Hi,

I'm with Orange and I have no service in 99% of the places I visit. I have no service at all at home. I'm sending on average one to two text messages per day when I'd like to send twenty, because I can't find a single bar of coverage. I cannot make calls on my phone. I have made 3 minutes of calls in the last month because it cannot pick up any coverage. This has persisted since mid-February, around the time I signed a new 24 month contract, and they insisted that it would be fixed by now.

What are my chances of negotiating out of the contract? Their coverage checker says "excellent" for mobile signal and "good" for 3G signal.

The lack of coverage extends to: Home, work, supermarket, three hotels, a beach and a motorway service station. The only place I've had coverage is my Mum's house and a service station on the M6.

I want to quit Orange and go to Vodafone because I know that they work where I need them to. Can I get Orange to break my contract because their service is not fit for purpose?

You do hear of people getting out of contracts because of this.

Admittedly, over the past 5 months my signal with Orange has deteriorated when at home. I now have to take calls up in the bedroom as reception is zilch in my office! Upgrade time is on me but I'm wondering whether to jump ship. My missus is on O2 and her reception is perfect here.

Did you get a new phone when you signed the new contract, though? I'm just wondering, seeing as it's a massive area that you seem to be talking about, that it might be your phone at fault...

I've just done a coverage check on the orange website for st4 1aa - area around City road / A500 "D" Road / train station / royal mail sorting office ..

There is good signal around stoke, check for your self, thisll give you a rough idea of the coverage, as they arent 100 pc accurate ..

http://search.orange.co.uk/ouk/porta...gechecker.html

as mred200 has said there may be an issue with the handset ? dont know if you have a second handset lying around which you can run a test on at all ..

You may be able to run a claim under the sales of goods act, if it is a faulty phone - as the phone isnt fit for purpose - however as you bought it in Feb, I would advise you to speak to trading standards as mobile phone companies tend to ask you to contact the manufacturer, where the phone may be sent to repair, if you dont have any insurance.

If their own coverage checker shows you should be getting a brilliant signal then you have every right to complain. However, the network should do everything in their power to help you, such as supplying a new phone and simcard to see if it is indeed the phone at fault. If after trying a new phone you still cannot get service then you can argue with them about the contract as you would have then done everything reasonably in your power to get a signal which they showed on their signal checker.

Forgot to say but, yeah, I tried that with mine. Reception was much better in my old SE w800i than my HTC Hero but still nowhere near as good as it used to be... so the signal has deteriorated near me, even though it shows as excellent/good on the Orange checker.

@ mred2000 - you may want to speak to Orange again about that matter, dont know if you have done what the previous poster said . .. but speak to trading standards, see where you would lie on this matter