Hi everyone, i'd welcome some advice please. I joined Vodafone 8 months ago and have had no internet access ever since on my IPhone 6 despite paying for 4G.

I have spoken with Vodafone customer service countless times, wasted many many hours, and been promissed lots of call backs that never happen. I have raised the issue over the phone, their web forum, twitter and through their CEOs office. Still no joy. I've been told I can have my contract ended and be given compensation, but then when I try they tell me I can't and that the best compensation they can give me is £25.

I've now had enough and would welcome your thoughts on whether it's worth going down the small claims court route.

Will they be able to insist Vodafone end my contract?

Will they be able to set a more realistic level of compensation for my time and inconvenience?

Is there anything else to be gained?

Just to note, I spotted advice in other thread to contact Lee at vodafone and have just done that, but if he's unable to sort this out asap I want to know how best to progress.

Thanks in advance

Paul

Technically you are entitled to end your contract now on the basis of what you have told us here. However the trouble is the because Vodafone are a dinosaur – like so many other of these big companies, they will ignore the fact that they have failed in their contractual obligations to you and they will simply treat you as an ungrateful debtor. They will blight your credit file and get debt collection agencies on to you.

This is how they behave and this is their way of doing business.

I notice that it has been announced today that in these situations the regulator will insist that accounts can be closed and that providers must cooperate. We'll see if it really comes about that way.

I think that the first thing you should do is that you should read our customer services guide and then implementing the advice there, have some more telephone calls with them and get them to commit themselves in the way that they have done so far to you. I expect that the admissions that you have had to date have been over the telephone and that you have got no record of what they said.

The second thing you should do is you should send an SAR immediately so that you can get all the information about the calls that have been made – if they have kept them and also any other information including any internal memorandums and screenshots. When you send off your SAR make sure that you say expressly that the data you receive is to include at least this.

£25 is derisory. You are absolutely right to reject it. I understand that you still do not have any Internet access.

Sometimes you get the impression that Vodafone do something else during the day and this is just their part-time job.

If you decide to bring a small claim – and it may will come to that – the thing to do is simply sue for compensation. Then let Vodafone sort it out. If you ask the court order then it gets much more complicated more expensive to bring court action.

I suppose that you have been on a contract and that the money that you have paid includes the Internet service.

How much money have you been paying?

Hi BankFodder,

Thank you so much for you advice, it's exactly what I need. I'm downloading a call recorder app now and will sort out the SAR letter tomorrow. I'd prefer not to go through court but have tried pretty much everything else and am at my wits end!

I currently pay £16.75 a month line rental as I brought my iphone direct from apple, so pretty low, but that;s not the point.

If I do go down the small claims court, do I have to sue for a certain a amount of compensation? I certainly want a full refund, and having spent at least 30 to 40 hours with the phone calls, emails and research on what might be causing the problem, how to fix it, and how to get vodafone to take it seriously, I hope I can get some compensation for that too. As a professional my hour rate is about £30. Then of course there's the huge inconvenience of having no internet access when i'm out and about the fact that I paid a lot of money for a smart phone that is, well not so smart at the moment!

I was also wondering whether others on this forum have complained of this before. Looking on the vodafone forum this is a fairly common issue, and in a phone call in march their customer service team admitted that it was an issue affection a number of new vodafone customers who have joined on their new seerver/system they implemented late last year.

I don't have experience in this issue but I do have experience with Vodafone. I purchased a wifi dongle that only worked 50% of the time. So I was shocked when my £16 bill came at £126. I went into three different stores, called them ten times or more, wrote on their Facebook, wrote emails. Nothing was ever returned. I tried to cancel and they told me to pay the bill then cancel, I told them I refused to pay for something that was faulty and I didn't owe that money. I told them I owed them the £16 originally agreed, minus the £6 returned direct debit charge, minus my time and petrol in going to stores on their incorrect advice. In the end they sent me a letter informing me it was going to debt collectors. I told them I'd tried to resolve it and it was highly unfair to pursue me for money I didn't owe. After all that they wrote off the whole bill. It took four months to resolve this. Scream loudly and don't go away, they should eventually give in. However, payment for your time I image would have to be a court matter I imagine.

Hi BankFodder,

 

Thank you so much for you advice, it's exactly what I need. I'm downloading a call recorder app now and will sort out the SAR letter tomorrow.

hi, just to let you know that Vodafone will ignore your Subject Access Request unless you use a Vodafone SAR form. This has been confirmed to me by the department dealing with letters sent to their CEO via recorded phone call. I requested that they put this in writing also. For some strange reason, Vodafone did send me a letter confirming I need to fill out their SAR form in order for me to receive the SAR.

ICO have confirmed that there is no legal requirement to fill out Vodafones form. Vodafone have been informed of this, yet insist that forms are filled in.

In recorded phone call, the department dealing with CEO letters informed me that SAR which do not have the required Vodafone form are simply not processed.

Good luck!

Lee, any progress with getting my internet sorted? It's been a month since I raised the issue on this forum and 8 months without internet. Can you please give me call to update me on progress. Thanks.

9 months! You are just being ignored by Vodafone.

I think that the only way in which you will get your money back for the 9 months you have been paying them is court action.

Hi Paul,

I chased this up last week.

As soon as I have an update, I'll let you know.

Kind regards,

Lee

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Thanks for the advice Peter. I'll wait to hear back from Lee first as he was hopeful that he'd be able to find a fix.

Do you know whether, if I were to go down the small claims court route, I would need to still be a vodafone customer. Or could I port to another network and still progress a claim?

Lee and his team seem to be the only department in vodafone that actually tries to help people, but they are also faced with limitations of vodafone (slowness) anyway, hopefully you may get some luck. I think it would be better to wait for response from Lee.

I am sure you can port to another network and still progress with your claim against vodafone. 99% sure... but I am far from an expert, hopefully someone else will be able to confirm that there would not be any problem in starting a claim against vodafone if you are no longer their customer.

btw - i am no longer their customer and am starting claim.

Lee, do you know when you might be in a position to update me further? And are you able to update me on what your technical team are doing to try and resolve this issue.

Thanks

Paul

Hi Paul,

I chased this up again yesterday.

As soon as I have further news, I'll let you know.

Kind regards,

Lee

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Hi Paul,

 

I chased this up last week.

 

As soon as I have an update, I'll let you know.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

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Hi Paul,

 

I chased this up again yesterday.

 

As soon as I have further news, I'll let you know.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

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I'm sure you are telling your company what utter ****wads they are clearly demonstrating themselves to be despite your best efforts to mitigate that view Lee.