A good word for once

As most people, me included, usually post the negative side of Orange, I thought that it might be nice to show a slightly positive side to this company for once.

I've had my fair share of problems and moans about Orange, but, having recently decided to take the leap and use their Livebox instead of my Netgear Router, I rang the technical helpline when I couldn't connect up. This was mainly due to the problems others are/have experienced with the CD. True to form it malfunctioned after the initial play, leaving me high and dry. I presumed that I would end up with their Indian call centre and someone I would not be able to understand. Well! I was wrong.

The young lady I spoke to was english and extremely helpful. Within less than 20 minutes she had me up and running, also explaining what to do to get my son's pc connected to the internet.

Everything was great, even the speed was adequate, until last week. My son lost his connection a week ago. Monday morning came with my intentions of trying to get him back on line. Nothing I did helped. Tuesday I logged onto my pc only to discover that I had no internet connection either. Attempting to reboot the Livebox didn't help and the CD only gave me the Help section, so I took the plunge and rang the helpline again.

Once more I got a lovely young man, English, who explained that this can sometimes happen and took me through the procedure of connection once more. 10 minutes later I was up and running again. This time I wrote down everything he told me to do and have kept that for future use. I had also mentioned to him that I had lost my Outlook Express connection (something others on here have had problems with) which he also sorted out for me in just a few minutes.

I still had the problem of getting my son's pc reconnected and thought I'd figured out how to do it. Wrong again! So another call to helpline followed. Unfortunately, on this occassion I did get the Indian call centre and a gentleman that I could barely understand. It took me ages to try and make him understand that I wasn't attempting to create a brand new connection for my son's pc and that he had been on the internet, successfully, for a couple of weeks. Eventually, thinking of the cost and getting nowhere, I gave up and 'politely' said goodbye.

The following morning, after having been booted off my pc for the whole of the previous evening, and driven mad by my 16 year old, (How did we grow up so normal without pc's!) I again tried tech help with fingers and toes crossed. For a third time I got through to a lovely young lady who took just 5 minutes to explain what I needed to do. Just a matter of pressing button no. 1 it seemed. Again I've written this down for future use. With the exception of the Indian call centre gentleman, the technical people I spoke to couldn't have been more helpful, and they made me feel as though I was speaking to a good friend, not a stranger. In fact, I was so pleased that, had I had their full names, I would have rung Orange's head office to register a compliment for the 3 people I had dealt with.

So all in all, not a bad experience, making me feel a little more positive about the company, I'm glad to say.

This may not help some of you out there, but I felt that, due to all the adverse reactions, a positive experience should also be noted.

However, I don't wish to crow too loudly. I might just end up on here again with another good old moan.

You have not explained why you decided to discard the Netgear router. I ask this because I am in the same position. I have always used Netgear( wireless router- 11b).I am thinking to use the Livebox which remained unopened since I received it.However sometimes I wonder if I am missing on the use of the free phone facility offered by livebox.I am wary after looking at the Orange posting and noting the problems with livebox.Is it possible to just enter the relevant info manually without using the CD supplied? I have a desktop and a laptop. So I may have to install the CD twice, once for the desktop ( wired connection) and the laptop( wireless connection).What were the problems you encountered so I may avoid them!!

You don't need to install the CD at all, unless you want to use the Orange WiFi adapters, and even then I'd suggest you get the drivers from the speedtouch site anyway.

The CD is just like a walk though about how to plug wires in and then submits the username onto the Livebox.

You can do this yourself by browsing to 192.168.1.1, user/pass for the bo are both admin. Then click "My services" on the left hand menu, then "Internet". Enter your un/pw, and hit validate (yours might be "Submit" since you've never used it and might have an old firmware.)

Altogether nothing you haven't been though with your own router I bet.

I say have a bash if you think you might use the talk service or the Live Printer once they eventually launch it officially (lol!). You won't break your router taking it off and if the Livebox goes tits-up you can just put the router back on.

Edited by bluebean (Tue 12-Jun-07 13:30:28)