Orange bill nightmare

Mrs_Optimist

Not sure if this should be posted on this board or the DFW board so please feel free to move if you think necessary.

My sister has a dispute at the moment with Orange which is getting out of hand. She signed up for a contract of £30 per month, unlimited texts and call time to be taken out of the £30. She asked that the phone be capped at £30 so that she could not run up a bill as she is on a fixed income.

Now the problem occurred when she received the first bill - £140,:mad: she queried this with Orange who told her that the phone had not been capped as requsted. She did not have the funds to pay the bill so the dispute has not been resolved. They have been charging her £40 per month since (although she has been using an entirely different SIM card as she was simply too scared to use the Orange one) - she has received a call from Orange debt collections today - the bill has dramatically risen to over £400. She has explained once again that the orginal bill was in duspute and has not been resolved to her satisfaction to be told "sorry not my department - set up a standing order of £20 per week the first payment to be received by Monday failing which we will send the Bailiffs in".


She does not have the funds to pay the original bill let alone the charges stacked up since, but sees no way out.

The threat of Bailiffs is BS anyway because no Court proceedings have been issued and no Judgement obtained and I am prettty angry with them for threatening this when they know full well its a lie.

My sister has not helped herself by letting the bill build up to £400 and she has requested (at my insistance) that they write providing a full breakdown as to how the bill has been accumalated. Orange have not been helpful either.

Does anyone have any idea on where she can go now with this? She was happy to pay the orginal contract but was not happy that the bill was not capped as requested initially. This made her too scared to use the sim card at all, understandably. I need to check how long on the contract is left to run but any guidance or experience in the meantime would be gratefully received.

AnnaV

Hello, I don't think any of the mobile phone companies will cap your bill. Did she not get a bill with the breakdown from the £140 bill?

macman

How can you cap a contract phone? If you go roaming, then the charges are incurred and can go over the limit before the home network even know about them, they may come back hours or even days later.
How many inclusive minutes is she getting on the contract, and what are the extra charges actually for? Excess minutes or data charges? She must be really hammering the phone is she's spending £140pm on a £30 contract. What tariff is she on?

F_T_Buyer

This is why PAYG is a good idea. Out of funds = no calls or texts can be made.

Mrs_Optimist

Thanks for such quick responses.

I have to confess that I haven't seen any of the paperwork, so it may be that she hasn't been completely honest (or misguided) but know that she was on a limited budget and does use her mobile A LOT - which is why she asked for it to be capped (and this was confirmed to her at the time apparantly). This was confirmed by Phones 4 U rather than ORANGE if that makes any difference? I'm afraid I am not really au fait with mobiles and contracts, preferring to just use a PAYG.

I have asked her to let me see the breakdown when it arrives so I will have a little more information then. It does seem that £140 for a months bill plus the £30 already paid does seem excessive to others as well as myself!

Regrettably my sister has had a few health issues of late so she hasn't dealt with this as quickly as I would have liked, which has made the situation worse than it should have been.

She hasn't denied that she owes for the original contract, even though she has been too scared to use the SIM. I am wondering if it worth asking ORANGE to freeze the bill, and once I have had a chance to scrutinise it, offer them a fixed sum per month until the legitimate charges are paid? Does anyone know whether ORANGE are reasonable in these situations?

grumbler

Mrs_Optimist wrote: »

She asked that the phone be capped at £30 so that she could not run up a bill as she is on a fixed income.

The question is if they agreed to do this and if she has any proofs.

Now the problem occurred when she received the first bill - £140,:mad: she queried this with Orange who told her that the phone had not been capped as requsted. She did not have the funds to pay the bill so the dispute has not been resolved. They have been charging her £40 per month since (although she has been using an entirely different SIM card as she was simply too scared to use the Orange one) - she has received a call from Orange debt collections today - the bill has dramatically risen to over £400.

She has to pay for the original contract regardless. And it's normal for debt collectors to add their fees.

She has explained once again that the orginal bill was in duspute and has not been resolved to her satisfaction

The only correct way is to pay the bill and then keep disputing it.

The threat of Bailiffs is BS anyway because no Court proceedings have been issued and no Judgement obtained

Correct.

My sister has not helped herself by letting the bill build up to £400 and she has requested (at my insistance) that they write providing a full breakdown as to how the bill has been accumalated. Orange have not been helpful either.

AFAIK all paper bills are itemised at Orange. Itemised bills are easily available online even if she cancelled paper billing.

the bill was not capped as requested initially.

She may ask, but they are not obliged to do this.

grumbler

Mrs_Optimist wrote: »

I am wondering if it worth asking ORANGE to freeze the bill, and once I have had a chance to scrutinise it, offer them a fixed sum per month until the legitimate charges are paid?

It may be too late now, but is worth trying.

Silk

Mrs_Optimist wrote: »

. This was confirmed by Phones 4 U rather than ORANGE if that makes any difference?

I don't suppose this was confirmed in writing by any chance ....if it has or can be then this is the line to go down.

Was it taken out over the phone or in person in a shop ???

What dates are we talking here ?

Silk

grumbler wrote: »

She may ask, but they are not obliged to do this.

They are obliged if it was part of the conditions that the contract was taken out.
If the agreement was at the time (even if only verbal) that the limit was capped they have to abide with it ....however we've been here before and it's a tough one to prove unless there is a recording available