Orange billing mistake has affected my credit rating

A question about : Orange billing mistake has affected my credit rating

Hi there,

I took out a contract Orange a few years ago. Towards the end of that contract I upgraded to EE.

12/11/2014 - Received a letter claiming I owed a termination fee, despite the fact I had upgraded. I called and the billing team confirmed this was a mistake and nothing was owed. I thought the matter was closed.

18/01/2015 - Received a letter stating Ј15.47 was due, from the Orange collections department. I called, and collections refused to acknowledge my previous discussion. I was put through to Billing who acknowledged my first discussion and said a Ј20 credit was being placed on my account to cover the Ј15 and a Ј3.50 fee that would be charged for paying by a method other than direct debit.

12/02/2015 - I received a letter from Orange Collections stating this was being passed to an external debt collection agency. I called, complained to Ofcom and wrote a formal complaint to Orange and was told that 'this would never happen.' I was told they would take care of the matter. I also found an app to record this discussion, having grown frustrated with the ongoing u-turns and lies I'd been told. I received a letter stating nothing was owing on account.

I've just checked Noddle and my credit rating has dropped from 3/5 the value at around December) to 1/5. It lists arrears for January and February and has clearly destroyed my credit rating.

I'm now really worried about how this will affect my finances in the future. I don't know what actions I should be taking. Could anyone tell me what steps I should take? I'm in the process of writing to Orange but I don't know if this is sufficient?

Best answers:

• Hi moonklash,
  This type of issue is all too common with telecoms companies, sadly. I've also had a poor experience when I migrated from T-Mobile to EE.
  The whole thing was a fiasco from the start and at one stage, my credit file was badly affected by their incompetence. The issue was eventually resolved. See these threads:
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=5171087
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=4888238
  If you've exhausted the usual complaint routes and have had no positive outcome, you can do what I did and email the executive office at executive.office@orange.co.uk. Also CC their CEO Olaf Swantee at olaf.swantee@ee.co.uk. This should get their attention hopefully and a quicker resolution should be forthcoming.
  Good luck!
• Hey everyone,
  Thanks so much for the advice. I've written a scolding four page letter demanding they rectify this but the Executive Office sounds like a more hopeful approach - I'll definitely give this a try and report back what happens.
  You're absolutely right in saying that Orange/EE should be banned from the CRAs. An organisation like Orange - who I had to call every couple of months to let them know about their billing errors - should not be allowed to do anything that involves credit reports. These people can have damaging affects on our lives yet don't seem to be able to use a calculator themselves - ridiculous.