Vodafone Incorrect Default *WON-out of court settlement*

[philharg]

Hi all,

 

This is my first post on the forums, I have recently found out I have incorrect default against my name, if you have the time to read through my letter I have sent to Vodafone below then please give advice/comments as these would be much appreciated.

 

Vodafone webteam reference number: #6217556

 

CUSTOMER RELATIONS MANAGER

VODAFONE LIMITED

THE CONNECTION

NEWBURY

BERKSHIRE

RG14 2FN

 

13th April, 2011

 

Dear Sir,

 

RE: VODAFONE ACCOUNT NO. XXXXXXX

 

I am writing to complain about the negligent way you have pursued an incorrect debt against my name since August 2009. I detail below some facts relating to my case.

 

On 1st August 2009 I attempted to take a Vodafone contract (through Phones4U Arndale Branch, Manchester). However, due to it being a Saturday evening they were unable to port my existing number across to Vodafone as your offices had closed. I returned on 2nd August and the store were still unable to port my number, so the contract failed to be agreed. I never owned a Vodafone mobile phone, sim card or ever had a mobile number via Vodafone. I assumed the matter was closed as I had no phone, sim or account details. At the time I was a student living in Manchester and my address was XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

 

Sometime in the first week of March 2011 my family home received a call from a debt collection agency called ‘Varta’. They did not/would not give any information but referred to XXX XXXX by name. This information was passed on to me and alarmed me greatly, after attempting to contact ‘Varta’ without success, I decided to contact a credit reference agency. I signed up to Experian at a cost of £15 per month to discover my credit rating. Experian notified me that there was a default of £107.00 to Vodafone on the XXXXXXX address. This deeply concerned me as I had never had a Vodafone account or mobile phone.

 

I contacted Vodafone using the aforementioned address, however they were unable to find an account with this address. Vodafone were completely unaware of the existence of any account in my name/address/addresses. I then contacted Experian and they were able to provide me with an account no (as quoted above) for the debt which had been filed by Vodafone. Upon re-contacting Vodafone you were able to locate the account. As your records will show this account has no mobile phone no linked to it, sim card no., IMEI no. or sim cancellation no. as it has never been activated. The account however did have an outstanding balance of £107.79. According to Experian this amount had been defaulted against my name in November 2009. Your records also show that on 9/11/2009 there was an early termination of contract charge of £532.00. Vodafone had subsequently rescinded this amount deeming it incorrect but had failed to deal with the other balance of £107.79.

 

In order to unravel this incorrect debt against my name I have tried tracking the debt collection agency, contacted and spoken to Phones4U all to no avail, followed by many attempts at speaking with Vodafone Managers, some managers being so unhelpful that they have actually put the phone down on me. Eventually I contacted Vodafone via the Corporate telephone number and a very helpful person was able to fully search Vodafone’s records for the relevant account no. and he was able to understand my desperate situation.

 

Finally, you have now agreed on the 1st April, 2011 that this debt against me is obviously incorrect and you are apparently in the process of notifying credit agencies and removing this slight on my character, from my credit history. However, I have not received any written notification of this intent even though I requested this.

 

The above matter has caused great distress to me and my family. Since November 2009 this incorrect default has had a negative impact on my credit rating without my knowledge. I am a professional person and I find this sort of negligence on your behalf extremely distressing. During the past 17 months I have tried to take out a new mobile phone contract but have been rejected on the credit search. This has meant I have had to remain with my current contract supplier, severely limiting the mobile phone contract options available to me. At no point did I consider checking my credit history as I have never been in default or missed any payments. It has most certainly had a negative impact on trying to obtain car insurance and other credit facilities.

 

I believe you have a ‘duty of care’ to ensure correct and accurate contracts and billing arrangements with your clients. I also believe you are in breach of this ‘duty of care’ in entering a debt against my good name, causing a defamation of my good character. I also believe under the Data Protection act your Data Controller has issued incorrect data in reference to the debt outstanding in my name and therefore is in breach of the Data Protection Act.

 

Considering all the above, I hold Vodafone completely responsible for the defamation of my good name. I would therefore ask that your give due consideration to the contents of this complaint and look towards a form of recompense as compensation for all the personal distress and financial cost this has caused me.

