Vodafone didnt cancel contract

[cobalagi]

Jan 2009 - My wife took out a new 18 mth vodafone contract, she had been a customer for some years.

02/2009 - she urgently had to have major heart surgery

05/2010 - complications caused a stroke which left some serious problems

06/2010 - VF contract ended

09/2010 - As part of re-organising her affairs I wrote and cancelled the phone contract.

At that time I checked on the VF web site and the only option given was to cancel in writing. I have recently seen posts saying email is acceptable, but I cant find that quoted in any terms and conditions. Neither can I find an official email address to do this.

Either way, I wrote a simple cancellation letter, quoted phone and account numbers and said I expected service would cease not later then end of 10/2010. I'm sure phone hadnt been used at all since her stroke 05/10 and probably well before that. It was put in a box and no more was thought about it.

03/2011 - We moved house.

06/2011 - I had to tidy up some financial matters and deleted several of her old direct debits via Internet Banking - including the VF one.

01/2012 - She got a letter from FPC Debt Collectors advising she hadnt paid VF about £130. Thats the first we new about it. Obviously we had moved and never received any correspondence, and since as far as I was concerned the account was closed there had been no need to notify change of address.

Apparently VF had already put a notice on my wife's credit file.

I wrote to VF & FPC and explained all this.

Only after that did I realise that VF had still been drawing on DD up to 05/2011.

I tried numerous times to call VF to discuss. Every time the agent dropped the call without explanation.

I contacted Bank, they confirmed VF had continued to charge.

I explained position to bank and sent them a copy of cancellation letter. They refunded back to Nov 2009 under DD scheme.

FPC phoned and wrote several times. Bryan Carter wrote threatening legal action.

I have always responded promptly to all. I explained numerous times in writing to VF FPC and Bryan Carter that phone was out of contract and I had cancelled in writing according to terms and conditions.

I've sent all concerned a copy of the cancellation letter.

I've sent all concerned various correspondence concerning my wifes health problems.

 

FPC have written a couple of weeks ago to say they no longer act on VF's behalf in this matter.

 

Vodafone wrote again last week to say they didnt receive the cancellation letter and will not release from the contract and want their original money plus that which bank refunded. They do not say what they propose to do to collect it.

 

Surely this situation is not correct? They cant just claim they didnt receive a cancellation letter and blithely carry on taking money and doing whatever they like? Or as their last letter making demands without substance?

Can they just deny they've received a letter which I sent them a copy of? I sent it. We know royal mail is not the best but its a 99.9?? success rate so its highly probable they received it.

Can they just place a default notice on credit file without actually contacting their user?

 

For sure what they can or can not do is largely irrelevant to them actually getting the money back from us. My wife is disabled, I am unemployed, and caring for her and we are now struggling financially and simply not in a position to pay in any case.

 

I did what had to be done to cancel according to Vodafone terms and I have written and explained this. I have particularly explained that my wife is now disabled by her stroke and suffers from difficulty with memory and communication and anxiety and I have sent medical letters to confirm.

 

Rather than apologising for their mistake Vodafone have insisted on dragging this on and on knowingly causing quite unnecessary distress.

Strangely their letters are often on blank sheets (no letter head logo, address or contacts) and are in poorley spellt and badly writed english.

 

I think its totally disgraceful behaviour from Vodafone. And in many ways what is worse is this:

I'm sure this is a wonderful forum and I dont want to appear disrespectful - but I find it quite demeaning that I am forced to come to a public forum to try to get sense out of Vodafone. Why dont they just put sensible helpful staff on the on the end of their own phones?

 

Disgraceful.

Edited April 26, 2012 by cobalagi

[locutus]

Get in touch with Lee (the vodafone rep) by following these instructions:

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 at [email protected] quoting ‘WRT135 – CAG Forum’ in the subject line to ensure that it reaches the Web Relations Team.

 

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.

 

 

Update your thread with the reference number that you receive from the automated response to help Lee find you quicker when he's browsing this forum.

 

Vodafone do seem to have trouble with mail... this forum is full of people that vodafone insist they sent a letter out to warning of a default, and now your letter has gone amiss. Lets hope a common sense solution happens here.

 

ps I don't find it disrespectful that you are upset at being here, I find it disrespectful that you paid vodafone for services and they then put negative marks on your credit file when you seem to have done everything by the book (talk about biting the hand that feeds eh?). I hope things get resolved quickly, and if you have any further troubles, ask for advice (although Lee is very good at sorting issues out).

[cobalagi]

#8925832

 

thnx

[2Grumpy]

I'm sure that VF will be able to sort this out quickly and realise that the account was cancelled on the date that you gave, especially when they look into it and see that the phone wasn't being used.

 

I have seen other posts where cancellation letters have been ignored because the company say they don't have enough information in them. VF might suggest that they didn't cancel because the letter came from you, rather than your wife and did not contain her password. I can imagine them ignoring it because you sent the letter rather than your wife. They might also have not recorded that they received the letter because of that.

 

I give full marks to the bank for refunding the money under the DD guarantee.

 

If they continue demanding money, it would be difficult for them to do anything. What would their losses be? They can't sue for the return of the DD money and they suffered no losses.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi cobalagi,

 

Thanks for making me aware of your concerns and for following the advice provided by locutus.

