William Heath’s blog

You may recall where we got to with Orange, my long-term mobile phone services supplier which started threatening me and invoking debt collectors and damaged credit reputation after someone else took out a mobile phone contract in my name.
After months of trying to get them to listen Orange’s offer of settlement made no apology, [...]

Background: Orange has since December wanted to bill me for a contract fraudulently taken out in my name using a stolen drivers’ licence and cancelled debit card. They put put debt collectors on the case and threatened to damage my credit rating. After a lawyers’ letter they last week finally acknowledged my concern, though not [...]

Here’s a useful tool called Zamzar which converts wps documents to other formats online for free. Jolly handy if someone has written an affidavit (for example saying I was at the Hambledon nursery on 5 Dec and NOT in the Oxford Street Orange shop taking out a contract) but has sent it in wps format.

Farrer’s have the reply from Orange’s legal department. Essentially it restates the facts of the case acceptably (apart from omitting my first phone call on receipt of their first bill). It then goes on to say
Notwithstanding the above, and purely as a gesture of goodwill in this matter, we are prepared to offer your client [...]

OK. Here’s the letter my solicitors wrote to Orange. Please feel free to reuse and recycle any or all of it if you’re having similar difficulties with your own service provider. All I ask is you leave a comment here. If you’re moved to do more than that then you might send some flowers to [...]

No news from Orange. Nothing from the police. So I dropped into the shop at 261 Oxford Street (where the impersonation took place). The deputy manager there Ozzie is personable, was concerned, took the issue perfectly seriously. He thinks we may make some progress but gave me his number and said “come back to me [...]

And another one for the poor old Orange shop whose inadequate client ID procedures have caused me all this grief, hassle and expense:

How does this read?
Data Protection Officer
Orange Personal Communications Services Limited
St James Court
Great Park Road
Almondsbury Park
Bradley Stoke
Bristol
BS32 4QJ
Dear Sir/Madam
Orange associates my name with two account numbers: 57542748 and 54408568. I am particularly interested in information Orange holds about me in connection with account number 57542748.
Can I therefore under section 7(1) of the 1998 Data Protection Act [...]

Hurrah for the Co-op. They don’t lend more than they take in in deposits. They don’t invest in derivatives or wacky ventures abroad. And when I tell them that Orange accepted my cancelled debit card as part proof of identity to issue a contract to an impersonator they’re very sympathetic.
So they’re writing to confirm [...]

Here’s my third email to the Orange executive office:
Dear Jaime
Further to my second email (to which you have not replied as promptly as my first) I see the story of Orange’s intransigence and intimidation of an innocent and long-standing customer has been picked up by Computer Weekly (”A Case Study in Corporate Stupidity”)
As I [...]