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VodaFone should be ashamed how they treat customers!! (11537310)


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To quickly outline my problem;

 

 

I gave Vodafone 30 days notice to end my contract with them on 1st June 2015

(been with them for donkeys years (bills always paid,never missed one!)

.Felt like a change so EE looked like a better bet for mobile internet

 

 

.A week or so later Vodafone offered me an S6 phone at a very good rate to keep me so I took it

,the customer (dis)services operative arranged the phone delivery for the following Saturday morning,great!.

 

 

Saturday morning came and went-no phone.

Called VF (Vodafone) to query why my new shiny phone hadn't arrived and was told

"Oh sorry,it hasn't actually been ordered",

 

 

I straight away cancelled the order on the phone with this person

(as I was entitled to with the 14 days cancellation agreement)

and also informed them that I wished my contract to be cancelled as per the 30 days notice

I had previously given,this was agreed and that was that.

 

THIS WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING!!!!!!.

 

After the 30 days notice was up,happy with my new EE phone,

i noticed my old VF sim card was still working

 

 

,phone VF customer (dis)services and "Sorry sir,i'll sort that out straight away for you")

 

.And so started 3 months of chasing Vodafone to actually cut off my phone and end my contract.

 

In that time I must have phoned them 20 times

,spoke to Egypt

,India,

South Africa,

Scotland,

England etc,

 

 

every call taking a minimum of 30 minutes or so whilst I had to explain myself.

 

 

I've spoken to just about every department they have,

heard the promises of

"I'll make sure this gets done for you"

EVERY and I mean every time....

.and of course nothing ever happens,

AND they just don't bother to get back to you.

 

I received a letter from them about a week ago saying my phone services had been suspended????

REALLY!! and I should pay for the 2 months outstanding (the 2 months AFTER I ended the contract).

 

I again contacted them,

and the really pathetic thing is,

when I now phone them,

I ask the person I'm speaking to,

to look at the notes on my account BEFORE we speak.

 

 

They all,

without fail,

come back after looking

and can immediately see that its Vodafones mistake that the account is still showing as active with payments outstanding.

I always then get the apology and the "I'll make sure this get sorted sir".

 

I fired off an email to the Chief Executive last Friday,

i got a reply,

obviously from an admin person,

asking for my details the next day,

sent them and waited with baited breath...

....still waiting!.

 

Phoned again today,

got passed to 3 people,

the final of which told me "I'll go and get the account sorted and make sure customer (dis)services put a zero balance on your account a

nd I will get back to you within the next hour or so".....

.obviously I didn't get a call back,

didn't really expect one really and am exasperated with their disgusting treatment of loyal customers by their poorly trained staff.

 

Final straw this evening is an email from Ardent credit services saying I need to contact them urgently

ref my outstanding bill with Vodafone.

 

 

I have and always have had a good credit history,

no CCJ'S etc etc and this is precisely the thing which may ruin that through no fault of my own.

 

 

VODAFONE - YOU SHOULD HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME!!!!!!!

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Yes that's the correct reference number. I gave 30 days notice and they didn't cancel my contract. Trying to get my pac code now as when you port your number it automatically cancels your contract which is probably the only way it will ever get done with vodafone. The the way treat their customers is completely unacceptable.

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Not quite sure if this is the correct number to get the Vodafone reps attention,anyone?.WRT135 11537310

 

Hi,

 

I've added the ref number to the thread title, hopefully the rep will pick it up soon.

Any advice I give is honest and in good faith.:)

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Thought I'd try again to sort this out this evening -

 

Spoke to VF customer services about 17.55 tonight,

 

got through to a woman in South Africa

this time.went through my details,

asked her to look through my account etc

 

.She came back and said she could see its been cancelled on 1st July this year and that I obviously didn't owe any money

 

,also said she'd spoken to someone (this is after me being on hold for several minutes!) and my account would now be in a credit balance

 

.She also said she'd go and talk to the debt collection company to "call them off".

 

After a few minutes wait she came back and said they were not answering their phone so HER manager would phone them tomorrow to sort it out.

 

I was,at this stage ,beginning to feel a little hopeful that I was finally getting there.

