Major upgrade problems, being charged for 2 contracts....

piratejimbob

Hi everyone, please help with any advice, as i am at the end of my tether and getting nowhere with either orange or carphone warehouse. sorry if its quite long, but theres a lot that needs to be explained.

In july 2008 i took out an 18month contract on orange from carphone warehouse, i think it was £30-£35 a month. In october 2009 i decided to upgrade early as it said on the orange website that i could just add the remaining months on to the next contract.

So I went on to the carphone warehouse and clicked on their upgrade section and selected a phone on orange and 24months this time, and went through checkout and everything.
In november, I received a bill for £80, which i paid on direct debit, as i assumed it was because the contact was taken out halfway through the month of october.

In december i got the bill and it was again £80, so i cancelled the direct debit because i didnt receive a bill. because i didnt pay that bill, orange online had blocked my account so i couldnt even see the bills online.
this occured in january and february, phone was blocked, bills not being received, couldnt get online, being phoned by orange, me telling them i wouldnt pay until i saw a bill, them promising to send me the bill through the post the next day.

until march... i got a letter saying i owed near enough £250. i immediately phoned them and told them there was no way i was paying this because i had STILL not received a bill and the block on my online account had still not been lifted. i was told over the phone that i could pay in full or £43 a month for 6 months to clear the bill, and not be able to use my phone for outgoing calls/texts/internet, therefore rendering it useless to me. i have since been using a payg sim in the phone, but that is not the point.

Thankfully the guy sent me the last few bills, which i couldnt see any reason for me being charged so much.
I took it all into the orange shop, and even the woman couldnt see any reason for it. until she looked into it further with her manager, and found out that i was paying for 2 contracts... the one i took out in july 2008 and the one from oct 2009. i told her that i had upgraded thru the cwh website, and she just said talk to them.
so i went to see them, they just said they couldnt do anything as it was obviously 14days after i took out the new contract. they said i would have noticed that it wasnt an upgrade bacuase it was a new number, but on the paperwork it says to ring orange if you want to transfer the number, which i didnt, because i wanted a clean number.

the main problem is at the moment i am now on unpaid maternity leave, i was still getting paid when i took the contract out, but the last month i wasnt paid and wont get paid this month or next month and will be returning to work in may. i have to pay the first £43 charge on the 27th of this month.

so please, any advice.....