Orange Contract - Away - Disconnected - Payment Demand

linda008

I had orange contract, I used it for 2 months after that I've to go out of country for 6 months and I was not in a position to pay. It is long story but somehow I couldn't pay.

Phone was disconnected ( I think just after the first non-payment).

Now they ask me to pay back the full amount on the contract.

I know I was in contract and as per contract I HAVE to pay the amount agreed.

However a common sense kicks in which says why to pay for the services which you didn't get. If they wanted me to pay for the full amount then they should not have disconnected the phone. If they had continued the service then I would have paid.

Where do I stand with them on this issue? Shall I pay, or shall I contest if it goes into the court?

MissKeith

You would have to pay. A contract is a contract. You broke the contract by not paying so Orange were not under any obligation to provide a service that you weren't paying for.

scheming_gypsy

and you also received a phone for free / a reduced rate as you pay for it in your monthly payments.

grumbler

linda008 wrote: »

However a common sense kicks in which says why to pay for the services which you didn't get.

I think a common sense says exactly this for PAYG only. Otherwise, what's the point of a contract?
I'd suggest you to check your credit file(s) if you care about your credit history.

ridethelightning

If this were the case I would take out a contract with a free samsung galaxy s2, miss the first payment, unlock the phone then in 2 years refuse to pay all the backdated costs because it was for a service I didnt get!

You will have to repay the full amount, you did sign up and agree to this before hand.

gjchester

linda008 wrote: »

I know I was in contract and as per contract I HAVE to pay the amount agreed.

However a common sense kicks in which says why to pay for the services which you didn't get. If they wanted me to pay for the full amount then they should not have disconnected the phone. If they had continued the service then I would have paid.

Where do I stand with them on this issue? Shall I pay, or shall I contest if it goes into the court?

You know you were in a contract and you missed 6 months payment (if I read the post correctly).

You knew it was due and for whatever reason didn't pay, maybe your choice, maybe a bank fault, thats irrelevent. Orange would have written to the contract address asking for a different way of payment, but if you were away you would not know that, again thats irrelevent, thats the address you provided them. Did anyone monitor your post at home?

A few years ago I changed bank accounts and used a switching service, they missed my Vodafone DD and it didn't get paid, I got a letter and a phone call within a week of non payment. In my case it was simple they'd got a digit wrong, and it was easily sorted but the phone company would have tried to get in touch a few times.

If it went to court it would most likley be you as the defendant, you contracted for a service that was provided (if you used it or not was another matter) and then didn't pay for x months.
You are not likely to win.

At this point you only really need to pay the back payments but look at it from Oranges point of view, you paid 2 payments then missed up to 6. If you were doing the credit control what would you do, accept payment for months owned and hope that future payments would be on time or after 6 months assume the person is not going to pay, disconnect the phone and pass it on to the collections teams?

Did you tell Orange you were going out of the UK, and there may be problems so there is anything on your file, or just go? If you told them there may be a slim chance you can pay the arrears putting it down to the fact you didn't know it wasn't payed and you were not in the UK to get mail. however this is probably down to goodwill, and after 6 months of missed payments this is probably not going to be a lot.

You also need to think how this has impacted your credit record, you'll have non payment marks on your credit file for up to 6 missed payments. This will make it harder to get credit for the next six years.

All I can suggest is to phone up, be nice to the call center person (getting mad at them won't help) and discuss the options. You may get some payment plan, or you may get a discount (unlikely) but the you need to talk to them. Leaving it longer and pondering legal action when you are the one in the wrong will not help. You may also find it gets passed to degt collectors who will add on there own fee's too making the bill higher.

Good Luck

chanz4

orange normaly pass to external and refuse to speak to you, op you have zero chance been blunt.

diamonds

http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2010/06/17/cheaper-charges-for-uk-consumers-to-end-phone-contracts-2/

Same regulations apply to ALL licenced telco's - negotiate but remember the cost of the mobile to Orange will have to be in there, you can ask Orange to provide a recent invoice from the time you took your contract out from the wholesaler/manufacturer which will show a price per unit or how much they paid for the bulk order of handset - devide the cost by the unit size. Because this has a direct affect on your contract settlement price you can request this information under the data protection act from your Orange account and ask for verification of such via a invoice if you are not prepared to accept the price Orange quote you as Orange can put any price on the handset, then the subsidy & you want to know the cost price to Orange and the liability you have on the handset via Oranges cost to buy in, you can work this out over the contract term and reduce this for the months before you defaulted.

As for airtime, work out the average % of all the telecos early termination fees in my link above and take this percentage from the amount due of the £XX x months when you defaulted to pay & offer that as a means of an end on the airtime contract.


It may work out cheaper to just pay the amount Orange want if it was a ultra a high mobile, then again it work in your favour to apply the above and enforce it under Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999.

linda008

Tx all for reply, I expected the same so wasn't surprise.
Yes they have passed the recovery agency so I know they wouldn't entertain my calls.

I understand a contract is contract and I've to pay no denial about that. However ain't they bound by the same contract to provide services for the full term if they want the full payment? They disconnected services and now they want full payment for the services which they didn't provide.

Let's see how it goes, I'm going to drop them mail with the same explanations. Will keep updated.

grumbler

linda008 wrote: »

...However ain't they bound by the same contract to provide services for the full term if they want the full payment?

They are - provided that you keep paying them. And it makes no sense to keep providing the service if you stop paying - because you owe them and the amount you can spend is unlimited.
Neither it makes sense to cut the total cost of the contract if you stop paying.

DUTR

linda008 wrote: »

Tx all for reply, I expected the same so wasn't surprise.
Yes they have passed the recovery agency so I know they wouldn't entertain my calls.

I understand a contract is contract and I've to pay no denial about that. However ain't they bound by the same contract to provide services for the full term if they want the full payment? They disconnected services and now they want full payment for the services which they didn't provide.

Let's see how it goes, I'm going to drop them mail with the same explanations. Will keep updated.

No need to keep us updated, most here are not lawyers but already know it is a slim to nil chance you will win, VAT may not be applicable on the payments but the remaining months of the contract will be.