Orange - Poor Reception, 2 months into contract. What to do?

[kolax]

So here's the story. I decided to go with Orange for my iPhone 4. I get utter crap reception. Most of Edinburgh (Scotland, UK), I'll get 1 bar of 3G if I'm lucky, and other times I'll get 2 bars of GPRS.

This is nothing to do with the iPhone 4 reception issues - I'll leave the phone on the table and not touch it to determine reception issues.

I have two friends who have the iPhone 4 on Vodafone, and have really good 3G reception. Always 3-4 bars, and in places where I'll have no reception, they'll at least have full bars GPRS.

So, I'm about 8 weeks into a 2 year contract. I don't want to spend the next 2 years with crap reception and not being able to browse the internet.

Also, Orange is giving me on average (mostly because of poor reception) 0.2 megabits/s. And webpages time out most of the time too.

Have I got anything I can do? I'd really want to just get out of the Orange contract and switch to Vodafone.

 

[barkomatic]

At this point you could sell your iPhone and repurchase it on Vodafone. You may take a small financial hit, but as you say reception is most important. I guess that depends on how expensive your ETF is. In the U.S. the ETF is currently $375 but once you sell your iPhone you can easily make up the ETF as well as your purchase price. Some even come out ahead.

A few people have had luck calling the carrier and getting their contract canceled due to bad reception. Usually, they have to prove they do not get adequate service somehow. This may be more trouble than its worth however.

 

[dmr727]

A few people have had luck calling the carrier and getting their contract canceled due to bad reception. Usually, they have to prove they do not get adequate service somehow. This may be more trouble than its worth however.

Verizon did this for us. We kept getting dropped calls at the house, while other carriers seemed to be fine. Verizon sent out a tech, determined that we were in a poor reception area because of a recently moved tower, and gave us the option of leaving our contract at no cost. It was actually pretty surprising how easy it was - I expected a battle, and they let us go with no fuss.

 

[iBlue]

Good luck getting out of the contract. I'm not sure what they're likely to do.

We encountered a similar thing but on another carrier. The brickwork inside this flat really does a number on our signal (we're with Vodafone) but because the area's signal as a whole isn't TOO bad they weren't much help. They talked us into buying some sort of signal booster ("vodafone sure signal") for £50 ( ) but it seems to have worked for the location we use our phones most - home. I wonder if Orange would offer something like this, but without charging you.

 

[JsR]

Orange are useless! Have you spoken to them?

I'm with Orange and for the last 6 weeks I've noticed how incredibly slow the internet has been on my iPhone. I thought it was a fault with my iPhone. I did read something last week that said Orange had been having network & internet issues. It could be something to do with them?

I bought an iPhone 3GS PAYG from Orange in January (to put my £20 a month Orange contract in, instead of paying £45 a month) for £450. I paid, 8 weeks later they took another £450 out of my account. They kept arguing that I had been in and purchased another iPhone and was trying to scam them. Their manger then tried to blame it all on my bank and saying that my bank kept messing me around and I should complain. 2 hours later, when the manager went into her local bank to discuss her mortgage, she was quickly shocked to discover I was serving her and I worked for my bank, she quickly changed her tune. It took me 11 weeks for Orange to give me my £450 back. They gave me no compensation, no apology, no response or acknowledgement to my letter of complaint and only 7 weeks ago they finally gave me a 3G sim card. Their final words: "Your a student, you shouldn't be paying £450 for a phone. But then again, you do work for a bank and get a huge bonus so I'm sure you can manage without it for a bit."

Orange are as much use as a chocolate fireplace. I can't wait until my contract finishes, and after 6 years of being with them and I can change.

 

[techsponge]

Kilamite: Orange - Poor Reception, 2 months into contract. What to do?

Hi Kilamite.. you can leave Orange on 2 grounds:
1) If you read their contract, there is a clause that says if you are suffering from poor network coverage you can cancel your contract,
2) If you have iPhone 4, then there is function that works on O2 (Shows you a photo of the person whose call you have missed - or something similar) but not on Orange. Their network is not 3G ready, and as a result they are in breach of providing you ALL services and features your phone can support, but network can't.

You will have to persevere here, but you will be able to cancel.

Good luck!

 

[kolax]

Kind of gave up on it to be honest! I still suffer poor reception, and I have to turn my phone off and on again almost everyday to get data to work again (seems to be common with everyone on Orange, any brand of phone).

I emailed the Orange CEO a while back, and got a response from their customer relations department, who then called me to personally discuss my options. Of course, the options were either pay off the remaining contract, or find someone willing to take my contract and transfer it to them.

 

[Fubar1977]

I`m also currently stuck with a 2 year contract and Orange`s utterly hopeless reception and customer service.
You`re pretty much SOL as I went through my contract with a fine tooth comb and, basically, they don`t guarantee indoor reception anywhere.
I just sucked it up and went back to Vodafone so I`m currently paying 2 contracts

Lesson learned: Sod off Orange, you suck.

 

[kolax]

Haha, wow, don't think I'd want to pay two contracts! I'll just have to live with dropped calls. When the iPhone 5 is released, I might look at (again) the possibility of finding someone to take over my iPhone 4 contract with Orange.

Thing that annoys me more than anything is Orange's sluggish data network. It'll work, then it won't, and it won't work for ages, then it'll work again. Then it won't, and you'll need to turn your phone off and on again, and then it'll work.

I actually started using T-Mobile's towers instead of Orange's (since they combined), and get great reception, pretty much everywhere. But, it is only GPRS, and takes forever to switch between the two.

Maybe if Orange and T-Mobile shared 3G networks, I might have better reception when on 3G.

Oh, Orange sucks when EDGE and GPRS for reception too. I wonder how many cell towers they have in Edinburgh..

 

[HacKage]

As above, I would recommend signing upto the joint signal thing where you can use T-Mobs signal when needed. I use it on my Bold and it can make a big difference.

 

[iStudentUK]

Oh, Orange sucks when EDGE and GPRS for reception too. I wonder how many cell towers they have in Edinburgh..

This is a really horrible situation to be in. It is difficult to sort out, but there are some possible options.

Has the reception degraded? If so there may be recourse if they have failed to maintain their infrastructure.

Just how bad is the signal, objectively? Leave personal feelings out- can you make/receive phone calls most of the time, get texts, access the web in some areas? If you can honestly say no there may be a claim under the Supply of Goods and Services Act.

Orange have been taken to court before -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/03/mobile_charges_but_no_signal.html

I always try the very nice approach first, but if that really won't work make legal noises and start accurately quoting rights. If someone high up gets hold of your case they often have more power to deal with it. Phone, email and send letters!


EDIT- Noticed you mentioned you can use T-mobile's 2G network. That will probably have to do I"m afraid and will weaken any legal claim you have.