A HUGE Vodafone problem - any advice please?

Lullo

(I have incorrectly posted this under someone else's thread (ending a Vodafone contract) but now realise it should have been posted under a new thread, so am posting it here too - really sorry for the mix-up) How can I remove the other post please?)

Hi, PLEASE can anyone advise me? (I am a first time poster, so hope that I have posted this in the right forum/place - apologies if I haven't).

Well, we have been with Vodafone now for approx. 8 years, having always had 2 mobile fone contracts with them. The one's we are on now are 500 Anytime/any network minutes and Unlimited Texts for just £15 plus VAT per month.

The fones are used by our 2 teenage daughters, who know to their detriment that if they go over their minutes each month, they have to reimburse us for the difference...

Well, ALL has been well now for many years - they have always usually stayed within the £15 deal each month, & if they have gone over its only been by a couple of pounds.

HOWEVER - 2 days ago, our 16 year old daughter told us in the evening that she had just read a text message saying that we had to urgently contact Vodafone by 5 pm that day ! (she didn't read the text till 7pm) - or they were going to "block" her mobile - which they had.

I phoned them first thing yesterday morning, and was given the shock of my life ! I was advised the phone had been blocked, as a total of 1,795 minutes had been used during April ! The bill is £441.75. !!!!

I was advised that until a substantial amount had been paid off the bill, the phone would remain blocked., so I had to give them my debit card details over the phone and immediately pay £200 to get the phone re-activated.

Well, to say I was devastated and furious is an understatement. I asked Vodafone WHY on earth had they allowed the bill to become so high before alerting us. I was just fobbed of, of course.

Well, over the next few hours, the more I thought of it, the more angry I became, so I phoned Vodafone again, to complain again that they should have realised that someone who usually keeps within their £15 a month package, would not then start using hundreds of pounds worth of calls... Then though came the next bombshell! Apparently, not only was the bill for April £441.75p, but the bill for March is apparently £185 plus VAT !...

I am ashamed to say that I actually burst into tears, whilst speaking to the vodafone Adviser - not that that helped - she was totally unsympathetic... But I could help the tears, I was so shocked - almost £660 spent on vroody fone calls in approx. 7 weeks...

I asked that a "limit" be set up on each of the 2 accounts - that if they go over £30 a month, all outgoing calls, etc., are blocked. I was told that this had been set up.

I also asked for a Manager to call me back, as I was still extremely concerned that it was only 2 days ago that they first contacted us about this...

This Manager called us yesterday at 6pm. She was totally unhelpful, and guess what? Vodafone NO LONGER will set a credit "limit" on each account. She told me that Ofcom had instructed Vodafone approx. 4 years ago that they should not do this... I asked her why on earth had I been told just a few hours earlier that this was possible and that it had been "set up" on our 2 accounts. She just fobbed me off.

Well, I contacted my daughter during her break period, and told her the devastating news. She was obviously really upset, and not feeling well anyway, so I had to go and collect her from school. When I told her the bill had now gone up from £441 to £660, she cried her heart out... She has a part-time job, and being 16 now, has started saving up to buy her first car when she's 17...

I didn't go mad or rant and rave at her - whats done is done. She and her sister have always known that if they go over the £15 a month, (which I pay for) they are responsible and have to pay us back the difference.

We managed to log-on to the Vodafone account when we arrived home, (something that I haven't been able to do for several months because I kept getting "error" messages when trying to view my bill - Vodafone have said it was due to them re-building their computer billing system, but it is now up and running).

We printed off Georgie's bill - 57 pages of it - and have gone through it carefully... Apparently, what has happened is that when she is out with her friends, some of them keep asking to borrow her fone - and Georgie, being niave, has let them. But the biggest problem has been a lad she is good friends with, has been having problems at home, and has been phoning Georgie up at all hours of the day and night, asking her to phone him back on his mobile, as he needed to speak to someone about his problems. So Georgie has been phoning him back, and they have been talking for up to 2 hours at a time... One call alone was over £45 ! Anyway, the bottom line of it is that the total calls to this one lad along is £580...

The lad concerned is obviously feeling very guilty, and has agreed to pay us at least £290, and has said he will try to pay more if he can, but we are not holding our breaths...

Sorry to droan on! I know we have been very stupid.

But we are still livid with Vodafone, for not contacting us until 2 days ago, to alert us of the problem. :mad:

Is there any point in complaining to Ofcom?

I would be grateful for any views on this HUGE problem... Many thanks for reading all this tale of woe. and Kind Regards,
Lullo

smcaul

I can see your points, but to be fair Vodafone have done nothing wrong. In fact many users might get somewhat peeved if every time they went over £xx per month then their phone was blocked and they had to keep ringing up for it to be unblocked.

I think T-Mobile do/did a contract that had a fixed monthly cost with xx minutes/texts and once they were used up then you had to top up like PAYG, just looked on their site and can't see it so maybe they stopped it!!

Seems like it has been a steep learning curve for your daughter and her friend, but really can't see how Vodafone can take any responsibility for it.

robt_2

It is an (albeit) harsh lesson in life for your daughter I'm afraid. It is not upto Vodafone to monitor your usage, indeed if you were to go abroad with the phone they would have no way of doing so in real time.

It is quite commendable that the lad has agreed to pay at least half of the calls made to him.

I also find it hard to believe that Vodafone sent a text at 7pm asking to contact them by 5pm. A company would usually send numerous reminders either by text, phonecall or letter to avoid blocking the phone.

Money_Grabber13579

robt wrote: »

I also find it hard to believe that Vodafone sent a text at 7pm asking to contact them by 5pm. A company would usually send numerous reminders either by text, phonecall or letter to avoid blocking the phone.

We don't know when the text was sent. It was only read at 7pm, but is this a case of it having been received much earlier, but not telling anyone about it?

robt_2

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

We don't know when the text was sent. It was only read at 7pm, but is this a case of it having been received much earlier, but not telling anyone about it?

I suspect so and by earlier I mean a week or so.