contract phone "vodaphone"

th3_duckst3r

small bit of help needed.
i have a conract phone with above for £35 per month.
went on holiday to usa at xmas from 5th till 24th december.
never made a call what so ever and sent approx. 10 txts to friends. the whole time i was there.
a week after i got home i had no service on phone.phoned vodaphone up after 20 mins of waiting they told me there was a bar on it.no explaination as to why.said someone woul phone me back never did.sent 2 letters asking for reason why no service and what is the problem.no answer..then got a bill end of january for £140.sent a letter asking why i have a bill for this amount. no answer.decided to just leave it.im not paying that.now each month theve added the £35 monthly charge on top of this.i made sure there wasnt money in bank account so they couldnt get it.they ignored me ill do same.its now may and they got the money from my account .stupidly i sold some items on ebay and transfered the payment via paypal to my account i had no other way of getting the money otherwise.soon as the money hit my account around 20th april they took payment of £215. baring in mind ive had no service no phone call,no responds to my letters.im absolutley livid they they dare charge me for a service i havent recieved,nor responded to my requests.
i need a bit of help here as its the very first time ive had a contract phone.there is no way they should be able to charge me for a service i havent recieved. the phone still has no service even though theve taken the money.
any views on what i should do.cause its an absolute joke.

thanks

baxgttdi

never made a call what so ever and sent approx. 10 txts to friends. the whole time i was there. <-what type of phone is it? smart phones regularly use data services in the background so the charges would be completely feasible

sent 2 letters asking for reason why no service and what is the problem.no answer..then got a bill end of january for £140 <- obviously you'd expect a reply but as above the bill could be feasible, if so they're well within their rights to disconnect you if the bill hasn't been paid. From their ponit of view, your holiday wouldn't matter to them.

sent a letter asking why i have a bill for this amount. no answer.decided to just leave it.im not paying that <- why not just ring them from a different phone? you can't "just leave it" you're legally tied into a contract. Unless you can prove that the charges are incorrect, you are oliged to pay it. If you "ignore it" they can go through the process of adding more and more charges and eventually you'd end up with defaults on your credit record, which would ruin your creidt rating...not advisable.

as the money hit my account around 20th april they took payment of £215. baring in mind ive had no service no phone call,no responds to my letters.im absolutley livid they they dare charge me for a service i havent recieved,nor responded to my requests. <-- obviously they are trying to take payment for the bill and your monthly payments since then. As above, unless you can prove that the charges are wrong this is money you owe. Have you checked your bill online and seen where the charges have come from? As for being charged for having no service, tha'ts not true. You have no service because your account is in arrears and therefore they are fully entitled to charge you while barringyour account.

the phone still has no service even though theve taken the money. <--service is returned usually within 48 hours sometimes sooner. It might be worth contacting them as to why your service has not been reinstated.

Sorry if the above seems harsh but that's kinda how it is /, your best bet is to look at your bills online or get another copy sent out so you can see where the charges come from. My guess would be they're from data charges you're phones used but I could be wrong. As for being charged for having no service, this isn't a valid arguement due to your nonpayment, sorry

th3_duckst3r

the phone is an htc google magic.
they took the money 20th april its 5th may.still no service.
i have no bill and theve never sent me one either.not with any details.
i didnt sign anything cause i got it of internet.phones for u website.
ive canceled the direct debit from my bank they arnt getting another penny from me.
the data roaming is turned off always has been i know all about those sort of things.
as said sent a few txts thats it,never used the phone for anything else.its wifi so when there was a wifi connection i used it which in usa was pretty much everywhere.they were all open networks..

Annie._2

If you have cancelled the direct debit, and are intending not to pay Vodafone, you will be in breech of the contract.

You will get a dafault placed on your credit file which will remain there for six years and will make to very difficult to get any further credit. Vodafone will then sell the debt onto debt collectors.

Far better to call Vodafone, be polite, and listen to them while they explain the charges which were incurred on your bill and the reason why you still have no service.

If you have online billing, go through your bill, you may understand the charges. If you dont have online billing, get yourself registered.

Still its your choice, but in this current financial economic situtation, cancelling your direct debit and not paying is not the wisest of moves.

nomoneytoday

AFAIK it's £6 - £8/mb plus over £1 a minute for an international voice call so roaming calls and international data an easily add up to £140.

The exact amounts should be on your bill.

Once the bill is paid, the bar should be lifted, but doubt it will be whilst the DD is cancelled...

baxgttdi

So it is a smart phone. I'd definitely get in contact with them re the lack of service now, as if your paid up youshould defintiely have the service.

I'm not with Vodafone o don't know how they work but I'm aware you sometimes have to opt in to paper billnig with some companies, so that might be worth checking too.

Whether they have your actual signature is irrelevant, you agree digitally to a binmding contract and have absolutely not a leg to stand on with regards to saying you haven't signed anything.

As I said previously, feel free to dispute it with them, that is your right, as is to see the charges and their source. However, cancelling your debit is just stupid as A)they won't just leave it they're legally entitled to the money as stated in the contract you signed up for C) you will eventually get defaults on your credit rating, making it hard for you to get credit and mortgages etc D) you legally owe the money i.e like deciding you're not paying a credit card and they could eventually take you to court (way down the line).

If you plead ignorance, they made give you a reduction based on goodwill but they dont have to do this, it's emntirely at their discretion to do so.

I can't sit and tell you where you used wifi or 3g I wasn't there but they can, it'll all be in the bill.

th3_duckst3r

gave em a ring took awhile to get through went through everything with them.i got £105 back from them.the only probs was they said i made a phone call while on holiday i didnt and i checked my log cause its still on the phone no calls between 4th decemeber and 29th decemeber.they say i made a call on the 11th not in my log what so ever.they gave me the number.not one of mine and i dont recognise it either.they charged me for using wifi.there gunna have another look at that.cause only time i used it was in hotel which was an open network....

Annie._2

th3_duckst3r wrote: »

gave em a ring took awhile to get through went through everything with them.i got £105 back from them.the only probs was they said i made a phone call while on holiday i didnt and i checked my log cause its still on the phone no calls between 4th decemeber and 29th decemeber.they say i made a call on the 11th not in my log what so ever.they gave me the number.not one of mine and i dont recognise it either.they charged me for using wifi.there gunna have another look at that.cause only time i used it was in hotel which was an open network....

Vodafone cannot charge you for WiFi since you are not making a connection through the network. They would not even know you were using WiFi.

Unless you had the WiFi symbol on your phone when you were accessing the free hotel WiFi, its very easy to make an incorrect connection and incur roaming charges.

th3_duckst3r

Ann_S wrote: »

Vodafone cannot charge you for WiFi since you are not making a connection through the network. They would not even know you were using WiFi.

Unless you had the WiFi symbol on your phone when you were accessing the free hotel WiFi, its very easy to make an incorrect connection and incur roaming charges.

yeah the thing is when i did connect to the hotel wifi.it always came up with a screen saying what hotel it was the u clicked to enter.and yes the wifi symbol was showing .
i did explain that to them.there looking into that.their saying it may not have connected properly.
erm right yes well then it wouldnt have connected at all. go figure.
i specifacally turned the data or 3g off.i knew all about how that worked.iv never used it.cause it just means its grabbing data all the time.hence i would be charged.

DarkConvict

The general advice with vodafone is contact them via the web team as they are better at resolving disputes!

if i was you duckst3r i would contact them.

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi,

If you’d like to get in touch, send us an email and I’ll be more than happy to look into this.

Please ensure that you put the code WRT135 in the subject line so that the email comes into us and include your username a link to this page in the body of the email.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Jenny
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Vodafone

Hi duckst3r,

Has this been resolved for you now?

If you’d like to email us via Web Relations Team as above we’ll be happy to look into this for you.

Best wishes,

Jenny
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK