From a forum post on The Scream:
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
