10 replies to this topic

[jamesb99_1999]

Posted this at Fruit Forums - But thought some of you might be interested
---------------

Anybody taken advantage of this offer yet?

sign up for 24 months broadband and then you receive a free laptop (or for a small fee an upgraded laptop which you then own). Seems good when you think that the cost of the broadband = exactly the price of the laptop which means that you are basically getting broadband for free..

Any feedback let me know

seems quite good...

PC World UK Computer Superstore - Buy cheap computers, laptops, desktop PCs, printers, LCD TVs, sat nav, digital cameras and more..

[flyer]

the offer seems to good to be true.but after watching watchdog about orange broadband i think i will pass

[jamesb99_1999]

What did Watchdog say about them then Flyer?? They can't be as bad as BT can they??

I can't take up the offer as I already have three providers - lol - can't go in to that at the moment.. But definitely don't need 4!!!!

[VampUK]

2Gb download limit? Not good at all.

[djcr]

I had Orange broadband for a year and they were an absolute disgrace. Luckily I got my service free with my mobile. If i'd have had to pay for the crap I had I'd have been mighty pissed off. Completely shit, hardly ever worked or was offline more offen than not. When it worked i was getting about 200k d/l and 240 u/l.
I ended up moving to cable and their 2 meg makes Oranges offering (which was supposed to be up to 8 meg) look like 16k.
I've several mates who've got Orange with exactly the same problem.
It's a shame coz it soured my relationship with Orange as I'd had the phone for 8 years and I've always loved it but it's made me want to completely leave now.
Orange Problems - Index - Orange Broadband, Orange Email, Orange Mobile Phones - OrangeProblems.co.uk (formerly WanadooProblems.co.uk) is a good indicator of what you get.

[lincs1]

i guess it does seem worth it just to get a free laptop but i guess 2 years isn't that long to put up with the misery of orange shite service.
in a way its only like been on pay as u go dialup speed

[flyer]

21 March 2007
We asked Watchdog viewers to rate their broadband provider on customer service, ease of set-up, cancellation, value for money, and reliability of service. The results aren't presented as a scientific statistical survey, but a unique snapshot of the personal opinions of the 50,000 viewers who chose to take part. As such, it isn't intended to represent the views of Watchdog or the BBC's view of any of the companies, or their current performance.

For the purposes of this survey, Virgin, NTL and Telewest were treated separately, as the companies had only just merged and it was too early to assess the new company's performance.

Our overall ranking is based on the total volume of votes cast, meaning the companies that came out best and worst are shown in tables one and two.

Respondents were asked whether they were either: extremely unsatisfied (1), unsatisfied (2), satisfied (3) or extremely satisfied (4).

TABLE 1 - THE BEST BROADBAND PROVIDERS

This table lists - in order of the total number of votes cast - the companies that, overall, viewers who took part in the survey were most happy with. It was calculated by adding together the 'satisfied' and 'extremely satisfied' ratings in each of the five categories. This total is the number listed after each company's name.

Based on sum of 3s & 4s (satisfied, extremely satisfied)
1. BT - 18,862
2. Virgin - 17,881
3. AOL Europe -16,977
4. Tiscali - 11,973
5. TalkTalk -10,802
6. NTL - 10,399
7. Orange - 9,036
8. Telewest - 8,062
9. Sky - 6,202
10. Pipex - 5,772
11. Plusnet - 5,014
12. Zen - 4,742
13. Eclipse - 2,781
14. Demon - 2,515
15. Tesco - 2,216
16. Freedom2Surf - 2,160
17. Madasafish - 2,031
18. Nildram - 1,619
19. Waitrose - 1,308
20. Bulldog - 1,162
21. Supanet - 1,131
22. UK_Online - 987
23. ToucanSurf - 895
24. One.Tel - 585
25. Homecall - 528
26. Force 9 - 518
27. Metronet - 426
28. Biscit - 258
29. Global - 166



TABLE 2 - THE WORST BROADBAND PROVIDERS

This table lists - in order of the total number of votes cast - the companies that, overall, viewers who took part in the survey were least happy with. It was calculated by adding together the 'extremely unsatisfied' and 'unsatisfied' ratings in each of the five categories. This total is the number listed after each company's name.

Based on sum of 1s & 2s (extremely unsatisfied, unsatisfied)
1. Orange - 12,313
2. TalkTalk - 11,944
3. BT - 10,669
4. Tiscali - 10,412
5. AOL Europe - 7,500
6. Sky - 6,525
7. Virgin - 6,306
8. Pipex - 4,083
9. NTL - 3,753
10. Plusnet - 2,109
11. Bulldog - 1985
12. Telewest - 1373
13. Biscit - 883
14. Eclipse - 869
15. ToucanSurf - 811
16. Demon - 738
17. Tesco - 555
18. Freedom2Surf - 469
19. UK_Online - 432
20. Supanet - 431
21. Zen - 371
22. Homecall - 326
23. One.Tel - 305
24. Force 9 - 229
25. Nildram - 256
26. Madasafish - 190
27. Waitrose - 80
28. Metronet - 47
29. Global - 8



TABLE 3 - PROPORTIONAL DISSATISFACTION RANKING

Our main results have been calculated according to the number of votes cast, as this gives a more complete picture of viewers' opinions. However, it's clear that some of the smaller, lesser known companies provoked a very definite response, so we've also included here a proportional ranking.

This table lists all of the companies surveyed according to the proportion of 'extremely unsatisfied' or 'unsatisfied' votes. The total number of these 'dissatisfied' votes for each company was worked out as a percentage of the total number of people who responded about that company. The companies are listed in order of dissatisfaction.

Votes for 1s and 2s as percentage of total votes for that company
1. Biscit - 77%
2. Bulldog - 63%
3. Orange - 58%
4. TalkTalk - 53%
5. Sky - 51%
6. ToucanSurf -48%
7. Tiscali - 47%
8. Pipex - 41%
9. Homecall - 38%
10. BT - 36%
11. One_Tel - 34%
12= AOL_Europe - 31%
12= Force 9 - 31%
14= Plusnet - 30%
14= UK_Online - 30%
16. Supanet - 28%
17. NTL - 27%
18. Virgin - 26%
19. Eclipse - 24%
20. Demon - 23%
21. Tesco - 20%
22. Freedom2Surf - 18%
23. Telewest - 15%
24. Nildram - 14%
25. Metronet - 10%
26. Madasafish - 9%
27. Zen - 7%
28. Waitrose - 6%
29. Global - 5%



TABLE 4 - PROPORTIONAL SATISFACTION RANKING

This table lists all of the companies surveyed according to the proportion of 'satisfied' or 'extremely satisfied' votes. The total number of these 'satisfied' votes for each company was worked out as a percentage of the total number of people who responded about that company. The companies are listed in order of satisfaction.

Votes for 3s and 4s as percentage of total votes for that company
1. Global - 95%
2. Waitrose - 94%
3. Zen - 93%
4. Madasafish - 91%
5. Metronet - 90%
6. Nildram - 86%
7. Telewest - 85%
8. Freedom2Surf - 82%
9. Tesco - 80%
10. Demon - 77%
11. Eclipse - 76%
12. Virgin - 74%
13. NTL - 73%
14. Supanet - 72%
15= Plusnet - 70%
15= UK_Online - 70%
17= AOL_Europe - 69%
17= Force 9 - 69%
19. One.Tel - 66%
20. BT - 64%
21. Homecall - 62%
22. Pipex - 59%
23. Tiscali - 53%
24. ToucanSurf - 52%
25. Sky - 49%
26. TalkTalk - 47%
27. Orange - 42%
28. Bulldog - 37%
29. Biscit - 23%

[mrgspot]

i can understand talk talk being on high on the shit list, however I have to give them there due`s. if you bear with them you actually get a f*****g good deal.

£20 for broadband, local,national and international calls and line rental, i would say that is great value for money.

Please dont all rush in at once and start saying customer service nightmare!!! because trust me, I agree with you. There service is the worst I have ever seen, and majority of the time I would have looked elsewhere, however get the right contacts and your onto a winner.

