So what now??

Afternoon all.
Bit of a odd situation...
I was on Orange LLU Home Max and paid Orange a one off fee for ADSL/Line rental.
When Orange screwed my ADSL and put me back on 8mb I went for my MAC code (not an easy task and was fed a pack of lies by the Orange phone monkey I spoke to saying I couldnt get Sky) and finally have Sky Unlimited.
Only thing is now, Orange have said that after the 15th of August, I will no longer pay them for my line rental, so what will happen?
I also tried ordering Sky Talk package when I ordered the ADSL and that order has been cancelled saying "My service is disconnected".
I now have the choice of going back to BT for line rental or Sky.... but what would happen if I did nothing? Disconnected telephone? Disconnected BB?

In reply to a post by markdixon:

Only thing is now, Orange have said that after the 15th of August, I will no longer pay them for my line rental, so what will happen?

Hi, you are going to need a telephone line to continue with your broadband. I would now go straight to BT for line rental and phone, if you pay for the line rental twelve months in advance you get it for £10 per month.

Sky Talk is usually just the calls part with Sky, you used to have to explicitly the line rental product.

http://www.sky.com/shop/broadband-talk/talk-linerental/

If you end up with no-one handling the voice line rental, then the BB could well be ceased, and you end up with a penalty for early contract termination from Sky.

Why did you not order full LLU, i.e. line rental and BB at the same time from Sky? There is even no need for a MAC if going down that route.

I just never thought of it at the time. I think I will just go with Sky for line rental. Seems better value seeing as BT charge for callerID and Sky don't!

I had Orange BB and talk (line rental). When I obtained my MAC the accompanying e-mail from Orange stated that the MAC would be ineffective if I did not first transfer the phone rental to another provider (presumably as Orange do not offer line rental without broadband). As I tried to use the MAC to transfer both phone and to get fibre broadband with Plusnet, the order became stuck with OpenReach and nothing happened, presumably for that reason (though I made them aware of the issue).

I assume that because Sky are full LLU, no MAC is required, so Openreach are not involved except to disconnect the Orange service, therefore the broadband order went though. Based on my experience you should be able to get Sky rental though a warning: line transfer takes 2 weeks by OpenReach (because of slamming rules, I think). I hope therefore you don't hit a timing problem: I'd specifically mention this to Sky and get their confirmation you won't be charged.

In the end I gave up on Plusnet after a fortnight of inactivity, ordered IDNet line rental, and once the line was transferred 2 weeks later placed the broadband transfer with the MAC which went through without any problem. A fortnight later and Orange haven't caught up yet, even though I've told them on the day of transfer (and cancelled their DD of course, vital).


For anyone else on Orange phone and broadband I think it's important to understand this point, which Orange don't make clear in their usual garbled marketingspeak.

Edited by deleted (Fri 12-Aug-11 15:29:55)

In reply to a post by markdixon:

Seems better value seeing as BT charge for callerID and Sky don't!

Caller ID is free from BT; you just order BT Privacy at Home. Simples!

Also Sky charges for 0845 #s and has no 1471 equiv. Unlike BT.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Caller ID is free from BT; you just order BT Privacy at Home. Simples!

Only free if you make the requisite 6 calls per quarter with BT. Not sure you can do that with Sky Talk on the line, and Sky broadband is £5/month more expensive without Sky Talk.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Also Sky charges for 0845 #s and has no 1471 equiv. Unlike BT.

I'm pretty sure that sky had 1471 for free when I was with them (left a couple of months ago)

Anyway from overall cost/experience, I personally wouldn't like to recommend Sky or BT for line rental. Keep a "BT compatible" line - but don't go with BT. I know that the post office and tesco offer it, but there's probably many more.

In reply to a post by Spacemanc:

I'm pretty sure that sky had 1471 for free when I was with them

Yes, they do! I was told otherwise by an online Sky support conversation, whilst I was preparing that post. I then found their full Prices/Feature List that included 1471 for free; he then apologised

However, 0845 calls are still chargeable . Makes no sense when everyone else includes them and Sky includes 0870 as inclusive calls.

What they do charge for is 0844 numbers if you are out of contract. This also happens to be the number used by Sky. So once your first 12 month contract is finished, and you are just a "normal" customer, you are then charged for calling Sky even if you are on their own phone network.

Invariably you will have to call Sky a few times a year - and some of these calls are for technical issues they can be very long. I literally never used my home phone, except for calling Sky, and I ran up almost £40 a year in call charges. I'm so glad I left them - I dont miss the TV even slightly and including the phone and BB, I'm saving hundreds of pounds a year!