"Steeeeriiiike! Orange, You're outta here!"

For some time, I've been suffering at the hands of Orange Broadband. Their phone service has been marginally reliable, but nothing special, except expensive.

The Broadband service has been, shall we say, patchy at best (and that's being polite). Unplanned outages, yo-yo connections, slow connections, DNS databases woefully out of date (to the extent that I've had to reselect the OpenDNS system to get meaningful web usage), and a complete loss of service for days at a time, only for it to reappear for no apparent reason other than the day of the week may have a 'y' in it (and probably the same reason it went down in the first place, too.

So, I've patiently waited until I've safely been out of contract ties with them before proclaiming that I'll be jumping ship, and could they give me my MAC and PAC (or whatever they're bloody called) codes for the next supplier(s).

Well, first thing, they seem to think I've a 24 month contract with 2 months to go. WRONG. I've an 18 month contract, ran out three months ago, and I've proof. The scan to the left has been quite literally redacted to hide my personal details, EMEI numbers, etc, but you can clearly see that the sales girl at the Croydon Orange shop entered the contract as an 18-month contract, not 24 (excuse the lopped off top left corner. My till receipts and card receipt are stapled there, and there's no way on Gods' Green earth you're seeing those ). So yah-boo-sucks to them, count Number 1.

Next up, since last night, my net connection has been deader than a dodo. Imagine my lack of shock when I discover, the moment I get back from ripping a new rear end in Orange at their shop, that my connection back up and running. Interesting coincidence, that. Not gonna help 'em any, mind. I'm outta there asap anyhow. Yah-boo-sucks to them, count Number 2.

In addition, another Phone provider and ISP has better deals in the table than I'm paying right now; since I've got a perfectly good phone already, all I really need is a SIM Card deal. So, here's one: O2's Simplicity Online 15 plan, plus their web bolt on, and their broad band basic plan (an extra £7.50 per month if you're an O2 customer), which works out ten to twelve quid per month cheaper than what I'm currently paying Orange: This for a contract pay monthly with 30 days notice instead of 18 months minimum, 200 minutes, 400 texts (Orange only give me 200 texts), and unlimited web browsing from my phone via 3G/GPRS, etc. (Orange charge a fiver per megabyte or part thereof). Rude not to bin Orange, the above being the case. Yah-boo-sucks to them, count Number 3.

Three strikes, Orange - You're outta here!