Help needed with Orange complaint

mircea

Hi I wonder if you can help me

Basically
I ran up a big phone bill while I was on holiday in France, but paid it off over two months using my debit card. Orange then took the whole amount again from me from my next direct debit. I obviously claimed it back and just paid the bill for that month which was around £50.

For October and Nvember I had bills of around £40 which went out via direct debit. Fine. However, when I tried to log onto their site they told me I owed them nearly £200!! I phoned up straight away and basically they are saying that they have refunded me the money twice therefore I still owe them the money! the trouble is this does not appear on my bank statements I only have the one DD I clawed back. I cancelled my DD with them and will now only pay my monthly bill by cheque - however - every month I am getting sent snotty letters threatening to send me to a debt collector, no-one at orange knows what is going on, despite me sending them a detailed spreadsheet showing my bank statements against their payment history. (my bank statemetns show I only owe my bill each month!) Today I called them again, and asked if someone could tell me what was going on, that I was prepared to pay my monthly bill and would send them a cheque but was not going to pay the £200 they reckon I owe! until the matter was resolved. The promptly barred my phone from outgoing calls and texts.

All I want to do is get out of Orange, with no penalty, for them to accept that they have made a mistake and let me go (my contract not up until October)

Has anyone had anything similar or can offer any advice? The last think I need is adverse credit on my record - have enough close calls as it is.

Thank you

ritesh

Oh Dear :-(( This is rather unfortunate situation and can sympathise as it is really frustrating when big companies get it wrong and send in the 'heavies' to get what they think they are owed. More frustrating is when you keep calling the company to resolve the situation, end up speaking to different customer service agents and having to explain the issue over and over again. A bit like 'chinese whispers' where the truth gets bent and twisted around.

Anyway, I digress. From what I have read from other peoples' misfortune and from advice given in various magazines is not to do anything out of the blue i.e like refusing to pay etc but rather a letter sent to Orange explaing the situation with copies of your bank statement etc which will highlight that you do not owe them any further monies. I know that you have already rung them and explained to them with copies of your statements but do start documenting it now in writing. Having debt collectors after you is not a good thing.

peterbaker

Another way if you can give better than you get in a standup telephone conversation and YOU ARE SURE that they have taken money wrongly / are demanding money wrongly is to use very strong accusative words like "fraud", "conspiring to defraud", "demanding money with menaces" (threat of goodness knows what labelled as a debt-collector) AGAINST the company (not the person you are speaking to) and insist as soon as possible that a manager calls you back within the hour with confirmation that the problem is solved.

Obviously do not swear or insult the individuals you speak to, but there is no law that says you can't tell them pointedly that unfortunately they are wrong, that they evidently do not possess sufficient authority to solve the problem correctly, and that therefore your SERIOUS complaint must be immediately escalated.

It's not for everyone, but if you able to win in general argument and debate, don't hesitate to use those strong criminal terms in a focussed telephone call, and make it plain that it would seem that the company is persisting in such criminal activity despite your contact with them.

I have found generally that no customer service representative for a major company can stand being told repeatedly that their company appears to be engaging in fraud for very long without escalating the matter to a manager. Fraud is a serious accusation, but thesedays I find I have to make it too often to cut through the serious deterioration in UK business ethics over the last 5 years or so particularly.

It worked on Orange too, last time I told them which way was up.

diamonds

mircea PM

chris_spackman

let it get to court. Tell the Debt Collecotr that you will not be paying any money and that you are prepared to take it further. Before you do that it may be worth sending the DC copies of letters and bank statements. Thier legal team will then have to look at it and will send it back to orange with the polite words.....no case. The other posts are also correct but it may be something to think about if it does get further. Make sure you look at your credit file and check that they have not put a black mark on your name.