ORANGE - not honouring minutes, help!!!!

[aj101]

A quick bit of back ground first.

 

April 2008 - changed tarriff online, 600 minutes and unlimited text £30pm

Bill received only stated 100 minutes for following month.

Rang up and complained and was issued 1000 free extra talk minutes every month for 6 months.

 

June 16th 2008 - Rang ORANGE as I received a £370 phone bill, as they had only taken 100 minutes off, and not the extra 1000. Bill was sent for recalculation and I was told that 1000 minutes would be continued until December 18th 2008. This has been confirmed numerous times on the phone by them.

 

June 22nd 2008 - rang up and upgraded handset 6 months early, incurring upgrade fee of £150, fine, hubby was paying half as a birthday gift, no problem. Also changed my price plan.

 

July 6th 2008 - a voicemail was left on my phone saying that because the minutes were a good will gesture, then they were not going to be honouring them and I am therefore liable for the £370. I rang them and pointed out that I have got the 1000 minutes on paper as being available for the period up to June 10th, which is the end of my billing cycle.

I was advised that the bill would be sent off for recalculation AGAIN and that I would hear back within the week.

 

July 12th 2008 - not wanting to wait for my phone bill to arrive, I decided to check it on the website, only to find that they are trying to have me for £298, ok so £150 of that is my upgrade fee, fair do's.

Trawled my phone bill only to find that they have only applied 700 of the 1000 minutes.

 

Rang them on July 13th telling them I had seen this and that I had sat and worked the whole sodding bill out in SECONDS, let alone minutes, and that the 2 bills combined should only be about £300, not the £668 they are trying to nail me for. Got told that it would be sorted out within 2 days.

 

Spoke to them about an hour ago, only to find that the billing system computers are down and they can't do anything. I did find out though, when finding out about the free external memeroy card I should of had, that there have been 5 differents actions started on my account.

 

This woman, bless her, was so different to what I have had to deal with. As I have had my handset longer than 7 days she is putting £30 onto my account seeing as I can't get the memory card, this is to cover the cost of the memory card, but when I asked to be put through to billing, she came back and said the system was down, could she help in anyway, so I explained the situation to her. She was disgusted by how I have been treated and said that she would be increasing the £30 to £50. Very nice woman, couldn't of done more to help me.

 

Now, this is where the problem comes in. When I first notified orange of the complete and utter balls-up that had been made on the first bill, dated June 10th, the lad on the phone agreed that is was wrong and advised me to cancel the DD, which I did. Infact, when I got to the bank, it had already been cancelled from their end. I was told that both payments would come out together on the 28th of this month. Fine. When I saw the balls up on the bill dated July 10th, I contacted them and was advised again that the direct debit would not be reinstated until they had sorted it out.

So now, by the time this is corrected properly, I am going to have £300, plus whatever the bill due to be peinted on August 10th has got on it, to pay all in one go. Slight problem, I earn £540pm after tax and before my phone bill comes out, I have £420 coming out, which is why hubby said he would pay half the upgrade fee. This made it that the bills and the upgrade fee were affordable, if they had been correct the first time and had been paid as they should have been.

So now, by the time this is sorted out, I am going to have a phone bill to pay, which I can by no means afford, all because they screwed up.

 

What can I do now. I feel I have done all I can. They have had numerous chances to rectify this to a satisfactory level and have failed. I feel incredibly let down by them.

 

My next step is to speak to OFCOM and then go to CISAS. I do not want to have to take it to this level. Any ideas what I can do now to try and prevent having to take it that far. All I want them to do is get it right, and hell, maybe even write off the upgrade fee by way of apology.

 

HELP!!!!

 

AJ X

[aj101]

OK, so I have spoken to ofcom, and they have told me not to even bother given orange any more time to sort this out.

 

I am to fire off a formal complaint to them in writing, recorded delivery, and inform them that I have spoken to OFCOM and if it is not sorted to a satisfactory level, then I will be going to CISAS.

 

I will let you know how I get on.

 

AJ

[aj101]

Orange are crafty buggers!!! The day before I am going to post the letter, and I get a phone call, at 6.45pm this evening, on my birthday of all days, informing me, yet again, that they will not be honouring the minutes, despite the fact that they are on the previous bill, in black and white, as being available for the period in question.

 

Yet again, despite me telling her not to bother, they are going to recalculate it and also look through my previous call and text history, not sure why, something to do with working out whether i did it intentionally and am trying to duck out of it.

 

Am still firing the letter off and posting it tomorrow, as this has gone on long enough now.