After moving to China and cancelling the contract, I was told my account was 'unsettled'
I had a 24-month contract with Orange (now EE) for an iPhone and iPad which ended in June, during which I never missed a payment. I moved abroad, gave the required one month's notice and cancelled the contract. I was told by an Orange customer services operator that I did not have to take any further action. The following month a further payment was taken from my account, so I cancelled the direct debit. In September I returned to the UK to attend a funeral to find two letters from Orange collection department telling me my account was £105.34 in arrears.
I was told that when my contract was cancelled, the phone number and iPad number had not been "correctly disbanded". I was assured that the error was not mine, it would be rectified and I would be refunded.
After returning to China I did a routine credit check with Experian which showed a significantly lower credit score than I'm used to. It showed my Orange account as "unsettled" and "overdue" which had had an adverse impact on my credit score. I phoned Orange customer services, from China, on 11 October and was told the account would be settled and to ignore any further collection letters.
After several weeks I checked my credit report again which showed my account was still overdue. I lodged a dispute with Experian which raised this with Orange.
Orange told Experian that the overdue balance was correct. I have since sent several emails to the Orange referrals team, which reaffirms (incorrectly) that I remain in arrears. This has been dragging on for five months. JS, Beijing
This error on the part of EE could have cost you a mortgage application, or similar, but you have not even had an apology. Perhaps if more people sued the phone company for damages in such circumstances, they would take better care to make sure the data they passed on to the credit reference agencies was correct.
Fortunately, the press office is better managed than EE's customer services, and things moved much quicker after we sent on your letter. An EE/Orange spokesperson said in a statement: "We have closed the customer's account and cancelled the debt. We apologise for the inconvenience. We understand that it amended your credit file on 25 November and will process it within 30 days." Check your Experian file again in a few weeks.
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