Help With Orange Needed. Data Overcharge on Bill.

KerryAnne96

*Post Updated.*
Hi,
I am looking for a little help from anyone who works for Orange.

I am currently on Panther 15.50 (12 month SIMO)
It all started two days ago when i opened my Orange "Your Account" app to check my bill for this month and saw a data charge of £19 & a few pennies, i immediately knew this had to be wrong as I have NEVER gone over my 250MB internet browsing data allowance and NEVER use my 500MB internet browsing & tethering as I don't tether.
(To which an advisor confirmed.)

So on the phone to Orange I go. Firstly I was put on hold by India for 15mins! to be told when I got through "Oh no you have to call back the number you have just called (& had been on hold with) for Billing in the UK", even though I was talking to a woman already in billing!??
I asked "Erm can you not put me through?" She replied "NO and ended the call."


Annoyed I dialed again and thankfully got a woman in the UK unfortunately i didn't catch her name.
The lady had a look at my account, and told me that I have used 750MB of data on the 10 & 11th of June "so you will have to pay your bill."
"Impossible!!" I told her "as I am housebound at the moment and am constantly connected to my BT WiFi."

The lady's reply was "Ok until your final bill is generated tomorrow we can not tell you at what times the data was used so call back tomorrow or Thursday Morning for Uk Billing as they should be able to help further." Phone call ended.

So the next morning I call again and thankfully get the UK again & Again I didn`t catch the lady`s name.
I told her my problem as I had to the Lady the previous evening`s phone call.
Her reply was this..."That's not what the computer shows."
To which I replied "Well excuse me computers can be wrong!"
(To be honest i'm sick of being called a liar by Orange everytime I call up for anything!)
I asked "Can you Please pass me to your Supervisor? as I wish to escalate this matter as fraud on my account! The lady began started shouting for her college named "Joe" to help her, she then put me on hold for 5 minuets.

Upon her return the lady again confirms that her and her college "Joe" had thoroughly looked at my account (in 5 minuets? I doubt it.) and that the charge was right! By now I'm getting a little flabbergasted & frustrated :mad: so again I said "HOW when I know it was not me! I do not use my data unless I really have too or i'm not in a BT Wifi Area, (ie on a train) to witch i haven't been as i told her i was currently housebound and I am the only one who has access to my phone!" The lady when on to ask was my Sync data on? "No. I only turn it on to check my email via BT WIFI, and then I turn it off straight away after every use."
(I am very meticulous about this as I have heard horror stories about sync data charges.)

Again she said the most data usage was at 21.25pm on the night of the 11th June, "Impossible!" And I told her so!! As at that time of night I WOULD have been using my Wifi as my Husband would have been working on my computer.
Again she said "No no the computer is right!" *shakes head*
She also went on to try and BLAME BT Wifi for the error???
How i asked her reply was this... "Oh when your BT Wifi drops your data must kick in." I replied with "And how exactly does that happen when my data is OFF!??" The lady had no answer.

I really dislike the way Orange tries to pass the buck for their error.
But the talking down to you with utter rubbish is the worst and it does not help matters! To be honest I am quite frankly insulted that they seem to think I/others are that gullible to believe their lies that they continuously spill.

I ended the phone call with "Well I am sorry, but Orange will NOT be getting this months payment until this is sorted as I AM cancelling my Direct Debit for this month!" The balance at the end of this phone call was £19.40 for * So called data used* plus £15.50 monthly plan charge= £34.90

A new day a NEW balance. Ok so less than 24 hrs form last nights phone call i go and check my Orange bill online and now it says for this months generated bill £42.60!! :eek: How in the bleedin hell has it gone up by £7.70 overnight!!!???

I am currently about to write a very strongly worded email to a CEO called Mr Olaf Swantee. I will give anyone the email if you need to contact someone with more clout at Orange as I found it online myself.

