MSE News: Orange to raise monthly mobile costs

Guys_Dad

darich wrote: »

..................who's the next person to contact????

.

According to the Catholic Church, try St. Jude.

darich

DUTR wrote: »

The advice is to take your custom elsewhere, the thread has dragged on for long enough and with due respect, not sure why hopefulls thought Orange would change their mind, the loss of 3 contracts is not going to shut orange down, thing is to have some self respect and stop trying to fight the giant, especially when there is not a case to fight

Thanks
The decision to move elsewhere has already been made. You're right.....3 contracts will not shut Orange down, but that's neither the aim nor the point.:o

Contracts will not be renewed with Orange.....that's for sure!!:D

JockMcSkint

I have packed Orange in & moved to 'Virgin Mobile'. I had been with Orange since 1994, one of their oldest customers, & have 2 new Samsung smart phones, 1075 minutes, 250 texts, 3000 virgin to virgin minutes & 1gb of internet for each phone for £15.99 per phone. It's a lot better package than I had with Orange & saving over £20pm.

everton79

I managed to find the direct phone number to the executive director's office, the lady who answered seemed quite surprised and annoyed I managed to find this number - anyway after 20 minutes of explaining my displeasure and refusing to end the call she agreed to credit my account with the value of the price increase until the end of my contract. Number is 08708700862

gjchester

everton79 wrote: »

I managed to find the direct phone number to the executive director's office

Any 0870 number is not a direct line, thats the known number for the Executive office and has been publicised already but you probably won't have been talking to the managing directors office itself.

everton79

I think your missing my point, regardless of whether its is a direct line or not, I posted it as whoever spoke to me resolved my issue (after 20 minutes of complaining) and credited my account with the price difference.

digp

Ha. ..................... ................

Reywal

Hi all,

This old business with Orange drove me nuts and despite my best efforts OFCOM were useless so I decided to give CISAS (the arbitrators) a go and was met with the response that they ‘could not address complex questions of law’ – useful for contract disputes then! Undeterred I vowed I would geteven with Orange in this respect because, frankly, I thought they were taking the mick out of customers.

Here is how I got my money back:

1. Goto Phones4U and do an early upgrade. This means you are in a new contract. Funnily enough due to the sales clerks error I was moved from a £35 amonth tariff to £25 p/m tariff, got £80 for my old phone and a shiny new phone –happy days.

2. Write to your bank and tell them you want to do a ‘direct debit indemnity claim’. Here is the letter I sent to my bank:

“Re: Direct Debit Indemnity Claim

AccountNumber:

AccountHolder:

I write in respect of the above account.

Firstly, I would like to comment on the excellent service I receive from the staff at the above Branch who really do make banking effortless.

I have recently discovered that Banks and Building Societies have the power to claw back direct debit payments in circumstances where an organisation has debited a customer’s account beyond the ambit of any direct debit mandate the customer may have given.

I believe that Orange have acted beyond the scope of any mandate I gave. My submission is based on the following points:

1. On *** I entered into a 24 Month contract with Orange and I authorised a monthly direct debit in the sum of £30 in accordance with the terms of the Contract.

2. In November 2011 Orange took the unilateral decision to increase their monthly tariff charges by 4.3%. I disputed this charge but Orange continued to debit my account in accordance with their price increase. Orange never sought to obtain a mandate forthe increased direct debit.

3. As I did not agree to the price increase and signed no new mandate allowing more money to be debated from my account any debit made by Orange after October 2011 was done so without my authority.

4. In March 2012 I entered into a new contract with Orange and an agreed new fee.

5. Between October 2011 and March 2012 Orange went beyond the scope of the mandate that I gave them in September 2010 when I entered the contract. During this period my account was debited without authorisation in the sum U]enter total of allmonthly charges from November 2011 to date of letter[/U.

Given that Orange had no authority to debit my account after I specifically raised objections with them in respect of the charges I request that U]name of bank[/U now credit my account in accordance with the Direct DebitIndemnity Scheme and seek to claw-back the unauthorised charges from Orange.

I look forward to hearing from you.”

3. Look at your next bank statement and see all direct debits from Orange refunded.

So why does this work. I guess becuase the beauty of a Direct Debit Indemnity claim is you do not have to prove to your bank you have any real basis for making one (I am by no means advocating false claims people). Upon receipt ofthe request the bank is obligated to refund the charges and claw back from the organisation you are saying acted without authority. The company then has 14 days to raise a counter claim. I was expecting Orange to but I did this in July and have heard nothing from Orange or my bank.

Notwithstanding the simplicity of the DDIC (no proof required) I am of the view that it works in circumstances where the customer expressly complained to Orange about the price increase. Signed no new Direct Debit Mandate. Orange debited more than the amount on your orginal contract with them. This is not a contractual claim you are not making against Orange so they cannot rely on their small print.

I hope the rest of you that were annoyed at Orange (and the attitude of their customer service people about this issue) have some joy with the above.

grumbler

Reywal wrote: »

.... I was expecting Orange tobut I did in July and have heard nothing from Orange or my bank. ...

Are you sure that you will not hear something from debt collectors soon? Are you sure that Orange won't report the default to CRAs?

Doc_N

grumbler wrote: »

Are you sure that you will not hear something from debt collectors soon? Are you sure that Orange won't report the default to CRAs?

I'd be equally concerned. Yes, there's been a refund, but, equally, there's now an unpaid debt.

I wouldn't want that sitting on my credit record!