I was having difficulty with my debts which are around £12K. I am on benefit, and so I foned up Debt Free Direct to see what they could do. I am very upset that all they could offer me was an IVA - 7 years paying £130 a month. Naturally I had to sign up because I was getting constant harassment of one of my creditors Halifax who kept foning me up every day demanding money I didn't have. I am now wondering if the IVA really was the right solution; they didnt offer me a Debt Relief Order which is what I would have prefered. Is there anything I can do besides letting the IVA fail (which I dontwant to do because Halifax will harass me again). Very distressed by the whole thing; Debt Free Direct knew I was on benefits; I really cant see myself paying £130 a month for 7 years, especially as I could loose my benefits at any time anyway, they failed to take this into account. Because of being on an IVA no company would give me advice as I have rung around several this morning; they said the IVA would have to fail before anyone could help me!! NOT happy can anyone please help

Hi, I'm at a loss as what to do now. I'm in rented accommodation with my children, I'm lucky that my landlady is very good, and has no problem with me asking for anything. When we moved in 2 years ago, the whole house had been renovated, and new appliances put in. The problem was, the oven. from the moment I moved in I've had problems with it, since then, we have had 3 call outs due to the same issue (the thermostat ), I've just had enough now, I've contacted the call centre on numerous occasions, I've contacted them via facebook, and even emailed the CEO, and called his secretary,( because she wouldn't allow me to speak to him). They take forever to reply, and when they did they said that as I didn't purchase it, my landlady would have to give permission for me to contact them, So, I got that, they then came back and said, even though my landlady paid for it, she can't authorise me to talk to them as she wasn't the one with the trade card! so I had to ask the builder to authorise me to talk to them. At this point I need to say I was happy to discuss the issue,( as I understand it) and my landlady had more pressing serious issues on her plate. Eventually, Alison, at the call centre decided to send out an engineer. I waited in all day, but no one turned up, I phoned the service company who said it had been cancelled as they needed to buy a part, I was so mad!! no one had bothered to call me, and when I called Alison, after a long conversation, she told me I shouldn't have an attitude with her (I think 3 months of being quite calm isn't bad!!) I explained that as far as I was concerned, someone was coming out to assess the oven, not repair it!! the last thing I want is a repair, especially as the oven has had the same fault 3 times in 2 years! i know that if it happens again, they will wipe their hands of it as its past its 2 year warranty, the oven wasn't fit for purpose even from new. I've waited in again all day today, so I called the CEOs secretary, who 'kindly' told me, that its not my responsibility and I should let my landlady deal with it, oh and also, they were discussing it with me as a 'matter of goodwill'. Eventually the engineer turned up and has just left (5pm), he was very understanding, and agreed that the oven wasn't fit for purpose, I asked him to just assess it and not to fix it, as I believe it'll be a waste of time. can anyone think of where i go now? many thanks

