How Bad Is A Default

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

CitySlicker wrote: »

The problem is it is not a matter of principle for your provider. You pay them for a service, they cause you hassle, you feel they are singling you out and causing you bad service.

From their point of view, they want maximum revenue and they have a paid legal team. If you stop paying, it does not matter one jot to them as they'll instruct their legal team to get onto the matter. You will come off worse and companies do not care how long you have been a customer or how much you spend with them (apart from the mega-rich of course), to us minions we are merely lots of little dots on an overall balance sheet and it will not make much difference to them if you stay or go.

I take it you are talking about Vodafone. I have personally recently cancelled with them and managed to get out. At no point did I ever think of cancelling my debit with them. Additionally there is another matter, I take it you intend trying to cancel under clause 11.2 of the contract which is the 10% rule. Everyone who has been let go up to now is basically on a goodwill basis. You have not been charged until your October bill comes in so as of this moment in time, until 1/10 you suffer absolutely no detriment either financially or in the service you take from them. You will lose in court if you cancel now without being charged.

I fully agree Vodafone have been silly in how they have handled this, and you are speaking to someone who has had over 60 emails with them, recorded delivery letters and recorded phone calls too. They will have you served up for lunch in front of a court if you cancel your direct debit at this stage in proceedings though and you will lose. I'm not saying you may lose, I am putting my neck on the block and say you absolutely will lose at this stage in the process.

To get out of their service you must write to their Newbury address. You say you have written - is this by letter to Newbury? This is the way they say you have to proceed to cancel and it is published on their forum announcement about this.

Fully agree about leaving Vodafone with this change, but don't do something silly like cancel your DD as you will come off worse.

Yes I have written by Recorded Post to the Newbury Address. I have just found a large thread on here about it.

Well in October I will incur the charge as I go over so therefore I will experience the change.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

The value of the remainder of the contract now is basically the price of the phone if I paid for it SIM Free. I am unsure how to proceed.

Obviously the dont pay route isn't the best
Pay off and go somewhere else (maybe Giff Gaff)
Try and cancel on this basis.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

Yes I have written by Recorded Post to the Newbury Address. I have just found a large thread on here about it.

Well in October I will incur the charge as I go over so therefore I will experience the change.

And at that point they will most likely let you go, or at least make you an offer which you may want to consider. Saying you will incur the charge is not good enough though, even though you think you will get charged the contract is quite clear that they do not have to let you go until you actually do suffer the detriment that increases your overall use by 10% more based on your normal use. I take it you are constantly over 500Mb per month?

They still have technically a week to change their mind on the data charging issue anyway so it is possible there will be a last minute reprieve.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

The value of the remainder of the contract now is basically the price of the phone if I paid for it SIM Free. I am unsure how to proceed.

Obviously the dont pay route isn't the best
Pay off and go somewhere else (maybe Giff Gaff)
Try and cancel on this basis.

You can try to cancel but I need some info first. How much data do you normally use each month, how much did you use last month as well? How much did you pay for your last month's bill, and what is your normal bill? When did you take out your contract?

If you give me this info I will tell you how may be best to proceed.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

Yes I go over by 200-250MB or so.

the contract price is £35 and was taken out in 7th May The plan is a YPL 18PRM 600m UTx VP

In the phone call I had today the operator told me to go to a Vodafone store with my handset and show them the SMS saying I will be charged together with a copy of my contract. I do not have a paper copy of it - never been sent one. Have read the Online version.

If I do this the operator said that the shop arrange the cancellation. I am hesitant as Vodafone have lied and wriggled and the shop is quite far from us. So I think will I turn up to be told that I was lied to again and that the shop cannot do this.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

You are in a reasonably straightforward position and you should be able to cancel. In your letter to Newbury, you need to say you want to cancel as per clause 11.2 of the pay monthly airtime contract as the introduction of this new charge will increase your overall bill by more than 10%. You need to mention you regularly go over 500Mb and ideally say what you used last month. Tell them that currently this means your £35 bill becomes £40 effectively, which is more than a 10% increase so you are invoking your right to cancel.

If you have already done this in writing, now is the time to escalate to the director's office. Your best place to start is emailing Vodafone Directors Office VodafoneDirectorsOffice@gb.vodafone.co.uk and putting your complaint to them. Tell them all the above, then tell them the date you wrote to them. You may be offered a number of deals, including increasing your package to 1Gb instead of 500Mb, there is talk of some people being offered 1.5Gb, and there are some people who have been offered a new handset as an incentive to stay. If you are still intent on leaving they will usually then provide you with a PAC code.

