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It May Be Free* To Get Broadband, But It Sure Ain't Free To Leave
from the gotchas dept
Over in the UK, we've covered the rise of free* broadband (we put the * next to it, because it's not really free: you only get it if you subscribe to other services that cost money). Recently, there was a report that customer satisfaction with those free* broadband offerings was exceptionally low. So, it probably wouldn't surprise you to find out that some of those subscribers would like to switch to other providers. Not so fast, apparently. Orange, one of the big providers of free* broadband is now adding a GBP12 charge to customers who want to switch to a new broadband provider. Sounds like they're really winning over the customers' loyalty there: offering up not-really-free-but-advertised-as-free broadband with quality problems, and then charging you to leave.
Reader Comments
(Flattened / Threaded)
wait
since they advertise it as free, how can they charge you for leaving a free service? seriously, they can legally do that?
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US version
Can I get a US Only version of this website please? Who cares about broadband in Europe, besides Europeans?
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Re: US version
Who's to say that it wouldn't be tried here?
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Re: US version
Can I get an idiot free version so I don't have to read comments by arrogant Americans?
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Re: Re: US version
You want a version without Americans making comments? How about you limey fuc*ing Brits stay the hell off of our Internet? Oh, that's right, you'd be left alone on your crappy little island.
STFU and pretend that Britain still matters in today's world.
*Spits on a picture of the queen*
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Re: Re: US version
arrogance is not limited to Americans, he has a valid point, if it isn't relevant to his interests, it isn't relevant. now as to arrogance, you show your own by labeling the person as an idiot. seems SO much the norm to me of europeans to label americans as arrogant when they dont agree with americans.
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Re: Re: Re: US version
Well, you see, as it turns out, the free version of the internet IS the one with the Americans in it, that is what makes it free. If you want the version of the internet without the annoying Americans you are going to have to subscribe to our Platnum Plan which will cost 300 Euros a month. No Americans though, I say it's worth it.
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Re: Re: US version
perfect said!
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Re: Re: US version
Nope, sorry. Idiocy and arrogance are an unfortunately inseparable part of the internet experience. I do admit, however, that some of us Americans take it a bit too far *glares at "MadAmerican"*
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Re: US version
If its free its gona cost you some how every time and you have to know that unless you have an IQ of 50.
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Re: US version
Oh you poor thing! Went and read something that wasn't about America! OH WOE IS YOU!
For the record, I am an American and found the story to be interesting anyway. I read lots of stories about lots of things that don't directly affect me. So far this has not caused me any harm at all.
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Re: Re: US version
Well said!
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If it sounds too good to be true......
At some point someone has to point the finger at personal responsibility! I like truth in advertising but it is MY JOB to read the fine print. When I hear the word "free" that tells me right away there is a catch.
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Orange
TalkTalk pioneered the "Pay for our telecoms service and we'll throw in broadband for free" model in the UK. (I'm using it now!)
Orange (a cellphone company) decided that they would like to compete with this, so they went out and found a broadband provider that was having problems (Wannadoo) and bought them out. Wannadoo had been incapable of servicing the broadband subscribers they already had without a significant investment in further infrastructure; Orange bought them out and started giving away broadband accounts without any such investment. The outcome was easy to predict. :-(
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ill fix this
your all stupid and i am too, there now lets not bitch and whine over something that makes NO SENSE, im american, but i have enough sense to tell when an argument is utterly pointless...
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Re: ill fix this
you sir are correct, it does get old though with the fashionable bash americans diatribe practiced by our fair friends across the pond. as to the problem with the broadband, anyone thought of billing the company right back with a nice time wasted fee or asshole tax like we used to charge obstinate customers in the computer shop i worked at for years?
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Re: Re: ill fix this
...our fair friends across the pond...
I think you mean fair weather friends
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American should be capitalized. Stupid...
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Oh my god you people are so petty and uneducated! Both American and otherwise.
1. Nothing is free except a kick in the head
2. Companies have always had strings to attach to deals, this is nothing new
3. Just because it doesn't effect you directly doesn't mean it effect you. What happens to the relative "There" can happen to the relative "here."
4. I like even numbers
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Ugh arrogant little bitches make Americans look bad. Just look at all Bush has done to destroy what little rep we had left.
Wake up my fellow Americans, if we're number one still its only by a hair. Stop taking credit for actions you didn't make.
Easiest example is WW2. At least the most common one arrogant Americans bring up. That was a different generation. You didn't do jack. Also they, for the most part, didn't hate their enemy. They recognised they were people just like them with a job to do, and they were gonna do their job better. They were'nt trying to make everyone like them. Thats what they were FIGHTING AGAINST.
And as for who cares about broadband in europe, you should. Especially if anything hosted over there you'd like to access. The Internet is not an American only infrastructure. It is global. So it affects EVERYONE that uses the Internet, even if it is just minutley.
Oh and Americans, stop giving us a bad name. I think this country is the best in the world, but at least I don't reduce myself to a common troll to say so. And since many of you are christian/catholic, learn some fucking tolerance. That IS what the Bible, both old and new tries to teach you at times. So take a lesson from the police force, and Lead by Example. Tired of the hipocracy.
(PS even numbers suck :P)
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1,2,3,5,7,11,13...................Prime number Rule
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Most important question, did it require a contract to sign up, that breaking it they get to charge you GBP12? Or do they just do it cuz they feel like it?
As far as the American vs everyoneelseintheworld debate, I'll point out that as long as everyone else feels free to comment on American politics, and my president, as if it were their own and sometimes as if they had a vote, I'll feel free to comment on random business situations. At least we don't try to tall you who to vote for for Prime Minister. Jeebus.
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Re:
re everyone can sound off about America but we can't speak our view: right the fuck on! Our president is a sociopathic nutjob, but I'd rather have that than a sociopathic nutjob's tool dressed up to look like a 'national leader'.
We need to blast someone out of existence in order to convince everyone remaining to back the fuck off. Not this pussyfooting crap in Afghanistan and Iraq mind you - I'm talking Hiroshima-level obliteration.
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i like pizza
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WW2
America didn't care about WW2 until the Japanese brought us into it.
Perhaps if there were blogs and news sites like this back in the day then America would have gotten involved sooner.
(I hope this counts as invoking godwins law)
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Orange
Orange are well knows as crooks and for their sharp practices over here. They are one of the biggest UK mobile providers, but woe betide anyone who doesn't understand their barely legal abusive contracts written in opaque gobbledegook. Credits mysteriously vanish from your account, hidden charges appear from nowhere, and trying to cancel a contract is like getting out of a deal with the Devil himself.
For the benefit of our American readers - they are the equivilent of AOL
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Re: Orange
I suspect that Orange have done this deliberately to discredit the notion of the "free" Broadband business model; all the complaints about their service will be seen as complaints against all "free" services, and so in the long term will keep customers coming to the paying services. Sneaky, really...
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"Blogs are the new usenet: you have to hunt through the thousands or juvenile 'I am counterculture' posts to find the occasional perls of wisdom" - User Friendly.
If you don't want to know about the rest of the world, then dont bothereveryone else bysaying so, just read the next article, they arre not so long that it is a great burden on you to decide you don't want to read one, now, is it?
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It can happen there.
Just because something happens in the UK doesn't mean it won't happen in the US.
Then they'd be screaming "Why didn't somebody warn us?"
*ponders the outcry after 9/11*
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