No, the section 10 notice was sent at the same time as my complaint to the director's office, all before I posted here. At the time, I was so worked up over the damage to my credit file and the harassment from Fredricksons, that it was all I could think to do - tell them to stop processing my data and go away! In hindsight, I should have sought advice earlier. Will get another SAR sent off on Mon.

I've attached a response from Lowell Solicitors. Any ideas on how to respond to them? When I disputed with the CRAs, I attached evidence in the form of my SAR notes showing the closed account and terminated service, as well as the section 10 notice sent to Vodafone under the Data Protection Act. I know for a fact that all this information was forwarded to Lowell, as Equifax in particular make a point of showing that they have forwarded the lot to Lowell. They even wanted me to resend docs, as some did not come through on the submission form, so they could get the whole lot through to Lowell. Now Lowell are acting as though this is the first they have heard and sending me what is, in effect, a "prove it" letter without providing any proof themselves that any debt is owed. In fact, their response to the CRAs was "If the original creditor says it is owed, then we will take their word for it and chase the money anyway". Lowell response 08-12-16_Redacted.pdf

Hi BF I noticed that not all of the complaints I sent were logged on the system, which probably explains why VF employees later on in the game would claim that they had no knowledge of the complaint. Fortunately I kept all those emails filed away. My health problems got worse and the ultimate cause of them was also a source of concern because it became a legal matter. It has obviously been my priority given that, if I don't solve the problem at its root, it could ultimately cost me my life. That is how serious it became, and the matter is also soon to end up in court. Because it is likely to become quite a media circus in some ways, I wanted to get it out of the way before turning my attention back to Vodafone. Looks like Lowell want to drop this in my lap now regardless of my preferences. Also, Vodafone responded to my SAR around the same time that they sold the account to Lowell. My understanding from this is that they decided to have nothing further to do with the account from this point. Based on this, I doubt any further SAR requests would yield any further data beyond the date of sale to Lowell... and I suspect those missing complaints are lost given that they were never logged in the first place.

Latest update: I received a letter before action from the Leeds Losers. That came as a surprise, so I had a nosey on CAG to see how many others are getting these. A search for "Lowell Solicitors" shows that other Caggers are indeed receiving similar letters and claim forms. On that basis, I am taking the threat seriously and expect a claim form to arrive through my letterbox any day. Looks like it may be another batch of speculative claims in the middle of being sent out like confetti, in the hopes of picking up the odd default judgment. I decided to email them this evening and warn them that if they choose to try this one on me, that I will be dust off the old counterclaim-o-matic and aim it in their direction. At least they cannot say they weren't warned. Btw, are Lowell Solicitors real solicitors, or still clowns dressed as solicitors? I ask because their letter says on the back that they are regulated by the SRA. Would be intrigued to find out if they are telling porkies or not Watch this space...

Thanks for your kind words. VF defaulted very early on. I seem to remember it was around Jan/Feb 2015 and without a default notice because the first I knew of it was when I applied for business finance. So the Leeds Losers have effectively added nearly a year to the clock on a default which was never lawful in the first place. My SAR was dated 27 July 2015 and when I got it back, they had entries in it claiming that they had already resolved the complaint. Of course by "resolved" they meant telling me to pay up or else. Their SAR covering letter was dated 7th Sep. I cannot remember exactly when Lowell started sending their threatograms, but it was also around that time, so it would appear that they sold it as soon as the SAR was dealt with. Given that Lee was on this thread for the duration, they couldn't possibly claim that they did not know it was a matter under dispute. I've attached a pdf of two pages from the account notes they sent me from the SAR. You can see at the bottom for the entries dated 21/12/14, they show an NUC code provided as NOT LOCKED, yet still generated the charge for it. This is the same darn thing I argued about and which was on their system all this time. This is the only thing they ever agreed to refund and it took them 7 months of tooth-pulling to do so. Then the entry dated 14/01/15 where I cancelled my DD in protest, followed by suspension of my services only 4 days later on the 18th. Termination letter was sent about a week later on 26th and my account was subsequently deleted. I had no way of logging in after this point to check whether bills were still being generated. Yet you see up at their "resolution" on 27/06/15 that they think I should still pay for all those months of service that I was not getting because, according to their own system, my account was no longer in service. Then they tried to advise me of their "resolution" on the very mobile number that was no longer in service *headbang*. It seems they later tried to get hold of me on an old payg number that was no longer in use, but of course, even if it was still in use, I had specifically requested a written response so would not have discussed it over the phone. Also noticed that when I complained to the director's office, they simply batted it back to the same person who had ignored my complaint months previously. The director's team, it would seem, never got involved. This is why I am upset. They wasted no time in selling something that was very hotly and very publicly disputed, and I am left to pick up the pieces Vodafone_SAR_notes_Redacted.pdf