 

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

 

CURRENT SITUATION:

 

No Reply from Vodafone and they still haven't removed the incorrect default against my name!

Edited April 20, 2011 by philharg

[philharg]

Just updating to let everyone know that the incorrect default was removed from my account today a whole 18 months since it went onto my account.

 

Thanks to Lee for helping to resolve this.

 

Will update again when offered compensation by Vodafone for damage to my ability to obtain credit!

[philharg]

So a new update to this thread everyone....

 

Go to just re-check my credit report yesterday having recently had changes to my bank accounts and Vodafone have sprung a nice suprise by putting it back onto my impeccable credit report and low and behold my score has crashed again.

 

Yet again Vodafone showing their incompetance.

 

The case is not closed... it now continues with much anger.

 

philharg

[philharg]

I'm sorry to say that it seems one hand of VF don't know what the other hand is doing.

Sometimes, the only thing to make companies sit up and take notice is when the court papers fall on their mats.

 

It's up to you but if this was happening to me, one chance is all they would get before I got legal. This is poor (non) customer service

 

The most infuriating thing is that I have never even been a customer of their's! Just so infuriating how a company whom you have never had any dealings with can damage a person's reputation so much with what seems like the flick of a switch and no-one even thinks to check if the data is correct.

 

The longer the sage drags out the closer court action comes unfortunately. Hard for someone that works 70 hours a week to find the time to start taking action though without having to pay someone upfront to do it for you!

[philharg]

Just though I would update this thread with my post recent correspondence to sound out your views and opinions:

 

Firstly the email from Lee then my response;

 

"Hi Phil,

Further to my reply on the Consumer Action Group Forum yesterday.

Following an investigation we've become aware that following some changes made by Experian at the weekend action previously taken to delete the above airtime account from your credit file was reversed.

I can confirm that we have liaised with Experian over this and have been advised that they anticipate being able to implement a fix tonight which in turn will correct the amendment we've already made.

In regard to your claim for compensation I can confirm that in order for us to review this further we would require a copy of your credit file, by return of this email, from both Experian and Equifax and would also be grateful if you could elaborate on what monetary value this matter has had?

Kind regards,

Lee"

Now my response sent this evening:

"Hi Lee,

I have attached my credit report from Experian. I do not have an Equifax account so is it essential for myself to sign up to this service in addition? They said it will take a minimum of 3 days to get an account verified.

Obviously I must now also point out that my credit file only show credit searches made in the last 12 months... it will therefore not contain any searches made for months prior when you still had the default against my name.

As you can see I made several searches for car insurance with a variety of companies. Having contacted these companies they have informed me that they only store quotation information for 90 days. They also stated that my credit report will of had a large affect on my quotation.

All quotations were subsequently to high for myself to insure. I then received a quote through a business policy which meant I was not the name holder on the policy and the cost of insurance was reduced by approximately £600.

This left myself with the only option of taking this policy out and I have still been unable to get my own policy due to the default still being incorrectly on my file.

So currently I am unable to also build my no-claims insurance for future insurance quotations... futher detrement to my monetary through your incorrect actions.

On my credit history it does not show however a search made my Phones 4 U when I tried to take out a new mobile phone contract approximately 2 months ago. I firstly tried to take one out with Vodafone and the o2. However having spoken to Phones 4 U they have stated that it may be on my Equifax file or an alternative could of happened... I may have been blacklisted due to your incorrect default before it even got to the stage of a credit search. In which case now only your company can prove this situation.

In terms of the monetary value I have had to continue with my current contract with Orange. You have completely devoided myself of the choice of mobile phone... my choice of network... my choice of contract. We could argue that I would of instead taken out a £10 a month contract instead of having to renew my exisiting Orange one and over two years this would be a difference of several hundred pounds alone. Not merely the fact that I have been denied the free choice of phone and handset I had intended to buy as any normal customer with no default's on their history would of been able to do.

Frankly to end I feel I am being made to do all the work for your mistakes.

I am a full time teacher working long hours. I have had to fight this battle against your company now for over 2 months for a problem which you created with poor data management. Simply stating it is Experian's fault for the default reappearing... well this wouldn't of happened if it never existed in the first instance.