I emailed Charles Dunston and he replied to me the following day. see extract of email below. He put one of his senior people onto the complaint and it was handled very professionally. I was told I could phone him whenever I had a problem, which has been okay ever since. (anyone wanting this departments number, PM me)

This company are on the up, I bet you. give them a chance.

My email and the reply I got

Charles

Firstly I would like to start my expressing my most utter disapointment with the way your company have dealt with me over the last 6 months. I will briefly run you through the facts, however I would like someone to contact me asap to discuss this in greater detail.

I have been a customer with you for almost 2 years, and back in November 06 I spoke with your sales team who advised me of your new product Talk 3 with free broadband. The salesman persuaded me to move to this deal and as this was a tempting deal I obliged. After 1 month I had not heard anything, nor had I received a welcome pack or letter. I contacted customer services, who advised me I was set up okay and all will be fine. Three weeks later you took £14.99 from my bank account(which was the broadband price you were charging me before offering this new deal). I spoke with customer services about this and advised them I was on the free broadband deal, to which they disagreed, however they did refund my £14.99. I received an email from a supervisor in January saying all was set up fine and the talk 3 plan with free broadband was now active. (I still have this email). Again no letter or welcome pack.... At the end of January another £14.99 was taken from my account and again this was kindly credited, insisting I still was not set up on the right plan. After a frustrating phone call, I was transferred to sales and an australian guy proceeded to take 20 mins registering me for the product I should have been set up on 3 months ago.

I was assured there would be no more mistakes and my old broadband account would be closed, making way for the new talk 3 plan with free broadband. Another month went by and still no welcome pack, another £14.99 charge was taken and again following another phone call it was credited and yet again I was advised the reason for this was because I was not set up on the Talk 3 plan. By now I am getting very angry as you can imagine. I was transferred to sales again and another 20 min registration phone call took place. This time I was given a reference number, and sure enough I can now see this order going through on the my talk talk page. I cancelled my DD for the £14.99 broadband account as I had had enough of you continually taking my money. Monday of this week I was cut off from the service as my £14.99 had totalled up to three months owing. I spoke with customer services and they assured me the credit was going through and my broadband restriction would be lifted, together with utter apologies. It is now Friday and broadband is still not working.!!!!!

I have previously recommended three people to your company and all have had issues, the latest complaint came from my mate Mr Carter, You put a guy called Arnie on the case and he has since solved his problem. I attempted to contact Arnie yesterday and left messages, but he has not come back to me.

Charles, I am trying to keep calm over the entire situation, however I am totally dissatisfied with your service. How can you possibly continue to get things wrong time and time again. 3 times I tried to sign up with you and 3 times it did not happen, I must know every person in your service team by now and cant begin to count up the number of calls I have made.

I am begging you, please help me, my online business has suffered because of this and there is only so far a customer can be pushed.

I look forward to your reply

Regards

Simon Norris

Reply:

Dear Mr Norris

Many thanks for your email, I am extremely sorry to hear of the problems you are experiencing with the connection of your broadband account and concerned that you have had to contact to me in search of resolution.

I have got someone investigating what has gone wrong and we will be back to you shortly.

In the meantime, please accept my sincere apologies

Regards
Charles Dunstone

Conclusion.

Am now satisfied, Got 6 months free for the problems and a personal problem solver, if i get stuck.

Well done TalkTalk.

[dtrmad2004]

Say if you took up the deal, would you be able to get out of the contract early?.

Say if they don't perfom as you would expect, wouldnt you be able to get out for not supplying the service you have paid for?

Andy

[Ride_my_cork_hard]

Mrgspot....Charles Dunstone is very much a top bloke.

Carphone Warehouse are very well regarded in the city mainly because of the management.

Hoping the customer service at AOL UK will improve now that they own that too.

[kelv]

when my inlaw try to cancel there orange broadband they placed a block on there line and had to threaten them with ofcom to have it removed and they keep giving them the wrong mac code. In the end orange gave them 1 free year and i full refund for the year before but the are still not getting what orange said ie speeds and service