Wrong person defaulted - Orange mobile

[Trumpet]

Looking for a bit of assistance on this please. The situation is that somehow my son's mobile phone contract that was taken out some years ago got put in my name. His name and mine are very similar but obviously there is around 20 years difference in our date of birth. It appears that his contract got my name and DoB on it. I really can't see how someone in the shop didn't spot the discrepancy but that's just incidental. I definitely did not take out the contract for him.

When he ported his contract over to a different supplier there was a final bill that didn't get paid. Orange wrote to me and I explained that it wasn't mine and that I'd get my son to sort it. As far as I know he has made contact and arranged to pay it on production of an itemised bill (rather than a letter that says "You owe us seventy quid so pay up...")

Yesterday, I noticed that Orange have now put a default marker on my credit file.

Can I demand they remove it as I have told them that it wasn't me and as I've had no further correspondence from them since that call?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

[Riz]

Re: Wrong person defaulted - Orange mobile

Yes presumably.

If me I would write to them complaining, saying you can prove you told them etc. Tell them that as you can prove your case, then if they do not remove the entry then you will take the matter to CISAS, the ICO, (and consider legal action perhaps).

Would also take the matter up with the CRAs as presumably (I think for phones) the record submitted to them would have contained a date of birth that did not match yours, so they should never have matched the entry
against your file in the first place.

[Trumpet]

Re: Wrong person defaulted - Orange mobile

Thanks Riz,

I think the date of birth still matched mine. I get the impression that they thought it easier to just chase the person that they'd spoken to rather than find the right one!

[SXGuy]

Re: Wrong person defaulted - Orange mobile

Orange contracts requires a person to give them a date of birth for the credit check prior to approval of a contract mobile.

What you need to do is ascertain where they have got your date of birth from. Its not a simple case of looking up the wrong person, as I say, the date of birth of the contract applicant, is cleared asked for by Orange/EE for credit check purposes, prior to acceptance.

So someone had to have gave your date of birth, unless you can obtain, their records which show otherwise.

[Trumpet]

Re: Wrong person defaulted - Orange mobile

Well, after numerous emails to various departments (including most of the company directors as well as the Executive Office) I got it sorted!

Luckily, my son had kept the original contract and managed to find it. It had his name and address on it but it also had my date of birth - printed by computer, not hand written. He says that he had to take in his driving license to prove his identity and I'm fairly sure that would have happened.

Here's the bit that really swung it though, the paperwork was countersigned by the branch manager.
In effect, he had signed off a document with the date of birth that was around 25 years earlier than the one for person standing in front of him. Either he was in so much of a rush to sell another phone that he didn't notice/didn't care or he was fairly incompetent.

I previously had a contract with Orange but I don't know whether this could have just been recalled by their sales system.

I've had the default removed and all is well again, now. It took a lot of explaining, a number of emails and a fair amount of persistence but it's over - thank goodness!

[IF]

Re: Wrong person defaulted - Orange mobile

Well done Trumpet

[Riz]

Re: Wrong person defaulted - Orange mobile

Glad you got it sorted in the end.