Tags on your phone line

Dear Michael, I recently re-contracted with Orange Broadband but because of various problems, I had to cancel the contract after three weeks.

I called them and was advised that my contract had been cancelled, that no further charges would apply and that I would lose my connection within 10 minutes. An hour later I was still connected so I rang them, only to be advised that I wasn’t paying for it so I should make the most of it.

I did request a MAC Migration Code at the time, but was told that if they issued one my account would have to stay active in order for me to migrate. Because I didn’t have a provider in mind at the time, I wasn’t too worried about this.

However, I can’t now sign up with anyone else because my line is being “hogged” by Orange.

Are there any industry guidelines as to how long it should take them for them to disconnect and is there anything I can do to speed up the disconnection?

I hope you can help,

Jon O’Sullivan, via email