Vodafone - they had me in tears!

BAD_R1

A little about my story that literally brought a growing man to tears! I have 2 phones with Vodafone, 1 simcard got stolen and I still have the other one.

1 - I went on holiday to india and took both my phones with me as I was planning to use a local sim card when I arrived in India. I removed my voda simcard and kept it safely in my bag (big mistake). The sim card was stolen half way through my holiday and the thief in India used my simcard from the 8th March 2010 until the 11th March at which point Vodafone suspended the account as they felt there was something strange going on.

I had no idea that my simcard had been stolen whilst I was abroad as I was not using that phone. I arrived back to London on the 12th March and called Vodafone immediately from the airport as my second phone which I had with me had a text message asking me to call Vodafone immediately. So I did and had a nightmare conversation being passed from pillar to post with very little help. Finally I managed to have the suspension lifted off my phone I have with me (I still have no idea about the sim card which is stolen), Vodafone mention nothing about the fact my other phone has a bill of over £650 made in 3 days!!!!

2 – when I got back from India I spent a few days fairly ill and did not pay any attention to my second sim card which had been stolen (its not the phone I use). I then received a call on 16th March from Vodafone who explain that my phone has a suspension on it and that I need to pay £650. At this point I almost have a heart attack and realise what has happened and that my 2nd sim card was stolen whilst I was on holiday. From this point on Vodafone made me feel as though I was trying to do something fraudulent and made me feel like I was a criminal. I was so upset that not only was I a victim of crime but I had no means to pay this amount. Vodafone took no responsibility for the fact they could have managed this better and continued to bully me in every conversation making me feel that it was my fault, to the extent they actually said to me ‘well I hope you have learnt your lesson and will not take your sim card out of your phone’. They then continued to tell me I was liable and responsible for the bill and that they are not at fault, I completely understand its not their fault but I also feel its not my fault, they showed no sympathy and made me feel terrible. I put the phone down and this brought me to tears as I have no way I can afford to pay over £650. Vodafone offered to give me 15% off the bill as a ‘gesture of goodwill’, I could not believe this was all they were willing to do.

3 – after having such a horrible time dealing with the above, I wake up the next day and Vodafone then go and suspend my phone I have with me, I spend the day trying to understand what the **** is wrong with my phone, I could not even call Vodafone to have the problem resolved. I then get in touch using a friends phone and go through the same trouble and once again no sympathy that an incompetent staff member at Vodafone blocked the WRONG PHONE!!!!

4 – so, today I received my bill and saw that I had 3 more calls made in India on my sim card that was stolen! How the hell could that happen! I called Vodafone and spoke to 3 people just now and each of them (apparently based in Egypt) put the phone down on me. Finally someone decided they would bother to speak to me and told me that the suspension placed on my simcard was lifted from my account as I paid the bill and this is why there was calls made on the 18th!!! This was clearly rubbish and after 3 more attempts of guessing what had gone wrong the representative finally decided that they didn’t know why the suspension was lifted!

5 – I am so disappointed with the service and lack of accountability and the approach Vodafone have taken with this unfortunate situation. Whilst I understand that Vodafone are not to blame for my sim card being stolen, they did everything possible to make the situation worse by showing no support for their loyal customer and taking no accountability as a service provider. I am a Buyer for a large firm and went with Vodafone as we have a corporate deal in place with them and thought I would get my personal phone with voda also. What a bad mistake, as soon as my contract expires for both personal and our corporate deal I will be moving away from Vodafone for good.

I still have no idea how I am going to pay the bill and it is worrying me so much, I have been shafted so bad!
Is ther any light at the end of this dark tunnel?

gjchester

I'd suggest you write it all down and post it to them. They may be better if it's in writing.
It's not unusual for a whole account to be suspended in the event of an issue I assume both phone were on the same account, not seperate accounts. You may find both phones were blocked (you can't tell as you don't have the other card).

International calls can take a while to be billed back to the UK. You may find that the calls were made before you barred the phones are just showing up.

Put it in writing it will go to a UK person to deal with, and see where it goes, however the fact you don't have a police reference number for the report will mean it's hard to get much joy, as there no distinct date the theft occurred. By your own admission you didn't report it till a week or so afterwards afterwards so you will most likely be liable for the calls. From Vodafone point of view you could be just trying to avoid calls you made on holiday.



Good Luck

allan673

go to watchdog with this, disgusting from vodafone imo.

Guys_Dad

Clearly the recording of the fact that your sim card was stolen seems to have gone a bit astray and I agree that you need to write clearly to Vodafone about this.

As far as the actual charges run up till you reported the card as stolen - and let's be fair to Vodafone that they did suspend it after noticing the high usage in India - you need to understand that it may very well have been a different carrier from Vodafone that the calls were made on and they, in turn, have billed Voda for the calls. So Voda may not have been the service provider who actually carried the calls made in India.

Harsh as it may seem, there is no way that Vodafone should carry that cost as it was you who had the sim stolen and didn't notice it till you were alerted by them. When you write that it is not your fault, then exactly how do you think that Vodafone should have dealt with it. Imagine it had been your wallet with £650 in it that was stolen - who do you think would have been at fault - other than the thief of course?

It's not that I am not sympathetic, but you need to be grateful for any goodwill reduction that Vodafone are prepared to allow you - and by all means go back for as much as you can - and also take no responsibuility for any calls mad after the sim was cancelled, but remember that there may be some showing after that date as a result of Voda being billed by the Indian network and the calls not showing for a couple of days.

Good luck.

LeeSouthEast

I'm not in any way defending Vodafone here, but to give a technical perspective:

Billing, and certainly international roaming billing, is not real time. Charges for calls can take days to reach your provider back here in the UK, so they are unable to do realtime monitoring. The SIM card and charges on it are your responsibility.

All said however, I think the rest of the advice above stands, and writing a letter wouldn't go amiss.

BAD_R1

guys, i appreciate your thoughts - i still feel vodafone managed this really badly - i will write a letter, any suggestions where i should address this to?

KeithP

BAD_R1 wrote: »

guys, i appreciate your thoughts - i still feel vodafone managed this really badly - i will write a letter, any suggestions where i should address this to?

This will answer your question.

gjchester

BAD_R1 wrote: »

guys, i appreciate your thoughts - i still feel vodafone managed this really badly - i will write a letter, any suggestions where i should address this to?

The address on the back of your bill.

Don't send it to Head office, registered office or anything like that send it to where they say. Many companies (CPW are one) outsource all there in coming mail, it gets opened, scanned in and sorted online. Sending it to anything other than the address on the bill may mean it does not get in to the system as fast. It will get there, just not as quick.

Remember to send it signed for so you cna show they got it if need be.

Vodafone

Hi BAD_R1,

It doesn't sound like you are having the best of times at the moment and I'm very sorry to hear that your SIM was stolen while you were away.

As you have mentioned in your post, this situation has really upset you and I would like to help you as much as I can. Could you please contact my team via - Web Relations Team - Vodafone UK

(When contacting, please quote the code WRT135 in the subject line. In the main message please include a link to this thread and your user name.)

I will be happy to investigate the whole situation further and address any customer service issues that you have had since your return from India.

All the best,

Espi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK