Rick's b.log - entry 2013/01/18

Orange's site sucks

I think I have discovered why my Internet has slowed down. A couple of months back, Orange introduced DLM (dynamic line management) that will automatically adjust the rate of your line to trade off speed for reliability. It is reported to be somewhat heavy-handed, which could be why a fairly reliable 2mbit has been clamped somewhat lower. I sent a support request to Orange asking if they could look into this, as my Livebox used to report theoretical speeds between 2.5mbit and 4mbit (depending on the weather) so why does it now seem to be stuck at 1.5mbit?

Of course, regular internet users cannot access the send-email-to-tech-support staff, I need to "log out" of the account that Orange automatically associates with the Livebox and log in with a mobile number account. To talk about an issue with the ADSL. What the hell is that nonsense?

En tant que client Orange Open, vous possédez un compte mobile Orange et un compte internet Orange. Pour accéder au formulaire, vous devez être identifié sur la portail orange.fr avec votre numéro de mobile Orange et le mot de passe associé (possibilité de recevoir votre mot de passe par SMS si vous l'avez oublié).
[translation? copy'n'paste that into Google Translate]

Actually, there's a special form for DLM requests.

I had a pseudonym email address at orange.fr. I wanted to delete it from the account of my old phone and recreate it on the new phone. The deletion was simple. Unfortunately, the stupid site is refusing to recreate the address saying it is already in use even when attempting to do so from the account that it used to belong to.

Having tried several times and not having any joy, I called Orange's support number. The automated system walked me through a number of steps and then hung up on me. So I called back and finally got to speak to a real person who told me - just after eight o'clock - to call back tomorrow between eight and eight. Then she hung up on me.
Thanks Orange.

Well, I sent two messages referring to the @orange.fr address. One was to enquire about possibly incorrect billing information (for some reason the bank details printed garbled, although Orange do have my correct info) and the other was the DLM request. I sent another DLM request and said what had happened and gave my yahoo mail address (of course, if their responses were not flagged as "don't reply to this address" it might have been possible to sent an update more easily).

I don't plan to get in touch with customer service for the billing, if there is a problem they can bloody well contact me at a time when it is convenient for me, I'm sick of jumping through hoops to find how to communicate with anybody real on Orange's site, and I'm sick of dealing with the automatic system that seems pathologically disinclined to connect you to an actual person, and when you do finally get to a person, they seem (sample of two out of two times) prone to disconnecting you as soon as they possibly can.

Additionally, I don't plan to call back tomorrow. I'm sick of wasting time on this. In the main (Livebox) account with Orange, all three accounts are linked. In the separate accounts, there is no hint of any link. That's braindead and inconsistant. If Orange's "please correct your bank info" mail bounces and they're not smart enough to try the obscure email address linked to the main account, they can bloody well figure out what to do about it. I would suggest fixing their "pretty looking but prone to many issues of brokeness" website.

I guess this is why sane people don't bother with customer support.

Oh, I should add - you get an automatic email address which is your phone number suffixed by @orange.fr - not that you'd know it when using the Orange portal - for this is what I see:

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Jess, 19th January 2013, 12:29

You got off lightly. Imagine being treating like that AND paying a premium rate for the privilege. If you can't fix something by yourself the best idea is to find a friend who can help and never ever ask the provider for help ever.

Rick, 19th January 2013, 13:17

Yeah, at least Orange's support is only charged at local rate (with waiting time unbilled).  I heard back from the Orange tech about the DLM. "Your line appears to be stable so we're not going to do anything".  Maybe in the springtime when the weather is more favourable I'll do like everybody else and moan on the forum. If I can be bothered. Writing tech stuff in French is *not* easy...  Still, I can get amusement by all this super mega fast internet claims by the government. Having dropped the "acceptable" line speed down to a little under half a megabit, it shows quite clearly that the infrastructure is struggling to even maintain a reliable TWO in outlying areas. Now this mightn't be a big deal if it wasn't for the fact that HUGE swathes of France are like this. Maybe they ought to concentrate on getting something useful to everybody rather than something whizzy for the minority...  Time will tell, I guess.

joe, 20th January 2013, 19:49

Hi Rick, you should know by now, that the real Orange support is in India and this DLM is just another way of connection speed shaping, I thing it is time to look for some competition in your area, I've done it and am happy again.

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