Orange rip off what can I do?

weemee

Then I'd suggest that less than 7 days had elapsed. Try going along that route.

Without the sim, you couldn't test the phone. Really lay it on thick.

Regards

cyprusbabe71

I have written a letter to them, it goes like this lol



On 8th December 2005 I was contacted by Orange and offered a handset upgrade because I was 10 months into my contract. I was pleasantly surprised by this and inquired about the different handsets available. I only use my phone for text messaging (hence the 3000 free text plan) so I wanted something that was easy to text with. I also wanted a Bluetooth capability and a good quality camera because I exchange photos with my husband and children. Your salesman (who had only been working for you for 10 days) recommended the Motorola V3 Razor phone, so whilst I was on the phone I looked at the picture of it on your website. It looked stylish but my husband commented that the camera was only VGA capable. The salesman assured me that the camera was good as he had one himself. He also told me that he could reduce the contract price to £18 pcm as I had been a good customer. Feeling very pressured to make a quick decision, I therefore agreed and ordered the phone.

On 9th December I received the phone and immediately charged the battery. As soon as the battery was charged, I phoned to activate the new SIM card and was told that it would be ready for use in 2 hours. Over 7 hours later, the phone would still not work so I gave up and went to bed. The SIM eventually registered itself on 10th December.

I found the phone quite difficult to use but hoped that it would get easier with familiarity. After a week with it I was getting quite angry with it for the following reasons:

1. It has a very limited storage space so every time I receive a text I have to delete old ones so that it will arrive.

2. It does not store my regularly used words in the dictionary for more than a few days.

3. If I do not read a text message straight away, the phone beeps every few minutes until I do.

4. The camera is poor.

5. It is extremely un-user-friendly compared to my old Sony Ericsson.

I therefore felt that I was totally miss-sold this handset because it is not suitable for my needs, so I telephoned the upgrade department at 0800 this morning to get the handset changed. I know that you are supposed to return it within 7 working days of receipt but I have been away from home for the last 4 days visiting family for Christmas and was unable to do it. The phone did not start working until the Saturday, so it has only been 7 working days and 8 hours since then any way. The salesman was not willing to accept the problem and the conversation got quite nasty, threatening me with legal action if I cancelled my contract. I even offered to pay towards a new handset, I was so unhappy with it. When I asked if I could sell the phone and buy a new one, I was told that I would still be paying £5 pcm insurance on it for 18 months. I was not even asked if I wanted insurance on it in the first place!

I now wish that I had just kept my Sony Ericsson K500i as it was a much better phone. I do not wish to cancel my contract but it might be my only way of resolving this. According to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, if you have taken up a contract over the phone then you are able to cancel it. I have not signed anything.

Is it really worth losing a good customer over 8 hours? I look forward to an amicable solution.


Yours Faithfully,

carly

Sounds good to me. Make sure you send it recorded delivery, so it has to be signed for, then they cant say they never received it.


I also had a V3 as an upgrade recently and I sold it straight away on ebay because it was nowhere near as good as my nokia 6230 (esp the camers 0.
Hope you get a result !

cyprusbabe71

Thanks, off to the post office now!

Steve_xx

I would point out to you that in these posts there has been mention of a 7 day rule and a 7 working day rule.

Working days may be classified as Mondays to Fridays inclusive. If this is so, then you may not have exceeded your 7 working day rule.

Another point to mention is that if you have received your new phone and it is faulty, then of course, you would be entitled to revoke the contract, Is it, by any chance, faulty?

In addition, you may be able to revoke the contract if you can prove that the salesman told you an untruth about the phone. What a salesman tells you about a product is contractual, ie you took the phone on the basis of his advice. But of course, you would have to be able to prove that what he said what contrary to what you ended up with.

Woby_Tide

just to check, is this contract with Orange direct or with an Orange reseller who did the upgrade on your behalf(the only bit I'm dubious about is they rang you early offering the upgrade which isn't that common from Orange direct but common from resellers desperate for commission), without that info hard to tell what the insurance terms are(though regardless of Distance Selling Regs I thought insurance had auto cooling off period of 14 days?)

Edit: according to this it is 14 days on insurance products

http://www.moneyworld.co.uk/dictionary/cooling-off-period-004050.html

And according to Oranges own terms and conditions which you can quote to your saelspeople and get them to look at (if it is an Orange Insurance contract)

http://www.orange.co.uk/terms/orange_care_terms.html

11 CANCELLATION RIGHTS

You may cancel Orange Care at any time within 14 days of cover coming into force or receipt of the policy summary, whichever is the latter and your premium will be refunded.

If a claim occurs during this period you will be charged the full annual premium. The administration fee will also apply.

If you decide to cancel this policy you should call 150 from your Orange pay monthly phone or 07973 100 150 from any other phone if you are a pay monthly customer. Pay as you go customers should call 451 from their Orange phone or 07973 100 451 from any other phone. Small Business customers should call 345 from their Orange phone or 07973 100 345 from any other phone and Business Solutions customers should call 158 from their Orange phone or 07973 100 158 from any other phone.


On your other points I think the rules are 7 days from delivery of goods, the time the SIM registered can't be taken into account (i.e. what you are suggesting means you could order a phone, get it delivered tomorrow but not register the SIM until next year, then claim it isn't 7 days old), accepting the delivery starts the 7 day period I think. Also the functionality of the phone is purely subjective that you don't like how it works, it isn't actually faulty in anyway where you would have had a stronger case, as they say in IT, those are features, not faults...!

Woby_Tide

Steve_xx wrote:

I would point out to you that in these posts there has been mention of a 7 day rule and a 7 working day rule.

Working days may be classified as Mondays to Fridays inclusive. If this is so, then you may not have exceeded your 7 working day rule.

DSA says

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2000/20002334.htm

(2) Where the supplier complies with regulation 8, the cancellation period ends on the expiry of the period of seven working days beginning with the day after the day on which the consumer receives the goods.

So received on 8th December

Day 1 - 9th Dec
Day 2 - 12th Dec
Day 3 - 13th Dec
Day 4 - 14th Dec
Day 5 - 15th Dec
Day 6 - 16th Dec
Day 7 - 19th Dec

so midnight 19th it expired (even allowing for the argument of the SIm registering on 9th Dec the 7 days expired midnight last night, harshe when it is by hours but being away or unable to return goods isn't really a viable reason in the eyes of the law I would have thought

cyprusbabe71

It was delivered on the 9th of December.

weemee

I'f threaten to contact the Financial Services Authority (FSA) about the insurance if the letter doesn't work.

Regards

cyprusbabe71

I will, I tried to explain my circumstances to them that my Mum is in hospital and we were away seeing her, I was 8 hours over the deadline. I was with her for four days, there is a no mobile phone rule in the hospital.