Orange/EE has suddenly become a nightmere - why?

Dear All,

My mother has had an orange home broadband account for many years. Out of the blue my Mother she was contacted by EE and told that she had no choice but to move to a new package because her second line service was being removed.

She slightly misunderstood and thought she was getting extra lines and a new phone but she was very clear that she had no choice and had to make this change immediately or loose the service completely.

What she has actually verbally signed up for a new modem and for EE to take over her BT land line. I have queried this and have been told that the cooling off period is 48 hours. Really? I don't believe that this is correct and that EE / Orange are breaking the law here.

She starts getting various e mails from EE and invoices from billing@t-mobile.co.uk.

She hasn't got a mobile with orange or t-mobile and indeed before receiving these emails we had no idea that t-mobile has anything to do with EE or Orange.

It was only at this stage that we realised that she had been taken from an out of contract situation into an in contract situation which we now understand requires her to pay £137.24 to get out of orange broadband.

I was away at the time. But had I known I would have liked the opportunity to review what alternatives are on the market - obviously not possible now owing to being put into a new contract.

Addressing the issue of the t-mobile e mails we were/are completely confused. The e mails from billing@t-mobile.co.uk were issued on the same day as the EE emails say we the account had been changed, although slightly later. At first we thought that may be Tesco mobile had been taken over but they confirmed that nothing has changed with mums pay as you go phone.

We attempted to call t-mobile. This is needless to say completely impossible. We have no account information therefore we cannot find any way through their automated phone system to make a general enquiry and find out why these e mails have been sent.

Speaking with orange and discussing the possibility of these invoices being related to the enforced change of account has been nothing short of torture. I have spent 5 hours on the phone going around and around in a circle.

It seems that orange is orange when orange wants to distance itself from EE memos etc but orange is EE when it wants to force people onto new 12 month contracts. All very very confusing.

The farce continues. We have no idea what we are being billed for or by whom and we have no idea why we have been forced onto a new 12 month contract should we be dealing with EE should we be dealing with orange should we be dealing with t-mobile I have absolutely no idea what so ever.

After wasting my entire Sunday and getting extremely stressed and upset the only thing that I can conclude is to cancel ALL the direct debits. Then see what happens when an amount falls due then one assumes that EE or what they are called will attempt to contact us and explain what monies they are asking for and why.

What happened. Orange was absolutely brilliant I have never for a moment worried about their billing or service. In the last few months they have completely screwed my mobile account up and now this.

Whatever happens EE are history if we have to wait for 12 months so be it but whilst extremely annoying and unjust and unfair £137 seems cheap if I scrap it together to get away from this complete fiasco.

I would touch EE with a barge pole now - total disaster it reminds me of the NTL days. I can't do that level of stress any more life is just too short.

She should have been contacted by BT Retail about the phone line being taken over, with an option to get them not to allow it. I assume she either didn't see that, or didn't realise what it meant. I thought there was supposed to be about 14 days for this to happen after the order.

As RobertoS says, they have to wait 10 working days to take over a phone line, and BT Retail will use this time to contact your mother to make sure that this is what she wants. All she needs to do is tell BT to stop the line transfer - if it's not 10 working days since they contacted her, phone BT immediately and tell them.
As for the 48 hours - that's totally false. Distance selling regulation specify a 7 days cooling off period, not 48 hours.
Now the following is my understanding, and I recomment you don't take my word for it, but they must inform you of this when they phone up and convince you to switch - if they don't, the seven days cooling off period starts from the time they provide you with the necessary information (which includes information on how to cancel, information about how payments will be taken, and the minimum contract). If they haven't yet contacted her to provide all this information, she will have a right to cancel until 7 days after they do so.

No nothing from BT at all. The first I knew was when I got back Mum was saying that the Orange phones weren't working and could I look into it. It has been a total nightmare since starting my investigations. The orange phones are dead just really hoping that the BT phone is not charging at normal rates as overall spent about 3 days solid on the phone to EE.

Well that's useful to know but of course we are a bit late now as the orange line has already been switched off.

You may be able to get full refunds and compensation anyway. And then use the money to get a phone with somebody else...
You could start by making a written complaint to them and indicate that you are expecting compensation for the problems they caused.

Post deleted by RobertoS

Hmmm, I was going to say "same here" but it appears to have been deleted while I was typing

In reply to a post by JohnMike:

No nothing from BT at all. The first I knew was when I got back Mum was saying that the Orange phones weren't working and could I look into it. It has been a total nightmare since starting my investigations. The orange phones are dead just really hoping that the BT phone is not charging at normal rates as overall spent about 3 days solid on the phone to EE.

I'm now confused.

Are you saying she had two landlines, one BT Retail and one Orange? If not, what are these Orange phones that are dead? Why should the BT Retail phone not be charging normal rates, for the call plan she is on?

I had a bit of trouble understanding your opening post. Now I'm utterly lost.

In reply to a post by Uilebheist:

Hmmm, I was going to say "same here" but it appears to have been deleted while I was typing

At least you read it . Replaced by my reply to the OP as I realised it wasn't as simple as I thought when I made the deleted one.