Do note though that if you have only recently started debating this point with Vodafone you may not get far until after 1/10. Unofficially there are rumours about staff talking internally this date is being set aside as 'mass cancellation day' and after this date you do have the legal right to cancel if you will be affected, before then you may get angry but may not get results.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

CitySlicker wrote: »

You are in a reasonably straightforward position and you should be able to cancel. In your letter to Newbury, you need to say you want to cancel as per clause 11.2 of the pay monthly airtime contract as the introduction of this new charge will increase your overall bill by more than 10%. You need to mention you regularly go over 500Mb and ideally say what you used last month. Tell them that currently this means your £35 bill becomes £40 effectively, which is more than a 10% increase so you are invoking your right to cancel.

If you have already done this in writing, now is the time to escalate to the director's office. Your best place to start is emailing Vodafone Directors Office [EMAIL="VodafoneDirectorsOffice@gb.vodafone.co.uk"]VodafoneDirectorsOffice@gb.vodafone.co.uk[/EMAIL] and putting your complaint to them. Tell them all the above, then tell them the date you wrote to them. You may be offered a number of deals, including increasing your package to 1Gb instead of 500Mb, there is talk of some people being offered 1.5Gb, and there are some people who have been offered a new handset as an incentive to stay. If you are still intent on leaving they will usually then provide you with a PAC code.

Do note though that if you have only recently started debating this point with Vodafone you may not get far until after 1/10. Unofficially there are rumours about staff talking internally this date is being set aside as 'mass cancellation day' and after this date you do have the legal right to cancel if you will be affected, before then you may get angry but may not get results.

Hey - thanks so much - so just paying and towing the party line is a good thing for now - but you can understand my frustration.

My signed for letter was not as fancy as yours but said that the price will increase my bill and is to my contractual detriment. They must surely know what I mean.

What do you think of the operator saying to go to a store? The store is 30 miles away in Carlisle

The interesting thing I experienced with this is that some months I went over and received no warning at all - but went over limit - then out of the blue this message turns up with a charge warning.

I think they should have written properly.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

I have been told to go to a store also and I raised hell with the director's office. Less than a week following that incident I had received my PAC, I had transferred to another network and I am no longer a Voda customer.

They have a lot to learn from this and I think from their changing stance on the Voda forum itself, remember you have joined quite late in the day to this discussion and a lot has gone on, they are realising how badly they have handled this and starting to change their position. I would say almost certainly you will be able to cancel (so long as Voda don't backtrack as there is still a possibility they will change their mind when they realise how many people are poised to cancel), but please promise me you won't stop paying them as I guarantee you will not win that argument on those grounds. Let us help you cancel the right way on here.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

CitySlicker wrote: »

I have been told to go to a store also and I raised hell with the director's office. Less than a week following that incident I had received my PAC, I had transferred to another network and I am no longer a Voda customer.

They have a lot to learn from this and I think from their changing stance on the Voda forum itself, remember you have joined quite late in the day to this discussion and a lot has gone on, they are realising how badly they have handled this and starting to change their position. I would say almost certainly you will be able to cancel (so long as Voda don't backtrack as there is still a possibility they will change their mind when they realise how many people are poised to cancel), but please promise me you won't stop paying them as I guarantee you will not win that argument on those grounds. Let us help you cancel the right way on here.

No - I will not stop paying. if necessary I will pay the £5 extra charge. So I might go into Carlisle to browse the shops and go in the store.

So what you are saying is just ride with it at the moment?

Assumably then you were told in store that you were basically lied to and then contacted the Director's Office and after that it was goodnight Vienna?

So if Vodafone are offering all this incentivisation, which must cost money, to people who are annoyed it begs a question why they decided to take the path they did.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

No - I will not stop paying. if necessary I will pay the £5 extra charge. So I might go into Carlisle to browse the shops and go in the store.

So what you are saying is just ride with it at the moment?

Assumably then you were told in store that you were basically lied to and then contacted the Director's Office and after that it was goodnight Vienna?

So if Vodafone are offering all this incentivisation, which must cost money, to people who are annoyed it begs a question why they decided to take the path they did.

I didn't go to the store, I told the director's office that I had a long history of fighting this policy so they might want to phone the manager of my local store to prepare them I will be arriving on a specific day at a particular time as I won't then be leaving until I had an answer. Saying that, the call which I was told this on initially was recorded and I sent a copy of the recording to that email too.

I would say you won't have many problems so long as there is a written letter to them, chase it by the director's office if you get nowhere on the phone (I would leave the phone at this stage and only deal with the director's office), compared to some you have a reasonably straightforward case.