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Orange France Invoiced me 87 000 Euros for 1 phone call

akamleh said:
I live between France and USA. I took a French IPHONE from Orange FR to use in France when I am there. I came back to New York where I live 3 weeks ago. Since Yesterday my iphone stopped getting service,I called them and was told that my service is suspended as I made a phone call ( 1 phone call ) for 78 000 Euros and I have to pay it before they establish my service. I will have to call them tomorrow as they refuse to re-establish my service and they demad that I pay the the 1 PHONE CALL CHARGE of 87 000 Euros. I thought it was a joke, I hanged and called again and asked to speak to a manager, They refused to talk to me and confirmed that my account is passed due with 87 000 Euros.

December 24, Called Orange France, No managers willing to discuss, they transferred me to their technical Dept. i could hear the whole Dept. Laughing like I was the New Year eve party. They were arguing with me that at 2AM New York, Local time, My phone made a "Voice Mail" connection for 17 hours and 58 Min. for a total of 87,025.40 EUROS. I argued for 1 hour that this is technically impossible. They still insist that I need to pay, then write a claim ( In writing Please ) send it by "mail" and wait the answer by January 15. Meanwhile I "must" pay and when they issue the credit it will post as credit to my account that I can use for calling. I mean how many LOLs can I type, It is a sad situation to see France is still a medieval country in the 21st century and how can apple deal with a company like this and give them the exclusivity. I contacted Canal Plus, TF1, A2 TV Channels in France and sent an e-mail to Steve Job, let us see what this will bring. In any case I guess I can say that I hold the world record of the most expensive voice mail in the UNIVERSE.

December 26, I am in Paris, Called Orange FRance.
Apparently my phone connected to Orange.fr server for 17 hours, They can not explain what is connecting to their server for 17 hours and what purpose that would serve to anyone. They admit that anyone with a healthy mind would not charge such amount, The customer service representative was laughing her head off. She said I should put opposition on the automatic payment on my bank account which I already did, write a letter and even advised me to stop my contract without waiting its anniversary date due to Orange daring to ask for such amount. So no phone calls made, no e-mails, no push, the phone had 3G turned off, Push turned off, data roaming turned off and they still argue the phone connected to Orange.fr. Something is very wrong with their system. I am going to go the whole nine yards and give them the advertisement they deserve. I will contact all TV stations and News papers and let us see how many people will buy iphones from Orange.
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those sex chat lines will cost you.
 
Notice the OP has only posted twice, including his initial post. Not only that but, he's a newbie with only two posts (the posts from this thread)...
FAKE, NEXT
 
Robby9279 said:
Notice the OP has only posted twice, including his initial post. Not only that but, he's a newbie with only two posts (the posts from this thread)...
FAKE, NEXT
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Why? What has he possibly got to gain? It's not like he's claiming to have some groundbreaking news about a new product. He's not even complaining about Apple or even AT&T. He's saying he's had poor service from Orange FR for gods sake. A company that probably next to no one on this forum is connected to or has any interest in.

Why is it harder to believe that having received such outragous service he decided to discuss his options in one of the busiest iPhone forums on the Internet?
 
Aurial said:
Why is it harder to believe that having received such outrageous service he decided to discuss his options in one of the busiest iPhone forums on the Internet?
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There is nothing wrong with it what-so-ever. The thing is, if he wishes to discuss it, you must participate in the thread you created. In this case, the OP made the initial post to let everybody know what happened, and then posted once more. And that's it, he stopped talking, forgive me if I'm wrong, but that is just weird.

If I was wishing to discuss this kind of issue, not only would I calling orange, but I would also be asking for help/and asking people on this thread what they would do, and I would respond to those answers.
 
cashboxz01 said:
Seriously, if i were you, i would get a lawyer, and sue Orange BIG TIME.
Orange is just a big of an ******* as AT&T(if not, bigger) with RIDICULOUS PRICES.

