MSE News: Orange to raise monthly mobile costs

robbies_gal

sounds dodgy to me

diamonds

Orange will bill you for the returned DD's, thats a fact.

Fray_Bentos

Please excuse me for not reading all 50 or so pages as this may have been posted.

You can always contact Orange, ask for escalation then when eventually speaking with a manager ask how soon you can be transferred to a similar package for the same price as you was paying that is not affected by RPI.

I called today after receiving my letter of increase and they offered me a swap on the 23rd March to a tariff not dissimilar. So I have dodged any increase that way and ended up with a suitable contract too...

Saving of £1.15 a month :money:

phebe3

..so I ask for the same package, one that won't be affected by the Retail Price Index? am fed up with orange and price hikes...mind you daughter is with O2 and she says she has had price rises too. I suppose we feel agrieved cos we signed up for a certain package at a certain price and then they move the goalposts and you can't escape!

chanz4

Reywal wrote: »

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.

No think they will be the ones laughing when they slap the default on your credit file, and your mortgage rate gets wacked up or refused

chanz4

JockMcSkint wrote: »

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.

virgin uses orange network

diamonds

chanz4 wrote: »

virgin uses orange network

Virgin uses Tmobile and roaming on Orange, do a search and two EE networks show the home EE one is Tmobile the other Orange.

On Orange, the home one is Orange the other TMOBILE.

Locking a Orange to 3G & Tmobile results in the best speed and coverage....merging with Tmobile gave Orange better coverage at no cost.

SteveJohnson

Hi All,
After receiving the letter like everyone else, I did some research and checked the Orange website. I noticed you could still buy my phone on my exact contract £0.84 cheaper than I'm being charged, so I phoned them to point this out and they put me back on the £26 a month contract - no fuss.