I then asked her if she could send me an email to confirm ALL we'd just spoke about

- she said no problem

- gave her my email address,

she said she'd go,

 

after the end of the call ,and get permission to send the email and do it straight away

- this was 5 hours ago...

..guess what,no email.

 

I was stupid to think I'd possibly get anywhere with them

.I am absolutely exasperated!!.

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Hi and welcome to CAG. Also welcome to the wonderful world of fantasy called Vodafone.

 

Whilst everything is going well, VF are very good but once things go wrong, they end up being one of the worst companies on the market.

 

They have stated they are moving systems which may explain where something has gone wrong but that is no excuse for poor service.

 

I am at a loss as to why this thread has not been picked up by Lee, the VF rep, but maybe he is so busy trying to sort out so man cock ups by the customer services teams.

 

Please check your credit file to ensure VF haven't stuck you with late payment markers as if so, this may hamper your chances of getting cheap credit.

 

You would think something as simple as cancelling a contract would be easy!!!

If you are asked to deal with any matter via private message, PLEASE report it.

Everything I say is opinion only. If you are unsure on any comment made, you should see a qualified solicitor

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"You would think something as simple as cancelling a contract would be easy!!!".....You would think so!.Unfortunately there appears to be a culture of treating the customer like dirt,lying to them and,it seems,making things as difficult as possible.

 

I'm still waiting for this VF rep to contact me but to be honest am not holding much hope that things will get sorted out that way.

 

I have discovered that if a complaint go's on for more than 3 months without being concluded satisfactorally,

you can ask Otelo to get involved.

 

Apparently if they take up your case there are monetary costs to Vodafone

 

I think this is where I'm going next (unless Otello is the telecoms ombudsman - in which case I've already filled the form in and sent it).

 

It would make sense for everyone else who has a long standing problem caused by Vodafone to actually go that route and it would hurt them in the best place - their pocket!.

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Its now been 4 days since I first posted my problem and asked for the VF rep on this site to contact me and I've still not heard anything,does this rep still work for VF?.

 

As far as I am aware he still does. The problem is that Lee has a presence on other sites as well, not just here and as such he sometimes gets bogged down with complex issues elsewhere.

 

EDIT: I have added a twitter link to your thread in the hope it gets seen sooner

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You shouldn't be dealing with this on the phone at all

 

If you deal with it on their online chat on their website

 

A, You won't be paying for the call

 

B, At the end of the chat, they will email you a full transcript of the chat, including the name of the person that was dealing with you

 

Once you have it all in writing, It tends to focus the person dealing to follow through with what they have said

 

Also you have written evidence of everything that has been said for future proof

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You shouldn't be dealing with this on the phone at all

 

If you deal with it on their online chat on their website

 

A, You won't be paying for the call

 

B, At the end of the chat, they will email you a full transcript of the chat, including the name of the person that was dealing with you

 

Once you have it all in writing, It tends to focus the person dealing to follow through with what they have said

 

Also you have written evidence of everything that has been said for future proof

 

Yes i understand that colin11

but i was just an innocent customer just trying to get vf to rectify their mistake :)

 

.i did,every time i phoned though,ask the operative to make notes on my account of what was discussed and what action the operative planned take

- luckily enough they did do this most of the time

(sar request is going in this weekend on THEIR form.)

 

.I will try livechat again,but,as you may or may not know - its not working and is continually busy.

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UPDATE!!!

Got a phonecall from Lee today around 11.30am

 

,he went off, came back and told me my account was now definitely closed and I owed VF NO money.

 

I asked that he reiterate this in an email - which he duly did

 

.Received another email from VF dogs, Ardent debt recovery around 5 or 6pm asking that I contact them urgently to discuss my outstanding VF payment ??.

 

On Friday I place quite a damning statement on the VF UK Facebook site,underneath their appeal to support people who are/have been "Cyber bullied".....

 

........I have never heard any more hipocrtical drivel from a company that actually DOES bully its customers!!

 

it stayed up the top ALL weekend and vitually ever and I mean every post on that FB site was from a disgruntled customer

 

.Someone from VF had posted underneath my statement that iit was "disappointing" and to get in touch and they'd sort it out.

