Cant end contract of 5 years!

baxb

Ive had an orange contract that i use for business for 5years. Ive never had an upgrade or never changed tariff. I been trying to cancel it as the business has stopped trading but apparently i have renewd my contract until jan 2013. I have no idea how i have entered this new contract as originaly it was for 18months and now its been years. Ive rang orange several times without joy. They have also said that the contract has been bought by a different company which they wont name, and given me nos to call but i get redirected aback to orange every time. Am i really tied into this contract?

grumbler

I am no expert in business contracts, but I am sure that Orange are talking rubbish as usually.
After the minimum term expires contract goes on and requires 30 days to cancel unless a new contract was taken. If they claim that the contract was renewed, then they have to prove this.
Also the situation with selling the contract to some different company is unclear. This is what the T&C say:

Transfer of this Business Agreement

26.10 Subject to clauses 26.11 and 26.12, neither party shall assign,
transfer, mortgage, charge, sub-contract or deal in any other
manner with any of its rights and obligations under this Business
Agreement without the prior written consent of the other party
(such consent not to be unreasonably withheld or delayed).

26.11 Orange may novate this Business Agreement or assign any of its
rights hereunder to (i) any entity or person within its Group, or (ii)
any entity or person to whom Orange transfers the whole or part
of its business. The Customer agrees that it will within 14 days of
a request from Orange enter into a deed of novation in terms
reasonably requested by Orange to give effect to a novation
under this clause.

And what company is collecting the payments?

sdduk

Sounds like Orange are pulling a fast one
even if they sold the contact on surely they would have notified you.

WestonDave

Certain business contracts do have auto renewal clauses (energy is typical for this) so in theory if they wrote to you in say December, told you your contract was coming to an end, and would be renewed if you didn't contact them, you may well have auto renewed for another 12 months.

Presumably you get bills for this? Do they not have contact details on it? The other option is to cancel the direct debit and wait for them to contact you - not as a means of simply not paying, but to open a dialogue over the validity of the contract.

gjchester

WestonDave wrote: »

The other option is to cancel the direct debit and wait for them to contact you - not as a means of simply not paying, but to open a dialogue over the validity of the contract.

Ceasing payment for a service suppled under a valid contract is never a good start to any negotiations.

The action would leave the OP as the defaulter if it went to court, as they initiated the contract break, that said if the business is no longer trading it may be a mute point.