Vodafone have acused me of being a Fraudster

kentgirl_2

Greyster

Thank you for your post. I suppose it is a catch 22 when you have teenage children who aren't old enough to have a contract in their own names and are costing an arm and a leg on PAYG. Thank goodness I don't have triplets.

It is a shame that Vodafone don't actually explain the reason for declining an order, and just send out a standard email which isn't relevant.

As for fraud/criminal activities - most people who use mobile phones for illegal activities buy Sim Cards direct from their local corner shop on PAYG, paying cash.

gjchester

kentgirl wrote: »

It is a shame that Vodafone don't actually explain the reason for declining an order, and just send out a standard email which isn't relevant.

Looking at it from a different view, if the told you how you triggered the response, you'd know how to get around it.

Most companies won't tell you exactly why you trigger a failure for exactly that reason.

redux

gjchester wrote: »

Looking at it from a different view, if the told you how you triggered the response, you'd know how to get around it.

Most companies won't tell you exactly why you trigger a failure for exactly that reason.

Perhaps you might re-read the OP

Vodafone said they declined the application after an independent credit check

If they have their own rule about restricting how many accounts they allow someone, they can derive that from their own internal systems, and inform the customer apologetically, before wasting the time and expense of a credit check

Networks do behave illogically at times. About 5 years ago, I was asked for £150 deposit to enable roaming on a new account. I called the dealer who sold me the contract, told them I had roaming on a different account with the same network, which had run up roaming bills and been paid without problems, that that contract had been given as a reference for this application, and would they kindly contact dealer support and either enable roaming without a deposit or cancel this new contract. Half an hour they called me back and it had been sorted out, just as well for me as I was already on the way to the port and the other phone was at home

romeroe

kentgirl wrote: »

I will do my best to keep this brief, but as I am so angry, may be hard.

I am self-employed and have the following products with Vodafone:-

Blackberry
Dongle
Sim card for vehicle tracker

I have two teenage children who also have Vodafone mobiles purchased by myself. They were both on PAYG. As my daughter's usage was increasing, I purchased online with Vodafone a 12 month Sim Card deal using my personal bank account. This went through with no problems.

As soon as my son realised, he too asked if he could stop being PAYG and do the same. This is where the problems started. I placed another order online with Vodafone a few days later. I was totally shocked to receive an email stating

[FONT=&quot]Thanks for your recent order. As part of our standard process, we’ve run a credit check with the external credit reference agency Experian using the details you gave us.

Unfortunately the details didn’t meet our credit criteria so we’re unable to process your order and you haven’t been charged

[/FONT]

I spent the whole of the next day trying to get through to Vodafone asking for an explanation. I was told that because I had placed an order on a different bank account (still in my name and with same building society), it had flagged up that I was trying to commit a fraud. I explained that this card was for personal use, and as such would come out of my personal account and not business account.

I was then told by another member of staff that until I had at least a months payments on this new sim card, they wouldn't let me have another. This is despite the fact that I have never missed a single Vodafone payment.

Out of interest, I again tried to place an order online with Vodafone for this 12 month sim only deal. This time, I used my business account. Surprise surprise, again I received the standard email about not passing credit checks.

What amazes me is that I have never had a bad credit rating and always pay my bills on time. I even paid for an Experian Credit Report which also backed up my excellent credit rating. As part of my job, I am not allowed to have a criminal record or have been insolvent at anytime.

I am totally insulted that Vodafone can treat me in such a way. I would love to take my business elsewhere, but unfortunately they have me over a barrel here, as Vodafone is the only network we can receive in my house.

Am I the only person who has been branded a fraudster by Vodafone?

From the age of 18 until 25 I had a Vodafone contract. Never missed a payment of any kind during all that time. My contract expired and I saw a nice deal on dialaphone that I wanted to take advantage of, however I wanted to get my wife a present also so decided to buy 2 phones on a £20 pcm contract.

