Orange collection charges AFTER contract termination

SSC1986

Hi All,

Hoping for some advice & reassurance if possible.

I previous held a 2 year contract with Orange, ending during April of this year. I decided not to renew/upgrade my contract with Orange, going about the following actions to formally terminate the contract;

-Rang Orange during Feb to state my intention and told about the 30 day notice period.
-Rang Orange during March to formally submit my 30 day notice period and offered by a customer advisor the option of having a sim card sent to me so I could keep the number. I accepted this offer. Customer advisor confirms that final payment date will be 10 April 2012.
-Received sim card in the post with instructions on how to activate it. As it stands I decided not to not to use the old number and haven't activated the sim card due to this.
-My final payment was made on 10 April 2012 after which I cancelled the direct debit. At which point my legal relationship was terminated.

Today I received a letter from Orange's collection's department, stating that I was in arrears to the tune of £71.06! After calling Orange, being passed through the typically endless ranks of administration, I have now been advised, to my shock and amusement that due to my decision not to activate and use the sim card my old contract was rolled over beyond the final payment. This contradicts the conversations held with customer service advisors, whereby my quote "final payment date" was stated as 10 April 2012, and any document I have received from Orange. To compound the issue further I actually didn't use my phone & had it turned off during the final 6 weeks of my contract, and then subsequently sold the phone (minus sim card) post the 10 April 2012 final payment. In short this has led me believe I'm being asked to pay for a service I neither had use of, intend to use, or due to the sale of my old phone had the facility to use!

My concerns and areas for advice are as follows;
-Could the potential pursuit of this bogus matter by Orange result in negative impact on my credit rating?
-How best should I go about resolving the matter?
-I assume this is not a unique complaint, so can anyone offer their experience in a similar post termination of mobile contract situation?


Thanks in advance for any help or advice I get offered. :beer:

grumbler

SSC1986 wrote: »

-Could the potential pursuit of this bogus matter by Orange result in negative impact on my credit rating?

It could. The only way to know for sure is to check your credit files.

-How best should I go about resolving the matter?

I think following their complaint procedure is the only way. Orange is the only network that bizarrely change a sim card when switching from contract to PAYG and I believe they they don't explain this properly anywhere. They require a notice to terminate the contract and you gave the notice. It was their fault that they failed to explain you the consequences of not activating the PAYG sim.

-I assume this is not a unique complaint, so can anyone offer their experience in a similar post termination of mobile contract situation?

Yes, several people reported a similar experience.

Jon_01

Ask for the call to be listened to by a team leader (they're the only one's who can).

It's part of the 'we're sending you a payg sim to replace your contact sim' script that they tell you that you must activate the sim to stop your contract continuing. If the agent didn't follow the script, then you've no way of knowing...
You'd think they'd put in in big friendly text on the sim package so you'd know... But they seem to find that too hard to do!

SSC1986

Thank you for the helpful responses and advice. I will update on the outcome.

antiorangenetwork

Hello

I have tried to email Orange on the site but they were experiencing a technical problem and I do not wish to waste my time and money to contact them again.

Basically I had my first PAYG mobile SIM on monthly direct debit few years back and I have decided to terminate it. Therefore, I contacted their free customer service using my Orange mobile number to terminate it. All I could remember was speaking to a male operator and I have given more than 30 days notice to terminate the account, as I was informed and COMFIRMED. (Obsivouly he failed to perform the termination, which leads me to all the troubles today!)

Yesterday, I received a very disturbing text from a debt collector BGW that I owe Orange £60. As soon as I knew that, I contacted Orange customer service on the same day to clarify the whole situation. I was being kept on hold for ages on the phone and finally, I was informed by the customer service that all they have was an inactivated account for that number and no other record of anything. I was also informed by her, that they have closed my account and transferred it to BCW group, and therefore BSW should hold the details, which did not make any sense at all

I followed her instruction and contacted BSW about it and they demanded me to show them the proof of cancellation.

1. It was done over the phone using the same SIM, and Orange customer service cannot trace back any information of the SIM (apart from its inactivated status), which is absolutely ridiculous!

