Joined: 21 Jan 2009Posts: 1Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Reading some similar stories on this forum thought I would add mine.
I moved house in August 2007, i.e. 18 months ago. I'd had a contract with Orange/Wanadoo for years and as instructed told them immediately I moved. They told me it would take 3 weeks to set up a new connection. After Three weeks they hadn't, so I phoned again to be told there was a problem with BT and they would phone back (they didn't) and it would be connected within a week (I wasn't). This went on for 2 months Eventually they admitted - after I checked with BT - it was their mistake (i.e. they had lied), however after 2 months of broken promises, never getting back to me as promised and no Internet connection (but still charging me £29/month, eventually for 3 months) I decided to cut my losses and get a new provider. Then they couldn't tell me my PAP number (didn't seem to know what one was) and couldn't give me a contact to write to (and still never calling me back) to cancel my account I was left with no option but to cancell my standing order and get a new provider. This was despite them debiting me for 2 months with no Broadband.
I consider this to be 1) their breach of contract, and 2) putting me in a position when I had no option but to terminate any payments to them as they were so incompetent they couldn't/wouldn't allow mr do it any other way.
So now they have sold a "debt" for £60.98 (no breakdown of how this was worked out) to "Direct Legal & Collections" who seem to be trying to collect the "debt" using computer generated letters and robot phone calls. Personally I don't give a damn but feel this sort of automated, bullying incompetence could cause considerable distress to others. I very much doubt they will take me to a small-claims court for such a small amount and I have evidence that they actually owe me more than the supposed debt, but if they do I think I can blow them out of the water.
The only worry is that they do something that gives me a bad credit rating and while I don't need credit I will certainly monitor this as best I can.
Office Of Fair Trading issued a guideline document on debt chasing.
Also it's worth reading Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act.
If you do feel the need to make an official complaint regarding a creditor, this should firstly be made to your local Trading Standards Officer. If Trading Standards will not act it may be worth contacting the Office of Fair Trading.
But do not ignore any letter from a possible creditor even if you know there is no debt.
I have been a loyal customer of Orange's for the past 10 years or so. However, I am now forced to say they are the biggest bunch of ********** - make of that what you will! I used to think that they could do no wrong but how wrong was I? On Three separate occasions (yes, that's Three!), they have tried to charge me for a handset that was allegedly not returned to them but on all Three occasions, I proved that they had been. They then admitted that they had been returned but that someone in the Channel Returns hadn't completed the returns procedure and so the Accounts department sent me snotty letters. To add insult to injury, only yesterday, I received a letter from a debt recovery agency saying that a mark had been put against my name because 'I hadn't paid the outstanding amount'! What a complete load of rubbish. I rang the agency up and spoke to a nice chap and he could see immediately that I owed the muppets at Orange absolutely NOTHING and he assured me that he'd insist they wrote to me and told me so. I am now desperately trying to get out of the remain der of my contract without having to pay them a penny. Not only have they slandered my good name but they've also damaged my credit rating, despite the fact that it was ALL THEIR FAULT. I hope you 'chaps' out there would agree with me that Orange should release me from my contract at no cost or penalty to me - I think it's the very least they can do? Please do post your comments as I'd be intrigued to hear of any similar stories - obviously I haven't published all the ins and outs as a) this would bore you all to tears and b) it would probably not be legal but what I've put is the summary of the whole problem! Suffice to say, I will NEVER go down the contract route again - I will just stick with PAYG.
The Orange corporate infrastructure has become severely flawed over time and is so complex and intertwined that it is impossible to correct it.
One can perhaps forgive a basic failure in one department, but Orange seem to have the ability to routinely fail in most of their corporate departments, never learning from their previous errors.
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