They approved me for one phone but wouldn't give me the 2nd due to credit scoring. I complained and escalated up the chain but they wouldn't budge. Had a discussion with a manager who accepted that I would be eligible for 1x£50pcm contract but not 2 contracts adding up to a smaller amount... At this point I cancelled the contract and I have never used vodafone since.

The fact that I had 7 years of clean history with them wasn't good enough... Credit scoring is supposed to give you an indication of someone who hasn't got any history with a company, not to arbitrarily use on customers with a proven track record - we rely on automation too much these days.

My experiences fwiw.

/Ellis

gjchester

redux wrote: »

Perhaps you might re-read the OP

Vodafone said they declined the application after an independent credit check

It still doesn't say HOW it was failed. Vodafone still ran the check, they just say they checked the OP's record with Experian. Doesn't matter what Experain data was provided (assuming it was correct of course) Vodafone took the decision after reviewing the file. Experian hold credit files the comnpany who wants it doing makes the decision based on that data. They may have mentioned Experian so the OP could check there credit record if they thought it was wrong.


Not withstanding that what I said is still true. No company will tell you HOW you fail, as you'd then be able to get around it. To do otherwise would be opening themselves up to fraudsters.

greyster

mobilejunkie wrote: »

Vodafone allow me 6 contracts without referral to another check; T-Mobile allow me 5. I have also had multiple contracts with Orange and O2 and at one time had 10 simultaneous contracts. Networks aren't like banks (who pass on your personal information with government blessing even though they aren't allowed to look at your information with them in another department of their own organisation). One network won't be aware of how many (if any) contracts you have with another network and won't care. I also don't believe applying for a contract outside any limits would throw up a sign saying "suspected fraud". I have also applied for two contracts with the same network (when I already had existing ones with them) within either thre same day or successive days without being denied on at least two occasions.

In fact, some dealers put a much more limited restriction on how many contracts you can have through them regardless of which networks they are with - even though said networks would be quite happy for you to take out several more with them.

There are restrictions in place for everyone, you may not have a limit if you are seen as having an excellent credit score. Just because you have a lot of lines, doesn't mean everyone else will be eligible for as many. Also, if you a high spend customer or been with the network for a long time, you may be re-assessed and permitted more lines. I agree however that you could just go to another network to get additional lines, if you face restrictions with another. As I said before though, most people will never have to deal with this.

Just a thought for the OP, T-Mobile do sim only lines for children in the parents name. It won't let them go over their contractual minutes or texts, without topping up like a PAYG phone. You can see them on their site they have "fixed" on their end of their tariff name.

MyRubyRed

greyster wrote: »

There are restrictions in place for everyone, you may not have a limit if you are seen as having an excellent credit score. Just because you have a lot of lines, doesn't mean everyone else will be eligible for as many. Also, if you a high spend customer or been with the network for a long time, you may be re-assessed and permitted more lines. I agree however that you could just go to another network to get additional lines, if you face restrictions with another. As I said before though, most people will never have to deal with this.

Just a thought for the OP, T-Mobile do sim only lines for children in the parents name. It won't let them go over their contractual minutes or texts, without topping up like a PAYG phone. You can see them on their site they have "fixed" on their end of their tariff name.

A word of warning re the TMobile fixed. I signed up to this for both of my kids and it was a nightmare. They could and did go over their allocation because there was no real time data collection. It cost me a fortune. That was a couple of years ago and they may well have improved the service but I'd strongly recommend that any one thinking of signing up checks this out first

greyster

MyRubyRed wrote: »

A word of warning re the TMobile fixed. I signed up to this for both of my kids and it was a nightmare. They could and did go over their allocation because there was no real time data collection. It cost me a fortune. That was a couple of years ago and they may well have improved the service but I'd strongly recommend that any one thinking of signing up checks this out first

ouch, yes I wouldn't know if this is still possible or not.

seaniboy

Voda accussed me of being....

POT KETTLE....