Here's the dreadful response I received and my reply - very unsatisfying, but at least I didn't need to call their switchboard again. Dear Marie I just want to inform you that we have paid our "debt" to arrow. I also wanted to inform you that after our long and loyal patronage of orange, I am thoroughly disgusted with the service. Not only did your email simply restate the dreadful beurocracy that I was complaining about, but also you did not apologise or excuse the dreadful and unhelpful service I received when calling your switchboard to find out why we had received this mystery bill. Quite frankly, I think this is something even Ryan Air would be ashamed of. I've posted my story on a forum and on Facebook and on Twitter. I am utterly disgusted that you billed my wife despite the fact that WE CALLED AND STATED ON RECORD OUR WISH TO CANCEL THE CONTRACT. The clause about the SIM is utterly pathetic, we only downgraded to PAYG since we thought we might use Orange when coming back to the UK. Needless to say, we will not be using your services again. I am relevied that I will never need to call your ineffectual switchboard again either. Thank you very much for your sincere lack of appreciation for our custom. XXXXXX. -----Original Message----- From: Executive, Office Sent: 03 July 2013 20:45 To: XXXXX Subject: FW: Orange Complaint Case Reference: XXXXX Account Number: XXXXX Please respond to Dear Mr XXXXX, I have reviewed the account and confirm that on 29 December 2010 a call was received and a request was made to transfer the number to Pay As You Go (PAYG). The terms and conditions were explained and the caller was advised that in order to complete the transfer the PAYG SIM card would need to be activated, otherwise the pay monthly account would not close. A SIM card was sent to the account address on 6 January 2013 and it is the account holders responsibility to activate this to complete the pay monthly disconnection. As the PAYG SIM card was not activated the pay monthly account remained active and your wife was billed accordingly. Therefore, the balance held with Arrow is correct. I would advise you contact Arrow and make the payment to settle the account with them. I am sorry if this is not the response you had expected, however I trust I have clarified our position to you. Yours sincerely

Hi, thanks for the email. Hoping it will help. My issue is that I cancelled my phone and home broadband and wife's phone (broadband was in her name too). I'm a named person on her account, in Jan 2011. Orange cancelled all the accounts except my wife's phone. The decided to keep billing us until June 2011. We knew nothing of this as we cancelled accounts because we emigrated to Japan. Got a letter sent to Japan from a previous address from a solicitors claiming £68 from Orange. We were fully paid up and all was cancelled and clear when we left the UK. Have no idea why they continued to bill us after we had cancelled the account. Last night, had to make 5 seperate calls to Orange because they kept dropping my call! Not joking they dropped it 3 times. With the time difference and a young baby, just want to email them and sort this ridiculous problem out. I've emailed the executive email now and I'm just waiting for a response. Thanks for your help so far, will keep you posted. angryatorange