2. No letter was issued to me about the cancellation of the account.

I feel like I was victimised in this case and I should take this further. I should not be punished over the negligence of an Orange staff, who failed to terminate my account and the fact that Orange does not retain any conversation of the mobile phone. I was being pushed back and forth between Orange and BSW!!

It was my first PAYG Orange sim card and I doubt I would recommend Orange to anyone after what I need to go through today! I was absolutely mortified and disappointed with Orange. I am stuck and I feel like I am in a no win situation. Please advice and thank you very very much in advance.

Thank you once again

TakeThis

antiorangenetwork wrote: »

Hello

I have tried to email Orange on the site but they were experiencing a technical problem and I do not wish to waste my time and money to contact them again.

Basically I had my first PAYG mobile SIM on monthly direct debit few years back and I have decided to terminate it. Therefore, I contacted their free customer service using my Orange mobile number to terminate it. All I could remember was speaking to a male operator and I have given more than 30 days notice to terminate the account, as I was informed and COMFIRMED. (Obsivouly he failed to perform the termination, which leads me to all the troubles today!)

Yesterday, I received a very disturbing text from a debt collector BGW that I owe Orange £60. As soon as I knew that, I contacted Orange customer service on the same day to clarify the whole situation. I was being kept on hold for ages on the phone and finally, I was informed by the customer service that all they have was an inactivated account for that number and no other record of anything. I was also informed by her, that they have closed my account and transferred it to BCW group, and therefore BSW should hold the details, which did not make any sense at all

I followed her instruction and contacted BSW about it and they demanded me to show them the proof of cancellation.

1. It was done over the phone using the same SIM, and Orange customer service cannot trace back any information of the SIM (apart from its inactivated status), which is absolutely ridiculous!

2. No letter was issued to me about the cancellation of the account.

I feel like I was victimised in this case and I should take this further. I should not be punished over the negligence of an Orange staff, who failed to terminate my account and the fact that Orange does not retain any conversation of the mobile phone. I was being pushed back and forth between Orange and BSW!!

It was my first PAYG Orange sim card and I doubt I would recommend Orange to anyone after what I need to go through today! I was absolutely mortified and disappointed with Orange. I am stuck and I feel like I am in a no win situation. Please advice and thank you very very much in advance.

Thank you once again

PAYG on DD?? How does that work?

latecomer

Did you cancel the direct debit - if not and they failed to take payment that would to me suggest that Orange had at least partially cancelled your account.

thatsean

TakeThis wrote: »

PAYG on DD?? How does that work?

Orange offer DD top up, as do tesco and virgin. A bit old skool, but handy for people who can afford to keep a balance on the account, rather than topping up with a fiver whenever they have spare cash....

Buzby

As soon as you mentioned they asked whether they should send you a SIM, I just knew what was going to follow. THis is because your departure request has been modified (by them) so that if the replacement SIM isn't activated, your notice of cancellation expires, and service continues as before.

The only way to ensure this does not happen is to refuse the offer of a 'free SIM' and this removes any ambiguity as to your intentions. In response to complaints the justify their action by saying the activation allows them to transfer the original contract number so it is not lost to the customer, which is all well and good if you value it, but if you don't care one way or the other then it is a gotcha to watch out for.

Needless to say, IF you did activate the SIM (whether you loaded it with credit or not, your number would have moved SIM's and your old contract ended. I recall OFCOM was asked to comment on this process and they felt nothing was wrong, as it protected customers from losing a number they otherwise might have lost (otherwise, why accept the SIM offer?).

They only view this as an unpaid contract that has not ended, as you will be expected to provide a notice period once more. The ONLY way round this is when you cancel, you do it in WRITING, as this will take precedence over any nonsense with SIM's and migrating numbers. This situation is largely automated, but by referring to your written instructions, invariably results in any ongoing costs to be fully refunded and the account terminated of the relevant datw (but not otherwise).

Guys_Dad

antiorangenetwork this doesn't make sense.

You say you had a PAYG sim that topped up on DD. Never heard of that before, but I am always willing to learn.

Now PAYG is a prepaid service, so how in any way could you rack up an outstanding amount of over £60? Particularly if the handset wasn't being used????

Strikes me that you had a sim-only contract with x minutes per month and not PAYG.