I Am Going To Sue ORANGE!

bookworm1363

So to sum up (someone please correct me if I got this wrong, WITHOUT the insults if you can):

• They messed up by the tune of (rounding numbers), £25. Which has no excuse, no matter what.
• They compounded this by passing the alleged debt to a DCA. No excuse either. I'll get back to that.
• When you had strong words, they withdrew the allegation of debt and offered you compensation to the tune of twice the amount they had messed you up by.
• You refused this, and submitted a large claim through MCOL without substantiating the amounts, without quoting the law on which you were relying to claim.
• Defendant acknowledged claim, intend to defend, then makes you an increased offer of an additional £50 on top of what they had already offered you. Yes, £50. They had offered £50 before you issued MCOL, they then offer £100 + court fee (which they don't have much of a choice about since it became an integral part of your claim, but it's not a profit to you since you had to pay it in the first place).

Do you know what your saving grace was? The fact that it was such a small amount. That made Orange more likely to settle than fight it, as it wouldn't be worth their while paying staff to deal with your claim.


Otherwise, they could have got you on:

• You refused a reasonable offer of settlement and issued court proceedings. Court is supposed to be a last resort when all other attempts at negotiation have failed. A judge would have been likely to take a very dim view at that. Furthermore, they HAD withdrawn the alleged debt and you were therefore suing them over the amount of compensation offered, which is NOT monies owed in the first place.
• You over-inflated your expenses and didn't justify them. £9.25/hour is the rate allowed a LIP, and even then you have to justify it. I was in court recently with s/one to get a Statutory Demand set aside, and even though the other side didn't show up, the judge went through the LIP's expenses line by line and reduced the amount of hours she had spent preparing for the case from 15 hours (which is all she had claimed for even though she spent closer to 50) to 3 hours, as in his view "that was all that was needed since the law was quite clear and didn't need this amount of research". So don't think for one second that you would have got all your expenses. As for compensation for distress etc, whilst the judge may be willing to award you something for that, you would have to substantiate that with more than a "I was very distressed" statement.
• You didn't say under which law you were bringing up your action.

In summary, your MCOL simply said: "they messed up, so I want large amounts of money as compensation and what they offered isn't enough".

By god, you were very lucky indeed it didn't make it to court, they would have ripped you to shreds and landed you with costs for vexatious litigation, and I have to say that I think they would have got them. You have NO idea how much you have saved yourself by accepting their increased compensation offer.

As for thinking it's all over.... well, that actually depends on what Orange actually did with the alleged debt. If they used an in-house DCA, you should be ok. However, if they flogged it off and actually sold it to a DCA, then that DCA will keep on hounding you for it. You can send them packing, but you don't need to sue them for that.

(Oh, and in case anyone wants to call me a rollover or a companies bootlicker or whatever lovely terms gets thrown at whoever dares to analyse this in a lucid manner, before you do and embarrass yourself, you might want to check me here and on CAG. Or you could ask Martin himself. )

Final piece of advice to anyone who may be tempted to follow this reckless behaviour: If you decide to sue a big company, DO NOT use MCOL. As OP found out, the limited space and number of lines/letters allowed make it very difficult to write proper particulars of claim, and a lot of solicitors will try to get them thrown out on the grounds of "not particularised enough". If you're unlucky, the courts will accept that. If you're serious about suing anyone, it is better to write proper POC and file at your local court.

Tozer

bookworm1363 wrote: »

So to sum up (someone please correct me if I got this wrong, WITHOUT the insults if you can):

I think that seems to sum it up quite nicely.

cobra

boozercruiser wrote: »

Hi Guys. I have had further E. Mail corrospondence with Orange today as follows..................................................................

ORANGE..........Thank you for your correspondence dated 19th May 2009, received by me today, the contents of which are noted.

I confirm that I will today arrange for a cheque to be drawn in the sum of £135.00 in full and final settlement of your claim, without admission of liability. This should be with you within the next 7-10 days.

In light of the agreed settlement, I would be grateful if you could contact the Court at your earliest convenience in order to withdraw your claim in order to save both parties further costs in this matter.

Yours sincerely

..............................................................................................
ME.....................Good afternoon,
Thank you for your E. Mail, I am much obliged.

However, with respect, I am not prepared to contact the Court until I receive your cheque.

As I understand Court Procedure, I will not incur further costs unless I wish to continue my claim and pay £50 to request a hearing.

Obviously at this moment in time I have no intention of doing this.

What I cannot understand is that when Laura Boehme of Orange customer care contacted me by telephone some weeks ago she offered £50, which I refused.
She advised me that if I accepted and I gave bank details then that amount would be paid into my bank account that day.

I have given you my bank details in the hope that both of us could draw a line under this problem as soon as possible.

I do hope that you can please either try that route, or have the cheque drawn up sooner than you have advised me.

Best Regards
...............................................................................................

ORANGE.........................................Thank you for your email.

I have arranged for a CHAPS payment to be made direct to your bank account tomorrow morning, this should show in your bank account by 6pm tomorrow evening. I hope this course of action is satisfactory, if you could confirm that you are happy with this, I would be grateful.

I would also be grateful therefore if you could arrange to withdraw your claim at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely

...............................................................................................

ME................Hello again,
Yes I am very happy with this course of action. I will check my Bank Account online tomorrow evening and provided the agreed amount has reached my account then I will contact the Court first thing on Friday morning (22nd May 2009) and withdraw my claim.