Can someone please tell me if what I have done so far is reasonable or is there more I can do as I really do not want my phone cut off while they are sorting this! Payment is due for collection on the 28th.
So I have a little bit of time to fire off emails thank god!

I am not going to call Customer Services again as they are utterly Useless!!

Thank you in advance of any replies and sorry for the essay.
A very disgruntled Orange Customer.

*Update.*
I cancelled my Direct Debit on Friday the 12th July 2013. Today I paid Orange £20 for my £15.50 monthly charge and £5 extra for vat. (This is my NORMAL monthly charge.) To prove to them that I am not being difficult.
I am not refusing/unwilling to pay my monthly bill just unwilling to pay for the computer error/fraud.

*Update #2*
My paper bill arrived this morning and the data usage charge is £16.66, But there is not a breakdown of usage?
I have made a further payment today of £5.94 as I realised I had not paid enough towards what I HAD used when I made a payment yesterday.
So the dispute is only for the £16.66 data charge.

grumbler

Just a few thoughts:
What phone is it?
What's "sync data" on/off? It makes no sense to me to turn Sync on/off for checking e-mails. Automatic updates is far more important thing to think of.
WiFi connection can easily be lost and the phone can update something big over mobile data connection. If the data connection is unstable the phone can keep attempting to do this and consuming big amount of mobile data.

robbies_gal

sounds like an iphone that some settings can be on autp as grumbler says above

do not cancel your dd thats the last thing u should do u will get bad credt on your file

KerryAnne96

Grumbler & Robbies Gal. Hello,My phone is not an I phone it is a Galaxy S3 Mini, I have never ever had this problem before, and i have had my phone for a while now. No I never have my data or sync data on if I am in the house, I am very meticulous about this. Thank you.

RockPaperScissors

Wait!! Just stumbled on this! I am panther 24.

I have 1GB and never EVER exceed.

Logged on day before yesterday to my account and what was there? Data charge for £19and a few pennies!

I have complained (to no avail) but would like to know if anyone else has had the problem?

KerryAnne96

rockpaperscissors, Oh thank god someone else in the same boat as me!!
Something sound a wee bit fishy me thinks!!??

Would you like the email for the top boss?
As thats were im heading now!!

KerryAnne96

Robbies Gal, Too late my DD is cancelled.
My best friend had a problem with Orange a few months ago where they kept taking more money than they were supposed too so she cancelled her DD and now just pays her monthly bill by phone every month.

RockPaperScissors

I actually emailed Olaf yesterday! Last time I had to I had a phone call the same day though and still nothing yet!

Keep me posted as I am seriously irritated. My bill is coming out at £60!!!

Really wish I hadn't signed a two year contract!!

KerryAnne96

Oh that sounds great hopefully you will get a call soon! & I will get a call tomorrow hopefully.
Mine is coming out at £42.60! My normal bill is round about £21-25 inc vat
So that's how I know this is a major muck up!

Yes yes i will keep you informed. I'm going to ask around as i know some of my other friends are on Orange too!

RockPaperScissors

Good idea!

Sadly I can't see them doing anything about it. I've asked for a full breakdown of data usage but I'm sure they will fudge something somewhere.

Stupid thing is that I was on holiday from work for around a week when this happened and I live on my iPad via wifi when at home! Only use phone when I'm out!

diamonds

Oh look France Telecom's Orange software 'revenue making' *bugs* again !!

Go through your bill as soon as available via Your Orange, download it (mark inconsistencies)

Call Ofcom and lodge a complaint against Orange about how they handsled your billing complaint of a error, get your complaints reference number and email Olaf, you stand by your stance its a billing problem and ask your bill be sent to BILLING INTEGRITY (a third party non customer facing dept) to be recalculated.

Pay your usual amount of the bill via card on the website but not the disputed amount. Ensure you say you expect this bill recalculation before your next bill is due and as the direct debit is cancelled while they correct their errors you do not take liability for non direct debit payments until you are satisfied with the billing recalculation and the direct debit will be reinstated at such time.