 

So I sent them my details and complaind that after it being "sorted out" today I still have debt collectors trying to collect a debt that does'nt exist, plus I asked that they check for any marks on my credit file and delete them.

 

So not over yet

but (hopefully) getting there

 

.BUT WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO GO THROUGH ALL THIS HASSLE BECAUSE A COMPANY,WHO IS OBVIOUSLY FAILING ITS CUSTOMERS, CAN'T GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER!

 

- THEY'VE NOT CREATED A POSSIBLE RETURNING CUSTOMER IN ME,BUT TOTAL ANTI VODAFONE CAMPAIGNER!!.

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Sheesh! Almost over yet still not quite. Ardent act for VF so I would forward them a copy of the email with a simple statement. Two words should do it :madgrin:

 

Make damn sure your credit file is clean and no late payment or default markers are there. If there is, VF should remove them sharpish.

If you are asked to deal with any matter via private message, PLEASE report it.

Everything I say is opinion only. If you are unsure on any comment made, you should see a qualified solicitor

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Having worked as a CSR for a major mobile phone co, i can relate to whats happened and despite the frustration its not usually the agent who is at fault, its the company not allowing the agent to be effective. Mant times i had complex account queries that needed to be resolved and eventually i did solve them but 2 bob team managers stopped you most of the time because it kept us off the phones, the problem being that there were no support teams to take over these cases. the net result was you either go back in your own time and resolve them or you allow it to escalate "upstairs" to the almost non existent complaints dept.

I say almost non existent because there wasnt actually a complaints dept, we as agents formed our own in the end and around 6 of us, gave a couple of hours a week to get done what we could.

 

The overseas call centers have less clout than we did, they only had access to certain parts of the system and anything they couldnt access, they left, which meant repeat calls for the uk staff to deal with.

 

now im not defending any of the mobile providers, im just saying how it was when i was working for them.

 

Absolutely insist any derogatory markers are removed and then check with ALL the CRA's to make sure they have been

 

If i can give any further insight, please just ask, i'll try my best to help

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Thanks Martin2006.

 

I have always thought that its the way VF cutomer services is structured with so many departments in so many countries that causes problems

mainly

 

.I have had to speak to many customer services people over the last 3 months and,generally,most of them sounded like they do actually want to help

 

but when a CS rep has to be put on hold for 10-15 minutes when trying to get through to another dept within their own company and,eventually ,can't get through ,doesn't bode well that everthing will turn out well.

 

Unfortunately most of the interractions i've had with the Indian call centres have always sounded very insincere and have proved fruitless

- it really does sound like they are reading from the screen script in front of them!.

 

Silverfox1961

,i'm going to wait to see if VF get back to me about calling off the "Dogs" and making sure my credit file is clean

 

.I'm reluctant to have any contact at all with this Ardent bunch

- they've already told me that I need to confirm all my details via email i'e full name,address,date of birth etc before they'll deal with me,so they may be waiting quite a long time :).

 

Just as a matter of interest, if anyones got a bit of time on their hands, go and look at the Vodafone UK Facebook site and click on all the replies to the various subjects on there. They are virtually ALL negative and generally complaining about problems they're having with this horrendous company.

 

I used to run my own business for many years :

the Customer was King and Customer relations about the most important part of my role -

If I was the CEO of this company,i would be standing on the roof of a very,very tall building somewhere and considering what my next step was!.

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UPDATE.

I have received emails from Lee informing me that there appears to be no adverse reports left by them on my credit file

 

another email from Adent credit services thanking me for my email

(I had copy and pasted Lees email stating my account was closed and I didn't owe Vodafone any money and sent it to them)

 

but saying that they can't deal with that until I confirm name,address,DOB etc..not going to happen!.

 

Yesterday I received a letter from Ardent credit services telling me it would cost me over £700 to end my contract and that I may also have a marker place on my credit file

- I have forwarded this to Lee.

 

I also received a reply asking for more details from the Communications Ombudsman ,so they can investigate my problem

 

.It took me 5 hours collating all the contacts ,phone calls ,emails ,dates etc but I returned that to the Ombudsman last night.