Thank you for your human contact in resolving this matter

My only observation now is that had Orange shown your level of support in sorting out shall we say this 'misunderstanding' then this issue would have been settled two years ago, and I could have avoided the upset and distress that this problem has caused my Wife and I.

Best Wishes to you and Thanks again,

You have really rattled them.
They want to make sure that this case is stopped promptly hence their expediting the payment from 7-10 days to immediate by way of CHAPS.

I salute you BC for having the courage and commitment to go through with all this.

More power to your elbow.

Tozer

cobra wrote: »

You have really rattled them.
They want to make sure that this case is stopped promptly hence their expediting the payment from 7-10 days to immediate by way of CHAPS.

I salute you BC for having the courage and commitment to go through with all this.

More power to your elbow.

Its called a "nuisance" payment.

Freddie_Snowbits

I am minded by my original thoughts and the button prat still does not appear to vote by

dmg24

Tozer wrote: »

In fairness what Bozo thought he could claim and what the law would permit him to claim are two, wildly different, things.

You can't call him Bozo!

Bozo is a most helpful and informative regular on the Benefits/ Employment board.

boozercruiser is ... aptly summed up by Mr_Snowbits.

Tozer

dmg24 wrote: »

You can't call him Bozo!

Bozo is a most helpful and informative regular on the Benefits/ Employment board.

boozercruiser is ... aptly summed up by Mr_Snowbits.

Apologies to the original Bozo!

tell you what, there are striking similarities (as someone else said, I think) between one MDBarber.

Freddie_Snowbits

Tozer wrote: »

Apologies to the original Bozo!

tell you what, there are striking similarities (as someone else said, I think) between one MDBarber.

Please no, do not rekindle the dying embers of that firestorm!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

boozercruiser

Cobra said "You have really rattled them.
They want to make sure that this case is stopped promptly hence their expediting the payment from 7-10 days to immediate by way of CHAPS.

I salute you BC for having the courage and commitment to go through with all this.

More power to your elbow". :T:A thank you for that lovely comment and for all of the other positive comments in support, and even constructive critisism.

So then. What are my main Bullet Points??

1. I am only now certain that Orange or Direct Legal and Collections Debt Agency will never, ever contact me again with the following letter "Your account has been referred to us by Orange Home Services for collection. The balance of £22.99 must be paid immediately. Failure to respond to this letter may result in Legal Action" followed by numerous telephone calls trying to get money that I do not owe them.

2. I was also worried about being put on a possible Credit Black List.

3. To put a stop to this was my main goal and was never about the £450 claim

4. I wanted and got an Apology from Orange.

5. I have just checked my Bank Account and £135 has been paid in. So after deduction of £35 I still have £100 in my back pocket to spend.

6. My action just might make Orange think again before putting the Debt Agency on people for money that they claim is not warranted.

7. ALL of the posts just may give someone who is possibly going through this situation with either Orange or some other Company thoughts on how to combat it.

8. Perhaps even the types who say to a Company who is Dumping on them "I give in, of course I owe you the money. Please tickle my Tummy and I will send a Cheque off right away Boss". may have now gained a little courage to fight back!

9. It must be obvious even to the Khyber !!!!!!, Bad Kebabs, Snowflakes and the likes who inhabit this Forum that I MUST have been in the right. There is absolutely NO WAY that Orange would have paid me £135 if I where in the wrong in any way shape or form.

10. I have been genuinly suprised by the amount of Sarcastic, Unhelpful, Snide, Mean Minded people there are here. God, I am glad I don't have to put up with them in real life. They must be absolutely lousy neighbours

11. I am :j to be able to draw a line under this episode and am right now going to have a few :beer:s on Orange.

Cheers Orange:beer: I just knew that you would come good for me in the end:rotfl:

DebtHater

boozercruiser wrote: »

2. I was also worried about being put on a possible Credit Black List.

3. To put a stop to this was my main goal and was never about the £450 claim

9. It must be obvious even to the Keyber !!!!!!, Bad Kebabs, Snowflakes and the likes who inhabit this Forum that I MUST have been in the right. There is absolutely NO WAY that Orange would have paid me £135 if I where in the wrong in any way shape or form.

10. I have been genuinly suprised by the amount of Sarcastic, Unhelpfull, Snide, Mean Minded people there are here. God, I am glad I don't have to put up with them in real life. They must be absolutely lousy neighbours

Ok, so to sum up.

1) Theres no such thing as a credit "black list". They would have simply put a note on your file to inform other lenders of your credit history with Orange. But the Debt Agency wouldnt have done it straight away, it takes ages (I mean months) before action like that is taken

2) If it wasnt about the £450, why bother going to court for a claim amount of £450? The only reason you backed down was because they upped their offer and you saw the £££ and thought "wey hey, quids in"

3) Orange paid you the money to shut you up and in the hope you would stop annoying them. Saying that, would we have to pay the same amount for you to shut up posting your rubbish?

4) What did you expect? You come on with a stupid, and quite frankly, childish attitude towards the whole situation. You posted your story on here to get a response. Well done. You got the response, some people even going one step further and calling you a "prat". I would take this as a lesson, pal. You are not going to get very far in your life if all you can think of doing is raising some stupid childish vendetta against a company. Yes, sure what they did was wrong, but you dont have to deliver summons on them!