mobile phone charges (orange)

rooferman

hi everyone,i'm a newbie to this site,so please be gentle with me.
and so to my issue,
i've been a orange customer for as long as i can remember,so long in fact,that i have only ever had 1 phone number,though, that counts for nothing,it would seem.
over the years i've added my wifes phone to my account,and more recently,my 2 children.
a couple of weeks ago,i had a query about my bill so contacted orange,after a few minutes of being passed around,the issue was sorted.after the call,i looked at all of the bills in detail,it was only at this point i discovered that i am being charged £2.98 per phone because i choose to pay my bill over the phone and not by direct debit.i know what you'll all be thinking,but the fact is i have to keep close control of my finances,and the only way i can do that is by not letting cash leave my account at will.so only essential bills are paid by dd, i accept that it may cost me a little more,but i'm ok with that.anyway,my gripe is,why am being charged 4 times when i only pay and have only ever paid 1 bill,i don't pay 4 seperate bills.
i've worked out that i have paid orange nearly £400 in these charges alone(i have deducted the charge for my own phone).
i've spoken to a supervisor from orange at length about this and was offered a token credit to my account,which i refused,at this point i was told i would be contacted by a manager within 3 to 4 working days,this was on march 9,as of yet i am still waiting for the call,someone from orange has contacted my other half a few days ago(i've no idea why, because she's not named on the account)she told them they needed to contact me.
i suppose what i'm asking the enlightened folk that use this site is,
do you think it's worth my time to persue this further,or would they have this sort of thing locked down pretty tightly,i must admit,i'm pretty incensed about this,and at the moment i am prepared to explore other avenues to recover the charges i feel they owe me.any help and advice would be very welcome,thanks to everyone in advance.

Herongull

What does it say in the T&Cs?

If it isn't in your contract, then they can't change you.

If they changed the T&Cs to include this charge then they have to write/email you and tell you at the time.

oopsadaisydoddle

It says in the T&C's:

6.3.2 We reserve the right to charge an administration fee each month for payments not made by direct debit. Please see the Orange Price Guide for details of the charges.

This means that per line you pay the charge (I believe it tells you this in the plan costs somewhere, but could be wrong).

Also, it's actually £2.98 before VAT - £3.56 in total per line.

I have to say this was one of the things I could never justify when I worked there! Like you say, one DD should mean one charge!