My dad sadly passed away at the end of March and as the adminsitrator I phoned Orange to cancel his mobile phone contract the day after.
I prioritised Orange from previous bad experiences of cancelling contracts and wanted to deal with this one first.
Unfortunately it was too late to stop the money from going out of my dad's account (we hadn't figured out where it was going from at that point) two days later so it was paid. We accepted that and haven't challenged it.
They asked us to fax a copy of the death certificate and gave us a number. The number did not work.
I took the death certificate to a local Orange shop and got them to fax it. The number also didn't work, so they spent half an hour on the phone getting an alternative number and the faxed it. They told me that their receipt machine didn't work but agreed to sign the death certificate as having seen it.
The following month my mum received a bill. I phoned (and absorbed the expense and time being on hold) and they assured me it was just the system and not to worry about it. My mum, however got stressed out by this as she had thought I had sorted it.
The following month my mum got another bill. I phoned again and refused to get off the phone until they agreed to send my mum a letter of apology. They refused to that but absolutely gave their word that we would get no bills.
The following month my mum got another bill and a strongly worded letter. She was extremely stressed about this and it has caused difficulties in our relationship at an already awful time. It caused a feud between be and my brother who had already felt a bit upset that my mum had asked me to sort things instead of him.
The next day, my mum received a letter asking her to forward a copy of the death certificate in order for them to close the account and cheekily put in the wording that as a gesture of good will they will credit the remaining balance (i.e. the bills that they have been sending unnecessarily and stressing out my mum).
I refuse to spend more money on phonecalls to orange, or to spend the 90mins in their shop sorting out faxing, or indeed now even a postage stamp. I am so angry at what they have done to our family at an extremly sad and stressful time, particularly as I have already done all the right things to no avail. I don't want to waste time again.
Can anyone please tell me what I can do to get rid of them out of my and my mum's life for good. I have already cancelled my own Orange contract and moved to 3. I would leave it until the bailliffs turn up and show them the death certificate as that would be most efficient but it would stress out my mum.
Any ideas?