Need to complain to Orange

Daynus

Hi guys, I'm having a lot of difficulty complaining to orange about a huge phone bill I received recently.

I am a young autistic adult, and honestly I find it hard writing letters and never know what to say on the phone. I apologise if I blabber, or don't seem to get to the point... this is the first time i have ever had to deal with anything like this.

I may as well start from the beginning.
November 7th 2010, my mother suddenly passed away after a major stroke, after which I was depressed (and still am) and really just withdrew from the world and spent most of my time holed up in my room when not at work (i'm not trying to make a sob story here, i'm just being honest).
Then at some point in May 2011, I must have lost my phone... but I truly did not realise it was missing, since I rarely used it since mum died...
I am on contract with Orange and had an Iphone.
Then come June, and I received a monthly statement, and the amount outstanding was £3,931.12!!!! I nearly had a heart attack.
Apparently, somebody found my phone and started using it to make calls to the Caribbean, Canada, and USA.
Therein lies my predicament, I immediately called orange and all they would say was "you are liable, since you didn't report it lost or stolen" and only then did my phone get blocked. I have made various complaints over the phone and by email, but all I get is "you have to pay", "how would you like to pay?" I don't seem to get anywhere with it, I don't understand how to rectify this situation, and to be honest I'm finding it extremely hard to deal with. I receive no help from Orange, obviously they just want to get paid.

Since then, I have been to the Citizens Advice Bureau, and they forwarded me to the British Trading Standards Advice Service. All they did, was give me the website and phone number for CISAS.

I need to make a formal complaint against Orange before I can use their service, but I honestly can't find how, there's nothing on the website and nobody is any help on the phone.

If anybody can help me with this nightmare, I would be extremely grateful. They are already sending me letters warning me of debt collectors, and I don't have that kind of money.

Dayne

Silk

Hi Dayne,
I can understand whats happened although it's hard to put any blame towards Orange for the situation other than complain that it should have been capped maybe before such a huge bill was run up.

If you look at this PDF it explains how to complain etc on page 4 ....
http://www1.orange.co.uk/documents/regulatory_affairs/orange_code_of_practice_for_consumer_affairs.pdf

Silk

d.ross wrote: »

Contact the ombudsman, I think it is offcom or offtel (keeps changing).

Its Ofcom and they refer it to CISAS as the OP has said but he needs to start by formal complaint to Orange so it can be taken further

Daynus

Hi guys, thanks for the help in complaining to Orange. However as expected I got nowhere, after asking to speak to a manager and complaining to her, they offered me a maximum of £150 credit for the account, and a payment plan to pay off the debts... which was exactly what the people before her offered me. Now it seems I need to keep escalating this matter. Should I go straight to the ombudsman, or perhaps write a letter to the exec office? any opinions?

Naf

OK: I've been through so many complaints with orange I know the procedure inside and out.

Their published procedure is that you speak to an adviser on the phone and see if the matter can be resolved. If not they can escalate you to a manager, and will offer you a call back within 48hours. Unfortunately you're unlikely to get any further than that.
The Executive Office (executive.office@orange.co.uk) will initially redirect you straight back to that procedure, but I managed to avoid this by pushing a little.

The BBC show 'Don't Get Done, Get Dom' did a show including a situation like this, and what he discovered was that your mobile phone contract has (on paper at least) a credit limit (like a credit card, or overdraft; it is a credit facility technically after all), but the networks rarely stick to it and cap customers' usage like they ought to. You might have to do a little research into which episode it was in, but he got them to reduce the bill at least to what that credit limit was as they really should have blocked the phone from that limit. Worth looking up and watching in this case I suspect.