Orange/EE haven't cancelled my contract after giving notice

battenberg

This is my first time on a contract plan, well over the 24 month period now, have decided to go back to PAYG. Keeping phone because it still works fine.

Phoned cust services to cancel, they said my plan would end on 13th July. I did not want to keep my old number so was never given a PAC code. I asked if they could send written confirmation of the cancellation, rep said yes.

Nothing has arrived and when I check the old sim in an old phone, it still seems to be working. My bill arrives on the 15th and is taken by DD at the end of the month.

Does this mean I'm still on the old contract? What's meant to happen when you cancel? (eg does sim/signal stop working??) Should I just cancel my DD after this bill when I have already given notice on my end?

Anoneemoose

battenberg wrote: »

This is my first time on a contract plan, well over the 24 month period now, have decided to go back to PAYG. Keeping phone because it still works fine.

Phoned cust services to cancel, they said my plan would end on 13th July. I did not want to keep my old number so was never given a PAC code. I asked if they could send written confirmation of the cancellation, rep said yes.

Nothing has arrived and when I check the old sim in an old phone, it still seems to be working. My bill arrives on the 15th and is taken by DD at the end of the month.

Does this mean I'm still on the old contract? What's meant to happen when you cancel? (eg does sim/signal stop working??) Should I just cancel my DD after this bill when I have already given notice on my end?

Firstly, when did you call to cancel? And secondly, did you ask to go to PAYG on Orange/EE?

sparky93

can you prove it?

call them again to confirm. bet they havnt......

mobilejunkie

13th is today. If the sim still works tomorrow they haven't cancelled it. Does the bill "arrive" on 15th or is it produced on that day? You have to give 30 days notice to cancel - so when did you call and did you confirm the notice had been given? If you gave notice on 13th June it will end today. Later, it won't end until the 30 days is up. It won't end at all unless you specifically gave notice. Them telling you it ends on 13th may have been just the minimum term.

Orange produce a final bill around the next billing date after cancellation. Make sure when this happens they have ONLY charged you for the correct number of days. I had one recently where 1) they charged more than that and the credit was therefore less than it should have been and 2) they failed to repay it in the timescale they gave me (32 days after the final bill). 3) They then failed to increase the credit to the correct amount OR pay any of it when they should.

Don't trust what they tell you - check the figures, check the notice/dates and people you speak with and make a formal complaint immediately they fail to do what they should or what they said. Tell them that if they fail to correct the mistakes immediately you expect compensation and if they haven't dealt with it to your satisfaction as a formal complaint you will then immediately complain to the regulator (CISAS).

I've done that twice with great success and they are now on notice that I will do it a third time if needbe.

battenberg

Thanks all.

Anoneemoose wrote: »

Firstly, when did you call to cancel? And secondly, did you ask to go to PAYG on Orange/EE?

Around the time of my last bill in middle of June, unfortunately I have cleared my call logs since then and in my naivety didn't note down the date. Didn't ask to go to PAYG because I hadn't decided if I was going to use an old SIM or get a new one, so just said I wanted to cancel.

battenberg

mobilejunkie wrote: »

Does the bill "arrive" on 15th or is it produced on that day? You have to give 30 days notice to cancel - so when did you call and did you confirm the notice had been given? If you gave notice on 13th June it will end today. Later, it won't end until the 30 days is up. It won't end at all unless you specifically gave notice. Them telling you it ends on 13th may have been just the minimum term.

Thanks for all your tips Mobilejunkie! Bill is generated on the 15 I think, I get notified that it is ready and shows call/text logs until the 14th of that month.

I did say to call centre rep that I was calling to cancel and was giving 30 days notice. Minimum term ended back in March. Number is still live right now, I'm giving it until tomorrow when the next bill is produced to call back and try again. I do wonder if it's because I never asked for a PAC code? I DON'T want to keep this number, need to start afresh with a new one.

mobilejunkie

Asking for a PAC would have cancelled any notice.

Make sure you note down the person, time and date and if it's not been enacted make a formal complaint - then they have 8 weeks to address it (they will ignore it) but you can request a refund for the over-run if it starts a 30 day notice from then. If they ignore your complaint (they normally do) you can wait 8 weeks and then go to CISAS, requesting a refund and compensation. Orange (now EE) will agree and pay up without a fight. You do need some proof - hence at least the dates/person/action agreed.

Anoneemoose

If you didn't ask for a PAC or to go to PAYG, then your account should disconnect 30 days after you requested the disconnection. Have you tried calling them to ask if the disconnection has been set?

Your billing date will make no difference to the disconnection date. As in, there's no point in waiting until the billing date to see because it is irrelevant - the billing date and the disconnection date are completely separate and are not linked at all.

My advice would be to call them and ask them to confirm if the disconnection has been set and see what they say. From what you say, it sounds like your billing date is the 15th of every month. If you called on the 15th June, then your disconnection date would be 15th July. Also, it can actually take anything up to midnight on the disconnection date to switch off.

In addition, if your account doesn't get cancelled until 15th, there is a high chance you will get an automatic bill produced for the full month because all the billing system will recognise is that the account is still active at the time the bill should be produced, so it will 'spit one out'. You will however, receive a final, recalculated bill on what would have been the next billing date after disconnection (15th Aug), which will credit you back for any line rental charged on 15th July bill that wasn't actually used...and from what you say, this should be all of it. If this does happen, you can usually just ignore the one sent for July. Obviously as mobilejunkie says, double check it all.

Edited to say: if you called on 15th June, your phone should actually disconnect at some point today!

C_Mababejive

Both orange and O2 pulled the same scam with me despite also engaging in on line service chat and telling them i wish to cancel. I saved both chats and used them to complain. I suspect call handlers are rewarded for retentions and sometimes if you cancel they kinda ignore you and give the impression they have actioned it when in fact they havent.

Anoneemoose

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Both orange and O2 pulled the same scam with me despite also engaging in on line service chat and telling them i wish to cancel. I saved both chats and used them to complain. I suspect call handlers are rewarded for retentions and sometimes if you cancel they kinda ignore you and give the impression they have actioned it when in fact they havent.

In my experience as an ex Orange employee, although they were rewarded for retention, they were also penalised if a customer then came back through saying they had in fact, requested disconnection. They used to use a system that logged any offers made and this was used to trace said employees, so if it was something that happened regularly, they were pulled up on it. So, I would say your theory is largely incorrect.