I Am Going To Sue ORANGE!

Igol

Good on yer.

I'm thinking aout sueing the useless s**s myself.

2 1/2 years ago I swapped from Orange broadband to my currant ISP. Orange kept billing me after this date, Sept 06. I phoned them and they said 'nothing they can do as I'm not an orange customer'??
So I contacted my bank who claimed the funds back and blocked further payments.

So now the letters start from Orange telling me I owe them £35 for a service that they no longer provided. I wrote back explaining that they dont supply my broadband and owe them nothing so if they wanted to go to court I'd be only to happy to attend and watch them explain the debt.
After a little more back and forth they send me a letter 'cancelling the outstanding balance as a gesture of goodwill and in full and final settlement'. The date is now July 07 and I'm glad I kept the letter.

March I get a message on the answerphone asking me to contact 'DLC', never heard of them so deleted it. Then DLC send me a letter telling me I own their client £35.
I replied that I have no debt with their client and they would have to prove it before I'd even consider the matter and that they must not contact me by phone again and that should they choose to persue the non existant debt I would be billing them for my time at a rate of £12 per letter and should there be any preparatory work involved I'd charge them at £10 per hour minimum period of 8 hours.

DLC left a message on my answerphone again and then sent me a red letter threatening legal action.

I sent them a bill for the letter I enclosed once again explaining that there was not debt and added a £12 penalty for phoning me. In the meantime I'd had a chat with a friend who works for the CAB who had a huge grin on their face when I told them of the fun I was having.

DLC then send me another letter telling me that Orange were going to send me proof of the debt. This arrived and was invoices for nov/dec 06 so now as I had their head office address I wrote to them.
It wasnt very complementary about them or DLC but I did offer to see them in court to verify the term 'full and final settlement' and explained my rates as well.

Orange have replied today making a half hearted appology for unexpected coorespondence and again writing off the debt as a gesture of goodwill and even trying to blame me for mot using the MAC code they provided, odd that, same ISP I used it to swap to and I'm pretty sure I'm sat at home typing this?

boozercruiser

Igol wrote: »

Good on yer.

I'm thinking aout sueing the useless s**s myself.

2 1/2 years ago I swapped from Orange broadband to my currant ISP. Orange kept billing me after this date, Sept 06. I phoned them and they said 'nothing they can do as I'm not an orange customer'??
So I contacted my bank who claimed the funds back and blocked further payments.

So now the letters start from Orange telling me I owe them £35 for a service that they no longer provided. I wrote back explaining that they dont supply my broadband and owe them nothing so if they wanted to go to court I'd be only to happy to attend and watch them explain the debt.
After a little more back and forth they send me a letter 'cancelling the outstanding balance as a gesture of goodwill and in full and final settlement'. The date is now July 07 and I'm glad I kept the letter.

March I get a message on the answerphone asking me to contact 'DLC', never heard of them so deleted it. Then DLC send me a letter telling me I own their client £35.
I replied that I have no debt with their client and they would have to prove it before I'd even consider the matter and that they must not contact me by phone again and that should they choose to persue the non existant debt I would be billing them for my time at a rate of £12 per letter and should there be any preparatory work involved I'd charge them at £10 per hour minimum period of 8 hours.

DLC left a message on my answerphone again and then sent me a red letter threatening legal action.

I sent them a bill for the letter I enclosed once again explaining that there was not debt and added a £12 penalty for phoning me. In the meantime I'd had a chat with a friend who works for the CAB who had a huge grin on their face when I told them of the fun I was having.

DLC then send me another letter telling me that Orange were going to send me proof of the debt. This arrived and was invoices for nov/dec 06 so now as I had their head office address I wrote to them.
It wasnt very complementary about them or DLC but I did offer to see them in court to verify the term 'full and final settlement' and explained my rates as well.

Orange have replied today making a half hearted apology for unexpected coorespondence and again writing off the debt as a gesture of goodwill and even trying to blame me for mot using the MAC code they provided, odd that, same ISP I used it to swap to and I'm pretty sure I'm sat at home typing this?

Blimey, your experience is almost identical to mine. I am only sorry now that I didn't just ignore the odds, let them take me to court and then Counterclaim. The trouble with that is one might end up on a bad credit register.

It might be an idea to wait and see how I get on, because if I haven't heard from them by end of today I start off my Sue procedure tomorrow.

My end result may or may not help you:D

P.S. In the meantime, avoid Donner Kebabs!:rotfl:

1984ReturnsForReal_2

boozercruiser wrote: »

Blimey, your experience is almost identical to mine. I am only sorry now that I didn't just ignore the odds, let them take me to court and then Counterclaim. The trouble with that is one might end up on a bad credit register.

It might be an idea to wait and see how I get on, because if I haven't heard from them by end of today I start off my Sue procedure tomorrow.

