Orange Home Phone- breach of contract

[noomill060]

Ive had a contract with Orange for broadband for years.

 

The Live Box router has a socket to plug a phone into. The deal in the broadband contract is that you get free calls through Orange.

 

Except this feature has never worked for me. Contacted them several times, but theres nothing they can do. It doesnt work and they cant fulfil this part of the contract.

 

Ive now left Orange.

 

I gonna sue them for the cost of all the calls I have had to pay for using my BT landline, which had they been able to fulfil their contract, would have been free.

 

Anyone else had this problem?

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

Good luck,

[dial878]

I don't know the particulars but the free calls normally only work by plugging your telephone into the livebox. The free calls are made through VOIP (like skype) over your broadband connection, this can only be done by plugging your telephone into the livebox. This does mean that you have a different telephone number for the phone plugged into the livebox but you can just plug another phone into directly into your telephone line (which should be used for receiving calls only).

 

As you have left Orange this is not much help now!

 

But if you were unaware of this issue or were not told of this despite seeking advice, and you have already complained to Orange without resolution it may be worth contacting the Alternative Dispute Resolution scheme, every telephony company should be party to one and you can ask Orange which one they belong to, more information can be found here:

Submitted complaint to ADR scheme | Ofcom

[noomill060]

Hi dial, yes.

 

I plugged my phone into livebox as soo as the system was set up and working. No dial tone, just an empty sound as if there was something there, but as no dail tone I couldnt make calls

 

Phoned customer services, but there was nothing they could do, or could be bothered doing.

[dial878]

I guess they must have tried replacing your livebox, in which case if they still couldn't provide you with the service, as advertised, then you should have been able to liquidate the contract (they have an obligation under the terms of service to provide you with a 'reasonable' service or something to this effect and explain what this means- I'd check their terms and conditions for the exact wording) and because they were unable to fulfil the service that you signed-up for given you a refund for areas where they failed to meet their own terms.

 

I would advise that you try sorting this peacefully first, giving them copies of the evidence and your bills (you can make an information request to them if you don't have these) all by written correspondance (paper trail). I would also work out how much they owe you (remembering that 08, non-orange mobile calls and some international calls are not included in the free calls livebox service). Then if this is not resolved see if the alternative dispute scheme will take your case and if this is unsuccessful take them to the small claims court.

 

Remember taking a firm to court should be the last route to take, when all others are exhausted.

 

Good luck!

[noomill060]

Thanks dial.

 

No offer of a replacement Live Box or any offer of help whatsoever.

 

This wont be the first time I've offered to show Orange the inside of a courtroom.

 

The last time was to recover unlawfully applied late payment charges, which they wisely settled before the hearing.

 

I find that the County Court system is the most effective method to achieve satisfaction against large companies.

 

7 day letter before action

 

file claim

 

(naturally after calculating damages accurately and constructing a suitably worded, pursuasive POC)

Edited January 12, 2010 by noomill060

[lauzb84]

I've just googled "Orange small claims" following a nightmare with the comapny over the last few weeks...we were never provided with the "service" we signed up for (being the phone and broadband package), and after 7 hours on the phone to them over the last few days have finally got out of our contract without incurring any costs (although i wil believe it when I see it!)

 

We pulled them up on clause 1.3 of their Terms and Conditions (off the top of my head, I believe it comes down to them having to notify YOU if they cannot provide the service. As we had received no notification of any difficulties in setting up the phone line they were clearly in breach), we also called them up on a couple of other similar clauses...

 

Once we started quoting their contract to them, the worse than useless Customer Service team (and I do use that term losely) backed down, and put us through to escalations. Once through to them, we reiterated the Terms and Conditions, and threw in words like "breaches", "negligent" and "small claims", which seemed to do the trick.

 

I wish you good luck, but if they were anywhere near as useless with you, then I really dont think you'll need it. They don't keep records of emails sent, or calls taken and, therefore, if they were having difficulty in supplying the service to you, they will be hard pushed to provide evidence that they did notify you of this.

 

Hope that above all makes sense and will apply to you!

[jamraz]

Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 Fact Sheet - BIS

[noomill060]

Getting interesting now.

 

Cancelled in November and migrated to 02, so bye bye Orange. (Or so I thought)

 

Received an Orange bill in January for January. which naturally I ignored

 

Received a £5 penalty in February for "late payment" of January's "bill"

 

Now got DLC chasing me for fake debt of £29.99!

 

Sent LBA to both Orange and DLC today, also sent a sar to Experian to see if they have trashed my credit file over this.

 

If they have, they are about to enter a world of pain...

[noomill060]

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