The Future is NOT Orange

I am fed up! I thought I had better warn any readers of this blog right off that this is a moan/ rant.

This is the deal: It’s about Internet Access and Banks.

I joined Freeserve years ago as a dial-up Pay As You Go customer back in 1997, and then in 2001, I signed up for the “Anytime” package — where I could connect and stay on-line for any length of time without watching the clock. The only method of payment Freeserve would accept was a direct debit from a credit card. I used my First Direct Visa card, and they’ve been taking £15 each month for all these years.

Then Freeserve became Wanadoo.

Then Wanadoo became Orange.

A lot has changed — I got married, and computers have changed from the days when I connected a Toshiba Libretto on a 28kbps PCMCIA modem card.

We looked at broadband, but our exchange can only manage 2MB ADSL — not the 8MB advertised by orange. On top of that, we found a serious problem with Orange…

• We have web sites and we use FTP to upload files to the server — this ONLY works when directly connected via a modem on the dial-up number — AND NOT when connected via Broadband or through any other ISP connection.

Now, fair enough, this is a security issue; they never allowed CGI scripts and other things either — however, Freeserve and Wanadoo did allow an alternative to FTP — you could simply use the browser to upload files instead of the FTP method… allowing pages to be uploaded/ updated in any Internet café.

• Well, this has gone now that it’s Orange! So we simply CANNOT upgrade to Orange Broadband as we would lose the ability to run our websites. What a shame.

So we have to have a rethink — we want to use Broadband, so has to be “goodbye Orange”.

We e-mailed them and it took ages to find out that the facility was gone… they were cheeky and unhelpful, and the web site is a disgrace; they want you to get a cell phone account basically… web space is far from important to them.

THE MOAN

I decided to cancel Orange, but I couldn’t find out how to do this on their web site.

It took AGES until I found a call-centre premium rate phone number. I called it and was put on hold. Then the call died. I redialled, told the story and was put on hold. The call died again. I tried three more times before giving up. How expensive and frustrating!

I sent Orange an e-mail telling them to cancel the “Anytime” account and complaining that their call-centre telephone number was useless. I got an e-mail back telling me that I couldn’t cancel by e-mail and that I would have to use the call-centre telephone number (despite my saying it was no use).

I tried calling the call-centre again and again I was cut off — days later! What a mess Orange have made of Freeserve!

I e-mailed again, and again I got a reply telling me that I must call the call-center to cancel. Aaaargh! I went back to the web and hunted down their HQ postal address.

• I wrote a letter, printed it off and posted it to cancel.

A week or so later I received a letter in the post from Orange confirming the cancellation date of 28th July.

• Yet last week I noticed that they took a payment from First Direct Visa on 29th July!

So I called First Direct and went through “security”. I asked them to stop paying Orange’s Direct debit. I was put on hold and then put through to a department that deals with that sort of thing. The woman there said she could do nothing without a date of cancellation confirmed (I couldn’t recall the date on the phone), so I hung up, promising to call back when I had tracked down the date of cancellation.

However, I found the cancellation confirmation in a matter of minutes and called First Direct back again and went through “security”. I was again put through to the department where I explained the story again and asked for the direct debit to be cancelled.

I gave the cancellation date and asked if she wanted the letter reference — but she said no: she said there was nothing First Direct could do other than query the payment as I had authorised the payments on Visa. I was told to contact Orange directly.

I patiently explained that I had contacted Orange and they had confirmed the cancellation in a letter! I was now getting annoyed. I summarised:

“I have told Orange to cancel the account and stop taking payments.

“I have received a letter confirming the account has been cancelled and payment stopped.

“I have told you to stop Orange from taking payments from the date of cancellation.

“You say they can continue to take payments and I will have to continue to pay interest on my Visa forever”

The woman suggested again that I contact Orange about this. I then asked First Direct to close my Visa account.

First Direct told me that I COULD NOT CLOSE THE CARD ACCOUNT AS LONG AS ORANGE HAS A DIRECT DEBIT RUNNING!!!!

So I hung up. Then an idea occurred to me. I called back and went through “security”.

I asked First Direct to stop making minimum payments from the current account to the First Direct Visa. I do not use First Direct as they refused us a Joint Account (despite my being with them since they began), and I did not wish to run into overdraft as well as interest on Visa due to Orange Internet.

However, the woman said that “the system is down” so she would not be able to do this. I asked her if she could do it when their computer system was back up and running and that I had had enough spending money on the phone calls — BUT SHE SAID “NO” — I would have to call back — and hope their system was back up!

aAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH