Orange Default Unfair

[dearone]

Hi

Two years ago I took out an Orange Premier account at an Orange shop in Devon near my parents home. With the Premier account contract, should the phone be faulty, Orange customer services were obliged to replace the phone. After a month the phone keys stopped working properly. I contacted Orange and they kept referring me back to the shop saying that Orange shops were franchises and I must go back to the shop (I live in London) even though I was a Premier account holder. I kept calling the shop but they never answered their phone. I also made numerous calls to customer services but got nowhere. Eventually I told them that as they were in breech of the agreement to replace the phone that I would not be paying my line rental but would cover all the cost of the calls. They insisted that despite the fact that I was not getting the service I had paid for I had to pay up or I was in breech of contract! They restricted my line etc. Fed up I returned to the offending shop and staged a sit in on a busy Saturday morning and refused to budge until they resolved my problem. Eventually, they agreed that the problem was with them and we came to a verbal agreement about what I should pay. However, they then proceeded to change their mind and logged the dispute with a debt collector and logged a default notice on my credit file. They also demanded the full years contract money before they would reconnect and repair my phone (I still had the faulty phone) or a smaller (equally excessive amount which included line rental for the time when my phone wasn't working). I flatly refused to pay and after about a year they came back to me with a settlement figure which I felt was fair and so I paid up. The default notice, although logged as satisfied, is still on my credit file and I do not know how to go about getting this removed. The problem I have is that most of the correspondance was done on the telephone. What can I do? I don't remember them informing me that these details would be logged on my credit file? And I feel that this default was unfair given the circumstances. I have just had a mortgage application reduced because of this and therefore at present, cannot in principle, get an adequate mortgage offer.

[buzby]

Orange shops (Orange Retail) and branded outlets (independent or franchised) are indeed different, but your Premier Account was with Orasnge so telling you to contact the dealer was misinformed - under the Sale Of Goods Act (and irrespective of your account type) it is the shop who must arrange the replacement - that is the retailer, unless this is also the network.

 

You cannot stop paying line rental as a protest, because your SIM card/contract are seperate from the handset - if you put the SIM in a different phone, you'd get all the services you were contracted for.

 

You say the retailer agreed verbally to resolve the issue - they couldn't 'log the dispute' with a DCA because only the network you were contracted to can do this. If you are saying that the retailer did not keep their promise to resolve the issue, your argument is with them and not the network. However, there appears to be blame on both sides, so you need to get the retailer and orange (if different) to get together and resolve the issue.

 

Your contract gives them permission to disclose your details to a DCA and has done since 1997. So they've done nothing wrong, it's just a pain lenders take all DCA files as gospel.

[dearone]

Thanks for your advice. I'm sorry I didn't explain myself very well. It was Orange who made the deal with me but this was as I staged my sit in in the shop. The shop got them on the line. I hadn't at the time thought about putting my sim in another phone but I understand that you are meant to keep paying. It doesn't seem fair to me though that they are in breech of their promise but you can't break yours. All I'm concerned about is getting this wiped from my credit file. Hundreds of calls were made to Orange about this and that alone I feel is unfair on me. Clearly they realise they were in the wrong because the settlement they offered was well below what they first asked for. Basically it went from £300, to £200 to £65 which I paid because I felt this was fair. Can I not apply to have this removed on the grounds of a dispute? Because this is very different to someone who doesn't pay their bill.

[buzby]

It really is a case of the tail wagging the dog - and irrespective of the dispute, Orange will state that the detail is accurate and they have no reason to remove the default. To get to this you need to work back through your complaint to prove they treated you unfairly, and once they do that - THEN get them to remove it. All it says is that you didn't pay your account when asked, and if it still shows as owing or even settled, you still have much work ahead.

[Vigreybrance]

What have you tried so far in terms of getting rid of the default?

I had a similar problem with vodafone/singlepoint. I was unable to get service and after the year I cancelled with them, however I ended up with a default on my credit file for £66 because they claimed they had no record of me cancelling and charges would be due the month after I cancelled my contract. I filed a notice of correction with Experian who were contacting them on my behalf and sent them a letter. The response I got was firmly that they wouldn't remove the default, so I thought I had no chance. However I was annoyed by the letter as it didn't deal with my complaint at all so I phoned the number on the letter and asked to speak to the person on the letter, after explaining about the lack of service etc he checked my account saw that what I was saying was consistent as I hadn't made any calls and agreed they'd remove the default. I would reccomend you try speaking to someone instead of just letter writing as I think they get a lot of people trying to remove defaults who to be honest probably did default and are looking for a technicality to get them off. So if you have a genuine complaint about lack of service/phone not working they are far more likely to be helpful. At the end of the day if you were unable to get any service then why should you have paid - just remain calm, reasonable and polite on the phone pointing out how unfair it is and go through the case asking them to check call records etc, explain you didn't realise settling the £65 would result in default you were under the impression the £65 would be the end of it. If you try to get too heavy with letters quoting the law and threatening legal action too soon I think you are less likely to be successful, though that might be something you have to do later.