 

At the end of the Ombudsman form there are several questions you have to answer

i.e "what resolution would you want at the end of our investigation from the company?!

 

.I resisted the urge to ask for the first born children of the CEO to be sold into slavery for life :)

BUT I did state I request a full apology "from someone in authority! and monetary compensation.

 

I believe that after all the time,trouble and worry they have caused me that I'm not asking for more than I deserve.We'll wait and see.

 

PS the post I put up on Vodafone UK Facebook site (under the "support for victims of Cyber bullying") IS STILL THERE

- I would have removed it by now if I were them!

 

,but I think that either the VF staff who run the FB site agree with me or they're actually not too bothered,either way its shameless.

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At this point you have written confirmation that no money is owed and that's great.

Sit down with all your telephone bills and calculate all the hours that you have wasted on the phone with them since their mistake.

Once you have a figure, multiply it by your working hourly rate and invoice Vodafone for your time.

That is also the figure that you should ask the ombudsman to recover.

You will be shocked at how many hours of your own time you have wasted.

Start bombarding the ceo office with requests of payment, one email a day, and make sure you let them know that every email costs them money.

This is a winner for you, don't back down.

With regards to the dca, tell them in writing that they have your details and confirmation that there's no debt.

Let them know that any further request of payment will be deemed as harassment and duly reported to the relevant authority.

Squeeze money out of them, you are fully entitled to be reimbursed of your time.

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Thanks for the above advice

 

: UNFORTUNATELY ,even though I have received a couple of emails from the VF rep on this site telling me Ardernt credit services HAVE been informed that I DON'T owe VF anything (according to the email)

 

,Ardent continue to send emails asking me to contact them and todays one.part of the content has "Please call Ardent on 0151 375 9376 as we have not received your payment as promised"

 

.I've promised them bugger all :) and the only return email I have sent them was after their very first email to me in which I wrote

 

"To Ardent Credit Services.I would imagine you are contacting me reference 2 outstanding payments to Vodafone for £72.44.

 

What Vodafone obviously haven't told you is that I don't owe any money as my Vodafone account was cancelled in June 2015 and paid up to date at that time!!.

 

These outstanding payments are disputed and.Vodafone are totally wrong to instruct yourselves to chase this money.

 

This dispute has been going on with them for over 3 months now.Get back to Vodafone and ask whoever you speak to,to look at the notes on my account and it will be absolutely clear what the position is.

 

Please do not contact me again as I have no contract with you and do not wish to engage with you further!."

 

I have not replied to any of their emails since (4 or 5).

 

They replied by telling me they cannot deal with the matter until I have confirmed my ID,ie full name address,date of birth etc etc

- which I refuse to do on the grounds that I don't have any reason to -

 

they contacted me via the information given to them by their "client" Vodafone, so they have all my details already WITHOUT me having to confirm them

 

as the above letter states;the outstanding sum they're chasing is £72.44p which I told them without them mentioning it.

 

What I'd like to know please,from anyone with a lot more legal and Data Protection knowledge is :

 

How do I stand complaining to Ardents governing body about their harassment via email, even though they had been informed at the very start that the outstanding amount is disputed

 

what is the best way to construct a letter to send them via email,

AGAIN making clear that I do not owe the money.

 

Unfortunately I can't trust Vodafone to sort this out as they are lax and totally inefficient

.Thanks.

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Just to keep Ardent busy, I would file a complaint for harassment. VF have confirmed that you owe nothing so any chasing by Ardent is tantamount to harassment.

 

By filing a complaint, they have 8 weeks to investigate and resolve. They should also stop any further collection activity. If they reject your complaint, you can then take it to the Financial Ombudsman (although they are slow and not very effective). This will cost Ardent far more just to investigate than they could ever hope to get from you.

 

In the updated Consumer Protection laws, harassment and threats are criminal acts and if you felt they were too much, you could even sue them in the county courts.

If you are asked to deal with any matter via private message, PLEASE report it.

Everything I say is opinion only. If you are unsure on any comment made, you should see a qualified solicitor

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I see where you're coming from Silverfox

but I have an idea that the reply to my complaint from Ardent would run along the lines of

"I'm sorry ,we can't deal with your problem until you confirm your name,address,date of birth" etc etc.

 

...and I'm just not prepared to voluntarily confirm anything to them

.So I do need to find out from any very clever data protection law boffins on here

 

,if,Ardent have to,legally,have me confirm all that BEFORE we can communicate further.

 

Also,i'm not sure,though I may be wrong,if I could take any action against Ardent through the County Court for harassment as there has not been any financial loss to me (much as I'd absolutely love to do that and it would fill me with deep joy to be able to do so :) ).

 

I used to run my own business and I did,several times,have to take other companies to County Court to get paid what I was owed

 

.They were all successful and I ended up getting all my money back plus costs each time,so,County Court action is not something I'd be too worried about getting into.

 

Its all just very irritating,and to be truthful,my partner is actually worried about it and the possible repercussions on my credit rating etc.

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Ardent are not at fault in this case.

They've been given a debt to recover and they must confirm who they're talking to before releasing any information.

Thay are complying with data protection legislation.

Vodafone is at fault here and they are the ones who have breached the dpa.

They have given your personal detail to a third party without your consent.

It is their responsibility to inspect the records and validate a debt before passing it to Ardent.

They have failed in this.

Furthermore, now that it's been confirmed that you don't owe any money, Vodafone should immediately and as a matter of urgency stop Ardent recovery actions.

They've failed again.

So, your complaint should be to Vodafone.

You should contact Vodafone data controller (they must tell you who the person is) and point out to them that they've breached the dpa.

You should ask compensation for this because your personal details have been illegally and without due care released to a third party.

IMO it's time to start complaining at higher level and also to the ICO and Ombudsman.

Should Vodafone not comply you can always start a private prosecution against the data controller, a physical person who cannot hide behind the corporate giant.

But I can guarantee that this person will sort everything out as soon as they hear the words "private prosecution for breach of dpa"

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Thanks for your reply King12345

 

,The data protection rules are the bit I really am unsure about and,yes,Vodafone are totally to blame for this situation

 

BUT,technically,I had replied to Ardents very first email by disclosing the amount outstanding (which would have identified me as the correct recipient of their email) which they had never mentioned

 

AND mentioning twice in my reply email that the outstanding amount was disputed

 

AND signing it with my name.Its my understanding that once the word "disputed" is mentioned in relation to a debt being chased,its the chasing company's responsibility to make enquiries with the company who'd instructed them to confirm the debt is actually owed

 

.

OK,they may have done that and Vodafone just said I do owe it to them so everything I just said is invalid

 

......But I just have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about debt collection companies - period!

(never had anything personally to do with them but hear and see how destructive their kind of business can be to people).

 

I didn't think of the Data controller route

,thanks for that

 

.I think I will try that and send an email to the Vodafone CEO (again!) tomorrow to find out who it is and an address I can send a recorded letter to,which will,probably,either get ignored or may yield a result.Thanks.

 

PS,the Telecommunications Ombudsman is now involved as well and has accepted my complaint.

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Just sent an email to the CEO of Vodafone UK.I got a reply from Directors support last time asking for my details and never heard back from them again!.

 

Content is as below:

 

" To Mr Hoencamp

. Please supply me with the full name and postal contact details of Vodafone UK's Data controller.

 

I have had an ongoing dispute with yourselves (Vodafone UK) since July 2015

 

.Short story is

: I gave you 30 days notice of my intention to end my contract on 1st June 2015 and to cut a long story short,

after many,many hours of conversation on the phone to your customer services representatives in many countrys around the world,and also email contact with your employees

(stating I don't owe anything to you and my account is closed!)

,you didn't do it and continued to send me bills ever since.

 

This culminated in me being chased,by letter and email by Ardent Credit Services (employed by Vodafone UK) demanding payment for the last 2 weeks.

 

I have been informed that YOU (Vodafone UK) may have acted unlawfully under the Data Protection Act 1988 by sharing my details with a third party without my permission or reasonable cause to do so.

 

I intend to follow this up AND,if viable,take legal recourse against Vodafone UKs Data Controller"

 

 

I wonder if i'll get a reply??...Time will tell.

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