Orange - why do they do business with this company?

MarkWatson

My elderly father in law used to have an Orange Broadband account, closing it three years ago and paying the final bill. Six months ago he received a call from a debt collection company (Buchanan Clark and Wells) claiming that Orange had instructed them to pursue him for the outstanding balance on his account.

The letter they sent distressed my father in law greatly as it was phrased in very aggressive legal language so I rang Buchanan Clark and Wells to tell them that he owed Orange nothing and that they must send no more letters of this nature unless and until they sent a proper statement of the arrears on his account. They agreed.

Four weeks later my father in law received another legal letter from this company, distressing him again, and despite the fact that he had received no outstanding bill.

I made a formal complaint about this company to the Credit Services Association and ACA International Ethics, both independent organisations that this debt collection belong to. Both these ombudsman found against BCW and ordered them to make amends.

My question is - given the experience that my father in law has gone through, and given the appalling reputation of this debt collection company (type "Buchanan Clark and Wells" into Google to get a flavour of this!), why does a mainstream company like Orange get into bed with a company like this? Does Orange have no care about how it is represented and the things that are done in its name?

kwikbreaks

Folks turned over to debt collection are no longer customers and probably won't be customers in the future so cheapskate companies such as Orange obviously just sell their "debts" on to the highest bidder.

I doubt that any debt collection agency is going to be on their "clients" Christmas card list but at least these days most if not all of those "clients" retain the ability to walk.

MarkWatson

Fair point I guess but it does Orange's wider reputation no good. Surely there must be some more ethically minded debt collection companies who can do Orange's dirty work for them - there must be some out there! The fact that they can use such an appalling company came as quite a shock to me (I really should get out more) and has put me off the idea of ever using Orange for phone/broadband in the future.