Orange Home Services - Arrrgh!!!

leeb79

Just got off the phone today with the collections department of Orange Home at Rotherham and I'm really not happy (again!)

Here's the story - back in February 2009 I was an Orange home customer - I got my broadband, landline and mobile from them. I called their move house team and informed them I was moving into my new house at the beginning of May 2009. They advised me to confirm this to them a few weeks before - which I did - and I was given a date for the engineer to come and connect me at my new house. By the end of April my broadband and phone had been cut off at my old house and I moved into my new home in the first week of May.
On the day of the engineer visit I took the day off work to wait in - but no-one turned up. I duly called Orange and was told that the visit was cancelled - they apologised and arranged a new date around a week later.
Again I waited in and took the day off work - this time I called Orange mid-morning and guess what..? Yes, the engineer visit was cancelled. Against my better judgement I allowed them to book me in once more - the new house was a new build and BT would charge £125 for connection while SKY would not touch it as ''..we only install our OWN lines for new customers only..'' (!).
Cue the third visit - mid May - and this time I called them early morning. You guessed it - it was cancelled again!!! :mad: I called Orange up and asked if I would be re-imbursed for the three days off work but was told no - so I cancelled my home phone and broadband there and then (21st May 2009) and informed the gentleman on the phone that I would also be cancelling my direct debit. Following that I was on the phone to BT who had me up and running with no problems within 10 working days - but unfortunately I had to pay the £125 connection fee and obviously BT aren't as competitive on price as Orange/Sky et al - what choice did I have?

Run on a few months later and I get a letter from Orange (Aug 2009) saying they had suspended my account (letter sent to my old address I might add, which I was letting out, and which I knew the tenants had connected SKY for phone and broadband, so I only got the letter by virtue of contact with my tenants), adding charges and threatening 'further action'. Called them up and got the response that it was 'an error' and would be sorted.

I thought nothing of it until a debt collection letter came in Jan 2010, demanding £88 for non-payment to Orange Home Services. Again I called them up, was told that I definitely owed the money!!!!:mad::mad: Obviously I stated that I didn't, explained all of the above AGAIN, escalated the call and was told someone would get back to me higher up the management chain. They didn't, and to be honest at this point I think I should have involved some form of regulator, but I didn't for some reason.

After all that, I applied to be remortgaged on a much better rate last week and was declined. I thought this was strange as I have a good credit record, even though I have been at my current address for just over a year. Lo and behold there is the Orange account on my credit report, showing as non-paid in June, July, Aug and Sep 2009 then settled (presumably whan it was sold to DLC the debt collection agency?? Hilarity prevails!!)

Got back on the phone several times and eventually got through to the collections department and escalated the call, they are adamant that I owe £88, that I didn't cancel the original account, that they won't contact the credit agencies to amend my details. I put to them that they are in breach of the Data Protection laws by holding and providing falsified/incorrect information, as well as asking them what my options were with regards regulators, I mentioned ofcom and the financial ombudsman. I also challenged them to have a look at their records, i.e. from April 2009 I had no use of either telephone or broadband as they had cut me off in preparation for my house move - still no joy - just some excuse of '...having no access to that information..'.

I know this is a long post but any ideas or information from anyone would be well received, I am determined to not only clear this 'debt' at no cost to myself but to also get my credit report accurately updated!!!

EDIT - some of you may wonder why this is on here - I am fiercly protective of my credit status as it has taken me 8 years previously to clear debts and get back to a life that is considered 'normal (!)'. If mistakes are made - however small - that could cost you money you need to ACT!!!

NeverEnough

You can request Experian, Equifax and Callcredit to put a Notice of Dispute on your credit file briefly indicating that there is a dispute with Orange about this bill, that will at least alert potential creditors to the fact there is no agreement about a default.
You should then write to Orange providing all the facts and send the letter recorded delivery. You have to wait I think 8 weeks for a resolution - it ifs not forthcoming, you need to escalate the issue to CISAS or whatever ombudsman Orange have in place (the ISPs all have to have one). You need to at that point, tell the Ombudsman what compensation you are looking for - I would charge for each of the missed visits, the inconvenience of not having the service for over a month, and any and all extras you can think of. When Tiscali messed me about terribly a few years ago, CISAS agreed to £500 compensation which they had to pay me, so don't underclaim as you only have one chance to get this compensation!

You really need to do EVERYTHING in writing and record the postage if you want to start sorting this one out. You could also contact Watchdog, Rogue Traders etc - its easy to cut and paste your letters once they are done!!

Once that's all done, you can request again that the default on your credit file be removed, which it should be if the Ombudsman has ruled against Orange - Orange clearly were in breach contract, but unfortunately, cancelling direct debits can sometimes lead to just this sort of messy situation where you end up being damaged through no fault of your own.

Good luck and keep us posted.:cool:

leeb79

Thanks for that, good to know that someone else has had something similar to deal with and got it resolved!

Licking the stamp on the complaining letter now, might try contacting BT Openreach on Monday, maybe they can back me up with details of which ISP's had my old and new address' phone lines at the crucial times?

Will post on my progress

leeb79

Update on this;

After finally getting a reply to my letter, I was told that they would remove the default from my credit files and scrub off the £88. In my heart of hearts I think I could probably have chased some form of financial compensation as neverenough says, but I really just can't be bothered with the hassle

elsiepac

Congratulations! Well done you for fighting it!

LC