Two days. I've now been with them for nearing three months trying to leave without penalty. They have given me my PAC code but said if I use it I will have to pay up until the end of the agreement. I've been reporting issues every few days since porting into them. They just wont hear the fact that there is a difference between their service and the service provided by the host company. It is technically a different providor, I had a new SIM issued and needed to port out of the first providor and into the new one. The current providor piggybacks onto the main providor. I've since read someone else that the main providors, EE, Vodafone, O2 & Three sell off spare capacity and it doesnt nessasaryly mean that the piggyback service is serviced at the same level as the host providor. It kind of makes sense now I think about it, if it was as good then why go with the main host if you could get the same service level elsewhere? The problem I'm facing is proving it, which comes back to what questions to pose?

I'd prefer not to say at the moment. I'm not sure its relavent.

Apologies if this is the wrong area. I'm having difficulties with my mobile phone provider. I was on one of the major operators and have moved to another provider because they told me they piggyback onto that provider so the service would be the same and can save me some money as a new customer. The problem is its really shoddy and now the company I've moved to wont let me out of the agreement without paying up until the end of the agreement. Every time I complain about the service and say its not as good as it was when I was with the main provider they come up with the new excuse and say their service is the same as the main provider because they piggyback on them. We go round and round in circles. I called consumer direct and they said I need to build a case by gathering evidence of the differences in the two services. Saying it and providing it is proving difficult. My question is ; what technical questions can I ask the piggyback provider about their service? I plan to then go to the main provider and ask the same questions so I will have comparative answers to then go back to the piggy back service and show them the differences at a technical level why the service must be different.

This is easier to deal with than you think. Look on the vodafone website or call them and request details of their data protection officer. Then write or email their DPO and excersize your right of access (Article 15) under the GDPR. Request copies of all your personal information, notes on the account , recorded calls (The clincher usually) etc. When you write to them you need to enclose copies of anything you have that proves who you are and your claim to the account like one of their bills or agreement that bares your mobile number and the account number etc.. You dont have to mention why you want the info and you dont need to include all the back story. Keep it short to making the request and proving who you are. Something like; I am making a subject data access request and require true and faithful copies of all the data on my account, including but not limited to notes and recorded telephone calls etc. They will have 30 days to comply with this request. Hopefully somewhere in what arrives will be details of when your name was changed on the account and then bingo you have them. If someone else has been able to access your account and managed to change details without your authority you can challenge vodafone that they didn't do sufficient checks to safeguard "your" security. If they changed the name by mistake for example accessed "your" account by mistake instead of the person who had called in and had a name change done then you have them here too. Basically you should be able to challenge what ever they come back with. Then write to their DPO again and begin negotiations for an Article 82 claim, you're entitled to be compensated for the material or non material loss, In this case the inconvenience of having to go through all this just to get the mess sorted out. If there's time to run on the contract by the time you have gone through all of this then you could "let them off" by agreeing not to pursue if they cancel the agreement without payment. Personally I'd start of with £500 compensation and see what they come back with. If they wont play ball at all report them to the ICO, its a really easy process and the casework team are very well balanced individuals who do not deceive easily. I doubt they will take kindly to this sort of thing. Even if the contract is over by then I'd still go for it. I personally wouldn't bother with Ofcom its a lengthy process and a lot of back and forth. The key is being able to prove it is your account with your bills and making the subject data access request to the DPO everything else after that should run smoothly as you're bypassing customer services who cannot go off script to deal with the real world problems. Stick at it you'll get something out of it even if its a token gesture to dissuade you from going to the ICO.