I have still not even received a written/emailed apology from Vodafone or explanation as to how you could of ever put a default against someone's account that has NO mobile number or NO IMEI number against it's account details.

Obviously as you can understand I have spent many hours and many costly phone calls trying to resolve this case and in technical terms we currently stand where we began... there is a Vodafone default against my name and Vodafone still haven't admitted fault or offered apology.

Due to the level of work I am having to put into this personally I feel soon I shall simply have to pass this onto my solicitor to deal with. You are the company with the resources and I am the innocent victim of incorrect data management. I should not be the one having to put in the work to prove that your company is at fault.

I hope you find an amicable solution within the next two works before I have to deal with the situation as noted above due.

Kind regards"

[philharg]

Sure... sorry for any inconvenience caused

[philharg]

So to update everyone again... The incorrect default was removed from my account yesterday and my credit history was updated for the second time.Go back on today... low and behold it has returned with a file update date of 25/05/2010, back to a crashed credit score again. WONDERFUL!!!!!Just when im applying for a new rental property. Thanks Vodafone again

[philharg]

Just to update the thread the Vodafone Default is currently off my credit report again and hopefully never re-appears!

 

philharg

[philharg]

Just to update:Was offered a goodwill gesture by Vodafone at the eleventh hour of the 8 week deadline yesterday which seriously under-values the cost of compensation I feel is due. Vodafone also offered no apology or no acceptance of fault in the matter.Have now emailed them back giving them 3 days to re-consider their goodwill gesture before I take the case to Otelo or pursue it through court myself.philharg

[philharg]

Sooo get a letter back today from Vodafone's privacy team with regards to my subject access request. Apparantly I didn't provide them with enough information even though I met everything on their form...

 

O Yeah... Except for the mobile phone number of course because their isn't one!!

 

Plus they added 4 days onto the apparant date they received my request, even though I have a royal mail recorded signed for delivery confirmation.

 

Now have to post them everything back again.

[philharg]

They are not just hoops set up by VF, they are blazing on fire and you are on a one wheeled motorbike.

 

They have already passed the 8 week offical complaint date now... I just need all this documentation to potentially prepare for court / Otelo.

 

More work for me, not that life as a teacher isn't busy enough.

[philharg]

Well. if you weren't grey before this-you will be soon.....or bald

 

Yep, give me Year 9's last period on a Friday anyday over this!

[philharg]

So to update everyone:

 

Email from Vodafone received Monday:

 

"

 

Hi Phil,

Further to my email of 9th June 2011.

As a matter of law, an individual is not entitled to compensation for a breach of the Data Protection Act unless they have suffered damage as a result of the breach. In this context, 'damage' has a specific legal meaning and refers to a direct financial loss (for example, any bank fees associated with closing a bank account in the case of bank details having been disclosed) and not to a loss of opportunity. Further, English law on damages requires that you quantify your losses i.e. if you were to take legal action you would have to demonstrate to the court what financial losses you had suffered as a result of this matter. As you have not yet provided evidence of direct financial loss, we are not prepared to offer you compensation in the amount of £500 as you have requested. If you are able to provide evidence of direct financial loss, we will be happy to reconsider our position.

Nonetheless, Vodafone understands that this has not been a positive customer experience for you and that this matter has naturally caused you much concern. In recognition of this, we are happy to offer you a gesture of goodwill to bring this matter to a close. Consequently, our offer of £100 compensation still stands, should you wish to accept it.

 

If you are not prepared to accept this, you are of course able to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office about our processing of your personal data. The Information Commissioner's Office provides a free complaints and advisory service on data protection matters. Their contact details can be found at: ICO WEB ADDRESS. We would of course be happy to cooperate with any investigation that the Commissioner may choose to make into this matter.

 

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK"

May I take this opportunity to say that I was not a customer of Vodafone so their was no customer experience to start with. I have never had any custom.

 

I shall continue to post update over the coming weeks.

[philharg]

And I hope that Vodafone read point 70 of that case....

