Vodafone charged £10+ for a call I did not make to a spammer

[gemspan]

I have a £10 a month contract with Vodafone. I recently upgraded my phone and the guy in the shop said it would be more economical if I took a monthly contract. I decided to take the £10 contract. This entitles me to 300 free minutes, unlimited texts and internet usage.

 

My first bill was just under £11.00. The next bill I have received was for over £25 and I called to query it. I was told that on a specific day I called an 0843 number and spoke for 37 minutes. I did not! I searched the number and found it was a PPI reclaim company and I would never call one of them back. how did this happen that I'm being charged this amount for a call I did not make?

 

In addition I was charged £2 for 2 text messages from a marketing company. Again, I said I did not send messages and do not look at spam but simply delete it. I searched the name of the company the guy gave me and it is related to Vodafone. It uses their SMS service to supply codes for your phone.

 

I currently cannot get internet access unless in my own home using my Sky broadband and I have to speak to tech dept.

 

Surely if I am paying for a service then in order for me to get that service they need to send me codes....but how can they charge me for this when I wouldnt be getting the service without the codes. I do remember 2 codes being sent to my old phone when I put the sim back in to try and get my contacts. Surely this is against consumer law?

 

Can anybody shed any light on this please? I had no problems on PAYG with stuff like this. It just seems to be since I bought this new phone and went onto a monthly contract. I am really annoyed about it because I have to call to query when I don't want spam texts to my phone, didn't ask for them...and I ceertainly did not call an 0843 number and talk for 37 minutes.

[Yukiko]

I had this happen to me.

 

Orange have the ability to tell me who the company are (in regards to the texts) and gave me a support number for the offenders. I called them and complained, saying that I had not asked for these services, to which I was told, tough.

 

It was explained to me that clicking a link in an app I use frequently on my phone was the cause of this problem and when I clicked the ad (Which I do all the time with my sausage fingers!) I entered into a contract to be sent links to games and ringtones.

 

When I explained that this was fraudulent and I'd be involving the police and Ofcom, they very quickly backed down and sent me a cheque for £19.50 (I was only after £9.50) after checking their records and seeing I'd been charged for various different things my phone didn't even support!

 

Keep on at them, it's always worth it

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi gemspan,

 

I can understand the concerns you've raised here and I'm happy to get this investigated further.

 

To enable me to do this could you email me with your details via the Contact us form here and quote the code WRT135 - CAG Forum in the subject line?

 

Once sent you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. To ensure that it reaches me could you update the thread with this and I'll get back to you as soon as possible?

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK

[gemspan]

Thank you Lee. I will do that now. I spent almost an hour yesterday trying to get this sorted with Customer Services. They tell me that I did make the telephone call...but I know I didn't. Why would I spend 37 minutes speaking to a PPI helpline when I have claimed back PPI myself using this website? I'm at the stage of thinking I just want to return to PAYG as I got nothing like this before I had a contract. The girl yesterday told me to cancel my DD...which I did. I asked her to put it on my records that she advised me to do this until it was sorted. I received a text today advising me that I had cancelled my DD and to contact them to pay my bill. The bill is wrong and that's the reason they told me to cancel the DD. I only received the installation details yesterday for the pack I have purchased in the contract....and I had to call them to get that! Its just been a mess and I wish I'd never changed. Scared to use the Phone in case I get charged. I am sick and need my phone but can't afford £25 per month and hence why I used PAYG previously. Thank you

[gemspan]

Re: as per CAG Gemspan [#10704233] This is the automated response number. Thank you for helping me try to sort this out.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi gemspan,

 

Thanks for coming back to me.

 

I can confirm that I've received your email and will get back to you as soon as possible.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK