William Heath’s blog

Posted on Jun 20th by William in Customer service

Here’s a reply from Orange which came in yesterday:

Dear Sirs

Your Client: Wiliam Heath
Account Number: xxx

I write further to your fax dated 3rd June 2009, the contents of which are noted. As set out in my previous correspondence, points 1-3 of my offer of settlement were offered purely as a gesture of goodwill, on a strictly without admission of liability basis.

I am willing however to arrange for written confirmation to be provided to your client, which will confirm the actions taken in respect of our records, your client’s credit file, and confirmation of any cessation of actions by debt collection agencies. Therefore I would reiterate our offer of settlement, purely as a gesture of goodwil, to bring an end to this matter:-

1. We are prepared to waive the outstanding balance on the account, which
currently stands at £83.49;

2. We are prepared to terminate the account with no further penalties;

3. We are prepared to amend your client’s credit file and arrange for any collections actions to cease; we will also write to you/your client confirming the actions taken;

4. We are prepared to offer your client the sum of £150.00 purely as a gesture of goodwilL. This can be by way of cheque or by way of account credit to your client’s existing account.

We believe the above offer of monetary settement is reasonable in the circumstances, and would reflect any reasonable legal costs incurred by your client in this matter. You have not provided us with any detail of the legal work undertaken by your firm on behalf of your client, and as such i am unable to offer any further sum in compensation for legal costs.
Please contact the writer in writing should your client wish to accept this offer.

Yours faithfully

Right. So they’ll confirm in writing they’ll stop pursuing me and that they’ve corrected my records, but not apologise. Their view of “reasonable legal costs” falls a long way short of “realistic legal costs”.

UPDATE: further letter:

Purely in an attempt to resolve this matter without incurring further costs for either party, we would be willing to offer your client the sum of £250.00 in full and final settlement of his claim in respect of costs. This offer is made without admission of liability and purely as a gesture of goodwill.

I dont think Orange’s own solicitors would pick up the cudgels to turn round a threatening bureaucratic juggernaut for £250, let alone for £150. I may be wrong. I can always ask Olswangs I suppose.

So, lots of talk about goodwill, but I’m hours and hours and hundreds of pounds out of pocket on this basis, plus I fel I’ve been both ignored and bullied. So I’m far from satisfied. With such treatment how can they expect that there will still be an “existing account” to which to apply this modest credit?

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