WRT135 [#10949986] Hi all, First time poster here. I dont even quite know where to begin, I am so beyond frustrated with Vodafone that Im damaging my laptop as I bash the keys writing this! My problems all began when I did an early upgrade with the now defunct Phones4U. I currently had a Vodafone number and my prerequisite in doing an upgrade was that I had to keep my old phone number as it was for business. They got everything started and then told me the process of porting my Vodafone number onto my new Vodafone contract. They told me it was quite frankly a pain in the ass but to speak with Vodafone and they would get it sorted. So now at this point Phones4U are out of the picture. I spoke with Vodafone over the phone and they told me about general delays you get porting within the same network, as I was really busy with work I decided to just keep two contracts going and to put my old sim card into my new phone. Fast forward to 18 months later. At this point, I decided to finally go thru the porting process, after speaking with about 3 different people on the phone at Vodafone (1hr or so) they told me I needed to pay to end my old contract (about £80) and the process would begin, so thats exactly what I did. I would then go on to a PAYG phone (with my current number) and they would then be able to port my number in about 2 weeks. 2 weeks later. On the phone to them, explain the situation again as no one knows what Im talking about (getting suspicious!) The porting process begins with change over in 2 working days. 2 working days later, nothing is happening. I ring Vodafone, explain AGAIN what my problem is, they try again. 2 working days later, nothing is happening again. Ring Vodafone, explain AGAIN, I end up being disconnected from the person I was speaking too. Ring again, they advise me to go into store. So now at this point Im on about 8 hrs or so on the phone. I go into my local store, explain the situation (the story is getting very long winded now, I apologise) The lady I deal with in store is very nice and cant find my phone details, turns out they have deleted my old phone number, thankfully I have the PAC code. She rings Vodafone and is getting visibly frustrated with the people from her own company she speaks to over the phone. manages to sort something out, tells me to wait 48 hrs and try again. 48 hrs later, you guessed it, nothing. So I go into the store, and onwards its goes. What she advised is starting a new contract as apparently I no longer have one, and we can port my number with my PAC code onto it, great Im thinking, lets go for it. And finally I have my phone up and working. My first bill comes in, £180. I go into the store and ask what this is all about as my contract would only be £30 a month, they bring up my details and I ask me why I have 3 seperate phone numbers on my account, I have no idea but assume its something to do with this. I ask to speak the girl who set it up for me, she is away on holiday, so i wait, come back a week later and ask to speak to the Manager of the store. She wont agree to see me at a specific time, so I have had it up to my eyeballs and walk out. Im not paying the £180, that was there screw up and no one will admit it. I take my PAC number and join a new network. So fast forward again to now. Im receiving letters from Vodafones heavies, Fredrickson Int, they are now chasing me for £500, I assume thats because they are charging me fees for breaking away from my non existent contract. I will never ever ever part with a penny to give these guys, but here I am wasting the 50th hour or so on this hoping that because reps from Vodafone look at this forum maybe some one will fix it and the problem will go away. If not,maybe I will get these letters once a week for the rest of my life. Thanks for listening, Vodafone is the worst expericence I have ever had in my life. THE END WRT135

I rather foolishly swapped from O2 (who I have never had an issue with) to Vodaphone simply because I wanted to use there "sure signal" product, my existing number was ported over on the 21st of January and since then I have had no voice mail and since Saturday when a technical chap assured me had fixed i,t no incoming calls, well actually it rings once and cuts off. The time I've spent on the phone to Vodaphone can now be counted in hours. It's my work phone and I have my own business so you can imagine how frustrating this is, i've spent approx an hour again this morning only only to be told I will just need to be patient. Can it really be acceptable that 8 days after it should have been working it still isn't, I'm hoping that by sharing the awful customer service I've received with as many people as possible it may deter others from going with Vodaphone. this is my first post, I'm going to spend the rest of the morning posting the smae on as many sites as possible!

Hi all, I am 18 months into a 24 month Vodafone contract, for the last 8-10 months the data service has been a joke and the voice recently has been virtually non-existent. I have of course complained numerous times and get responses varying from the tedious scripted battery out sim card out routine to a apology and £5 credit (only the once) and told to complain as often as I can. As I work in multiple locations I know it is not the phone, I get excellent signal and high speed data in the next town, I also have the knowledge that my employer (district council) has had to ditch vodafone due to the data issues as we use apps on our work phones. Vodafone told my employer that the main mast/node (whatever) is defective and as we only have a population of 53k we will not be getting a fix till 2013 (I am in the process of getting all communications from our office). If I lived in the middle of nowhere it would be understandable but I live slap bang in the middle of Barnstaple in North Devon, when I took out the contract I did not have to stand in the back garden to make and receive calls. I know only have a data service if in direct line of sight and within 500m. The mast itself is on top of the college on top of a hill with good views across the town. Vodafone obviously will not release me from my contract unless I pay £150, they will supply me with a sure signal box if I want (I don't, I use wifi at home and need the data service when out and about). I find this highly frustrating that I have to pay for a service I cannot use (I use about 10-15 mins voice a month and even less txt's) and flatly refuse to pay to end this misery. I have visited the local C.A.B. and have some info, they think I have a case under the sale of goods and services act 1982 but they were unable to find me a letter template to put forward my case. They recommend that I complain to OFCOM, though I know they do not deal with individual complaints, as a Which subscriber I am going to see what advice they can offer as well. I want to try and find a solution without having to take full legal advice and possibly court action, I cannot believe a company can be allowed to supply such a poor service for such a long period of time without any come back on them. As I already mentioned my employer has dropped Vodafone due to the very poor 3G service and are going to supply me with whatever they have to back up my case (my managers personal phone is with vodafone as well and is increasingly frustrated, though he not as heavy data user as myself). Any help will be definitely appreciated as this is now causing me considerable stress on top of trying to recover from ptsd, Thanks, Phill