Problems with cancelling Orange contract

deetec

Hello, I'm currently having problems with Orange - My contract ended in November 2009 (at least as far as I was concerned!). I gave verbal notice over the phone in July 2009 and back this up by letter in October. I did not hear anything at all from Orange, cancelled the direct debit and thought nothing more of it until I had a letter in January asking for £140 outstanding contract fees.

I spoke to them on the phone initially and sent them another letter explaining the above, and they have now passed the matter onto DLC collections.

As far as I am concerned I have given notice twice, If they haven't handled the cancellation correctly I don't see why I should have to pay! I have signed off the letters saying that I refused to pay.

Has anyone had any similar experiences to this? I am abit worried as I have heard that DLC start piling on the charges quite quickly!

Thanks in advance!

DUTR

deetec wrote: »

Hello, I'm currently having problems with Orange - My contract ended in November 2009 (at least as far as I was concerned!). I gave verbal notice over the phone in July 2009 and back this up by letter in October. I did not hear anything at all from Orange, cancelled the direct debit and thought nothing more of it until I had a letter in January asking for £140 outstanding contract fees.

I spoke to them on the phone initially and sent them another letter explaining the above, and they have now passed the matter onto DLC collections.

As far as I am concerned I have given notice twice, If they haven't handled the cancellation correctly I don't see why I should have to pay! I have signed off the letters saying that I refused to pay.

Has anyone had any similar experiences to this? I am abit worried as I have heard that DLC start piling on the charges quite quickly!

Thanks in advance!

Think more info is required, are you still using the sim card? When did you start the agreement and for how long? 18/24months?

Guys_Dad

deetec wrote: »

Hello, I'm currently having problems with Orange - My contract ended in November 2009 (at least as far as I was concerned!).

That may be the misunderstanding. I have always found Orange straight - that is maybe because I always get the UK based team.

You need to check when your contract DID/DOES expire according to Orange. Act quickly to save your credit history and remember that there will always be a final bill for any out of contract charges at the end to cover any o871 0900 calls etc plus any that were over your allocated monthly limit.

deetec

Hi there, Thanks for the quick replies.

It was an 18 month contract, I would have eligible for an early upgrade around about 24th July. I called them on the 21st trying to get an earlier upgrade as I was going on holiday and wanted the new phone to take away, they refused to upgrade as I hadn't got to the permitted date, as such I told them that I was giving notice to cancel and that I would be getting a new phone / contract elsewhere.

I took out a new contract with O2 but continued paying Orange the full contracted amount until the 18 months was up. I also sent a letter providing written notice. I haven't used the sim since that phonecall back in July, so I had already paid five months of the contract whilst not using it!

I stated in my letter that I would be happy to pay any outstanding amounts relating to final payments and charges that would have been down to me, but I did refuse to pay the normal monthly payments.

I have only spoken to one person on the phone about it, and I could have a strong guess that it was not a UK based call centre, I remember it kept going round in circles with the lady saying 'if you do not pay we will block calls to / from the phone and cancel the contract'. I was saying 'If you check your system you will see I haven't used it for six months and that all I wanted was for them to close the contract!.

As they didn't make contact until 3 months after the contract ended I have unfortunately binned all of the original papers and contract details, I do still have a copy of the letter I sent them in October giving written notice to cancel though.

Thanks again for your help!

DarkConvict

You have to give written notice otherwise it rolls on at 30 days.

As you sent it by letter not email it is possible it was lost in the post so rolled over. They won't take notice of verbal cancellation so it won' have been added as a note for them to check.

Did you not continue to get emails with ebills or invoices every month? To identify to you it was still running?