Orange Contract - Cancelled yet still charged over 1.5 years!

[gregpicard]

Hi guys, bit of help would be much appreciated!

 

My brother had an 18-month mobile contract with Orange, which ended in December 2011. He informed Orange to cancel it and not renew then, and that was all processed and done in-store.

 

A couple of weeks ago, we received a letter from a debt collection agency saying they had tracked down our address using credit reference information (we had changed address from the old one where the phone was registered in 2011). They were saying we owe £540 pounds on that contract...

 

Orange did not send any bills to us after the termination - we even asked them to produce bills since December 2011 and they said they could not. So they have been adding up these monthly charges without even telling us, and for no valid reason.

 

Also, as the phone was stopped in December 2011, we have made no calls or texts from it - we told Orange this would obviously be on their system and they could check the non-usage since then obviously meant they were at fault.

 

No help whatsoever on the phone to Orange. The usual rubbish - said it was with debt collection, they couldn't do anything about it, it wasn't their fault, blah blah.

 

He went into the Orange store, and they confirmed the phone had been disconnected in December 2011 on our instructions to terminate - but she also said 'Oh, but you are being charged for line rental'. Amazingly in-store they seemed to think they had no fault in this and that we would still have to pay it? Ridiculous.

 

We have no idea what kind of stunt they are trying to pull here. Why would they continue to charge line rental on a cancelled contract....they have made a big error on their side somewhere down the line.

 

Obviously we intend to fully dispute this. It has even had a negative effect on my brothers credit rating.

 

What steps should we take?

 

Kind Regards

[dx100uk]

CEO of orange for sure!

 

and you want compensation for the harm caused to his credit worthyness

 

has he been refused credit or had to take a high int rate due to the error it holds?

 

dx

[gregpicard]

Thanks for the response dx

 

Indeed, my brother was rejected for a credit card recently due to this information on his file.

 

If anyone can point me in the direction of proper contact details / mailing addresses for the 'Upper Powers' at Orange, much appreciated!

 

Is there any specific format of letter we should write, if claiming compensation for the problems this has caused etc?

[BankFodder]

You should just sue them in the small claims court for breach of contract.

It is so easy.

 

Once they receive the court papers they will start to talk to you seriously. They may even offer to settle - but you should refuse unless there is a discharge of the alleged debt and removal of the credit file entries.

You should not withdraw any action in the absence of undertakings and ideally this should be set out in a Tomlin order.

[gregpicard]

I should also mention, we live in Scotland - incase there is a different approach to the legal proceedings

[BankFodder]

No - slight differences in the small claims procedure but for the value you will be suing - no practical difference