This is a VERY serious case. You CAN sue them big time. Don't go for a settlement that Orange says.

Since this is Apple Exclusivity we're talking about, I am not the least bit surprised.

I could imagine AT&T doing that in USA, seriously.

If you could put an example for the world that iPhone Exclusivity is a bad thing, people would recognize you.

This shows how greedy Apple and their "EXCLUSIVE DEALERS" are for money, and how they don't give a **** about the middle class.

It really doesn't cost Apple more than 30 bucks to make one of these things. I don't care what they(Apple) say, it's all ********. I know how much Apple products cost to make in China with the large quantities and contracts.
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It seems you don't have a clue about European law. Orange France is NOT an US company and isn't bound to US law.
 
Robby9279 said:
There is nothing wrong with it what-so-ever. The thing is, if he wishes to discuss it, you must participate in the thread you created. In this case, the OP made the initial post to let everybody know what happened, and then posted once more. And that's it, he stopped talking, forgive me if I'm wrong, but that is just weird.

If I was wishing to discuss this kind of issue, not only would I calling orange, but I would also be asking for help/and asking people on this thread what they would do, and I would respond to those answers.
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Ok, I see where you're coming from. It has been over the Christmas period though and I think there is an update on the previous page saying he's been travelling too. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.
 
Aurial said:
Well I think all this talk of suing people is a little foolish at this stage.

You need to know what the actual costs are that Orange FR are billing you for. What happens if you get your lawyer, rock up to the court and then Orange produce some bill that you are actually liable for? You end up paying not only the massive bill, your lawyers fee's, but the court costs and Orange's costs also. People are far too quick to jump on the "Let's sue someone" bandwagon these days, and it's really sad. A poor indictment of modern society.

Anyway, rant over. We can sit here and type away about what the reasons behind this bill are, but the truth is that we're speculating which isn't helping you one bit. Even if we convince you it's because of xyz, we just don't know.

Your next step has to be to contact Orange FR again and ask for some sort of itemized bill (whether that's sent through the post/fax or email) which tells you exactly what you're being billed for. No one can expect you to pay an ammount like that without first checking what it is you're paying for.

My gut feeling is still that it's a data call resulting from a push email service, and because you're roaming on an overseas network it's been billed in some strange way as a 24/7 call. Some of these roaming deals work in really strange ways, or there may have been a ghost in the machine when they've exchanged your usage info. You need to ask them what you're being billed for.
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I agree with the first part of talking about sueing without any knowledge about the specifics laws or necessity. I would advise the OP to first write a letter of protest to Orange France where you clearly write that you don't agree with the invoice and would like to examine it further. You need to write that during this investigation within a reasonable specified time (for instance 30 days) you don't feel committed to paying the invoice upfront. Also ask a specified bill in this letter. After you have written this letter contact a French lawyer and explain the situation and ask for advice. Since this isn't a state-organ and considering the amount of the invoice, you have a good chance of avoiding to pay upfront. (it isn't highly unusual for state-organs in the Netherlands to demand a payment upfront and consider protests afterwards for example)

I hope the invoice is based on a genuine mistake, otherwise I wish you good luck.

To be clear: all advice given in this post is given in good faith. It doesn't specify nor suggest a definitive answer. Contact an appropiate lawyer.
 
Aurial said:
Ok, I see where you're coming from. It has been over the Christmas period though and I think there is an update on the previous page saying he's been travelling too. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.
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And I understand where you're coming from, and that is the only faint reason why I think this thread could be true. If he is out traveling, and the holidays are keeping him from posting, then please disregard my thoughts :rolleyes:
 
Robby9279 said:
And I understand where you're coming from, and that is the only faint reason why I think this thread could be true. If he is out traveling, and the holidays are keeping him from posting, then please disregard my thoughts :rolleyes:
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And if it is fake I'll join you in hunting him down like a dog ;)
 
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