My end result may or may not help you:D

P.S. In the meantime, avoid Donner Kebabs!:rotfl:

If they do turn up to court & even if they dont turn up but appeal expect the following.

They will object to your fees on litegation. Your charge rate per hour is not in line with approved proceedures & they will win a reduction in your charges. The court will reduce your claim to the correct rate per hour & reduce it further by a rate £150+ per hour for the time the plaintiff spends on the litigation, this will wipe all your claim out because of your inflated rate for a bit of admin work.

Best of luck wasting your time.

You do realise being unreasonable in court costs money.

Google "litigant in person" & get the proper charge rate per hour before you submit your claim to court.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

Crabman wrote: »

The litigant in person rate is £9.25 per hour. But that doesn't explain your comment that the court will reduce it by £150+ per hour... where did you get £150+ from? How would they 'wipe the claim out'? The OP mentions £15 per hour, so how could they possibly reduce that by £150?

I wish boozercruiser luck with this claim and I hope it's successful.

Just because the litigant in person rate is £9.25 per hour doesnt mean Orange will be charged that for their own legal work.

If he wins the case the amount he charges for his own "work" needs to be justified at a rate of £9.25 per hour. Oranges' legal team defending will charge at the normal rate supplied to the plaintiff & that is likely to be circa £150+ per hour (£150 being on the low side). If he is succesfull afterwards the litigant costs of the "rate per hour" will be countered argued for being unreasonable charges because of the difference in point between £9.25 & £15 per hour which the court will probably deem reasonable for Orange to do. It may wipe out any financial reward the OP wishes to walk away with should the case go the whole way through the court process.

I wish him well also BUT he has just created a hole for himself to fall into if he is not careful.

macman

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

Just because the litigant in person rate is £9.25 per hour doesnt mean Orange will be charged that for their own legal work.

If he wins the case the amount he charges for his own "work" needs to be justified at a rate of £9.25 per hour. Oranges' legal team defending will charge at the normal rate supplied to the plaintiff & that is likely to be circa £150+ per hour (£150 being on the low side). If he is succesfull afterwards the litigant costs of the "rate per hour" will be countered argued for being unreasonable charges because of the difference in point between £9.25 & £15 per hour which the court will probably deem reasonable for Orange to do. It may wipe out any financial reward the OP wishes to walk away with should the case go the whole way through the court process.

I wish him well also BUT he has just created a hole for himself to fall into if he is not careful.

But surely if he wins, the defendant has to pay the costs of both sides in a civil case?

1984ReturnsForReal_2

macman wrote: »

But surely if he wins, the defendant has to pay the costs of both sides in a civil case?

Correct.

But then they argue about the costs submitted to the court & they have a point with the hourly rate at £15 & as this is above the rate of £9.25.

& the cost for Orange to argue this point could be deducted from the judgement as allowed in law.



(based on my non-knowledge reading)

boozercruiser

Crabman............"I wish boozercruiser luck with this claim and I hope it's successful".

Thank you for your very kind words. :T

It would not be appropriate for me to post here exactly what my submission will be tomorrow. But my claim is made up of a lot more than a charge per hour as per my very first post on this matter.

Needless to say in a compensation claim, and exactly how much the thing is worth, its a bit like asking "How long is a piece of string?

I will try and find out, especialy for the wannabe Solicitors!:D

1984ReturnsForReal_2

boozercruiser wrote: »

Crabman............"I wish boozercruiser luck with this claim and I hope it's successful".

Thank you for your very kind words. :T

It would not be appropriate for me to post here exactly what my submission will be tomorrow. But my claim is made up of a lot more than a charge per hour as per my very first post on this matter.

Needless to say in a compensation claim, and exactly how much the thing is worth, its a bit like asking "How long is a piece of string?

I will try and find out, especialy for the wannabe Solicitors!:D

Thanks

Igol

I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on.

Cant help but wonder how many people would have flapped on recieving the bill from DLC and paid just so that the scarey debt collectors didnt come to their door?

So now just need to file letters away for 3 more years until the none existant debt becomes barred, or should I seek compensation for the harrassment and inconvience both DLC and orange have put me to I did ask for a full and frank appology for their incompetence and the letter I got hardly covers that

boozercruiser

Igol wrote: »

I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on.

Cant help but wonder how many people would have flapped on recieving the bill from DLC and paid just so that the scarey debt collectors didnt come to their door?

So now just need to file letters away for 3 more years until the none existant debt becomes barred, or should I seek compensation for the harrassment and inconvience both DLC and orange have put me to I did ask for a full and frank appology for their incompetence and the letter I got hardly covers that

Thank you for your comforting words. See how I go on as it may help you decide what to do now. Yes, keep all letters, not just from Orange but anyone you are having financial problems with.:D