Hi again I've been away for a long time. Seriously ill, in and out of hospital, so that has taken all my time. Since the last time I posted, Vodafone went and sold my data to Lowell. The disputed default had previously been suppressed and/or marked as disputed with the various CRAs, but those delightful bottom feeders in Leeds have entered a fresh default with a start date of Nov 2015. And all this is after I specifically wrote to Vodafone to tell them to stop processing my data. Will need to make a complaint to the ICO because this is shocking behaviour, even for Vodafone. Not quite sure where to go next as my health is in a precarious place right now, but the harassment is not helping me get any better

Hi Caggers I have just received a SAR response from Vodafone via email. I can say straightaway that it is not everything that they hold, and I am not impressed. I'm still going through the finer details of the account notes, but apparently they believe that they have already responded to my complaint. This is the first I ever heard of it, since their "resolution" (if you can call it that) was attempted to my old disconnected Vodafone number. They later tried another old, disconnected number. At no point did they attempt to write to me, even after having been told very clearly that I will only deal with them in writing. Here is the main bit from the section pertaining to their alleged "resolution" of my complaint: Case id *** Couldn¿t upload the complaint as it is an attachment. Summary: Customer filled an NUC request in December 2014. Customer received a reply from the NUC team saying they were unable to provide an unlocking code as the device is already unlocked. Customer was charged for this service on the next bill. Customer sent an email to Vodafone on 12th January about this issue. Customer received a letter from Vodafone saying the contract will be termination if they did not pay the amount in 7 days. Customer disputed that Vodafone continued to bill them. Customer discovered that the account was handed over to a debt collector agency. Customer wanted an apology, correction of records held at Credit Agencies and compensation of no less than £500. Customer wanted to resolve the issue to their satisfaction. Investigation: On 04/02/2015, CR agent *** worked on the account. As per the investigation done, customer had issue with the NUC and late payment mark. We agreed to waive off the NUC charge for the customer as an exception. We would not be able to remove the mark from credit file as customer cancelled DD. Customer was charged £19.99 for NUC in the last bill. On 20/05/2015, we received a response from the QA team saying the late payments were recorded in March, April and May 2015. The late payments were recorded correctly and will remain on customer's credit file. In the bill dated 07/01/2015, customer was charged £19.99 for NUC dated 21st December. The account is overdue by £352.31. I have credited £19.99 on the account for the NUC charge. Resolution: Once we contact customer, we will acknowledge customer¿s complaint about the NUC charge issue. In the bill dated 07/01/2015, customer was charged £19.99 for NUC dated 21st December. We will inform customer that we have credited £19.99 for the NUC charge. Customer will be liable to pay the remaining outstanding balance on the account. Furthermore, if customer raises issue about the credit mark we will inform customer that the late payment make was recorded for March, April and May 2015. The late payments were recorded correctly and will remain on customer's credit file. We would also advise the customer that we would not be able to offer a compensation of £500.00 to them as we don¿t compensate for loss of time or business as per the T&C¿s. We would also inform the customer that if they wish to restart the lines we would waive the ETF and they would be liable to pay the remaining bill amount. This is the sort of thing I have come to expect from them. A kind of "yes, we admit to wrongly charging you for the NUC thing, but the only refund we will give you is a goodwill payment of £20. But the late payments incurred at a result of you rightfully disputing this will stand, so pay up already!" And they should know that they suspended the account the moment I complained about the wrongful charge because here it is: 18/01/2015 02:55 Subscription Services Bar Added Outbound xxx CSM xxx xxx 7884310461 Memo code: 0006; System text: Suspension of CTN/BAN:Reason - , ONE CTN(s) suspended.; User text: And the termination letter: 26/01/2015 00:08 Fraud/Credit & Collections Collections Letter Sent Outbound xxx CSM xxx xxx Memo code: 1018; System text: Letter has been Requested (CSUS Consumer Suspension).; User text: All of this makes their supposed "resolution" to my complaint more bizarre than ever, since it is on the record that they jumped the gun, suspended and terminated without ever contacting me about the original complaint. How can they possibly refuse to wipe that bogus "debt" and compensate me properly is beyond me. This bear is in a bad mood now...

