Orange and DLC Collections

[charterman]

I would appreciate any advice for dealing with Orange over a disputed account.

The last demand for payment on a closed account was for £110. To respond to this I started the 3 letters to the CEO. Today I will do the second one was because he hasn't responded. It may not arrive on his desk until Tuesday because of Easter, but that is unavoidable.

This morning I have received a letter from DLC demanding £352.18 or £117.88 if I settle now. Where do these people get these figures from? I am thinking of continuing with the letters to CEO of Orange and adding the ' notice to principle ' bit and sending similar letter to the parasites. Or, having been tempted by the A4V videos I have been watching from Ceylon, filling out the bank giro credit (bgc) and sending that off to them. The downside of that is giving them my national insurance number and my signature. I never sign DLC letters and if I do I put 2 lines through it so the ***** can't lift it and copy it onto bogus letters/agreements etc.

Thank you in advance whoever replies and I will keep you informed of the outcome, especially if I am successful. Sorry I haven't uploaded copies of the letter but I haven't got a scanner.

Strength to Lawful Rebellion.

[ceylon]

up to you but if your doing the 3 letters they have worked for me in the past with these idiots

[charterman]

Thank you for replying Ceylon.

This morning I received the following letter from Stuart McLaren, Executive Officer for Orange. I don't have a scanner so I will just highlight snippets. His tone was both aggressive and dismissive. Oh, throw arrogant into the mix as well.

He goes on to say that Orange has no obligation to comply with the content ( first debt letter ) and does not accept its contents. Nor will be drawn into and I quote: ' psuedo-legal disputes '. I am then told to do a legal challenge through the appropriate channels. Unfortunately he didn't say what they are.

Yesterday they will have received the second letter. No doubt it will make as grumpy as when Snowhite pissed on his cornflakes.

[ceylon]

just keep going

[therootsundo]

Hi,

I work in Collections at Orange so I can tell you exactly what's going on. The contract charges are raised by the DCA, not Orange, and are based on you being disconnected for non-payment in the middle of the contract. So if you're on £36.00 plan with 14 months left when you're disconnected, the DCA will chase for your debt plus £504 and admin fees which is 10% of the original fee.

It's really frustrating hearing people disputing an account and not getting resolution so just so you are fully aware and get the best outcome, we are regulated by Ofcom who have laid down our complaints resolution rules which is based on an escalation procedure. This basically starts at frontline then moves on to Manager, then Ops Manager and then Exec/Head Office. In total, we have 8 weeks from the first point of contact to resolve this dispute. If at any point you don't agree with the bottom line that whoever is advising you, you can request an escalation above their head. If it's still unresolved by the time it's reached Exec and a stalemate is reached, then the account is referred to CICAS, the telecommunications adjudicator.

This gets a bit tricky for everyone involved when an account is with DCA because we're no longer allowed to deal with it. You need to contact DLC and request their correspondence address, then send the dispute in writing to them. It's then their decision (as they have bought the debt from us) to request for us to then open an investigation and send the account back to us. On another note, any settlement figure given to you by the DCA is their choice, it is their debt after all.

Also, on a personal level (from my experience at least), using loaded words like 'parasite' and getting involved on a personal level will not get you anywhere because it distracts from the point at hand - whether or not what is happening to you is right or not. Be concise and impartial. Feel free to fire off letters to CEOs but in my experience, nothing ever gets resolved that way. Have I missed anything?

[lambchop]

Thanks for your input, it's good to see this from people such as yourself on the inside so to speak.
so what you are saying the debt gets SOLD on and once it goes to the debt collection people then you HAVE sold it on and is now out of your hands?

once again thanks for coming on and sharing

[ceylon]

bills of exchange debt sold its paid say thankyou

[therootsundo]

Yeah, the DCAs buy the debt from us. We can give general advice of how it got to that point, but it's discouraged as it's no longer our debt and the agencies are normally aware of what actions we took in Collections before it was sent to them. I forgot to add as well, if the account is disconnected for non-payment, you have a 6 month window from the date of disconnection to clear off the outstanding balance with the DCA to reconnect with us. If the original debt is cleared in that time and the account is reconnected contact charges are waived. So if the original debt is £120 with £504 in contract charges plus a 10% admin fee, you'll get a letter for £636 from the DCA. You only need to pay £132 to reconnect. If you agree a payment arrangement for longer than 6 months then we can't reconnect and the DCA will chase for the full balance.

[testotar]

Having read this thread I was wondering if anyone had any idea as to how to deal with an orange contract that has about 18 months to run now that i have been made recently bankrupt...

in the contract it states that any monies will still be owed to orange even after insolvency but i can't see how this can be the case if i'm bust! I'm assuming they'll cut me off for non payment soon but will probably still do so once the official receiver gets involved anyway. I'm also assuming that they'll try it on for the recovery of said monies, to which my response will be that they refrain from contacting me ever again and that the official receiver is dealing with my affairs now and will be in touch accordingly... but does anyone know if this is actually the case?? i've never been bust before and am trying to understand which tactics i can use to benefit from bankrupty!!!

[ceylon]

if you go bankrupt just make sure you add the orange contract to it then it should be gone