Unhappy Orange Customer

SpidermkII

Hi to all that read this.

I'll try to keep this short and sweet but be patient.

I took out a new contract through Phones4you with orange for a new Nokia phone, after a few days I decided to cancel the contract as I disliked the phone (Contract1).

After having cancelled the contract (Contract1) I then took out a new contract with orange (through P4U again) which I still have at the moment. At the end of the first month Orange were due to take payment of £45 (for Contract 2) but instead for some unknown reason they took the same amount for the original contract (contract 1), of course this led to the direct debit (for Contract 2) bouncing and leaving me with a bounced direct debit fee.

After having contacted Orange about this, they apologised alot and then said they would send a refund for the £45 back to me which would then allow me to pay my current bill.

After waiting 3 weeks I had still not received my refund but in fact had received a letter from Natwest instructing me that Orange had tried to take payment for both contracts again about 14days after the original bounce and would be billed a nice £74 for the pleasure. After another long call I'm told that they (Orange) would re-send the original refund again along with the £74 for the bounced direct debits.

Now 2 and a half weeks later i'm still without my refunds for both contract and bounced Direct debits. I had a long conversion with a guy from Orange today (13 Aug) and have been told I cannot cancel my contract with them, even though I've been treated badly by them. I feel that with my case being this strong and along with the whole terms and conditions thing going on at the moment, I should be able to cancel the contract with no issues.

I'm only hear to ask for people's advice on this matter and if anybody can help me when it comes to dealing with the Orange staff and they don't want to budge over this contract wrangle.

Thank you for reading this essay

Chris

Jon_01

Sounds like P4U didn't send the cancel request through all that fast and you hit your billing date, which would be why the first DD for contract 1 was taken.

The advise above sounds good.

SpidermkII

In response to billbennett,

During my many phone calls with Orange i've been told that the contract ended on the exact same date I cancelled it with P4U (it was about 10-14days before the Direct debit) and a mis-communication was what led to my bounce in direct debit.

After speaking to a guy from Orange today he's informed that i'll be receiving the £74 for the bank charges but will only be getting £29.95 for the main refund, I was then informed that during my 5day run with contract 1 i had a massed a phone bill of £15 which I find quite hard to believe but at this point I don't mind losing £15 as long as I get the brunt of the money back.

I don't like to treat people badly on the phone but after the long waiting times, my phone being barred about four times (150 doesn't even work when your phone is barred, how silly is that) and the brick walls I keep hitting, my patience has worn very thin and thus i'd like to step away from Orange.

But as far as I know Contract 1 is dead and i'll no longer be affected by it, its just the refund i'm now waiting for.

drbesty

I'd say you're lucky to be getting the bank charges back, which Nokia phone was it that you disliked btw?

Fork86

drbesty wrote: »

I'd say you're lucky to be getting the bank charges back, which Nokia phone was it that you disliked btw?

Why is the OP lucky? They were the cause of his bank charges, and should rightly refund him. This has happened to me before and they didn't hesitate in refunding what was rightfully owed.

Squaddieskin

I recently signed a 'contract' with them too, with similar problems.

In my experience, what they say on the phone and what happens in reality are two different things.

The first thing you must do is register all of these problems with Consumer direct - they pass on relevant details to the Office of Fair Trading for investigation.

Secondly contact OFCOM. When it comes to mobile phones they also give good advise are very helpful,

Keep copies of all letters you write to Orange. And send them by recorded delivery.

And tape record telephone calls too. You can do this quite legitimately under section 36 of the data protection act....and no, you don't have to tell them you are recording them for reference either

You can get further information about recording of telephone conversations from the Commissioner for Data Protection or check out the ICO (information commissioners office)