Could Vodafone kindly commit to handling my Subject Access Request? It's been almost a fortnight and they've not even banked the cheque yet. Clock is ticking...

Hi Lee I don't want to be unfair to you if you are simply acting out of your own initiative here (In that case, hats off to you!), but I can only say that, at this point it is too little too late. I complained to your CEO of all people, and he did not even have the decency to reply to me. This is the same man who said all this: http://blog.vodafone.co.uk/2015/05/12/vodafone-uk-ceo-jeroen-hoencamp-talks-customer-service/... so please forgive me if I am more than a little cynical at Vodafone suddenly wanting to take the discussion offline. At this late stage, I feel that satisfactory resolution to this dispute can only be obtained through the courts. Bitter experience tells me not to trust Vodafone in the slightest, which is why we are at this point today. That said, the details of my case should make me easy to identify internally. Vodafone can start by honouring my Subject Access Request first of all. Mr Hoencamp is also free to issue a satisfactory response from his department, since he has yet to bother doing so. I'll gladly share the details here if it ever materialises. I hope you understand. Bear

Goodness me, I was beginning to think my SAR request had gotten lost in the post. It was finally signed for this morning. Should the 40 days start today or next working day?

You are right Bazza and I intend to use their form. Doesn't mean I can't have a whinge about the stupidity of Voda's attitude.

Ah. thanks for that. Nice to know that they are above the law. Hopefully they won't ignore my SAR if I follow Vodafone protocol instead of bothering with that silly UK law lark. Is that why they don't have a complaints procedure either?

Thanks, I will get that sent off first thing Mon. I've had a browse through some of the other Vodafone cases around here and, whilst it is comforting to know I am not alone, it is pretty disgusting how they treat their customers and don't give a monkeys about it. Their CEO made song and dance about improving customer service recently, so I naively addressed my letter to him. He said he wants to help, right? Wrong. SAR cooking now...

As far as I'm aware, Louise Boyle is the new director in charge of the Concentrix side of things, so louise.boyle (At) hmrc.gsi.gov.uk might be worth a try.

