SERIOUSLY CONNED BY EE/ORANGE please help

levi1989

Hi, I have just signed up to the forums, I have read them for a long period of time, and it never fails to amaze me just how many great genuine people their or on this forum willing to take the time to help others, so just a huge lot of respect to the people on here.

Now I have signed up today for a purpose and I do hope that you can now help me with an issue I am having (well its on behalf of my dad) regarding Orange/EE, it is quite along post but I beg you to read on as I am sure even it will even anger you the way my Dad has been treated and over charged by hundreds of not thousands by now.

I will try and keep this as short as possible as I did just write all this and my web browser froze and I lost it all!

My dad has been an Orange customer for 10 maybe 15 years now, and has been extremely loyal and gave them a huge amount of custom in this time.
He currently has a contract of his own for around £30 per month which gives him enough minutes, texts data etc to do what he needs to do. 3 or 4 years ago he took out 2 iphone contracts at around £40 each for my two brothers, this was all fine so a year ago or so when the contracts were up, he decided to upgrade to a new contract and get two iphone 5's, again no issue seemed fine do this. This is where the issues began, first of all he was advised it was 18 month contract which he later found out to be a 24 month contract, he also was told the new contracts would have the same minutes, texts and data as the old contracts so a simple transition from old phone to new phone? apparently not. So a month or 2 into the new contracts he notices his bills are sky rocekting through the roof from the usual £100 mark to £150-£180, obviously he is fuming with this so telephones orange/EE to find out what exactly is going on. (Oh and also the 3g and phone service was horrendous not that they cared) Anyway he was then told that this is to do with EE and not Orange anymore so he needs to speak to them, he speaks to EE a number of times explaining the issue and over charging where he is told by a lady that he has been overcharged and is owed lots of money from EE and that she will look into his account and get back to him, nope nobody does, he rings again a couple of times a day for a week or maybe 2, with different people saying again they cannot get to the bottom of the account and they will get back in contact with him (Yep you guessed it, they didnt get back in touch with him) He then tells me all about this, and I am fuming and I demand he rings them up in front of me so I can hear what rubbish and excuses they chose to give this time.

So we get speaking to this guy who seemed to be pretty genuine and knew what he was talking about from EE, which was a rare find, it was like striking gold, finally! somebody who could actually help. So he tells us that the overcharging was down to a lot of data being used on the i phones, so we query this and say well the two phones do not go over their 2 gb allowance ever, to which he replies oh you only have 500mb on these phones. Which is an absolute disgrace as we was told the new contracts had the same minutes, texts and data as the previous contract (a complete LIE, and then we found out the length of the contract was 24 months, another complete lie from EE) Anyway so the phone call progresses, he advises my Dad, how about I set you up on a new tarrif for the phones in question and a higher rate of £48 or £50 or something per month but this gives them phones a data cap of 5GB per month, unlim calls texts etc etc My dad although not wanting to pay this much accepts this is a good idea as at least he knows for sure what he is going to be paying per phone and it can settle this whole saga once and for all, oh hell no, no chance, this made things 10 times worse!! So the guy says the new sims will be down in a few days etc and this will be problem solved.

The new sim cards arrive, put them into the phones, new numbers! what new numbers!? Why have the new sims got new numbers, so we ring EE, again aload of rubbish we will get back to you etc. The next bill arrives totalling over £230 (WHAT!!!!!!!!) So fuming my Dad rings up EE and again after 3 or 4 people telling them they would get back to him, they dont he eventually gets to speak to somebody with half a brain cell. They tell him he is currently paying 5 contracts, the two in question are new contracts that had been set up over the phone for 18/24 months) of course my Dad is absolutely shocked by this, as we had just changed the tariff not took out an additional 2 new contracts at an extra £48-50 per month! He is told somebody will again get back to him.. Yeah I'm sure you see a pastern emerging here. Nobody calls.

So the next thing is Orange/EE cut my Dad and his phones off, he being a businessman and self employed relies hugely on his mobile, so pays the next bill which again totals around £250, and then a few weeks later he is cut off again demanding yet another £50 or £100, I believe he may also be paying Orange & EE at this point.

Now I had assumed this had been settled, but he is still paying in the region of £170-230 all these months later. He isnt sure what to do next but has asked me if I can help him sort it out as he cant ever get anything out from them, and he doesent exactly use a computer alot only through tablet form so writing something like this he has asked me to do.

There is more bad mistreatment that I have probably left out, but they must own him hundreds if not well over a thousand, I mean I am sure he is still paying maybe for 5 contracts, it is just crazy.

Any advice would be HUGELY appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Levi.

Herongull

"If any offers, tariffs or savings you were told about at the time of sale turn out to be untrue, you can bring a claim against your mobile phone provider under the Misrepresentation Act.
This will allow you to either cancel your mobile phone contract or to claim damages from your mobile provider."

See link below for next steps:
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/action/how-to-complain-if-youve-been-misled-by-your-mobile-provider

levi1989

Thank you very much for the link, lots of great help on there. :beer:

Anoneemoose

Did your dad receive any paperwork when he upgraded the last time? If so, what does this say?

And it sounds like he was migrated to EE thus meaning a new agreement which automatically triggers paperwork to be sent.

It's worth having a look at that, see what it says first.

killerkev

I have had a contract with Orange which has now changed to EE I always get paperwork with each new contract laying out all the allowances So how did he not know what his allowances were
Also I have a 2gb data limit if I get near that limit I get a Text so it is up to me if I go above and pay extra

killerkev

Also when I changed to EE I received a temporary number for 48 hours while my original number was transferred this was expailed to me and was no problem

levi1989

Cheers for the replies. I will ask him about the paperwork. Its the fact he was told he was owed lots of money to then be told this isnt the case.

Never told it was changing to EE, how he was paying for 5 contracts and still is despite not being told this is the case (I was present at that conversation and the guy gave absolutely no indication it was a new contract or anything just that the tariff changed.

I guess the best thing to do now would be to request paperwork from them and data records? to prove that they have lied?

Anoneemoose

levi1989 wrote: »

Cheers for the replies. I will ask him about the paperwork. Its the fact he was told he was owed lots of money to then be told this isnt the case.

Never told it was changing to EE, how he was paying for 5 contracts and still is despite not being told this is the case (I was present at that conversation and the guy gave absolutely no indication it was a new contract or anything just that the tariff changed.

I guess the best thing to do now would be to request paperwork from them and data records? to prove that they have lied?

You could try but they don't keep paper records of agreements so he won't get that. There will be notes on the account at the time of the upgrades stating what plans and phones he was offered - which will be the stuff sent out to him.

Calls are only kept for a maximum of 30 days so they won't be available.

The only things would be a S(ubject) A(ccess) R(equest) for notes on the account but there's no point in doing that until you see if he has the paperwork.

You need to speak to both Orange and EE again.

You need to clarify if your dad has any active contracts with Orange still first. If he has - write down the details (mobile numbers and account numbers) and account balance (if any owing).

Then do the same with EE and ask for the contract start dates for each of the numbers as well.

At least you'll know specifics and can then maybe put something in writing to them or escalate through customer service if you can face that !!

levi1989

Anoneemoose wrote: »

You could try but they don't keep paper records of agreements so he won't get that. There will be notes on the account at the time of the upgrades stating what plans and phones he was offered - which will be the stuff sent out to him.

Calls are only kept for a maximum of 30 days so they won't be available.

The only things would be a S(ubject) A(ccess) R(equest) for notes on the account but there's no point in doing that until you see if he has the paperwork.

You need to speak to both Orange and EE again.

You need to clarify if your dad has any active contracts with Orange still first. If he has - write down the details (mobile numbers and account numbers) and account balance (if any owing).

Then do the same with EE and ask for the contract start dates for each of the numbers as well.

At least you'll know specifics and can then maybe put something in writing to them or escalate through customer service if you can face that !!

Thanks for your reply :beer:

Yeah I guess the best thing is to request in writing exactly what is going on and the facts as you say, start dates of everything.

And then to construct some kind of letter, of course his bank statements will help, bills of over £300 he told me earlier. Amazing sums of money really.

prowla

A few months back I called Orange about something and during the conversation the assistant said that they'd noticed that my usage wasn't much so they could change my plan so I'd pay less, without any change to my entitlements; I clarified that I wanted the same amounts, and they said yes it would be the same plan but just £5 less.

Last month I got a text saying my swappables were being removed because I'd changed plan.

I've then logged in and found that they've reduced my data from 1 GB/month to 500 MB and changed my calls from unlimited anytime minutes to 1000 anytime any network minutes.

As it stands, I don't hit that amount, but I may change and I deliberately chose the "The Works" with unlimited calls and 1 GB, and they told me there was no change but actually moved me onto the "Orange 500 MB 27.99" plan with 1000 minutes and 500 MB.

Looks like I'll be giving them a call about it...

trinidadone

it sounds like a terrible experience. Its clear you have provided enough opportunities for Orange / EE to resolve this on the phone, and little has been achieved. The next course of action maybe to follow there complaints procedure, by writing them a letter outlining your experiences, and what you want, good luck with this