Thread: Can Orange and Experian do this!!

About 5 years ago my wife canceled a contract with orange giving them 30 days notice after the initial year. The next month she got a bill for £35 for that months subscription. I phoned them and informed that she had canceled."no she didn't, we offered her a PAYG sim to keep as backup, she then has to register that to cancel the initial contract" I informed them that is not what she understood had to happen, and that all she did was to phone up to cancel, not be trapped in one of their webs. they said that we could cancel over the phone now but would have to pay the £35. i refused saying that we had already canceled and would not be paying. The following month another bill, this time with the previous one came to £70. Same conversation, same no on my part as she had phoned up 2 months earlier to cancel.I said that if they wanted to collect the money they should take us to court so a judge could decide This went on till we received a debt collection letter for £105. We phoned the collection company and told them the story, my contention was that someone can not just say "you owe me £100, if you don't pay i will send a bailiff around" anyone could do this, it was just our word against Orange. the agency understood and sent the paperwork back to Orange and told us that they would not touch it.
My wife has tried to get bank accounts and credit cards without success. We contacted Experian and received the paperwork showing that Orange had put a bad debt against her for £100. I said to Experian that someone surely could not just say that we owed them money, and if we didn't pay we would get a black mark against us. I offered Orange the chance to take her to the small claims court to have a decision, but they just bypassed this and had the record put on Experian anyway. I said to them that I could just say that Orange owed me £100, and if they didn't pay me have something put on their record. "No it doesn't work like that" was the answer. "But that is precisely what they have done" I said. It is just our word against theirs, surely you can't just have something put on someones record on their sayso, they said that I would have to either pay the £100 or go back to Orange to sort it out. Won't do the former, got no where with the latter. I asked Orange for recording of the phone call when they said the OH would have to register one sim to cancel a contract, as this is not what was said, but they say that they hadn't recorded anything

Originally Posted by GuidoT

They do what they like, they are a law unto themselves.

Have a read around the templates here.

You need to be prepared to take them to court.

Thanks for the links, but they all seem to pertain to banks, and i can't work out how to change the wording to reflect a mobile company, or any code of conduct they might be a party to.
I was quite willing to take them to court a couple of years ago but couldn't find a solicitor willing to take it on.

I had a case similar to yours. I disputed a bill for £90 with orange about three years ago they ignored all my correspondence with them . They then put a default with Experian on my file. I have tried to get it removed with no success. Good luck with it.

I noticed that you say this was 5 years ago. Defaults only stay on record for 6 years so It should be removed soon. My thinking is that by the time you have this issue sorted out that the 6 years wouldve elapsed and the default would be removed anyway. Theres is also the issue that If you do fight this the courts and any regulatory body you complain to would need a good reason as to why its taken you 5 years to bring action against orange.

If you want to make a complaint to the information commisioners office. Heres their guidance on defaults: http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documen...3%20%20doc.pdf

Thank you haggis. The info you posted is just what I have been looking for