Orange Squash

[privatehudson]

This is just a story of my experience with Orange.

In April 2007 I moved out of my parents house and wanted to change internet providers from my existing Orange account to Virgin Media. My parents wanted to get Sky at home, so I rang Orange to inform them of our intention to leave. They said this was no problem, and provided me with a MAC code to pass onto Sky. Soon after I moved my parents gave the code to Sky who then set up their system at my parents house.

Four months later I happened to be checking through my bank statements for the first time in a while (long story) and noticed a charge of £27.99 from Orange. This struck me as strange as this was my monthly payment to them prior to cancelling the account. I immediately called them and they confirmed that I was still being charged monthly for internet access. I asked them to cancel the contract, and asked about being refunded the incorrect charge. The person said they could not do this as they didn't know when I'd stopped using the connection until they had spoken to BT, and the BT customer service line was closed. I requested that someone contact BT to get the information and then contact me to confirm what would be credited to my account. The advisor said that they couldn't do this, I would have to call back when the BT centre was open. I explained that because of my working patterns this would be impossible, but they refused to budge, so I informed them that I would be writing a letter of complaint to claim the money back.

Having explained the situation fully in the letter I was expecting an appology and refund soon after, but was suprised. The reply basically said something like It is your responsibility to ensure that you are using the correct provider, and that your contract is cancelled as requested. Fortunately they did agree to refund me £100 as a Goodwill gesture which wasn't far short of what I was owed, so didn't protest the decision. When I checked my account again though they had actually credited the whole amount of £111.96.

I guess the morale of the tale is that even if you have the MAC code, don't trust the company to do what you've asked, and always ensure you double check through your bank statements.</p>

[buzby]

The moral is don't trust anyone, the company you are leaving OR the company you are joining! There are too many intermediaries involved, and with you expected to given them free access to your bank about, the customer will always be on the back foot. Keep checking these statements, and NEVER opt for VM's e-billing, as the cash benefit for so doing isn't worth the revised T&Cs they wish to impose.

[privatehudson]

We tried to get VM to take us off e-billing for months before they finally agreed to do so. I've had an ongoing problem with them though, going to post it soon.

[TaxedAndConfused]

I had this with Toscali. Got a MAC code, moved to BT, still got billed for 3 months.

I got 3 letters. First a "we are looking into your complaint...", then 3 weeks later a cheque for the full amount (I even asked for their premium rate calls to be refunded), and a day later a letter saying they couldn't look into my complaint because of data protection because I hadn't signed the letter.

They really are total muppets.