My Orange problem, any help most welcome....

[Guest kelv23]

I pay my Orange bill like most people by Direct Debit. My bill for the 1st December 2006 of £38.80 was refused as there wasnt enough money in my account, my fault entirely. I paid the outstanding bill on the 6th over the phone via the automated service. I thought everything had been cleared up. How wrong I was.

Everything was fine until the 19th December when Orange barred my phone. Strange I thought so I called them up and was told that as I had used the automated service to clear the outstanding bill that the barring system had skipped the payment and had barred my phone for not paying the bill. The CS guy said "Dont worry this happens quite often and we know that you have paid the bill its just a system error. We'll send you an update to unbar the phone " . I asked him if the Direct Debit for £38.80 would be applied for again and was told " No,we know the payment has been made so dont worry it wont be applied for again" Great I thought, glad its been cleared up. Errr wrong again.

Today they barred my phone again and I also received a letter from them stating that they had tried to apply for the bill of £38.80 for a second time and it had been refused. It also stated that the Direct Debit has been cancelled. I phoned them again, explained what had happened. The phone has again been unbarred. I asked him if the Direct Debit has definitely been cancelled , he said "Yes, its been cancelled" .I called again just to get a confirmation from someone else in CS that it had been cancelled and he said yes as well. I also asked him to put a note on my account saying that I wasnt prepared to pay any more bills until this has been resolved as I will now be charged by my bank for the rejected payment .

Just to make 100% sure I called my bank to confirm that Orange had tried to take the £38.80 payment for a 2nd time and she said " Yes they tried on the 14th Dec but it was refused due to insufficient funds" I also asked if the Direct Debit had been cancelled " No the Direct Debit for Orange is still active ". She cancelled it there and then for me.

Im pretty annoyed to say the least after being barred when Ive paid the bill and then Orange applying for the amount a second time and it being refused, landing me with a £40 charge from my bank.

What I would like to know is where I stand with regards to claiming back the bank charges from Orange as they have wrongly apllied for the amount and where I stand with regards to cancelling my contract with Orange.

I have the address for Customer Correspondence in Bristol .If anyone has any experience of what to write to get this sorted or where I stand on cancelling my contract and getting my bank charges back please get in touch as Im sick of Oranges half arsed service.

Thanks

Edited December 21, 2006 by kelv23

[Guest Disco Stu]

I doubt you have any legal right to the bank charges refund but I would like to think Orange would make a goodwill credit to your account for the second refusal charge.

[Guest Zahid]

The Office Of Fair Trading has ruled that bank penalty charges are illegal because the bank is only allowed to charge the customer a reasonable administration charge, not a penalty like you would get charged for illegal parking.

Kick up a fuss with the bank. Thousands of UK bank customers are currently claiming back millions of pounds of illegal bank charges.

You can backdate your claim for refunds for upto 6 years.

Also, if you have a Direct Debit set up between a company/organisation and your bank, the company/organisation cannot cancel that Direct Debit. You are the only party that can cancel it.

Edited December 22, 2006 by Zahid

[Guest The Doctor]

I would like to think Orange would make a goodwill credit to your account for the second refusal charge.

:) :D :D

Your kidding right.... :D

From my experience (an others too) Orange CS are been terrible, you'll have to push to get anything back from them, unlike T-Mobile who actually OFFERED to refund the delivery charge to me after they messed up the delievery date. If that was orange i'd have to complain until I was blue in the mouth.

My 2p

Phil