VODAFONE COMPLAINT any advice

Pinkylouloubell

Complaints
Vodafone Ltd
PO Box 549
Banbury
OX17 3ZJ
14th July 2009
Ref: *******
*********
********
On I phoned up your customer services department, regarding downgrading my contract to a PAYG tariff and explained that my partner had recently left me and my son and I did not have the money each month to pay for a mobile phone.
I was told that all I could do was to cancel my contract early and pay a termination fee of £117.
I explained I did not have that sort of money and was told there was nothing else that could be done, but I could try writing in instead.
I then sent a letter to you explaining my situation, stating that I had been a loyal Vodafone customer for 10 years and had always paid my bills on time and received the reply on enclosed sheet number 1.
The letter offered me a downgrade to a sim only tariff for £9.79 a month, with 500 texts and 100 minutes or by terminating the contract at a 50% reduction, £52.45.
As I did not have £52.45,I decided to go for the sim only option, so phoned up and spoke to someone on approx 11th June 2009.
The first gentleman I spoke to was rather rude and said he could not downgrade me to sim only as this wasn’t what was done and then put me through to new connections, Jordan Waldridge, who tried selling me broadband!
After explaining the situation to him and then having him also tell me that he basically did not believe that I had been offered a sim only tariff, I read the letter to him word for word and kept having to tell him I had the letter here in front of me on Vodafone headed paper.
Eventually he managed to find the letter on your ‘system’, so had to go ahead with the transfer.
I explained to him that I needed to keep my mobile number as I have had it for well over 10 years, but he then went on to order me a new sim only line.
I protested this wasn’t what I had asked for and he told me that he had cancelled it.
He also said in the very unlikely event that I did receive a sim, to just bin it.
Later on that evening I received an automated phonecall saying that my Vodafone order was being processed and that I should receive it shortly.
I phoned up the next day and spoke to Andrew who told me that he had cancelled the extra line and I would hear nothing more from Vodafone.
On 13th June, I received the sim card and the following day an invoice for £2.49 for the postage of the sim card.
I phoned up and spoke to Chris who again told me not to worry, the line had been cancelled and I would hear nothing more and to either throw the sim card away or keep it as a spare.
As you can see on enclosed sheet number 2 and 3, the number for this mobile was *********.
I then sent a letter of complaint to your head office as I felt this was really bad customer service and asking to be ensured that this number had definitely been taken off of my account.
I am yet to receive a reply!
On 28th June I received another letter from you, thanking me for joining Vodafone, stating a mobile number *********, a different number from the first one and was dated 24th June 2009.
I phoned up again and was told the number was not on my account for sure.
I logged into my online account today, 14th July 2009 and can see that there are still two numbers active, my current ********** (which I stress I want to keep!) and also *********.
The *********number seems to have gone now.
I phoned up and explained this to someone who told me I would have to write in to cancel the line.
I said that I was not prepared to do this as I had already written, emailed and telephoned with no joy, he then said he would look into it and put me on hold, they then cut me off.
I phoned up again and spent just under 40 minutes on the phone to James, who told me that yes, there were two lines active on my account, but unfortunately there was nothing he could do, as a manager would have to deal with it and one wasn’t available for two days.
I explained that I had literally spent hours on the phone trying to sort this out, as well as emailing and writing letters and felt that it was about time someone from Vodafone took responsibility in dealing with this for me as I was fed up with having to explain it over and over again, each time having more grief, especially as it was an error by Vodafone in the first place by ordering the new line.
He was very polite and helpful and said he would pass it over to his manager who would try and call me when she had a chance.
　
So I now am very confused,
I have a despatch note and an invoice for the mobile number ********* and I have tried calling this and it rings and then goes through to the voicemail of someone called Sylvie, even though the sim card is here in my draw at home and the invoice and despatch note have my name and address on, so this number is obviously in someone’s phone and is actively being used, which I find quite worrying for myself as well as them as you are sending there mobile number out as a new mobile number and I also have
Another line on my account, that should have been cancelled back in June for the mobile number **********and whenever I ring up, am told that it has been cancelled, but is obviously still there as it is showing in my account when I speak to your agents as well as my online account.
As previously stated I have been a loyal Vodafone customer for over 10 years now and really feel that I am going round in circles.
I also notice that on my last bill dated 17th June, there is an outstanding balance of £2.49, which I presume is the total for the postage of the incorrectly sent sim card and when I log into my online account I see a bill was generated on 1st July.
Can someone senior please take responsibility for this and sort it out once and for all.
I also now feel I am entitled for some sort of compensation from you for all the time and stress I have been caused trying to sort out Vodafone’s mistake.
I am a single working mum, who is struggling to make ends meet due to a recent break up and the current financial situation our country is in and don’t have the time nor the money to spend on this.
The level of customer service and competence I have received so far have been quite appalling and I just hope that someone now resolves this issue.
If I do not receive satisfactory response from you and have the whole issue resolved, then I will I send a copy of this letter to OFCOM or the relevant ADR scheme provider as I feel I am getting absolutely no where and have gone above and beyond expected in trying to resolve this issue myself, even though I stated it was your own mistake and not mine.
I will also do this, as with my previous complaint letter this one goes unanswered.
I would also like to stress again the mobile number I want to keep is ***********
　
Kind regards
******

millymoomoo_2

Hi!

Don't know if his will help you at all but we had a similar situation where my partner had 2 numbers assigned to him. Basically he wanted the sim (£15 a month deal) but wanted to keep his old number. He was told that it was fine and his old number was the one he was registered with. However it turned out 5 months down the line that he had been paying for 2:rolleyes: He didn't check!
He rang them and they said he would only be able to cancel in writing so I sent them an email (from a link on the vodafone site) and they responded within 3 days and sorted it straight away including refunding him the amount he had paid for the second sim.

I say definately email them, I was very impressed with how they responded.

Good luck!

Vodafone

Hi Pinkylouloubell,

This certainly seems to have turned into quite a protracked situation but I'm confident we can get this resolved.

If you haven't as of yet received a reply to your letter could you send us email using the 'Contact us' form on the Vodafone website?

When sending your email you'll just need to state 'FAO Web Relations' in the subject bar and within the body of the email include the link to this thread and the code FIT135?

Once we've got it we'll get back to you as quickly as we can.

Thanks,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

BFG_2

Can I just say to MSE that allowing Vodafone etc to have a presence on here is an EXCELLENT idea........

....providing it does lead to true resolution of MSE-er's complaints.

I would hate it to be like the Watchdog scenario - where if you can get your complaint on BBC W/dog, then the co's will fall over themselves to put it right, but if you're not on the telly you'll still get ignored.

The real challenge for Voda etc is to not only solve the probs of the few who post on MSE, but to actually improve their systems so that more complainants [the hidden masses of complaints] get proper help too.

LeeSouthEast

I applaud vodafone for allowing it, too. Brilliant idea.

dfh

Good to see Vodafone having a representative on here.Things do go wrong sometimes and I think companies can earn a lot of goodwill if they are sincere in trying to resolve a customer's problems.