Orange and a grandparent, help required

timberflake

I've just had a call from my nanna who is in her late 80's. When I went round to see her the other day she received a text from Orange saying she was entitled to a free phone and to call a number. I deleted it as I thought they would try to lock her into a contract. She frequently receives texts from Orange (2-3 a week), which is the first problem I have.

Anyway, When she phoned me today she said she'd received a phone call yesterday evening. She said the person at the other end of the phone asked for Mrs xxxxxx and said that they were from Orange. They asked how much she spent on her phone each month and when she told them it was around £40 they told her they could reduce that with no explanation of how they would actually do it. They then proceeded to ask about her financial information ie does she have a bank account etc. At this point she felt rather threatened and told them no to which they replied "Well theres nothing I can do for you" and hung up.

Is it just me or is this out of line?? They were obviously trying to sign her up to a contract but at no point explained this.....it enfuriates me that they think its ok to ring an old lady who is almost 90 and try to lock her into a 12 month contract. She simply wants to be able to top up her phone and us it as and when needed without being bombarded with text messages and tricked into signing up to a contract.

I wish to complain to Orange, does anyone have an email / postal address to direct my complaint to?? Would appreciate any help...

Brooke_Daver

timberflake wrote: »

I've just had a call from my nanna who is in her late 80's. When I went round to see her the other day she received a text from Orange saying she was entitled to a free phone and to call a number. I deleted it as I thought they would try to lock her into a contract. She frequently receives texts from Orange (2-3 a week), which is the first problem I have.

Anyway, When she phoned me today she said she'd received a phone call yesterday evening. She said the person at the other end of the phone asked for Mrs xxxxxx and said that they were from Orange. They asked how much she spent on her phone each month and when she told them it was around £40 they told her they could reduce that with no explanation of how they would actually do it. They then proceeded to ask about her financial information ie does she have a bank account etc. At this point she felt rather threatened and told them no to which they replied "Well theres nothing I can do for you" and hung up.

Is it just me or is this out of line?? They were obviously trying to sign her up to a contract but at no point explained this.....it enfuriates me that they think its ok to ring an old lady who is almost 90 and try to lock her into a 12 month contract. She simply wants to be able to top up her phone and us it as and when needed without being bombarded with text messages and tricked into signing up to a contract.

I wish to complain to Orange, does anyone have an email / postal address to direct my complaint to?? Would appreciate any help...

The calls texts might not actually be from Orange, but more likely from Orange resellers.

Just before I ungrade I'm plauged by fools trying to sell me new contracts, they all pretend to be from Orange, but then admit they're not.

hollydays

Scammers (if they are) wouldnt necessarily know she was an 80 year old when they first rang.To be fair ,they are not fussy about who they target.Unfortunately if you use technology you have to take the good with the bad.If you think she is susceptible to this you are going to have to try to lay down some ground rules for her,and in addition find out the worst case scenario if she does sign up to something,how can she get out.,like distance selling regulations.

timberflake

Sorry, the vital pieve of info I forgot to mention is that she's a PAYG customer. Would anyone have details of how to complain to Orange?

timberflake

hollydays wrote: »

Scammers (if they are) wouldnt necessarily know she was an 80 year old when they first rang.To be fair ,they are not fussy about who they target.Unfortunately if you use technology you have to take the good with the bad.If you think she is susceptible to this you are going to have to try to lay down some ground rules for her,and in addition find out the worst case scenario if she does sign up to something,how can she get out.,like distance selling regulations.

I don't agree with that. She does not have to accept being harrassed simply because she wants to use a mobile phone. She's not stupid enough to fall for this, but its the principle of targeting an elderly lady, I will not accept it.

Jada

timberflake wrote: »

I don't agree with that. She does not have to accept being harrassed simply because she wants to use a mobile phone. She's not stupid enough to fall for this, but its the principle of targeting an elderly lady, I will not accept it.

You're right, it's not acceptable, but not because she's elderly, but because the callers are sly, not transparent and harrass us all. This does happen even though I'm signed up to every 'do not call me' preference agency, do not market to me etc etc and some how I still receive a few of these calls. The easiest way I deal with it is to simply say I'm not interested and hang up. I don't recall the last time someone called me directly and I got a good deal out of it so I tend to stick to the line of thought that I never will, so it's not worth my time to listen to them.

:staradmin Jada :staradmin

dmg24

I agree with those who have said that it is probably not Orange that are calling her, and if that is the case a complaint to Orange will not get anywhere.

At present, legally speaking no one has done anything wrong. However, if you register the mobile number with the TPS, and the calls continue after the notice period, then you have grounds for complaint.

Do you have the number that called? May be worth Googling it.

fedupconsumer

hollydays wrote: »

Scammers (if they are) wouldnt necessarily know she was an 80 year old when they first rang.To be fair ,they are not fussy about who they target.Unfortunately if you use technology you have to take the good with the bad.If you think she is susceptible to this you are going to have to try to lay down some ground rules for her,and in addition find out the worst case scenario if she does sign up to something,how can she get out.,like distance selling regulations.

I agree with the OP that its the principle of it "lay down some ground rules" have a little sensitivity to Elderly people treat them less like a child and give them some dignity
Back to the original topic at hand timberflake its not a nice thing is it my nana was plagued by these such calls.

Go to :
http://www1.orange.co.uk/mobilecontactus/

It may be a 3rd party and as others have said google it to see if any issues are brought up.

should give you all the contact details , as a matter of course i would also ring up or contact age concern over this too im sure they would like to know of such practices and give you help as well:

http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/local.asp

ofcom codes may be worth a look

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice/codes/

and dont forget timberflake harrasement is against the law and can be prosecuted too :
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1997/1997040.htm

and those sites mentioned above by dmg and Jada are good too.

good luck

timberflake

Thanks for that fedupconsumer . I'm sure it was Orange that rang her as in the text message they sent her it said she had until the 2nd Nov to claim her free phone and suprise suprise she got a call on 2nd Nov.... vbmenu_register("postmenu_6707804", true);

dmg24

timberflake wrote: »

Thanks for that fedupconsumer . I'm sure it was Orange that rang her as in the text message they sent her it said she had until the 2nd Nov to claim her free phone and suprise suprise she got a call on 2nd Nov.... vbmenu_register("postmenu_6707804", true);

But you don't even know that the text was from Orange!

reehsetin

how about ringing orange and asking whether it was them, or next time they ring ask for their name and extension number and tell them you will ring back via 450 i can guarantee they will admit they arent orange at that point,
im pretty sure i know the message your talking about, its a standard message not and its not from orange