Orange scamming me on contract bill - HELP!!!
MiresiaVerteta
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I have just recieved a bill from Orange for £127. The phone bills are average, but I've had about eight items called Payforit at £4.50 a time. I've NOT used any premium services, and went over my mobile broadband dongle by about 100 mb.
I'm 18 months into this contract, and have been with this operator for six years. I am totally sickened, and I am not in a financial position to afford the bill.
Is there anyway to dispute the charge or get out of the contract a bit early?
I'm 18 months into this contract, and have been with this operator for six years. I am totally sickened, and I am not in a financial position to afford the bill.
Is there anyway to dispute the charge or get out of the contract a bit early?
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Payforit is the UK mobile micropayment scheme, created and supported by all of the UK mobile network operators (MNOs), enabling consumers to use their mobile phone account or prepaid balance to transact securely and safely when purchasing content and services on the internet.
The Payforit scheme has been continuously developed by the UK MNOs to provide a consistent and transparent standard for paying by mobile so that consumers can buy with confidence when they are making one-off payments, making charitable donations or setting up subscription services via their mobile device or via the web.
Have you been downloading paid for apps or in app purchases in a game?
If not, do you let your kids use the phone?
When I buy something from google play, I get the choice of payment methods, google account or payforit via my mobile bill.
A good idea is to make sure the phone is secured with a password that no one will be able to guess.
I am on benefit now as I had lost my job and feel this is obscene charges. Orange has gone downhill since the EE merger and my confidence with them has gone.
Also ask them to put the premium rate block on the account.
^ This.
It will also be pointless ranting at them when you call. Ask the CS rep for 'help' and your more likely to get that help and resolution.
A few months ago, I was raging at my daughters phone bill of £128. Once I had calmed down I called Voda and asked them to look at the bill and tell me where the charges had come from (exactly... numbers, texts etc).
They went away and said that my daughter had been making lots of very short calls, all of which had eaten into her 300 free minutes (a 3 second call equates to 1min billed) and then gone over her minutes. BUT, their billing system had messed up and somehow (she didnt say how) and they knocked off £108. I didnt rant at them and was polite. The CS girl couldnt be more helpful. As a gesture of goodwill, they also added 25 MMS a month to the account for free. Happy days :-)
As for the 100mb over, you will get hammered for going over so I'd advise keeping an eye on your usage a bit more.
The allowance, they kept cocking it up giving me 250mb one month, 500 the next, so its partly mine and theirs. I need to ring Payforit, but they didnt give me the number. not helpful.
Seriously considering switching, since EE came along it has got worse.
http://www.payforituk.com/pages/contact.html
Customer enquires (for instance regarding charges appearing on mobile phone bills) should be directed to the Customer Services department of the relevant mobile operator.
.. say Payforit.
You need to be more firm with Orange and ask to speak to a manager. The network should be able to deal with this for you.
What exactly are they saying the payforit transactions are for? What information did they give you.
If you can't get it resolved then the regulator is http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/ 0800 500 212 for payforit at the moment. They will be able to receive and act on a complaint and force the operator to refund if necessary.
Have a look at your eBay account to find out what the purchases were....
I've doubled checked every text message sent in the dongle's message centre/connection manager. There is one for playnet.mobi saying £4.50 a week. No-one has ordered any games or apps, or anything off Ebay. This was installed the day the dongle was activiated.
Likely, Orange have scammed me.
Also, I read that if you're 18/19 months in, you can walk away from the contract. Is this true?
Orange have not scammed you.
Something has happened, whether it's malware on your computer or whatever. I recommend my advice above.
Do you see the messages in the outbox of your connection manager? or only acknowledgement messages. It is possible that there is some fraud going on with somebody in the supply chain / shop you bought it from where they have signed it up prior to selling it, did you buy the dongle or sim from Ebay? if so that could very well be the case as somebody is getting that £4.50 per week.
Where did you get the sim card from? I'm confused as you say you've been in contract for 18 months, but then you say you were subscribed on the day you activated the dongle.
The dongle was part of an offer for £10 which was activiated and came from an order placed over the phone at Orange.
I will do a malware scan.
Was the message in the sent box of the dongle? if so then that's proof something was sent from the machine, whether it was by another member of the family, malware or whatever.
If you've only got a response but nothing showing as sent then I'd continue to pursue it with Orange first, say you want to make a complaint to the complaints team, then after 7 days if no joy go to phonepayplus as I posted earlier as Ofcom has designated them the regulator for Payforit transactions.
Thanks for the advice Thine Work. The bastards are not getting away with it that easy.
I don't really see what this has got to do with Orange. They're not trying to scam you.
Possibly, yeah. But it's not Orange trying to run a scam.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3388114
http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Ask-the-community-got-stuck/Payforit-KKOMobile-quot-text-STOP-to-quot-scam/td-p/6163550
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/06/mystery-bills-from-mydoo.html
Seems this has been going on for a long time. A lot of it is caused by in app fees that people don't realise or rogue applications on smartphones.
The OP however was using a mobile broadband dongle, meaning it's unlikely they would have paid for purchases in this way.
I think it's got to be Orange complaints first, then phonepayplus. If you get nowhere then complain to the CEOs office.
If you didn't request the service you will get your money back