Orange breached my data protection... can i cancel?

legoman

Hi,

I sent orange a query using their contact part on the orange website. I have not recieved a reply and looks like I wont however, they sent me an email with a survey about my experience. I put it in my trash.

This morning I got one from them with this in it....

We should totally get some kind of compensation out of all of this.
On 9 Feb 2010, at 23:14, Cottrell, Gary A. wrote:

Hello everybody, how you doing.

I'll just sit back now and wait for all the spam to arrive. ... Thanks Orange.


Then about 1000 email addresses that I can see then it says...


Subject: [BULK] RE: Hello from Orange


Well, that didn’t compromise anyone’s email addresses did it?

What the hell is this? Is someone at Orange being naughty with our email addresses?? Do I need to tell Orange what's going on? There are a lot of email addresses that I can see!

Mike.

helloblackbird

Hi.

I also recieved the initial email and also had the 1065 other email address. There were so many email addresses my android took some time to open it!

I find it rather amusing that my query was never answered either. Typical Orange - they used to be so much better.

As for the person that wrote back about compo, I never recieved this and thus I speculate that there may have been more than just the 1000 addresses and perhaps Orange sent out a series of emails with 1000 contacts. By replying to all this person has themselves misuesed the data that they have recieved and may be subject to the same laws applicable to Orange!

I contacted Orange through 150 and was passed to India, they failed to realise the importance of this issue and refused compensation; I then filled in a data protection violation form on the Information Commissioners site; I then finally contacted Orange UK's executive office on 0800 0790134 - they seemed to know what to do. It would seem they will be getting back to us as soon as possible.

legoman

helloblackbird wrote: »

Hi.

I also recieved the initial email and also had the 1065 other email address. There were so many email addresses my android took some time to open it!

I find it rather amusing that my query was never answered either. Typical Orange - they used to be so much better.

As for the person that wrote back about compo, I never recieved this and thus I speculate that there may have been more than just the 1000 addresses and perhaps Orange sent out a series of emails with 1000 contacts. By replying to all this person has themselves misuesed the data that they have recieved and may be subject to the same laws applicable to Orange!

I contacted Orange through 150 and was passed to India, they failed to realise the importance of this issue and refused compensation; I then filled in a data protection violation form on the Information Commissioners site; I then finally contacted Orange UK's executive office on 0800 0790134 - they seemed to know what to do. It would seem they will be getting back to us as soon as possible.

I see. I have been following this closly now, kinda hard not to when everyone keeps emailing stuff to the 1000+ people. I am just annoyed I didn't get my question answered which I have also asked on here but relaise I probably sounded like a spoilt kid getting an iPhone for my birthday... haha.

I'm not seeking compensation like some others are, I get a bit fed up with people instantly wanting money for what was probably a genuine mistake by an individual at Orange. Orange will need to take the heat for this individual unfortunatelly but I recently moved from o2 to Orange and find them to be 100% better customer service wise than o2 ever were.

This is just a glitch sadly. But, so far no spam has come through so it hasn't done any harm yet...

katypetal

Hi everyone, I need a bit of advice.

I recently emailed orange through their web page asking for help as my mobile phone is faulty and I would prefer to up grade, never got a response so had to call them. I was told that I couldn't upgrade yet and would have to pay £80 to fix fault! or send to the manufacturor which could take up to 8 weeks. So no help really.

The final kick in the teeth was they emailed me asking how they had done customer service wise, to my shock within this email was about 150+ other email addresses of orange customers! surely this is a breach of the data protection act?

Within the past 5 days I have receieved 238 spam emails!! I have now had to chnage my email address because of how ridiculous this has become.

Others who have receieved the same email have said its a breach and should complain, so I was hoping I could receive some advice before I go in all guns blazin!!

Thank you

OneADay

Someone at orange has goofed up probably by sending CC messages rather than BCC.

I would not change email addresses - spam can rise when things like this happen but a decent email provider catches most of the carp for you and slowly the spam will reduce.

You can complain to Orange - clearly they have made an error and broken the thingy law.

legoman

katypetal wrote: »

Hi everyone, I need a bit of advice.

I recently emailed orange through their web page asking for help as my mobile phone is faulty and I would prefer to up grade, never got a response so had to call them. I was told that I couldn't upgrade yet and would have to pay £80 to fix fault! or send to the manufacturor which could take up to 8 weeks. So no help really.

The final kick in the teeth was they emailed me asking how they had done customer service wise, to my shock within this email was about 150+ other email addresses of orange customers! surely this is a breach of the data protection act?

Within the past 5 days I have receieved 238 spam emails!! I have now had to chnage my email address because of how ridiculous this has become.

Others who have receieved the same email have said its a breach and should complain, so I was hoping I could receive some advice before I go in all guns blazin!!

Thank you

It's 1107 peeps me included...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2265465

http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/it-downtime-blog/2010/02/orange-sours-customer-relation.html

katypetal

Thanks legoman for the links Im obviously in the same boat as 1000+!!

Have called orange today being as they have ailed to get back to me again! I was told that even though this has happened it is not a valid reason to cancel my contract!! er hello who's broken the rules here NOT ME!!

I now have to call there press office complain??

Not happy at all, I have been an orange customer for over ten years and I get treated like this, Im not asking for compo like some are I just want my contract cancelled and an apology. Having read some of the links orange seemed to have sent an email stating they are famous for this mistake!!

System

Er Hello.

Get a life.

Nothing they have done gives you a valid reason to cancel your contract!

They may have broken rules as a company but I don't think the t&c's of your contract say anything about not publishing your email address to other customers.

legoman

katypetal wrote: »

Thanks legoman for the links Im obviously in the same boat as 1000+!!

Have called orange today being as they have ailed to get back to me again! I was told that even though this has happened it is not a valid reason to cancel my contract!! er hello who's broken the rules here NOT ME!!

I now have to call there press office complain??

Not happy at all, I have been an orange customer for over ten years and I get treated like this, Im not asking for compo like some are I just want my contract cancelled and an apology. Having read some of the links orange seemed to have sent an email stating they are famous for this mistake!!

no probs, though unfortunatelly i don't think it is a valid reason to cancel the contract as it is nothing to do with the contract, phone, signal and call plan etc. it's a different area of orange and communication. i'm not sticking up for them but i think i saw this on here somewhere before. your phone, service etc has not been affected by this so it's more to do with customer service/satisfaction. trust me, i went through hell to leave o2 via the 'unsatisfactory service' route...

Viper_7

Reply all - including Orange, and start a conversation between everyone about how poor they are. Sure you'll get in fluxed with mail - but so will Orange and they won't be able to filter them all out, and the result will be more people complaining about this.

katypetal

Get a life?? is that really necessary?

This is not the only reason I want to leave I have been unhappy with orange for a long time and never get a satisfactory response. Why should I pay for a service Im not happy with?

All I asked for was advice not abuse!.