 

"

70. The documentation which had been lodged by the pursuer in support of the claim for interest paid was at best incomplete. The entries from the credit card accounts were selective. In addition, the premise upon which the pursuer proceeded, namely that all of the interest which he paid would have been on a zero per cent basis was not supported by the evidence as to how the zero per cent schemes worked. He referred to the evidence of the pursuer himself and to the evidence of Mr Clark. It was apparent the balance transferred from one credit card to another which attracted zero per cent rates. Any purchases made on a credit card would attract interest. In addition, if the pursuer was transferring credit card balances there would be a fee, usually two per cent, which would be added to the balance and in due course that would have had to been paid by the pursuer making transfers he save the transfer fee of two per cent. The pursuer had accordingly failed to prove exactly what his alleged loss was. The pursuer had put forward no calculations which would assist in making the proposed finding in fact."

[philharg]

And I think this point raises how much an injustice of credit is worthy of without having to provide evidence of damages:

 

117. Had there been no finding of specific loss in this case, I would have had no hesitation in finding that an award of damages for the mere injury to credit was appropriate. In modern society credit plays a very big part in the conduct of the daily lives of a significant portion of the population. The financial services industry is constantly advertising loans, credit cards, store cards, mortgages, consolidation accounts etc. To have one's credit worthiness impugned so that one is at risk of being unable to obtain credit on the grounds that he is not credit worthy is, if anything, a more significant matter for the individual than it would have been at the time of King, over a hundred years ago. Mr Beynon has submitted that a figure of £10,000 would be appropriate. The figure of £100 awarded by the sheriff and left standing by the Inner House in King v British Linen translates, according to the Office of National Statistics Publication "Focus on consumer price indices" 2008, table 5/3, to £9,975 in the year 2008. The figure of £5,500 awarded to an individual in Kpohraror v Woolwich Building Society 1996 4All ER 119 was not interfered with by the Court of Appeal in 1996 and, in today's figures, would be worth £8,215.

[philharg]

Received my SAR information from VF today.

 

One telling line that I have picked out so far from internal communication Vodafone have made:

 

"It looks like this account shouldn't have been connected at all back in August 2009 and as such all charges have now been adjusted."

 

Well, they said it finally.

 

Disconnection happened on 6/11/2009 when it should of happened on the 2/08/2009.

 

VF then deleted a £532.00 dis-connection charge which was immediatly deleted.

 

They then issued a DCA Default Notice for £107 on the 9/11/2009 and placed it with a debt collection agency

 

Have then later removed this default after my request logging the reason as "Keying Error"

[philharg]

Will try and put down a chronology now of VF's dealings as best I can. Obviously it is hard to de-crypt what they send you! So I will try and keep it to the main points.

[philharg]

Yes one part of the account history specifically says "DCA1 Default Notice DCA"

 

Do you know what the following codes mean then? "CTN, BAN, WAS, BDR, ADDACS, CDTN,"

 

Would be a great help for my de-coding

[philharg]

Yep I will be asking them for a full codes list on Monday. They also didn't include a screenshot of all account details as requested by myself

[philharg]

Hi philharg and all,

 

Following receipt of your email from Saturday I'll consult with our Privacy and Legal Teams again and will come back to you as soon as I can.

 

 

Obviously we haven't provided any new evidence on the forum. We have merely pointed out information which is publicly available to all including your Legal Team. Hopefully on the third occasion of being presented to your Legal team the results of similar court cases are taken into account.

 

I am sure you feel as frustrated as us at times Lee with the clear lack of coherent procedures in place at Vodafone as you are the one picking up the fallout. Please feel free to pass on the general feelings on this forum to your most senior management for you own benefit.

[philharg]

For the sake of keeping everything transparent and recorded for all those who could require help in a similar situation:

 

"Dear Sir,

 

This letter is firstly to again address the £100 goodwill gesture offer from Vodafone which I received via Lee from your web relations team. As already stated via email I am writing to formally reject this offer of £100. I do not feel it does my case any justice and is an incredibly insulting offer given the damage, stress, time and money your inaccuracies have caused me for the past 20 months.

Via email I had previously suggested a figure of £500 may have been adequate to cover damages caused. In light of recent evidence I no longer feel this is actually adequate to cover the loss and damage caused to my good name. I will be coming back to you shortly when I have a better picture of the situation. A full review of all information contained in the SAR and further information which I am still awaiting is needed first.

