Vodafone complaints

gjchester

AndyP1957 wrote: »

Vodafone were asked to support him when he ran into problems with his first account - instead of doing the sensible thing of trying to understand and help him by capping the phone all they could do was increase the value of his contract that he had to pay each month.

Vodafone have never offered capped plans. If your son regularly exceeds his allowance then a higher rated plan is the only solution they offer, and they were correct to offer this.

Were Vodafone right to offer credit, that's a tough one, unless you were there when he took out the contract and saw what he provided as ID then it's hard to know what they saw. Your son is an adult, and a credit check is not to prove that you can afford a contract, only that you have a good history of making payments on time (or not) and the person seeking the contract is who they say they are. If you can get him to order or view his credit records with the three major agencies you an see if he was checked. If you contact Vodafone they should be able to tell you who they use to save applying to all three.

Unfortunately the DPA is not something companies can choose to ignore without checking with the person in question, if you want to see your sons file and help resolve this he needs to call Vodafone and get you put on his account as an authorised person, or have legal powers over is affairs already in place. If he can't / won't allow access then you will not get access.

AndyP1957 wrote: »

Irresponsible attitude to credit is what has caused a lot of the problems in this country in the past few years - too many cutting corners to boost statistics.

That works both ways, you could say your son was the one with the irresponsible attitude, he wanted a new phone and didn't think through if they could afford it, hindsight is wonderful but PAYG would have been better in this case.


Good luck sorting it out, however I'm not sure where Vodafone have done wrong, as MJ said it's not Vodafone's job to manage your sons affairs.

AndyP1957

Thank you for a more constructive comment than others who do not have a grasp of what is happening in our own country.

The whole issue revolves around were they right to advance credit, and then increase it.

Simple fact is, he went from school (no credit history in any shape or form) onto Job Seekers. Immediately on his first contract he ran into financial problems - payments bounced etc etc.

Then the problem got worse - so obviously there was no possible way he had a good credit history with them and still had nothing elsewhere at that time.

With regard the capping - it is done, it is just not widely publicised.

The bottom line here, is my son would love to have a job, in 3 years he has made over 400 applications, and had about 8 interviews in that time. He asked for help and the problem was made worse.

In the ideal world he will sort this amicably with Vodafone but without having any money at this time he can offer nothing neither do they.

Ultimately like thousands if not tens of thousands of others my son will appear before a County Court concerning non payment of this debt and they will look at his lack of finances and an order will be made.

There are no winners only losers - so perhaps Vodafone will look at this matter and admit that someone in one of their stores on two occasions has been negligent in letting someone have a contract.

gjchester wrote: »

Vodafone have never offered capped plans. If your son regularly exceeds his allowance then a higher rated plan is the only solution they offer, and they were correct to offer this.

Were Vodafone right to offer credit, that's a tough one, unless you were there when he took out the contract and saw what he provided as ID then it's hard to know what they saw. Your son is an adult, and a credit check is not to prove that you can afford a contract, only that you have a good history of making payments on time (or not) and the person seeking the contract is who they say they are. If you can get him to order or view his credit records with the three major agencies you an see if he was checked. If you contact Vodafone they should be able to tell you who they use to save applying to all three.

Unfortunately the DPA is not something companies can choose to ignore without checking with the person in question, if you want to see your sons file and help resolve this he needs to call Vodafone and get you put on his account as an authorised person, or have legal powers over is affairs already in place. If he can't / won't allow access then you will not get access.



That works both ways, you could say your son was the one with the irresponsible attitude, he wanted a new phone and didn't think through if they could afford it, hindsight is wonderful but PAYG would have been better in this case.


Good luck sorting it out, however I'm not sure where Vodafone have done wrong, as MJ said it's not Vodafone's job to manage your sons affairs.

gjchester

AndyP1957 wrote: »

Simple fact is, he went from school (no credit history in any shape or form) onto Job Seekers. Immediately on his first contract he ran into financial problems - payments bounced etc etc.

A lack of credit history is not the same as a negative history. Every 18 year old starts with no history and it builds from there, if the vodafone contract was the first contract theres nothing they can go on, so would probalby approve but on a low level contract.

I agree increasing a limit if he has then proven a history of erratic payments seems a pretty dumb decision

AndyP1957 wrote: »

With regard the capping - it is done, it is just not widely publicised.

Can you say where. Vodafone offer a credit limit but thats never been a hard stop. It stems from overseas billing is never in real time so they cannot do a real time stop on contract.

Could they, maybe if they re-wrote systems, but its unlikely.

AndyP1957

The info was from my ex wife when she asked around his peer groups, parents, of their experiences and several had the service offered to them - how it works I do not know.

It seems from what you say to be one of those services which never get publicised like the Visa Debit card protection scheme which many banks deny knowing about but it exists if you google it.

gjchester wrote: »

A lack of credit history is not the same as a negative history. Every 18 year old starts with no history and it builds from there, if the vodafone contract was the first contract theres nothing they can go on, so would probalby approve but on a low level contract.

I agree increasing a limit if he has then proven a history of erratic payments seems a pretty dumb decision



Can you say where. Vodafone offer a credit limit but thats never been a hard stop. It stems from overseas billing is never in real time so they cannot do a real time stop on contract.

Could they, maybe if they re-wrote systems, but its unlikely.

Vodafone

Hi AndyP1957,

Thanks for making me aware of your concerns.

Having checked our emails I can confirm that I've received yours and so please be assured that I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

baldelectrician

I have ALL my family on Tesco (who use O2 network) and they all have capped contracts (including me)

That way if anyone loses their phone there will be no nasty surprises.

davmail

Yes,Vodafone customer service leaves a lot to be desired,my Blackberry z10 is full of problems,but Vodafone will not swap for a phone that actually works,I suppose I am asking too much of a big company who make huge profits to help out a little guy like me.They said they would 'Not even entertain the idea'.....lovely.

ryan69

Does anyone know how i can speak to someone english when calling vodafone?? Ggrr

Supatramp

Ask to speak to someone in the UK. I believe they have to do it, and they certainly have when I've had to ask.

Vodafone

Hi davmail,

I've just replied to you here.

ryan69 wrote: »

Does anyone know how i can speak to someone english when calling vodafone?? Ggrr

Hi ryan69,

Although I'm unable to guarantee that your call will be handled by an agent in the UK if you'd like to help you further could you email me with your details via the link in our profile here?

All you need to do is copy and paste the link into your web browser and it will take you to the Contact us form on our website. To make sure it reaches me could you also quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line?

Once sent you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. So I can make sure I've got it could you update the thread with this?

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK