Vodafone are upsetting my wife ** WRT135 [#10743451] **

[aaron42]

Hello I am a forum virgin so sorry if i have posted this in the wrong place,

 

Please can some one offer any advice on how i resolve an issue we are having with Vodafone. My wife has just called me in tears after being fobbed off and hung up on again by Vodafone customer support.

 

I will start at the beginning, we have been customers of Vodafone for some time, recently my wife's contract expired and we decided to upgrade her phone and contract. After a visit to car phone ware house a promising looking package was offered to here and she signed up for a 2 year contract with a fancy new phone. The contract is with Vodafone and when she signed for the contract we were told that she would have to port her number to another provider and then port it back to Vodafone (something to do with the way the new contract would be set up, not sure i followed 100% but we took her at her word), We did as we were asked and obtained a free sim from Lebara and ported the number over to them (it took 2 days before it was active on the labara sim), we then obtained a PAC code from Lebara and called Vodafone to get the number put back on my wife's new phone. This was 3 weeks ago, despite being promised that the number would be ported within 48 hours.

 

My wife has been calling customer support regularly and keeps getting told that it will happen immanently, in 24 hours within the next few days etc, again nothing has happened, today she was put on hold for a long time and then disconnected without explanation.

 

As she has not been able to use the phone as she wants too she asked for the contract to be terminated, Vodafone have not fixed the problem and have told her that to terminate the contract will be very expensive. we now appear to be stuck in a contract with a random phone number that we are not happy with and don't want. My wife has had the same number for years, all of her friends and family have this number, Having recently had our first baby its very important that her friends are available to her for support, this has not been a great situation to be in.

 

Is there anything we can do to get her her number back, or get Vodafone to transfer the requested number as we originally asked them to do. at the moment it feels like we are being fobbed off and made to live with a new number because they have not been able to transfer her old number. we are not feeling like valued customers and don't want to be forced to pay for a service that is not what we want.

 

Any advice would be very welcome

[AndyOrch]

Hi aaron42 and welcome to CAG

 

I will move your thread to the appropriate forum to enable the best advice.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[BankFodder]

Please start off by reading our customer services guide.

Implement the advice there an then make some more calls to Vodafone and see what admissions or conflicting information you can get on your recording.

The arrangement to you have described to port the number is very strange and frankly I don't believe it - not you, them.

[BazzaS]

Please start off by reading our customer services guide.

Implement the advice there an then make some more calls to Vodafone and see what admissions or conflicting information you can get on your recording.

The arrangement to you have described to port the number is very strange and frankly I don't believe it - not you, them.

 

The "arrangement" is / was precisely what used to be done by individuals when they wanted an upgrade, keeping their number, when there were better deals for new connections than upgrades.

 

Port out the number to a different network, usually to a PAYG, then back in to the original network, as it counts as a new connection. It is unlikely the network would have advised this, but more likely CPW did so, in order to get their "new connection" fees.

 

OP: You can contact Lee, Voda's rep on CAG, by the means suggested by Scott:

 

Get Lee to have a look............

 

 

CAG has a very successful vodafone Rep operating here.

 

We would advise you to follow this method to alert them to your thread:

 

If you'd like any help from Lee, email your details via the Contact us form here ( http://www.vodafone.co.uk/contact-form/index.htm)

 

 

To access the form, you MUST enter the code 'WRT135' and then state CAG Forum in the question box along with your query.

 

Once sent, you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post this reference in your thread as soon as possible.

 

Vodafone UK.

CAG.

 

Regards,

 

Scott.

[aaron42]

Thank you

 

I have read the customer service guide link above, good sound advice and i shall try contacting Lee as suggested by Scott. I will let you know what happens.

[aaron42]

The reference number from Vodafone: WRT135 [#10743451]

 

(sorry for posting in the wrong place)

[BankFodder]

The "arrangement" is / was precisely what used to be done by individuals when they wanted an upgrade, keeping their number, when there were better deals for new connections than upgrades.

 

Port out the number to a different network, usually to a PAYG, then back in to the original network, as it counts as a new connection. It is unlikely the network would have advised this, but more likely CPW did so, in order to get their "new connection" fees.

 

Yes. I think that this is precisely what has happened. There has been some dishonesty here and someone has managed to get themselves some extra commission. This may be an ongoing practice.

 

If Lee sees this then he should flag it up urgently to VF as you may have stumbled upon a fraud which is being carried out against VF.

In gratitude, I think that Lee should take some special effort to get you sorted.

 

Which CPW was it? It may be that this has happened a lot there. I am sure that VF will have the records.

I would consider contacting ActionFraud.

[citizenB]

I have amended your thread title to include the Vodafone Ref number and sent an S.O.S to Lee for you.

[aaron42]

I have amended your thread title to include the Vodafone Ref number and sent an S.O.S to Lee for you.

 

Thank you citizenB and bank fodder. I will update the thread as things happen. Hopefully Lee will be able to shed a little more light. Much appreciated.

[aaron42]

Yes. I think that this is precisely what has happened. There has been some dishonesty here and someone has managed to get themselves some extra commission. This may be an ongoing practice.

 

The more I think about it, I think you could be right. When I asked why we had to move the number and couldn't just end one contract and start another we were told that Vodafone charged a fee for doing this. I don't think that they do in hind sight, when I called to obtain the code to transfer the number they put us through to customer retention and they said as much, however we were advised by Cph to be adamant that we just wanted the code.

