£9500 phone bill! Can anyone help?

unholyangel

marcuswarren71 wrote: »

I don't like phoning them as the customer service people I have spoken to, whilst polite and genuinely feeling sorry for me, aren't really in a position to help.

Ah to the contrary. Generally customer service reps can be tricked into telling you info that otherwise, they might try and hide from you!

Not saying customer service reps and all dumb, but you do get a few ones who are and who may tell you things the others wouldnt

Its all in the way you ask too. For instance if you call up and say "my sim was used illegally.......what is my credit limit?" it will likely put them on their guard and make them more cautious.

If you just call up out of the blue and ask.......maybe even ask them to drop you a email confirming it so you dont have to keep calling up as you're so forgetful with numbers and this is the third time you've had to call already!!

I've caught several companies out just by paying attention to what cust serv reps tell me.

Kazz81

unholyangel wrote: »

Was that PAYG? They cant really assign contract numbers unless the previous account has been cancelled.

Where PAYG you need to make a chargable action (text, call) at least once every 6 months i think (least it used to be 6 months) otherwise they suspend the service. After a year, it is cancelled and the number is put back in the pool for recycling - although again, i'm referring to T-mobile practices 8 years ago! lol

It was a contract that I didn't need anymore, hadn't used it for a few months so changed it to payg when the term expired. Was only on payg for about 6 months when it was reassigned.

Was just putting the idea out there anyway!

marcuswarren71

Got out of hospital today and had a nice standard letter off orange reminding me to pay my bill, I shall compose my reply tonight, they still haven't reconnected my other number though, is this a breach of contract on their part I wonder?
I will keep you posted on progress, in the meantime, if anyone has any advice feel free to post.
Many thanks,Marcus.

unholyangel

marcuswarren71 wrote: »

Got out of hospital today and had a nice standard letter off orange reminding me to pay my bill, I shall compose my reply tonight, they still haven't reconnected my other number though, is this a breach of contract on their part I wonder?
I will keep you posted on progress, in the meantime, if anyone has any advice feel free to post.
Many thanks,Marcus.

From your earlier posts the impression given was that you receive 1 bill that details both accounts. And not that you have 2 seperate accounts. In this case, when the account goes over its credit limit or is delayed in paying.......all lines on that account would be restricted.

As far as Orange are concerned (at this present moment anyway), you owe them this money and havent paid it.

Think about it from a business point of view. If you had a customer who had ran up a huge bill (i know you said it wasnt you, i'm just saying from their point) and hadnt paid it......would you then allow them to continue to run up more debt?

marcuswarren71

I agree, just find it amusing, they're happy to let the fraudulent activity take place over a four week period without noticing anything unusual, only blocking that number when I brought it to their attention, but they cut me off within 2 days of my telling them and ignore my calls and emails since.

Bamber19

I really don't understand how this problem arose in the first place. If you already had a contract that you'd ahd for 4 years surely you could have just renewed this to get a new handset. Taking out a new separate contract just to get a handset that you could likely buy on it's own for less than ahlf what you'd pay over the duration of the contract is just utter stupidity.

Try higher up the food chain with Orange, if that gets you nowhere contact a few nespapers. A fair few of the Sunday Rags love to run stories like this and the mimimum they tend to get out of it is that the amount you owe drops to 10-20% what it is right now. That said, usually it's a simple stolen phone not someone deliberately throwing away a sim. (I'd have kept it anyway as surely any minute allowance could ahve been handy)

unholyangel

Bamber19 wrote: »

If you already had a contract that you'd ahd for 4 years surely you could have just renewed this to get a new handset. Taking out a new separate contract just to get a handset that you could likely buy on it's own for less than ahlf what you'd pay over the duration of the contract is just utter stupidity.

Simple fact is he would have been offered a better deal getting a new contract than he would have been offered as a upgrade more than likely. However, that being said.....if that is the case and you were to make them aware you'd be cancelling your old contract to get the new deal, they used to (not sure if they still do) offer you the same deal on your existing contract.

And i agree, it is utter stupidity..........on the networks part. They care more about getting new customers than they do about keeping old, loyal, longterm ones.

Bamber19

unholyangel wrote: »

Simple fact is he would have been offered a better deal getting a new contract than he would have been offered as a upgrade more than likely. However, that being said.....if that is the case and you were to make them aware you'd be cancelling your old contract to get the new deal, they used to (not sure if they still do) offer you the same deal on your existing contract.

And i agree, it is utter stupidity..........on the networks part. They care more about getting new customers than they do about keeping old, loyal, longterm ones.

But for a contract you're not going to use at all? It is utter stupidity on the OP's part. Even if the upgrade he was offered wasn't as good a deal as available to a new customer (For the record i've always been offered a far better deal to upgrade than what is available to new customers by calling cancellations rather than calling to upgrade) there's no way it worked out cheaper than just buying the handset alone.

Quick example... If i wanted an Xperia X10 new today I could buy one from CPW for £409.95 on PAYG Orange network.

If I go through the Orange site to get it on contract I get it for "free" but i'm tied into a contract for 24 months. The cheapest contract with free phone is £32.50 a month or £780 overall, there are other combinations available paying a bit for the phone and less for the contract with the cheapest being 15 per month for 24 months + £199.99 up front, totalling £559.99.

Upgrade wise with his old contract, lets say they wont give him as good a deal as a new customer, you're forgetting he's keeping both contracts running, if he phones up and says "please upgrade me and give me x phone (whatever one it was he wanted) then so what if his line rental increases, as long as it doesn't increase by the full amount that he's paying for the new contract it still makes more financial sense to upgrade rather than get a whole new extra contract.

Simply 2 x £30 contracts + 1 new phone (for example) is worse even than them increasing his original £30 contract to a £59 one (which it wouldn't be anywhere near) with a new phone. The fact a new contract might be a better deal than an upgrade (Not in my experience) becomes entirely insignificant when you realise he's continuing to run and pay for both contracts.

unholyangel

Bamber19 wrote: »

The fact a new contract might be a better deal than an upgrade (Not in my experience) becomes entirely insignificant when you realise he's continuing to run and pay for both contracts.

Networks dont openly advertise they'll do this though - otherwise everyone would be calling the cancellations line just to see what they could get. Or sorry, "retentions team" :rotfl:

The OP doesnt seem that savvy about contracts as i'm sure i asked him in my first few posts why he didnt cancel the sim (pay early cancellation fee) and he said it didnt occur to him.

Anyways, i still find it ridiculous that they didnt restrict his service sooner based on his credit limit.

marcuswarren71

Bamber19 wrote: »

But for a contract you're not going to use at all? It is utter stupidity on the OP's part.
Thanks for stating the obvious, not a mistake I intend to make again. I had to go back in hospital for another op last week hence lack of replies.
I sent orange a letter by recorded delivery stating my case and asking them what they intend to do over the bill.I stated that I was not in a position to be able to pay a bill of that amount, and that I didn't think I should have to pay, it as their inability to identify the fraudulent use on the account was the reason such an obscene amount was allowed to build up. I also asked them to tell me what my credit limit was and what theyre justification for this amount was.
The letter was sent last week, I'm still waiting for a reply. I intend to tell anyone who will listen, papers, watchdog etc, but would prefer to have a letter from them with their response.
thanks,Marcus.