Vodafone unfair default notice*resolved*

[stirlingdave]

I'm glad I found this site as hopefully I'll finally be able to solve a problem I've been having with Vodafone their system is unable to cope with. Looking at the sticky suggests posting here and sending a link through the Vodafone website might be able to help me.

 

In short, I'm contesting a default notice I have had placed on my account. I informed Vodafone I did not wish to continue the account and cancelled my direct debit when the contract ended, but have had a default notice added.

 

Timewise, things occured like this.

 

In November 2008 I bought a Mobile Broadband dongle off Vodafone's website, which I wished to use when I moved to a new address.

 

In December 2008 I tried to use it, only to find it didn't really work. It took about 10 minutes to download the Google home page and was completely useful. Most sites didn't load at all. I tried this on two computers in my house, and my flatmate's 02 dongle, to fnd the Vodafone worked properly on neither whilst the 02 worked on both. I tried the dongle in another part of the country to make sure it wasn't a coverage issue, only to find it never worked properly there either.

 

In December 2008 I contacted Vodafone within the 14 day web cancellation window. After 45 minutes on hold I gave up on trying to speak to someone and sent an e-mail explaining the situation and requesting to return it. This was met a couple of weeks later with an e-mail trying to sell me new packages rather than dealing with my request to cancel.

 

At the end of December 2008 I telephoned Vodafone, only to have a customer service person try to sell me further products. When I pointed out the website stated a 14 day return policy, which I was within, there should be no question of whether I could return a product that wasn't working. I was told another department would have to get back to me, so gave my details but never heard back again.

 

In early 2009 I had a personal problem with my back which required lots of rest and meant I had to prioritise what I was doing. Therefore, I decided to just give up on Vodafone, continue making the payment until my contract ended to avoid any more frustraitions from the customer service team.

 

I did not use the product at all during 2009, despite meeting my payment each month. This was due to me honouring my part of the agreement, even if Vodafone did not honour their part by failing to provide the product described and failing to honour mylegitimate requests to cancel.

 

In December 2009, as my 12-month contract had ended, I cancelled my direct debit and believed that as all I needed to do. I didn't contact customer services to check, given the earlier problems and frustriations in trying to cancel.

 

I believed as my correspondence from Vodafone ended everything was fine. However, I later found a ton of letters at my old flat regarding an outstanding bill. I realised that the issue wasn't Vodafone failing to send any letters, but that my Royal Mail redirection had ended and I hadn't changed my address.

 

Included in this mail was letters demanding instant payment or court action. I telephoned Vodafone at the earliest opportunity and found out that technically I hadn't cancelled so had to pay a month's rental, plus other costs. After your customer services department explained there was no way aroud it, I made a payment and was ensured all my dealings with Vodafone was over. I was not happy with being required to make a payment outside of the 12 month period, but was prepared to just to get rid of the problem. This payment seemed unfair given it was for failing to notify Vodafone I wished to cancel, when I had been doing that very thing a year earlier. This was approximately April/May 2010.

 

However, I noticed a default notice was placed onto my credit record with Equifax. I wrote to Vodafone contesting this in June 2010, but never received a reply.

 

I telephoned Vodafone about this in October 2010, being told it was difficult to find the correct person to speak to about a default notice and someone would call me back. They never.

 

I telephoned Vodapfone three times in December 2010, being told on each occassion they were unable to find my account on their records. I provided my account number (the one displayed on Equifax and a solicitors letter) and my postcode but Vodafone were unable to identify my account. I was told there was nothing they could do to address the situation.

 

Therefore, I'm hopeful this approach will work. I am contesting why a default notice has been placed on my account for three reasons.

 

Firstly, I intended to cancel the agreement in December 2008 and was unable to due to Vodafone's inability to deal with my request. The account should have existed in December 2009/January 2010 to have been defaulted.

 

Secondly, I dispute the fact the account was not cancelled with at least 30 days notice, whichwhy I was expected to make the payment which was defaulted. I actually give over 11 months notice since I had told Vodafone in December 2008 I wished to terminate the agreement.

 

Thirdly, I undertook a 12 month contract with Vodafone for a service they did not provide. I made all 12 of my payments, despite not using the product for the final 11 months (something which should be confirmed by the monthly statements). I met the terms of the credit agreement despite the product not being as described. I feel providing a default notice on an account when I made the additional payment at the earliest possibility I knew about it is unjust.

