today, but they didn't seem to bothered and neither would they let me speak to a "manager" to discuss it. With 2 phones on Panther, broadband, landline and dongle, they stand to lose what I would call "good business", but it doesn't seem to register with these huge concerns! I have probably paid them somewhere in the region of £12,000 over the years and feeling a bit peeved right now.
    Anyway, any recommendations for who I should go with?
    Thanks, John


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