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

latecomer

kimblibob wrote: »

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.

IF the sim card was converted to PAYG then surely being able to prove its been topped up and used as a PAYG means that it was no longer a contract phone.

Also ask for proof of where the paper bills have been sent for the last 3 years.

You should be able to view account history on the orange website

JimmyTheWig

OP, you could probably take them to the small claims court.
Would you win, I don't know.

And here's where the responses you've received _are_ actually helpful.
People could have replied full of sympathy, saying how out of order Orange have been, saying that they never ask for confirmation when cancelling a contract or check letters and payments from their account.
But they haven't.
And I would take the response you've got here as indicitive of the response you might get in court.

The facts...
1. You believe you cancelled the contract.
2. They believe you didn't cancel the contract.
3. You received (or at least currently have) no confirmation that it was cancelled.
4. There was no change in correspondence from them about this contract (e.g. they kept sending letters / emails in the way that they did previously).
5. You didn't notice money coming out of your account for something that you weren't using for a long period of time.

Now, regardless of the truth, read the above from a neutral point of view and have a think about who you would believe.

The questions is, have you got any proof?
E.g. Am I wrong in point 3 and you do have paperwork saying the contract has been cancelled? Or am I wrong in point 4 that they did used to send you bills but stopped once the contract was cancelled?
I've no idea what happens to a contract sim when you stop the contract. Maybe others can confirm. E.g. _if_ it is impossible to top up a sim whilst under contract then the fact that your old sim was topped up would be evidence that it was cancelled.
Even an email or text from you to a friend at the time saying that you'd cancelled your Orange contract would help your case.


[Posts #10 and #11 seem to be building some evidence in your favour. I wrote this before seeing them.]

grumbler

kimblibob wrote: »

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.

The fact is that Orange is probably the only provider that cannot change a sim from contract to PAYG. If this is needed they send a replacement sim.

kimblibob wrote: »

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..

This is an interesting point that you can use to your advantage. However, Orange are likely to say that you just cancelled the paper billing (that can be done online).

latecomer

grumbler wrote: »

The fact is that Orange is probably the only provider that cannot change a sim from contract to PAYG. If this is needed they send a replacement sim.

But presumably if they cant change a sim from contract to PAYG then the number must have been ported from one to the other which presumably would again point towards the account being cancelled.

grumbler

latecomer wrote: »

But presumably if they cant change a sim from contract to PAYG then the number must have been ported from one to the other which presumably would again point towards the account being cancelled.

If you request the contract to be switched to PAYG after the minimum term expires, they just send you a new PAYG sim with the same number.

I merely pointed out to some inconsistency in the story: "... Orange cancelled my contract and was told my old sim could be changed to a pay as you go". It's hard to believe that the staff in the shop didn't know that the sim couldn't be changed and had to be replaced.

kimblibob

True comment.. I can see your point from a neutral perspective it's not very likely I will get anywhere in court.

My paper bills for that contract phone stopped back in 2009 (because I had cancelled it and taken out a new contract)

Orange have already asked me if I still have the top up card used for the phone but it was binned a while ago..

I don't really have solid evidence as I don't have any text messages, the phone or sim card to hand and obviously don't have the top up card any more because it was binned when my father got rid of it.

I just cannot make sense of how two payments have been taken and how Orange are claiming they have no proof that the sim was 'topped up' without the top up card.

kimblibob

grumbler wrote: »

If you request the contract to be switched to PAYG after the minimum term expires, they just send you a new PAYG sim with the same number.

I merely pointed out to some inconsistency in the story: "... Orange cancelled my contract and was told my old sim could be changed to a pay as you go". It's hard to believe that the staff in the shop didn't know that the sim couldn't be changed and had to be replaced.

I see where you're coming from and it is quite difficult for me to get my head around this too as it wasn't actually me that did the whole contract - PAYG it was my father. But I do know he is very cautious and would have checked with orange and sorted it out properly before using it. He's much more organised like that than me. But what I've stated is how I understand it from what he has told me.

latecomer

Surely Orange can trace the history of the phone number and will know that it changed from a contract to PAYG at the time you cancelled it.

I've had problems with Orange in the past which have taken time to resolved although nothing on this level. Have you tried emailing the CEO/Executive office and asking them to investigate?

latecomer

grumbler wrote: »

If you request the contract to be switched to PAYG after the minimum term expires, they just send you a new PAYG sim with the same number.

I merely pointed out to some inconsistency in the story: "... Orange cancelled my contract and was told my old sim could be changed to a pay as you go". It's hard to believe that the staff in the shop didn't know that the sim couldn't be changed and had to be replaced.

Thanks for the info - I've never done it hence my ignorance.

To be fair to the OP - given its all happened 3 years ago maybe the fact that a sim card was issued with the old number on it is all they recall.

JimmyTheWig

OP, at this stage I would ask them to put in writing exactly what they think happened. E.g. why the paper bills stopped, whether that number has been used to make calls since, on what basis (contract or PAYG) any calls were charged, whether PAYG reminders had been sent to that number.

Might be looking better for you.