 

I am not contesting the money I have paid as I do not deny I could have complained earlier about the inability of Vodafone to cancel my account when requested. But I feel it is fair to appeal about the default notice being placed on my account, since I paid for a service I wasn't using during the lifetime of the contract. The problem would have been resolved had Vodafone held a customer services department which listened to me rather than tried to sell products and encourage me to avoid contacting them again. Therefore, I feel Vodafone are responsible for the reason the additional payment was needed, and therefore a default notice is unfair.

[locutus]

Can I ask, did you follow this advice?

Hi

CAG

members,

 

We thought it would be nice to introduce ourselves and to assure you all that our presence on

CAG

is with the very best of intentions.

vodafone

UK has recently introduced a dedicated Web Relations Team which is keen to seek out customers who’re having difficulties with their accounts and feel that they have no other place to turn to than CAG and other consumer forums and blogs.

Naturally, it’s not possible for us to help directly with account specific queries on CAG and as such we would encourage those members who feel we can help them to contact us privately and securely using the ‘Contact us’ form on the Vodafone website with your account details.

https://help.vodafone.co.uk/system/s...PARTITION_ID=1

 

When emailing us we would also ask that you either provide us with a link to your post or thread – if you’ve posted in another member’s thread please also provide your CAG username so that we can check what your query is – and state the code WRT135 within the body of your email to make sure it comes through to us.As soon as we’ve received your email we’ll endeavour to get back to you as quickly as possible.

 

Many thanks

 

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

.

CAG members contacting us, add the code WRT135 in the subject line in order ensure that email gets routed into our queue.

If so, update this thread with the automatic reply you get and someone will look into this soon.

[stirlingdave]

I sent an e-mail using the Vodafone website with the not-so-secret code in it, so hopefully I'll get a response sometime soon. Guessing it will take a few days with the Bank Holiday and the usual backlogs companies get at this time of year.

 

Hello,

Thanks for contacting the Vodafone eForum and Web Relations Team.

This is an auto-response to let you know we’ve received your email and will be contacting you within 48 hours.

Here are some useful ways of contacting us with any queries you may have:

– online help for hundreds of queries ranging from price plans, using your phone at home and abroad and using our exciting range of music, news and entertainment services

If you’re having problems paying your bills and need help please call us on 08700 725 625

If your phone has been lost or stolen please call us straight away on the numbers below for a bar to be placed on your account

If you’re a Pay Monthly customer:

 

• Calling from the UK 08700 700 191
  
• Calling from abroad 0044 7836 191 191
  

Alternatively, If you’re a Pay As You Go customer:

 

• Calling from the UK 08700 776 655
  
• Calling from abroad 0044 7836 191 919
  

For future reference, here are the ways you can seek help from the team:

– seek technical help from the eForum community or help other customers with your own knowledge

– quick, snappy answers to general queries whilst you’re on the move

– follow us for exclusive offers or tweet us if you’d like help when joining or upgrading with Vodafone

– the perfect place to see all the latest news and offers from Vodafone UK, as well as great competitions

Thanks

Vodafone eForum and Web Relations Team

Note: Links removed from the message as this site won't let me submit them as I'm a new user.

[silverfox1961]

When will Vodafone Customer Services start getting things right? (Rhetorical question)

 

This thread should never have to appear on CAG! We are seeing this sort of problem time and time again and (as far as I can see) it's only the excellent web team that manage to sort things out.

 

Give the web team some time to come back to you but in the meantime, have a look at the Information Commissioners guidance leaflet HERE and see if it has any relevance to your case. Make sure you post up the automated reference number

[locutus]

Yeah, I wasn't clear there re-reading my post do you have a 7 digit reference number on their reply? (maybe in the subject line?) post that in this thread please so the webteam can locate your details.

 

Silverfox, I don't think Vodafone are any worse than the others (in fact, in a recent poll they came out tops), it's just when you google Vodafone problems CAG is pretty high on the rankings as there are so many Vodafone problems resolved thanks to the webteam.

[silverfox1961]

Fair comment but when peeps google VF and CAG comes up with problems, I would have thought that would put peeps off from joining VF

I think a selection of posts ought to be projected around the customer services offices to show how complaints should be dealt with.

