Orange.

As some of you may know, Mitch and I have been without a landline to our flat for about 5 weeks now. We have/had our phone through Orange's Livebox thing which allowed us to call the US amongst other places for next to nothing. We paid 5 quid a month (as an existing Orange customer on a PAYM tariff) for broadband and home phone with calls to all UK landlines and the US included in the deal. It all worked great until 5 weeks ago when the second line packed in altogether however. Not really a problem in of itself, but the BT line has never worked with the Livebox but works fine without it. So, now we can either have internet or the phone, but not both together. Consequently, it's a pain in the neck to have to switch the jacks around whenever I or Mitch want to make a phone call (usually to the US) and not use my mobile.

I've been calling Orange about twice weekly about the problem with absolutely no positive response from them whatsoever. They've tried fobbing me off on numerous occasions, they've told me it has been escalated at least 3 times to a higher level when it clearly hasn't and have point blank refused to send me out a new Livebox as 'it must be working fine if you can get internet on it'. Well, obviously not since I can't make a phone call when it is plugged in. Unbelievable. I'm generally very laid back and don't get angered easily, but honestly they are trying very very hard to change that. The last person I just spoke to has told me to call back tomorrow and see if anything has changed, at my expense naturally. The person I spoke to yesterday told me that they had no date in sight for when it is going to get fixed, yet they expect me to continue paying for the service as well as paying to call them to tell me it's not getting fixed and also running up a larger than normal phone bill with them on my mobile? Of course they do. I believe that is called theft/fraud in just about any other circumstance. It's been the worst customer service experience I've ever had to deal with. They're getting a strongly worded email sent to them.

Oh and it turns out I'm not the only one with a problem with them. There is a website called Orange Problems no less with many more horror stories of their abominable 'customer service'.