Crazy charges from DLC/Orange

[Darkly]

Hello,

 

I received a letter from Orange on the 6th Feb 2011 demanding full payment of £170.81 which I owe or risk debt collection. I replied in letter and stated that I had currently lost my job and can only afford to pay them £5 a month. They didn't reply.

 

Then I've just (23/02/11) received a letter from DLC demanding £862.24 on behalf of Orange. How can this be right? These are some crazy charges, they don't give any information on what they are for or my original debt. The letter is all jumbled up too, words over other words and I can only just make out that its on behalf of Orange.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated! Im a total newby to this sort of stuff and have no legal knowledge at all.

 

Thanks guys.

[dee_jay]

the best advice i could give is to go and see citizens advice.

 

do not i repeat do not contact the DCA by phone, do everything by post keeping copies for yourself, they will try to bully and scaremonger you into paying the lot but don't give into them the ball is firmly in your court. ask them for the proof of what you owe and explain the situation you are in and wait for them to act.

[locutus]

OK, were you within the minimum term of a contract? If so the bill will be for the remaining months of the contract.

 

Deal in writing as dee_jay says.

 

The nasty thing about all this (which I don't think you will have realised yet) is that Orange will have put a black mark on your credit file that will stay there for 6 years.

[Human Writes]

Hello,

 

I received a letter from Orange on the 6th Feb 2011 demanding full payment of £170.81 which I owe or risk debt collection. I replied in letter and stated that I had currently lost my job and can only afford to pay them £5 a month. They didn't reply.

 

Then I've just (23/02/11) received a letter from DLC demanding £862.24 on behalf of Orange. How can this be right? These are some crazy charges, they don't give any information on what they are for or my original debt. The letter is all jumbled up too, words over other words and I can only just make out that its on behalf of Orange.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated! Im a total newby to this sort of stuff and have no legal knowledge at all.

 

Thanks guys.

 

The charges DLC are pursuing you for are most likely for the remainder of your Orange contract, if you were only a couple of months into a 18 or 24 month contract they are likely to be sizeable.

Edited February 28, 2011 by Human Writes
typo

[2Grumpy]

If that is charges for the remainder of the contract period, they would be quite a lot, but not all would be justifiable.

 

If they took you to court I don't believe that they would get more than the outstanding value of the phone that they supplied (the discounted value, not the retail price).

 

I wouldn't pay Orange anything that they hadn't invoiced me for. I would write to Orange and dispute the outstanding amount in the first instance, certainly would not phone DLC. Definately don't disclose any other phone numbers to them ...

 

They will add a default to your credit record, when this is over you can look in the Debt -> CRA forum for possible ways to try to remove this

[Human Writes]

As I pointed out in the last thread in which you made a reference to the phone, it forms no part of the contract for supply of network services and the charges Orange are seeking are not related to phone.

[2Grumpy]

Orange have multiplied the remaining number of months in the contract * monthly amount to give the amount they claim

 

Although they say that the phone is free, they get them at vastly reduced costs and take that out of the monthly payments. The rest is for calls.

 

However, that does not represent their actual costs - just what you had agreed to pay for the contracted period where they were providing the service

 

But for the remainder of the contract, they are not providing the service. If they took the OP to court (and their claim was defended) then they could only claim their actual losses. That would be pro rata what they had paid for the phone.

 

What I am suggesting is that the OP should be able to get quite a hefty discount on that balance to settle the matter.

[Human Writes]

Orange have multiplied the remaining number of months in the contract * monthly amount to give the amount they claim

 

Although they say that the phone is free, they get them at vastly reduced costs and take that out of the monthly payments. The rest is for calls.

 

However, that does not represent their actual costs - just what you had agreed to pay for the contracted period where they were providing the service

 

But for the remainder of the contract, they are not providing the service. If they took the OP to court (and their claim was defended) then they could only claim their actual losses. That would be pro rata what they had paid for the phone.

 

What I am suggesting is that the OP should be able to get quite a hefty discount on that balance to settle the matter.

 

If the OP has agreed to pay them a set amount from a minimum term then does not do that then they will have lost payment for the remainder of the term and they could claim for that as well.

[Darkly]

Thanks for the replies guys. I've worked it out and realised that the amount owed is infact the remainder of my bill. Stupid of me not to realise but nevermind, now I know.

 

I've just sent a 'prove it' letter to DLC, just waiting to hear back. I was just wondering if there are any letter templates that let them know I can only afford to pay £5 a month to them as I have little to no disposable income.

 

Thanks for the help already!