[stirlingdave]

Sorry, misunderstood the earlier message (and did wonder why the text of a generic e-mail would be of interest).

 

The subject line in the reply from Vodafone is:

 

Re: WRT135 Customer Action Group default thread [#5279919]

[locutus]

yeah, was my fault, sorry stirlingdave . Thats the magic number.

 

Silverfox, if you the fact that the Vodafone threads are popular viewing, combined with the sucess ratio probably won't put people off, and may actually show that Vodafone do have some people that will listen fairly and fight for the consumer rather than just take the stance "we've done everything legal, so tough luck" like some providers do. Also, you will most likely find older posts, so as the Vodafone Webteam have such a high sucess ratio, the chances are it'll be something that can and has been sorted. google "Vodafone debt collection" and you come across this thread here so it won't be the condemning thread that it would for some of the other providers.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Sorry, misunderstood the earlier message (and did wonder why the text of a generic e-mail would be of interest).

 

The subject line in the reply from Vodafone is:

 

Re: WRT135 Customer Action Group default thread [#5279919]

 

Hi stirlingdave,

 

I'm sorry to hear about your experience here but can assure you that now you're in touch with us this will be investigated further and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

 

In the meantime, it's worthwhile clarifying that cancellation is usually only accepted in writing once the penultimate month of the agreement has been fulfilled. Further to this, cancellation of a Direct Debit wouldn't constitute cancellation of the account.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK

 

 

 

 

[stirlingdave]

For reference, I've now had an 'I'm on the case' e-mail from Lee:

 

Hi Dave,

Thanks for coming back to me and further to my reply on the Consumer Action Group Forum.

I've now referred your case for further review and as soon as I have an update I'll get back in touch with you.

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

[locutus]

Thank you for the update Sure it won't be long before you have a response

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi stirlingdave,

 

Thanks for updating the thread to confirm that I've been in touch with you.

 

As promised in my email I'll come back to you again as soon as I have an update on your case.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK

[stirlingdave]

Good news. This has all been sorted out and the default notice has been removed.

 

I got the confirmation e-mail on 17th January and the default was off my credit record immediately. Sorry I've not updated this sooner - I had intended to when I got home from work but seem to have forgotten to.

 

Hi Dave,

Further to my email of 4th January.

Following a further review of your case I'm pleased to confirm that action has now been taken to remove all adverse information relating to the above airtime account from your credit file as a goodwill gesture.

Once you've been able to verify that the above action has been taken could you update your thread on the Consumer Action Group Forum to confirm that your case has been resolved?

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

 

Many thanks to Lee for sorting this out for me. It's good to know there is someone within Vodafone who can deal efficiently with those fiddly problems which fall down the cracks.

 

Thanks as well to this forum - without finding the Vodafone threads on here I would never have found this solution, so many thanks for that.

[silverfox1961]

I will take great pleasure in marking this thread *resolved* and put a link in the successes forum

 

Well done to you for sticking with it and well done to Lee for doing what customer services can't seem to do

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Good news. This has all been sorted out and the default notice has been removed.

 

I got the confirmation e-mail on 17th January and the default was off my credit record immediately. Sorry I've not updated this sooner - I had intended to when I got home from work but seem to have forgotten to.

 

Many thanks to Lee for sorting this out for me. It's good to know there is someone within Vodafone who can deal efficiently with those fiddly problems which fall down the cracks.

 

Thanks as well to this forum - without finding the Vodafone threads on here I would never have found this solution, so many thanks for that.

 

You're more than welcome stirlingdave.

 

I'm pleased that we've been able to get this one resolved for you.

 

Take care and if I can be of any further assistance in the future just let me know.

I will take great pleasure in marking this thread *resolved* and put a link in the successes forum

 

Well done to you for sticking with it and well done to Lee for doing what customer services can't seem to do

 

Thanks Silverfox - it's a pleasure as always.

 

Best wishes,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK

[MARTIN3030]

Good to read that all has been sorted.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Thanks Martin.

 

It's good to see that the resolved thread continues to fill up and I know that there are quite a few others out there who I'm awaiting to return to their threads so they can be added too.

 

Best wishes,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK