Vodafone/Lowell***Complaint resolved***

Hello everyone, *again*.

After having closed down both our mobile phone contracts with vodafone in November 2007 due to us not being able to get a signal in the house, rendering the phones unusable, I have today received demands for payment from the credit dept. of vodafone.

I still have the letters sent to Vodafone in Sept. and Nov. 2007 giving 30 days' notice - the 18-month contracts had been fulfilled and paid for - as well as the second letter I had to send on one account, drafted for me by Consumer Direct, quoting The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

They threaten us with those clowns at Lowell if we don't pay a debt - they want approx. £40 - we don't owe. Interesting, as I have recently CCAd Lowell on two different old debts.

Can anyone please direct me to a template letter or advise on what I should do next?

Many thanks in advance
hope you're all well
H.xx

PS I have just noticed that these demands have not come on proper Vodafone stationery - the logo is photocopied.

I'm not sure if there's a template letter for this situation but if I were you I'd send copies of the letters you mention with a cover stating that you do not acknowledge any debt based on etc etc

You may find that your post gets a vist from "Lee vodafone", he works for them and has been very helpful to others

Good luck

R

Thank you, R.

See; http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...-problems.html

Originally Posted by Hwyl56

Hello everyone, *again*.

After having closed down both our mobile phone contracts with vodafone in November 2007 due to us not being able to get a signal in the house, rendering the phones unusable, I have today received demands for payment from Stefan in the credit dept. of vodafone.




I still have the letters sent to Vodafone in Sept. and Nov. 2007 giving 30 days' notice - the 18-month contracts had been fulfilled and paid for - as well as the second letter I had to send on one account, drafted for me by Consumer Direct, quoting The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

They threaten us with those clowns at Lowell if we don't pay a debt - they want approx. £40 - we don't owe. Interesting, as I have recently CCAd Lowell on two different old debts.

Can anyone please direct me to a template letter or advise on what I should do next?

Many thanks in advance
hope you're all well
H.xx

PS I have just noticed that these demands have not come on proper Vodafone stationery - the logo is photocopied.

I missed this before, seems strange that your letters do not appear to be on proper Vodafone headed paper . . I'm 100% sure no one would be attempting to pull a fast one here . . hmmm yeh right says the cynic in me

Lets see what happens

R

Well I wish he'd make up his mind. Is he Credit Manager or COD?

Thanks again, cerebusalert and Revenant. Have sent email to vodafone Customer Service (which was always poor even when we were paying them)... I just can't believe I have to deal with these people again when they were paid up over two years ago!

Update:

I have just looked up the address these so-called letters from vodafone came from - POB 511, Bradley Stoke, Bristol BS34 9BH -

It's actually Lowell Financial *pretending* to be vodafone!!!! Hence the photocopied logo.

Isn't that illegal?

Originally Posted by Hwyl56

Update:

I have just looked up the address these so-called letters from vodafone came from - POB 511, Bradley Stoke, Bristol BS34 9BH -

If you still have the envelopes see if the return address is the same or one of the other po box alias's they use

It's actually Lowell Financial *pretending* to be vodafone!!!! Hence the photocopied logo.

Isn't that illegal?

I think you need to bring this to the attention of TS/OFT/Vodafone, another bit of trickery from Lowell

I'm sure that's got to come under misrepresentation of some kind

R

Thanks again, R. I'm sure this is all because we've got Lowell by the short & curlies on some other stuff....:grin::grin:

Hi Hwyl

Please find below what I think are possible breaches in this situation for Lowell have presented letters that are supposed to come from vodafone, might be worth starting to throw some stuff back thier way


CSA Code of Practice

1. General Conduct

Each member shall act responsibly and with
integrity in the day-to-day conduct of its
business. For example:

a)

Conduct its business lawfully, comply with
all relevant UK legislation, regulation
and judicial decisions and trade fairly and
responsibly.

b)

Conduct its business under a name, title or
style which will not confuse or mislead
clients, creditors, debtors or members of
the public, or which will not imply any
association with other organisations or

persons, which do not exist.

OFT Guidelines

2 UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES

Communication

2.1 It is unfair to communicate, in whatever form, with consumers in an unclear,
inaccurate or misleading manner.

2.2 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:

b. leaving out or presenting information in such a way that it
creates a false or misleading impression or exploits debtors'
lack of knowledge

c. those contacting debtors not making clear who they are, who
they work for, what their role is, what the purpose of the
contact is

Cheers, Revenant, shall use all that in my letter.

ODC, thank you - but I don't believe dcas are allowed to pretend to be a member of staff of another company. That's misrepresentation, as R. says.

How dumb do you have to be to work for/run Lowell, anyway? Like these kinds of tactics are going to make me pay money I don't owe.

Ok one or two edits.
Primarily for the reason that we have a vodafone representitive here looking into things and we should give him the chance to do that.
We should not be concerned of the past-its easy to find negatives on a Google search-we should instead be concerned with here and now.
Give Lee the opps to look into this-and then after you can make your minds up.

Originally Posted by Lee_Vodafone

Hi Hwyl56,

So that I can make sure your email gets to the Web Relations Team could you update the thread with your email reference number?

For clarification, Stefan is our Customer Operations Director and I'll address the issue regarding the letter with our Credit Administration Department so that they can get it amended.

Hmmm . . I'm afraid to say that I read the comment above as at least partial acknowledgement that vodafone know Lowell are sending out letters misleading people by using "vodafone paper", IF Vodafone do not know or condone Lowell's behaviour how can they get the letter amended

Many thanks and as soon as I've received your email I'll come back to you as soon as I can.

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

It will be interesting to see what Lee can dig up on this one

R

Originally Posted by Lee_Vodafone

So that I can make sure your email gets to the Web Relations Team could you update the thread with your email reference number?

Thank you, Lee. I'm not sure what you mean by email reference number. I have since had an email from Rohit Sarode at your company saying that the monies are owed, but this is incorrect. vodafone was given one month's written notice on both phones in 2007 because

a) the 18 month contract was up, so on one phone the accountholder was free to go to another company

b) on the second phone, we couldn't get a signal in the new place we'd moved to. That 18 month contract was up as well so that phone was cancelled on one month's notice.

Both accounts were paid up. vodafone wanted an extra month's payment but that's ridiculous.

It has been over two years since this was settled, Vodafone has had our new address all this time. Why are we being harassed now, and under false pretences? It is my understanding that if there were a problem we should get a letter first from Vodafone, then from a DCA.

I am also looking into placing a formal complaint with the financial Ombudsman against both Vodafone and Lowell if this is not resolved. My partner had a heart attack 2 years ago because of this sort of thing.

Thank you again for your assistance.

H.

I'm not sure what you mean by email reference number

When you get a response from your email it should contain a reference number, if you post it up then Lee will be able to deal with the case.

Originally Posted by MARTIN3030

Ok one or two edits.
Primarily for the reason that we have a vodafone representitive here looking into things and we should give him the chance to do that.
We should not be concerned of the past-its easy to find negatives on a Google search-we should instead be concerned with here and now.
Give Lee the opps to look into this-and then after you can make your minds up.

Thank you for your points though I did think the fact that I hold in my hand proof of one company pretending to be another needed highlighting.

The email reference number is #2161935