Am I entitle to compensation from Orange?

[Guest pizdyetz77]

Hi,

I was supposed to take delivery of a replacement E200 this morning between 9 and 1. It never arrived! I called CS and they told me that, due to a problem with their admin systems, the order had never even got to the courier. So there I was waiting for a delivery that was NEVER going to arrive.

I've been reading that consumers are entitle to compensation where a seller does not honour a delivery agreement.

From adviceguide.org:

"Once you have a firm date, and you have waited in for the goods to be delivered, but they have not arrived, you can claim compensation from the trader. The trader may offer you a fixed amount, but you can also claim for the real losses of waiting for goods that do not arrive, for example, the costs of a day off work."

From the BBC:

"If you have a firm delivery date and you have waited in but they have not arrived you can claim compensation from the trader for the cost of taking time off work."

What really pisses me off is the fact that they first of all tried to charge me the £15 admin fee under Orange Care although I had my care plan long before that charge ever came into effect. (At least I got this reduced to £7.50 after much arguing about my rights under the Sale of Goods Act and unfair terms of contract.) Worse than that though is the £13 redelivery charge they would lain upon me had I not kept my side of the delivery agreement and not been there to take it. Why should this not automatically happen vice-versa.

Does anyone have any experience of this and can help me get something out of the Ba***ds. I suppose I'm only looking for a £20 credit out of principle and for the fact that I had to be up on a Sunday morning from 9am !!!

GH

[Guest squall]

not seen it done before, but phone and make your case, if you dont get anywhere write to head office. At the very leastt you should get the replacement charge credited i think. Always comes down to how you maniplate the CS guys on the phone!

[Guest pizdyetz77]

I made my initial complaint about it this morning. Obviously they didn't have a clue what I was on about so said they would get on to the legal department and call me back. They did mention that Orange T&Cs state that they never compensate for "consequential loss". However, I don't think that's what I'm after.

They will of course refund the redelivery charge - that went without saying.

I'll let you know when they say "Not a chance. Go and find something better to do"

GH

[Guest pisquee]

They can put whatever they want in their terms and conditions, but whatever they say, they cannot affect or negate your statuatory rights as a consumer.

[Guest Dade]

Phone and ask to speak to a Customer Service Team Leader. If you dont get the answer you are looking for the first time simply hand up and try again a little later, most of the time its down to the person that you are talking to. Best advice I can offer is to try and keep your cool with them, they are more likely to help if you are pleasant to them!!

[Guest Chaser81]

Although personally I think you have more chance of platting p*ss....

[Guest Dade]

I think if you can back up your argument with the info you found on the BBC website and the adviceguide.org you may have a chance, depending on the mood of the CSC person you talk to.

Its worth a try!

[Guest Lady Marmalade]

Hi,

Personal experience of this kind of thing (not with Orange, but BT etc.) is that if you keep asking for an escalation to a higher authority and are prepared to write a formal letter of complaint, they come up with the money.

Keep cool, sound legal, and if you feel you're getting fobbed off, keep asking for a supervisor or manager.

As a semi-professional consumer knightmare, I still have my direct number to the BT Chairmans office...

Lady M.

[Guest Chaser81]

One question: Compensation for what? One day without your phone? Realistically, thats all we are talking about because if Orange re-order it for you, then it is sent by courier on next day delivery. Can you really be arsed to go through all this hassle and arguement for compensation relating to one day? If its more than one day, or if you have been given the run-around by Orange, then I apologise, but otherwise, why bother?

[Guest PinkPig]

If you lost a day of work, or had to go out of your way to be in at that time, then there's reason for compensation. I don't think you'll get anything for "having to get up 10 minutes earlier on a Saturday morning", though.

[Guest pizdyetz77]

Hello all.

Thanks for all the answers. I waited for my delivery to work today and it didn't arrive! (reception manned all day and aware that I was to be contacted when the courier arrived) I'm about to call to find out why. Another admin failure, perhaps? Not really worth £15, is it?

Now I'm really pissed off. Once is unfortunate but twice in as many days is just sheer incompetence. Don't worry though, I won't be abusive or in any way rude - I work as an account manager / customer services myself so know how the agent at the other end feels when a customer blames me personally for wider faults.

I really just want the company to appreciate that they can't go setting rules & regs that are inherently unfair and unreasonable - especially when they don't keep their side of the bargain. They make good money out of us all - admittedly for a very good service - but they should at least treat us with some respect and make an effort to apologise when things go wrong. i.e. not tell us that the phones they supply for 12 month contracts can only be reasonably expected to last for half that time and that, should something go wrong with it, we should pay an excess on our £60 a year insurance. Our contract with them is one based on the exchange of money in return for a service. We pay to use that service and should not be charged when that service - all aspects of it - fails to meet our reasonable expectations.

