Review day...

I'm speaking to Sally

She says she will "have a look and see if she can find anything for me". I like to think she will find something as she has my account open in front of her, but let's see...

No. Nothing. She's put me on hold while she speaks to the provisioning team...

She's back. She says "it's failed its final line test and won't be reviewed until the 24th of July" to which I reply "Ok. How do I cancel my contract. I've been without broadband for over a month now so I think it's only fair that you let me cancel". I'm now on hold while she transfers me to another department, one which deals with cancellations.

The gentleman here (Naz from Middlesborough) is offering me a free month. Which is a bit of a joke as I haven't had broadband for a month, and he's putting me through to an English speaking technician so I can try and get this resolved. If they're not good he assures me I can ring back and cancel.

Worth a try...

... Apparently not. All they've offered to do is try again and fix it before the 24th. Naz refused to give me his surname for my records (as has everyone else so far, incidently, so I don't blame him) and I told him that I'll give them until the 24th to fix it, then I'm cancelling.

Another week of waiting.

Another week to wait

Another phone call to the customer support team, and I've been told my situation is being reviewed next Tuesday (17th July).

I asked if "reviewed" meant "fixed" and was told that they didn't know. I asked if there was anyone I could speak to as this has been going on far too long now, and was told I could write and given the following address:

Customer Support / Complaints
Orange customer Care
PO Box 486
Rotherham
S63 5ZX

Two more attempts

A quick note of two more calls to Orange:

First, on the 11th July when I was informed I was due to be reconnected the following day (the 12th).

Second, on the 12th when I tested my connection and found it wasn't working. I was told it could take up to midnight to become active. I asked whether it would happen? I said I was extremely sceptical that I would ever be reconnected.

Testing the connection this morning shows it still doesn't work. I'll be ringing back later.

Will I be reconnected yet?

I'm on hold with Orange...

...

...

... The indian gentleman tells me his name is also Philip which is nice. I feel like we're bonding well. He has an interesting telephone manner. After I ask him a question he puts me on hold.

For example:

Him: Can I take your BT landline number please?
Me:
Him: Thank you. Your details are loading now. Please hold.

I told him I wanted to be connected to the LLU by the time I get home. As a punishment I'm on hold again now. He is finding out more information.

He's back. I need to ring back on Thursday. Apparently it's not just my account, but several others in the area. That's nice to know. It really compensates for no broadband knowing that several other people are going through the same thing.

I asked if it will definitely be complete on Thursday. He said that I am welcome to call back on Thursday to find out.

I guess I'm calling back on Thursday.

Migrating?

It feels like it's been a while since I spoke to my friends at Orange. As expected, the person I spoke to in technical support didn't pay any attention to the information I gave them from BT on the 14th. Fortunately he quickly tired of answering my questions (each of which prompted him to put me on hold for a minute or so) and asked me to redial 150 and select option 4 and ask for the "special provisioning team". (This is clearly code for "awkward customer" or something, as I'll come onto later).

I asked him at which menu I should select option 4. He repeated that I should redial and select option 4. I explained that in order to reach him I had navigated 5 menus and could he confirm at which of the 5 I should select option 4. After placing me on hold for a couple of minutes he told me it was the first menu.

I redialled 150 and discovered that the first menu only has 2 options. After some trial and error work I got through to a menu which had 4 options (I believe the combination I used was 224) and I ended up speaking to a human, but from England this time.

I asked for the "special provisioning team" and he completely ignored me and went through the normal detail confirmation (phone number, full name, password etc). I don't think there is a special team, I'm sure it's just code to let them know you've already tried certain options or something.

Anyway, I told him what the BT engineer had told me and he informed me that they have placed an order with BT to put me on the LLU at my exchange. You can find more information on this here.

He said that I should be able to call on Monday and find out when I will be connected to the LLU which should then enable me to reconnect my broadband. So, I guess we'll see on Monday.

I asked about compensation for the time I've not been connected and he said that could be discussed once I am reconnected.

BT get involved

A man from BT rang today. He told me that they (BT) were responsible for my broadband being disconnected. Apparently the "black box" at the local exchange which was being used for my line had been re-allocated to another customer because Orange hadn't notified BT of my need for the box. I guess this is because whoever lived in my house before me had broadband and they were able to hook me up without making a change.

I'm currently on the phone to Orange trying to convey to their technical support the need to contact BT and request a new piece of equipment be allocated to me at the exchange.

01642 732785

01642 732785 gave me a busy tone for around half an hour. I googled the number and found a forum post which suggested calling 550 from my Orange mobile, which I did. Eventually I got through to a human who told me I had come through to the "speed modem" (?) department and I needed to call 150 from my mobile to get the Livebox help team. He helpfully gave me the menu options to use (22541) to get through to another human being.

This got me through almost immediately to someone.

His name I didn't understand (Onsall?). He asked for my home phone number and two letters from my password. He asked a number of questions which resulted in him saying that they need to conduct a line test. He asked me to leave the Livebox switched on and to try a factory reset every 24 hours for the next 5 days. After 5 working days, if it still doesn't work I am to ring back.

Apparently my problem has been upgraded to the "highest possible status" so we'll see what happens now.

The Saga Begins

On Wednesday 6th June, 2007, I got home from work and found that my Orange broadband connection wasn't working. The wireless network in my house was still working, and the Livebox was powered on and connected to the phone line. I connected a laptop to the Livebox using a network cable (this wasn't strictly necessary - I could still access using wifi) and browsed to http://configuration.adsl to see if I could glean any clue as to what was causing the problem.

Having signed into the secure area I found a status message of "PPP server down" being displayed.
I used another internet connection to google this error message and found posts such as this one which unfortunately didn't leave me very hopeful about getting the problem resolved quickly.

I decided to start this blog to:

a) document the process I go through to get my broadband fixed
b) leave as a resource for anyone who has the same problem in the future

As a first step I'm going to ring Orange today and explain the problem and see what happens next. I'm going to try the Broadband technical support/customer services number I found here instead of the expensive 0870 number. This is 01642 732785.