Updated 15 Feb: Trapped with dodgy contract with non existant company! -

Woby_Tide

jumper wrote:

Ask them what happened to your free upgrade after 12 monthss, whether any other dealer offers 24 contracts & whether they are paid extra commission (they aren't..)

they are...

(and if they weren't paid more then no wonder the company wnet bust as they removed a potential upgrade customer in 12 months to being 24 months away from an upgrade)

Apple_2

I don't know mobiles like you guys. All I can say is I was/am with Vodafone. I wanted a better deal so gave my 30 days notice and waited for a call. Got the call 'how can we keep you?' Agreed a better 12 month deal I was happy with. Once the first bill arrived the trouble started - the Vodafone salesman hadn't put the agreed details on the system - it showed me on a new 18 month contract at the old rate. It took about 20 phone calls with Vodafone to get it right ( I think ) and I still suspect after the 12 month period they'll be showing the balance of an 18 month contract.
Point is it was all done over the phone - I never got the details in writing from Vodafone - never got a new contract from Vodafone to sign - and it's a !!!!!! trying to get them to change something if you say 'this isn't what I agreed to '.

Derbyshire_Phoenix

Thanks for all your insight guys. I have to say I do like the 'make them prove it' option! I did call again tonight and got a very helpful girl (well apart from the bit where she said "I'm not sure what we can do for you" but at least it was something of an improvement). Anyway she was the first one to volunteer to ring the 'new' company on MyMs number and OK they were closed for the day but at least she tried. And apparantly the case has been passed on today to the Orange Customer Support team (although naturally they are not actually customer-facing which means I haven't got a hope in hell of ever speaking to them). So I'm going to give it a week, as requested, then call back and if they haven't sorted it by then, just give the 30 days notice and face it out with them. I did point out tonight that if I were treated as a defaulting customer they would have to prove it in court so they must have some paper work somewhere.

I also like the idea of writing to Sanjiv but not sure what I could write in the subject header to make sure he reads it, he must get absolutely innundated...

Anyway I will be sure to keep you all posted - thanks again!

DP aka Sarah

Derbyshire_Phoenix

Apple wrote:

Point is it was all done over the phone - I never got the details in writing from Vodafone - never got a new contract from Vodafone to sign - and it's a !!!!!! trying to get them to change something if you say 'this isn't what I agreed to '.

Yup, that's about the bottom line guys. Well I've certainly learned my lesson, never again will I do any business over the phone without getting a contract. Signed in the dealers own blood of course

DP aka Sarah

Woby_Tide

use the executive office e-mail address above, it's a 'bucket' mailbox but they do tend to get read, have it as 'contract dispute ' in the title and make sure you give phone details and contact details etc. and hopefully someone should give you a shout within a few days(though admittedly due to the address being given out for every single trivial complaint nowadays it has deteriorated the quality of response to genuine queries/compliaints like yours that they originally did deal with)

Micky

And you’re probably way ahead of me on this one but yes, their paperwork had vanished with them...

1) Ask Orange to provide you with a copy of the current contract documentation.

2) If they can't provide the paperwork, ask Orange if any contract exists.

EdCov

If you agreed to a twelve month contract and the company have claimed for you on a twelve month contract then that is fraud.

Of course the other rule with dealing with complaints is always take the name of the person that you are speaking to. If you are not satisfied with the answer, politely ask to speak to their manager. Often frontline staff cannot help even if they want to, it is not their fault. If their manager refuses to speak to you, ask for the name of their manager so you can make a complaint against them. Ask for who to make a complaint to including the Ombudsman. Then just keep on heading up.

I tried this with Dialaphone when I had a problem (a combination of Royal Mail (not delivering the bill) and Three (sending out an Internet Printout rather than a proper bill), the supervisor refused to speak to me, however when pushed as above, he authorised the payment of the cashbank on the basis of a printout from the Internet which I could fax in.

Persistence will normally pay off, sometimes just calling and speaking to someone else resolves the problem.