Edited June 30, 2015 by citizenB

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi aaron42,

 

Thanks for making me aware of this.

 

I've got your email and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Social Media Comms

 

Vodafone UK

[aaron42]

Hi Lee

 

I am not sure how to get in touch with you other than via this post, You told my wife that the problem would be sorted by end of play today. So far nothing has changed. Please could you get in touch and let us know what is happening.

 

Thanks

 

Aaron

[fkofilee]

Email [email protected]

WRT135 - CAG Forum [#*********] as the subject line

 

Lee will get this,.

[citizenB]

fko, the OP already did this.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi aaron42,

 

As I wasn't able to reach your wife on the phone yesterday, I emailed her with an update.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Social Media Comms

 

Vodafone UK

[fkofilee]

fko, the OP already did this.

 

Hi Citb

 

He said he couldnt find anyway to get in contact with them other than via this post

Hope this gets resolved.

[citizenB]

Hi Citb

 

He said he couldnt find anyway to get in contact with them other than via this post

Hope this gets resolved.

 

 

My apologies,

[aaron42]

Thanks for getting in touch Lee,

 

To update this post, Lee has been in touch with my wife and escalated the issue twice, still nothing has happened. My wife still does not have her number ported across, and we are still do not know what has gone wrong.

 

It is becoming more and more of an issue as it has been weeks now and we are missing appointments due to not being informed.

Last week i took the day off to take my infant son and wife for vaccinations, only to find that on arrival the appointment had been cancelled. We were informed that the Dr had tried to get in touch but was unable to get through due to the number not working and the appointment had to be rescheduled. This will cost me another day off. When it comes to the health and well being of my family i will not mess around, Very annoyed.

 

I do not know what else we can do other than wait for Vodafone to sort the problem. I am annoyed with car phone warehouse for telling us that we had to port the number in the first place, this whole fiasco could have been avoided, however i am also annoyed with Vodafone for not doing what they are supposed to. They have the PAC code, We will lose the number forever if it is not ported back to Vodafone and we do not want this as so many friends, family and services have it. Is there anything else we can do to resolve the problem. It is causing a lot of stress.

[tobyjugg2]

I understand your frustration, but why not use the sim with the number on it and not use the vodaphone sim?

[BazzaS]

I understand your frustration, but why not use the sim with the number on it and not use the vodaphone sim?

 

This would depend on if the port hadn't happened (Lebara SIM still working), or had "started but not completed" (Lebara SIM not working any more)

 

OP, is the Lebara SIM still working with the original number?

[aaron42]

Thanks for the comments.

 

I will have to check if the Lebara sim is stopped working, i feel that it has.

The Lebara sim is only supposed to be a temporary solution though, we don't want to pay as you go and have a contract with Vodafone. The number will need to be ported to another provider at some point as PAYG is not a long term solution in my opinion. Better packages are available on contract and it is a permanent contact number (so we thought), Also i don't think that the Lebara would do all the other things that the Vodafone contract does such as internet etc (not terribly techno savvy). We have not used the lebara sim to make any calls at all, maybe that's the problem? maybe they are annoyed that the sim was only used as a resting place for the number and hasn't made any money for them. Even so it should not prevent Vodafone from recovering the number?

[BazzaS]

Thanks for the comments.

 

I will have to check if the Lebara sim is stopped working, i feel that it has.

The Lebara sim is only supposed to be a temporary solution though, we don't want to pay as you go and have a contract with Vodafone. The number will need to be ported to another provider at some point as PAYG is not a long term solution in my opinion. Better packages are available on contract and it is a permanent contact number (so we thought), Also i don't think that the Lebara would do all the other things that the Vodafone contract does such as internet etc (not terribly techno savvy). We have not used the lebara sim to make any calls at all, maybe that's the problem? maybe they are annoyed that the sim was only used as a resting place for the number and hasn't made any money for them. Even so it should not prevent Vodafone from recovering the number?

 

You still want Voda to sort out the mess. It is just that you note you have been missing calls and texts, and if the Lebara SIM is still working you can avoid missing them by using it while its still working and while Voda are sorting it out.

I'm not advocating it as a long term solution, just giving you the essentials (accepting it may not have internet) while it is being sorted, IF it is still working with the number that is precious to you.

 

If the Lebara SIM isn't working, can Voda arrange for calls to be forwarded from the number precious to you to an alternative number (I've heard of calls being forwarded, but not texts, but you might ask about both calls and texts being forwarded)?, again - as an interim measure to avoid you missing them while it is being resolved?

[tobyjugg2]

BazzaS makes a number of the ponits I would have follwed with

 

But also consider the following:

Most PAYG require you to use the service at least a minimum amount to ensure it does not get cancelled.

If it does get cancelled through lack/no use, then YOUR NUMBER WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY BE LOST.

 

Check that PAYG sim in a phone as quickly as possible via a call to one of your other phones.

This will show whether your long-term number is still on that phone

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi aaron42,

 

I'll check your wife's account again later today.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Social Media Comms

 

Vodafone UK

[aaron42]

Thank you BazzaS and tobyjugg2

 

The Lebara sim stopped working a while ago my wife tells me. It has apparently been in her phone the whole time and every time i have tried to call it the line gets cut instantly so the Lebara sim is not working at all as far as i can tell. We have not been able to make calls from the phone either. haven't been able to since we had the sim.