Cancelled contract from 2009, extra direct debit taken until now.

kimblibob

Hello money savers!

I have recently discovered that the company Orange of which I had so much trust for has been conning me out of an extra £30 a month for a contract 3 phones ago that I cancelled. I know for a fact I had cancelled it because I got a new contract from Orange with a different number when it had ended and it was cancelled actually in the Orange Shop!!

In total I have paid £940 for a unused phone and because Orange have no record of the cancellation, they do not believe me but "out of good will" promised half of this...

I have had nothing but aggrevation and wrong information and issues with this, either notes not left on my account and denying the promised payment, wrong amounts of payments, extra costs of line rental. I have had to give in because of being told that if I take it further I may not get any of the money back and had to accept £270, which I find disgusting.

I am stuck in a current contract with a company I do not trust, who are unreliable and incompetent. Not one single thing has been done right and I feel like I have been conned out of a lot of money from a company I have been with for 10 years.


Does anybody have any advice on if I have a leg to stand on for actually receiving half of my money back or if it is possible for me to get out of the contract with Orange?


Yours Thankfully in advance xx

latecomer

Advice - check your bank statements more often.

Surely if you cancelled in the orange shop you must have got some record of this?

Report it to the regulators if you feel hard done by. Email the CEO/executive office and complain. I'm presuming you can prove the phone hasn't been used in the 3 years?

But without some kind of proof that you cancelled it, you might struggle.

grumbler

kimblibob wrote: »

...Does anybody have any advice on if I have a leg to stand on for actually receiving half of my money back

Without any proofs you don't have much.
Buying a new contract doesn't mean cancelling the existing contract, otherwise it would make more sense to 'upgrade' the existing one and keep the number. When cancelling any reasonable person would request some confirmation and check the final bill. And I can't imagine how it is possible not to notice some mysterious £30 taken from the current account for 2-3 years.

or if it is possible for me to get out of the contract with Orange?...

Generally not and I don't see how your story can change this.

TopBloke

Might I enquire, how did you miss this direct debit for three years?

kimblibob

To be honest with you, whenever I saw "Orange" on my statements, I trusted it and had no reason not to. It's definitely taught me to check my bank statements more thoroughly.

My father even contacted orange to say he's going to be using my old sim card on pay as you go and was topping up his phone on the number I was unknowingly paying for. What I don't understand is how my father could top up credit and receive low credit messages from orange, for a phone being paid for twice, by him and myself. But even still that isn't solid proof

Orange are saying there is no record of me cancelling it... But I remember quite clearly. I was told because I was good at sticking to my tariff, I wasn't entitled to any decent upgrade offers, so I had to get a new contract and new number.

By the way thanks for referring to me as an 'unreasonable person' LOL! nice....

Thank you for your advice none the less

I think I'll look into emailing the executive office. Thankyou x

mobilejunkie

kimblibob wrote: »

Hello money savers!

I am stuck in a current contract with a company I do not trust, who are unreliable and incompetent.

Wow! Strange to accuse any organisation of being incompetent when you have failed to notice a monthly direct debit for £30 or more going out every month for years. Is there an Olympics in incompetence? If so me thinks you'd be going for gold and they would be miles behind in about tenth place.

The best thing you can do is check your bank statements every month for every item - because next time it could actually be a LOT worse.

grumbler

kimblibob wrote: »

...My father even contacted orange to say he's going to be using my old sim card on pay as you go and was topping up his phone on the number I was unknowingly paying for. What I don't understand is how my father could top up credit and receive low credit messages from orange, for a phone being paid for twice, by him and myself. But even still that isn't solid proof

This makes no sense really.
If you believe that the contract was cancelled you cannot expect the sim to remain alive and to work as PAYG. And surely it is impossible to 'top up' a contract sim the same way as a PAYG sim, i.e. to 'pay twice'. And was your father authorised to speak with Orange about your account?

kimblibob

LOL!!!!!!!

WOW, you lot are a feisty bunch.

I am aware I should have checked my bank statements but being new to managing my money I apologise for not ticking off every outgoing. I have learnt my lesson about checking my statements and I'm much more aware of what is going in and out now without achieving any Olympic medals lol

Didn't post to get abused with sarcastic comments but yeah thanks all the same

So basically, after being promised half of £940 for the cancelled contract, it's fair for them to only give me £349....

I know I should have checked my statements but is that worth 4 months of aggravation, misinformation, poor support and service and countless mistakes.

david39

I am not familiar with Orange's methods of invoicing or advising customers of the state of their individual accounts but do they not normally send some form of statement each month detailing usage of the phone?

If they had stopped sending you monthly statements, either by post or email, then I would have thought that would be positive proof that the contracts had been cancelled.

If they still sent you such documents, were you not reading them?

kimblibob

grumbler wrote: »

This makes no sense really.
If you believe that the contract was cancelled you cannot expect the sim to remain alive and to work as PAYG. And surely it is impossible to 'top up' a contract sim the same way as a PAYG sim, i.e. to 'pay twice'. And was your father authorised to speak with Orange about your account?

It does make sense. Orange cancelled my contract and was told my old sim could be changed to a pay as you go for his orange phone. Yes he was authorised because I was there with him.

kimblibob

david39 wrote: »

I am not familiar with Orange's methods of invoicing or advising customers of the state of their individual accounts but do they not normally send some form of statement each month detailing usage of the phone?

If they had stopped sending you monthly statements, either by post or email, then I would have thought that would be positive proof that the contracts had been cancelled.

If they still sent you such documents, were you not reading them?

Until my contract ended I was sent paper bills and once cancelled I didn't receive any other than my new phone contract taken out once my old one ended..