Hi folks This will be a long post, so please bear with me. My Vodafone troubles are long and plentiful. I'm hoping some legal minds can help me out. I have endured a long and agonising dispute with Vodafone and I am now at the end of my tether. To be honest, I regretted taking out a contract with them the moment I signed up. Right from the first month, things went horribly wrong. I started out with a SIM-only deal in Dec 2012 because it seemed like a bargain at the time. However, only days after receiving my new SIM, I received a very odd text message telling me to phone customer services and confirm my details, or my account would be suspended. I assumed that, because I was staying with friends at the time (waiting for my new house to be ready to move in), that it was a standard check to make sure it really was me... So I phoned them up, only to be told that the text had been sent in error and I should ignore it. Surprise surprise, 48 hours later my account was suspended and I couldn't use my phone. This is a major problem when you are trying to sort a house move and this was my only phone! I could not even get through to customer services because the twits had blocked that too. I had to use my dongle and email them about the problem. I waited several days for a reply and was promised that everything had been reactivated. Only problem was, I still could not send any texts. All I could do was make voice calls. So I phoned them again. This time they told me the sim needed resetting (or something like that) and they could do that right away. I was told that all would be well by the next day. Well, of course it wasn't. By the time I moved into my new house, I still could not send texts. They promised to send me a new sim to my new address. It was waiting for me when I arrived... and it still did not work. Just before moving, I checked with them to make sure that there would be a signal in my new location. I live in rural Cumbria, so there are black spots. I was assured that all would be fine. GUESS WHAT! All was not fine! No signal. Nadda. Nothing. Even when I went up the fell, the darn thing would try to connect to the nearest mast ON THE ISLE OF MAN! Oh, and trying to disable roaming was another nightmare that I gave up on. So there I was, locked into a contract, no signal whatsoever, and even when I was in an area with signal, I only had partial service because I could only make voice calls. It was a good 6 months before they finally figured out how to let me send texts again (if ever I was in town, that is). It seemed so soon that the 12 month contract was over and I was dead set on leaving them. However, an upgrade was dangled under my nose and I could not afford a new handset at the time. I gave in to temptation after doing the sums and realising that the total cost by the end of the contract would be less than buying the handset new. Of course they mucked that up too. I received the handset ok, but they neglected to replace the old sim with a micro sim. I phone them up and ask them to pretty please fix it. What do they do? They send me an empty envelope. Yes folks, I open it up and there is nothing inside. So I have to call them again. Second attempt they managed to put the sim in the envelope. Well done Voda. Gold stars all round. But... they mucked up the direct debit. I don't know how, because all appeared to be set up at the bank's end. Vodafone just weren't taking the money. I called them each month only to be told that they have requested it, it is pending, and all I need to do is wait. So I would call my bank to hear them say "Vodafone have not requested payment for 3 months". AAARGH! This was eventually followed by threatening letters. By Jan 2014 they had recorded late payments on my credit file and threatened to terminate the contract. I also discovered that the account was suspended (they like doing that), not that I would have known, since I have no signal and all. I wrote a stinking complaint to them and actually got a decent response from someone based in the UK. That threw me a little because Vodafone do not habitually *do* that "customer service" lark. She acknowledged that the error was at their end and set up the new DD (correctly this time). She also refunded the outstanding balance as a goodwill gesture. The late payments on my credit file were still in place, so I had to raise a dispute via the CRA in order for them to fix it. That was my first experience of Vodafone's propensity for messing up a customer's credit file instead of dealing with the dispute. Fast forward to Dec 2014 when I was looking forward to being free of them in the not-too-distant future. I decided to request an unlock code for my new handset. Since I'd had my contract for over a year, this should have been free according to https://www.vodafone.co.uk/vodafone-uk/forms/unlock-code-request/. However, instead of an unlock code I got an email back saying “We are unable to provide an unlocking code as the device is already unlocked.”... Oh... I had no way of testing this at the time, but I have since replaced the sim with an O2 PAYG which actually has a signal here. Whoopeeee! But... imagine my horror when my next bill includes a £19.99 charge for an unlock code that was never provided! Furthermore, since I'd met the requirements for free unlocking, I should not have been charged regardless. I banged off another complaint email. I was getting used to this by now. Except, this time, instead of a nice lady getting back to me to sort it out, the complaint was ignored. Instead I got the standard "we are terminating your contract" threat-o-gram less than 2 weeks after I complained. This was the point where I decided that enough is enough. I sent them another complaint stating that I accept their unlawful contract termination.. and basically shove it. In essence, I refuse to be bullied into paying money I do not owe. Naturally they hit my credit file at the first opportunity. This time it caused serious problems because I am self-employed and was on the hunt for a better deal on my business account, as well as additional finance to help with my plans to aggressively grow the business this year. I now get refused and have been set back seriously. Vodafone, in spite of having terminated the contract and suspending the account, kept billing me for another 6 months (plus late payment charges AND early termination fee!), then sent Fredrickson to harass me too. I now have a fresh default on my credit file and am as good as a financial leper until it is gone. Current situation is daily txt and phone harassment from Fredrickson. I have blocked them until they find a way past the filter. I wrote to head office on 24 June, addressing the letter to the CEO, Jeroen Hoencamp. I gave them until 20 July to resolve the dispute. I can redact and upload the letters I sent if you wish to see them. Now I am at the point where they have completely ignored the warning letter, so now I wish to send an LBA out on Mon, followed by claim when they undoubtedly refuse to comply. I want to get it right, hence my post here. My goals are: to force them to stop processing my data to claim for damages due to harassment, loss of income, and the problems I am experiencing as a result of my trashed credit file to force them to remove the default I hope somebody can assist. As an aside, I do suffer from serious long-term health problems - I know this will take a lot out of me. I cannot do this on my own, but I cannot allow them to walk all over me either. Bear