 

Having checked our emails I can confirm that I've received yours and so will get this looked into and get back to you as soon as possible.

 

I'm sure that VF will be able to sort this out quickly and realise that the account was cancelled on the date that you gave, especially when they look into it and see that the phone wasn't being used.

 

I have seen other posts where cancellation letters have been ignored because the company say they don't have enough information in them. VF might suggest that they didn't cancel because the letter came from you, rather than your wife and did not contain her password. I can imagine them ignoring it because you sent the letter rather than your wife. They might also have not recorded that they received the letter because of that.

 

 

Hi 2Grumpy,

 

In the event that we receive a cancellation letter from anyone other than the account holder we would reply to firstly confirm receipt of the letter and secondly to ask that the account holder make contact with us to verify that they wish for the account to be cancelled.

 

Kind regard to you both.

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK

 

 

[cobalagi]

Having checked our emails I can confirm that I've received yours and so will get this looked into and get back to you as soon as possible.

Rumour has it you are good - but I dont think you know who we are yet?

Perhaps its magic!

 

In the event that we receive a cancellation letter from anyone other than the account holder we would reply to firstly confirm receipt of the letter and secondly to ask that the account holder make contact with us to verify that they wish for the account to be

 

It was from my wife. I wrote it but she understood it and signed it.

[locutus]

#8925832

 

thnx

That is how he knows who you are... But he is close to magic

[2Grumpy]

Vodaphone still register defaults if the default letter isn't received by the customer so I'm sure that they will quite happily accept and backdate a cancellation notice that they failed to action, in a similar way to legal letters being deemed to have been served 2 days after posting whether delivered or not

[cobalagi]

Just a quick update to say Lee telephoned on Friday and was very helpful.

 

Hopefully we can move the problem forward to a resolution.

 

c.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi cobalagi,

 

Thanks for updating the thread following our conversation on Friday.

 

As discussed, as soon as I have an update for you I'll be back in touch.

That is how he knows who you are... But he is close to magic

 

I have been known to pull the odd rabbit out of the hat now and again.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK

[cobalagi]

Well that was 2nd May

 

And I can confirm that no rabbits have been pulled from any hat since then and it still isnt resolved

Today I've given Lee my opinion that as a company VF is "mealy mouthed and mean"

 

Why?... read on:

 

let me clear up @2grumpy first:

vodaphone still register defaults if the default letter isn't received by the customer so I'm sure that they will quite happily accept and backdate a cancellation notice that they failed to action, in a similar way to legal letters being deemed to have been served 2 days after posting whether delivered or not

VF's standpoint is that if they do not receive it they will not accept at all that a cancellation letter was sent, happily or

otherwise. And they still claim not to have received my wife's cancellation letter.

I paraphrase Lee from a few conversations ago who told me "you should have sent it recorded delivery then shouldnt you"

Well if thats what I needed to do thats what they should specifiy in the t&c's. Not leave it to some bloke on the phone to advise after the event.

 

 

For the benefit of the new reader, I'll explain again that during this last 3 years my wife had major heart surgery, suffered a stroke which left her with some serious physical and cognitive damage, then had further major surgery. She spent a long time just sitting in a chair unable to get about on her own.

During my best eforts to care for her I got cancer, we both lost our jobs and home.

We now have serious personal debts and are on the verge of personal bankruptcy.

She had been a good customer of VF for a number of years.

 

So where are we up to now?...

 

It seems that during the period after I cancelled the contract unbeknown to me (and her) my wife had used the phone.

I asked VF for copies pf the bils and they sent them.

 

She hadnt used it with wild abondon all over the place - but strangely just to one single 0904 number.

She has no idea why or who but I tracked it down to QVC so I assume she had been watching home shopping channel on TV and had seen number come on the screen and dialled it.

I knew nothing about it and she still has no idea about it.

I checked, but we havent ever bought anything from them.

 

I explained this to VF: They asked for all their money to be paid in full.

 

I refused, we talked some more.

 

They asked for all their money to be paid in full.

 

I asked them to reconsider. I sent details confirming the dates and extent of my wifes illness and her deteriorating psychological condition.

 

So after several months Lee came back to me again and said (I paraphrase him again) "basically the problem was that the phone had been used,

Otherwise they would have conceded and cancelled all charges"

 

But since it had been used they couldnt do this. However they would accept all the charges and the monthly amount for the months the phone had been used.

 

I asked them to accept the charges only - on the basis that:

the phone was already well out of contract

and they had already conceded the monthly amount (...if it hadnt been used)

and their losses only amounted to the charges.

and had they cancelled as requested a very poorly woman would not have suffered this hassle.

 

But Lee called me again to say VF wont accept my offer

Their new offer was that they would accept all the charges and we split the difference 50/50 on the monthly charge.

I think the charges are about £90 and monthly in total about £120

So the difference is about £60, in effect a discount of 40% on the amount.

 

I wouldnt accept it.

I told Lee in my opinion it was "mealy mouthed and mean" of a Company of VF's resources to be haggling over 60 quid with a woman in my wifes situation.

 

I'm writing to VF to confirm my opinion.

 

Does anybody on here have any view on my opinion?

[locutus]

£60 would not be my concern, it would be how things showed on your wifes credit file.