Overcharging by orange

jmj_3

Recently I thought I had been overcharged by Orange as a result of them attributing the same text message to my mobile account multiple times - causing me to breach my text limit and get charged for taxts later on in the charging period. Initially this can be difficult to see, but if your bill is much higher than usual or far more pages than usual (ie the no of texts you have sent is more than double your normal number) go through the itemised bills looking for texts that appear to have been sent to the same number 2-4 times (or more) at exactly the same time. On contacting Orange Customer Services, I was told there had been an error, so was irritated that they had taken full payment for the bill and would simply recalculate the bill and apply a credit the next month (rather than making a refund). It was only after contacting the CEO's office that I discovered that if one sends a very long text, then 'each page' of the message is treated as a separate text - so I had been correctly billed. It is disappointing that Orange Customer Services did not seem able to recognise what had happened, and, had I not contacted the CEO's office I would have remained unaware that long texts are treated in this way. Worth knowing if you are a person who normally has low text usage/minimal additional charges in excess of your monthly contract.

NFH

How many characters were in these texts? Each block of 160 characters is sent and charged as a separate text, but joined together upon receipt by the receiving phone. For example, a text of 321 characters will use 3 texts.

Earthworm

I have to agree with the question asked by NFH. I don't think the charge is wrong I think you've just assumed that a single text has no limit when in fact long texts can use multiple messages.

Earthworm

jmj: I'm guessing NFH was right? Have you had a chance to check this?

simax

NFH is right, and if the agent did their job properly and referred to level 2 support for advice they would have been advised of the same. Level 2 have a tool that can identify these type of messages.

mattyprice4004

What's the betting the OP doesn't come back, or deletes the original post?

Rusty!

jmj wrote: »

Twice in the last 4 months I have been overcharged by Orange as a result of them attributing the same text message to my mobile account multiple times - causing me to breach my text limit and get charged for taxts later on in the charging period. Initially this can be difficult to see, but if your bill is much higher than usual or far more pages than usual (ie the no of texts you have sent is more than double your normal number) go through the itemised bills looking for texts that appear to have been sent to the same number 2-4 times (or more) at exactly the same time. While Orange have always credited my account after I have highlighted the error, I am extremely frustrated that they are taking my money by direct debit & then I have to wait 1-2 months to 'reabsorb' the credit off my bills. I have reported it to OFCOM, but Orange are taking money from customers in error & benefiting from having this in advance while the problem rectifies itself.

He can delete it if he likes. Won't affect this though :rotfl:

mattyprice4004

You'd have been on my first 5 guesses at who'd quote it.

jmj_3

Thank you for all the responses on this issue. You are absolutely correct. It seems these charges were as a result of sending long texts & each 'page ' of the text being charged as a separate text. I will consider deleting my earlier post, but do think it might be useful to leave it there so people can read this & not make the same mistake.
However, I'm not sure how I was supposed to know that a long text could be counted as multiple messages, and before posting on here, I had spoken to Orange Customer Services pointing out these transactions who agreed it was an error. It was only after emailing the CEO's office that I got the correct explanation.

jmj_3

I have edited my earlier post. However, the previous event/overcharging was due a technical fault causing multiple texts to be sent by the server, not long texts.