Hi,

I am just asking a question regarding Vodafone's procedures regarding claiming money back from an account. My mum passed away last August leaving £136 of credit on her phone. After numerous phone calls to Vodafone, they said I could claim the money back as long as I sent in her death certificate with a cover letter and I would be reimbursed via cheque.

However, today I have received a response from the letter that I sent to them stating that I cannot receive any credit via cheque/bank transfer but must transfer it to another Vodafone account. This poses a problem as everyone in my family has contracts on other providers, therefore no Vodafone account to transfer it to.

When I phoned customer services this morning, they told me the decision could not be overruled as it was Head Office that had sent me the letter and all I could do was write a letter back stating my circumstances.

Surely, because I've been told by the head of the deceased accounts department that I can receive the money back via cheque there is something they can do? I'm going to ring an ombudsman on Monday regarding this matter, but was hoping someone on here may be able to shed some light for me.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Sue x

I don't think you have any solid grounds for demanding this money back. This was a service which you late mother paid for, as long as they keep the balance on the sim to be used then they are providing the service that they were paid for.

Use the credit up if you still have the sim. If not, get a Vodafone PAYG sim, take them up on their offer to transfer the credit to it, and then use it up.

As for being previously told they would refund via cheque, i can only imagine that this was human error as the person involved had thought that head office would agree. In terms of this they owe you an apology for the error of judgement, but still not grounds for them to alter their policy.

Take the credit to another Vodafone sim and use the credit up. Or one other option might be to write back to head office asking if they can transfer the credit onto a contract account's balance, that way they are still retaining the money rather than issuing a cheque (worth a shot!).

Hi,

I've tried asking them to transfer the money to my contract but because it isn't with Vodafone, they won't allow this. Which I do understand. The part I don't understand, and which infuriates me, is the fact I was told at least 3 times that because I didn't have a Vodafone account, the money could be refunded back to me.

Hi Sue,

Apologies for the confusion which has arisen here.

In order to get this resolved could you send the Web Relations Team an email by following the instructions in our pinned thread Vodafone Webteam-for Customers With Problems? When emailing us you'll need to provide us with the mobile number which has the credit, a contact number for yourself should we need to get in touch with you and a Credit Card number to which we can issue the reimibursement to and we'll get this passed to the correct department for you.

Thanks,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

Hi Lee,

Thank you very much for your response, I will certainly do that. Please could you clarify what you mean by credit card? Would a bank account / sort code do or do you need a specific card details?

Many thanks,

Sue

Hi Sue,

It's always a pleasure to help a member of CAG.

From I understood from my enquiries this afternoon we'll need a specific Credit Card to which we can issue the reimbursement.

Should you not have a Credit Card could you provide us with details of a Debit Card and bank account and we'll see if can process the reimbursement another way.

In the event we need any further information we'll get in touch with you again.

Thanks,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

No problem. Many thanks once again.

An email has been sent

Not happy!!! Over 30 days has now gone by, and the cheque that is supposedly on its way to me has not arrived. I'm really sick of Vodafone now, I've been chasing this issue since October 2009 and had 3 promises of cheques on their way to me only to not receive them! Lee, please could you update me on this so that I can get it sorted.

Many thanks,

Sue

Sue,

Theres been a gap,of a month since you reported so we dont know whats gone on.

Presumably you was told a cheque was on the way.

I am sure Lee will respond and give some explanation although he can only advise conclusively within his remit.

As much as he wants to resolve things-this relies very much on others acting and if that does not happen then we are back to square 1.

No doubt he will follow this up.I will email him and point him here in any case.

Meantime keep us posted.

Not happy!!! Over 30 days has now gone by, and the cheque that is supposedly on its way to me has not arrived. I'm really sick of Vodafone now, I've been chasing this issue since October 2009 and had 3 promises of cheques on their way to me only to not receive them! Lee, please could you update me on this so that I can get it sorted.

 

Many thanks,

Sue

Hi Sue,

I'm sorry to see that you've not received your cheque yet.

In order for me to look into this for you could you let me the email reference you will have received when you contacted us last month?

Failing this could you PM me with the email address from which you emailed us from and I'll try to track the details down from that?

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you again soon.

Sue,

Theres been a gap,of a month since you reported so we dont know whats gone on.

Presumably you was told a cheque was on the way.

I am sure Lee will respond and give some explanation although he can only advise conclusively within his remit.

As much as he wants to resolve things-this relies very much on others acting and if that does not happen then we are back to square 1.

No doubt he will follow this up.I will email him and point him here in any case.

Meantime keep us posted.

Thanks for flagging this Martin.

All the best.

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

Hi, yes apologies.

After Lee advised me just over a month ago, I emailed the Vodafone Web Team and emails were exchanged, I was informed that a cheque for the credit of £136 would be on its way but to allow 30 days for it to arrive.

@Lee I have PM'd you my email address as I seem to have misplaced the email whilst switching email clients :-|

Hi Sue,

Thanks for coming back to me so quickly.

I've got your PM and will get onto this for you and will come back to you as soon as I can.

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

Hi,

Just heard from Lee who has cleared up the issue of the cheque for me, the credit still on my mum's account should be in my bank within the next 5 working days *fingers crossed*

Just want to thank Lee for his time spent sorting this out for me

You're more than welcome Sue.

Thanks for coming back to the thread with an update.

As promised, I'll give another call next week to make sure you've received the refund.

Take care.

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

Just a quick update to inform everyone that my refund was cleared into my bank this morning, I am so happy and glad that this is finally over with to a satisfactory outcome.

Lee, thank you very much for all your help with this matter and for the very quick resolution to my problem. Your help has been gratefully appreciated!

You can now mark this thread as resolved

Hi Sue,

This's brilliant news - thanks for letting me know that you've now received the refund.

All the best.

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

Thread title ammended to reflect-Thanks Lee.

Thanks Martin.

Also did you see my reply to your PAYG thread last week at all?

Just checking as I didn't want you going through the same problems this week.

All the best.

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

No I just looked.

Thanks-thats very interesting !