It wasn't a Saturday morning, by the way. It was a Sunday - a completely unreasonable day on which to waste anybody's time! 10 minutes early, you say? Get up time on a Sunday is 3pm at the earliest! :wink:

Iamb not serioulsy arguing that point. I may just say that I have a part-time bar job that I had to miss in order to stay in. Or maybe I had a family birthday that started at 12 and I turned up an hour and a half late? However, I don't really want to start lying and am really just wanting compensation on the principle of having been mucked about. A gesture of goodwill is all I'm looking for. Remember, Orange would quite happily have charged me a redelivery fee - should I not be able to charge a "wait-in-for-you-because-your-admin-systems-mucked-it-up" fee? This is a business relationship and I expect to be reimbursed when they get it wrong. As a loyal customer, I want to feel valued. At the moment, I feel like an insignificant blot who should play by their rules at all times and without question.

One more question for anybody that may know. When my new handset arrives, does the 6 month 'reasonable time to expect it to work without fault' start again? What's the situation with this?

Anyway - glad to have the opportunity to get this off my chest before I phone. Will help to keep me calm when on the phone.

GH

[Guest pizdyetz77]

Result!

I explained my new situation and was met with sincere apologies. At last!

CS: " I can't see any reason why the delivery wasn't made. It's showing as neither failed nor completed. I can only apologise and offer to arrange delivery again, obviously waiving the £13 redelivery fee"

Me: "That's fine but this is the second time your systems have failed. Can I please make you clear as to the history of this issue (history explained) . . . . . . . I would at the very least expect you to refund the remaining £7.50 of the £15 administration charge."

CS: "Absolutely. I can do that for you without hesitation. This is not the way the system should work. I am dreadfully sorry. I can't understand this at all."

Me: "That is greatly appreciated. However, with reference to the discussion I had on Sunday after the 1st failed delivery, I am entitle to some sort of compensation Under the terms of the Sales of Goods Act. What will you do about this?"

CS: " I will need to talk to my supervisor. Please hold."

CS:"Mr ******, this is my proposition. We would have charged you £13 for redelivery had you not been there to accept it. I will therefore compensate you with exactly the same amount in recognition of our having caused you inconvenience. If it is ok with you, I will apply a credit for £20.50 to your account immediately."

Me: "That seems absolutely reasonable to me. Please apply the credit and rearrange the delivery. Thank you for your help."

Perfect! I orignally wanted about £20 compensation but was more than happy to accept the £13 as it was offered on the basis that "we would have done this to you, so you can do this to us".

Well worth standing up for myself. Thank you for all your encouragement and tempering "don't be so silly" thoughts.

I actually feel like a valued customer again. M2000 from Orange it is in February when my contract is up. For £20.50 they've got themselves a new contract for around £600 next year.

Can anyone answer the question in my last post, "Does the 6 month period start again when I receive my new phone?"

GH

[Guest squall]

if its a warrenty / insurance replacement the warrenty does not start again. If its an upgrade then the warrenty will carry

Posted from my SmartPhone!

[Guest janp92]

I've personally had an awful time with Orange over the past year, I rang up 6months before my contract ended (May) to see if they would allow me to upgrade for free, I really wasn't happy with my current phone. They said they cant really do that but would allow me to in August if I rang back then. So I ring back in August "Sorry sir we have no record of your phone call, however we will allow you to upgrade in October" Starting to see a pattern? Anyway I cant be bothered to ring back in October because the same will just happen again. Anyway now its November (I can upgrade on the 16th) I decided to look at phones again and decided to go with the C500. I look on the orange website and my upgrade fee is £88.12 for 4 days early lol. I decided to ring up, i quoted that they told me i could upgrade in October, of course they deny this again, however they will cut the price down to £75. 75 quid for less than 4 days lol. I don't mind waiting the 4 days just I thought I could have it by the beginning of the week. Anyway theres no way I'm buying £75 for 4 days and if i could get the C500 on another network then I would move. The way they treated me was disgraceful and were always rude on the phone.

[Guest GOD 2.0]

I've had a similar problem with Orange, back in August I'd asked to terminate my contract as the phone that I wanted the Nokia 7610 would not have been free on the yearly upgrade, once I explained this to the guy I spoke to, he told me that they would wave the £100 upgrade fee and give me the phone for free on the understanding that I renewed my contract with them for another year "of course no problem" he informed me that due to the back log of these phones being produced by nokia that there would be a 7 to 10 days delay on delivery, so after the 12th day I phoned them and some guy told me that there was another delay and I would know when they would know, 'Very Helpful.......NOT' I thought, so a month passed and still nothing, so I decided to call into an Orange retailer in my local town to be informed the same by them and if I wanted the upgrade through them that I would have to pay the £100, so I asked what was available for free and hey presto the SPV C500 found its way into my hands, and guess what a few days later Orange phoned me up and said that the Nokia's were in stock and was I still interested, so I told the guy the score and he says I couldn't have the Nokia, so I wrote a stinking email to Orange explaining everything and it took them 2 WEEKS to get back to me and explain that once I took the C500 out of the shop, it was out of their hands. I must admit that I was hating my C500 for a while after that and nothing seemed to work properly on it until I downloaded the update from Orange and everything works great now, I'm so glad I didn't get that Nokia now, but I am thinking of changing to another provider when my contract runs out...