In the meantime I would like to know what steps Vodafone is proposing to completely clean up my credit file. I require you to address ;

1. In particular the credit search by O2 which produced a rejected application. This was caused completely by the negligence of Vodafone. Had Vodafone not processed an untrue and unauthorised personal data file onto my credit file this rejected application would not have occurred. How do you propose to correct this inaccuracy as it may well have a negative effect on my future credit applications.

2. I would also like to know what action you have taken to ensure that all data held about me by your debt collection agencies has been destroyed? I could not see any communication with these agencies in particular “Arvato Agency” post the removal of the airtime balance due from my account in the SAR information. If no action has been taken then why not? If not when do you propose to do so? This also applies to my parents XXXX address which became registered with the Arvato Agency.

3. If Vodafone do not take satisfactory action undo every trace of the damage caused to my credit history then I will have no other option than to ask a court to order it and also compensate myself.

4. I will also be requiring a certificate of destruction from your data controller and from the data controller of every organisation which you have unlawfully involved. This includes O2 and Arvato Agency.

I require a specific answer to all of the above questions raised within 7 days of delivery of this letter.

I look forward to your proposals and evidence.

Yours sincerely"

[philharg]

SAR's sent to Experian, O2 and Phones4u to accumulate all evidence required.

 

Vodafone also sent a request to give more in depth information from SAR and a rosseta stone to understand all their abbreviations.

 

To anyone in a similar situation I suggest you send off any SAR's you may require immediatly because of the potential 40 days wait.

 

philharg

[philharg]

Hi BankFodder,

 

I feel that there's been a misunderstanding in regard to the context of my email of 13th June 2011. Rather than actual advice my email to philharg was in reply to his email of 9th June 2011 at 09:26 and was intended to set out our position in regard to his claim.

 

I appreciate that there is disagreement over our proposal, and the case overall, but we do of course remain in dialogue with philharg in order to attempt to agree upon a satisfactory conclusion.

 

I am certain many would argue it is misleading advice rather than a misunderstanding. It is clear to all to see VF's interpretation of the law is (£100) and what a court's view of the breaking of this law is (closer to £10,000). We all know who's viewpoint has the greater presedence now as well thanks to advice given by those outside of Vodafone.

[philharg]

If the damage which I have listed above is all of it, then Vodafone have offered the victim about £6 per head of damage. This doesn't even take into account the money which has been spent - the SAR's run into £10 each and that is just for starters.

 

 

4 months of Experian subcription to keep a close eye on when the Vodafone default was going to coming off, then when it went off, then when it went back on again. £14.99 a month is £60 now nearly.

 

Vodafone also requested that I provided them with an Equifax report... they still haven't offered to give me the money back for this even though tI had to pay for it:

 

"In regard to your claim for compensation I can confirm that in order for us to review this further we would require a copy of your credit file, by return of this email, from both Experian and Equifax and would also be grateful if you could elaborate on what monetary value this matter has had?"

So plus £12 onto the £60 Experian costs. Then £40 of SAR requests to help check all Vodafone's mess and thats £112 pound costs. This doesn't take into account phone calls to lots companies on their premium rate lines. Plus probably at least 20 hours of solid work chasing things up, writing letters/emails/phone calls, absolutely minimum 20 hours in fact.

 

So even with their £100 goodwill gesture they haven't covered my outlay yet. Think they need a big kick up the bum.

[philharg]

Thanks firstly to both Durkin and reallymadwoman coming in and posting.

 

Just to update: Phones4u have been very helpful taking the time to call and discuss both on Thursday and Friday my case after the received my SAR on Wednesday. They have agreed to send me the details which show the purchase of the phone and the return of it on their system within 24 hours (of a 14 day limit). They are also providing evidence of the automated cancellation notification sent through to Vodafone which Vodafone failed to act upon until the 6/11/09. More than three months late.

 

O2 have told me they do not hold any records about the credit search taken place in my name. They have said that if I should wish to have a written reason for the decline of credit to send them my credit report. This will be emailed to them tomorrow so they can come back with a written reason for my decline (fairly obvious reason). Still no reply from Vodafone but their 7 days are up on Wednesday 29th June in line with when they received the later.

 

philharg