Vodafone complaints

olip74

Hi,

I have a tale of woe about Vodafone. I made an order for a Samsung Jet via the Vodafone Web site on 30/09. The phone arrived on 06/10 but by 08/10 I decided that I didn't want it after all - it really is an overhyped and severely compromised phone and I wouldn't just have returned it frivolously. Under the terms of the distance selling regulations (DSR) I knew I was entitled to return the phone within 7 days and called Vodafone to notify them of my intention to do so.

I complied with Vodafone's instructions, printing off a 'product return' email, signing it and returning the phone et al to the address provided. I was informed that, as I had set up a direct debit when ordering, the first month's payment would be taken from my account but that any credit for the partial month's service would be processed in the second month. Sure enough I was billed and debited for the first month. I got home today to find my second bill - the credit had indeed been applied to the account, however so had a £399.12 charge for "cancellation prior to contract end date". I am still in shock!

I phoned Vodafone straight away. The first guy I spoke to said that he could see that the phone had been returned on 09/10 but that he couldn't do anything and I had to contact the Web team, as this was an online order. I duly called the 0870 number provided and was informed by the advisor that he couldn't do anything either as the warehouse was shut so he couldn't confirm the return of the phone and told me to phone back on Monday. I told him that his colleague had been able to check the return but he said that he couldn't take my (or his colleague's) word for this and had to speak to the warehouse - jobsworth!

The debit is due to come out of my account on 02/12 and it will be 23/11 by the time I can call Voda again so there is little time to sort this out. I don't have the money in my account to pay for this and really don't want to incur overdraft charges. If Vodafone don't sort this out on Monday I may be forced to cancel the DD, which may affect my credit rating and what chance then of seeing my credit? The real point is this should have been sorted out via the returns process. Even if they say it will be sorted, I now have no faith that I won't be billed for the £400! What should I do?

Vodafone

Hi There

Mrs Arcanum - This sounds like a very difficult situation for your brother.

I can't make any guarantees of an outcome as I haven't seen the account, but I'd like to offer any help I can. Get your brother to send us an email using the Contact Us form with his details, a link to this thread and your username and I'll see what I can do for him. It's really important that when he sends the email he includes the code WRT135 in the subject line so that it comes straight to my team.

olip74 - I can understand your lack of confidence at this stage.

From what you describe this should be quite straight-forward to resolve.

As above I need to look at your account to see what I can do and bring this to a close for you. If you follow the same instructions I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

All the best

Kirsty
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

loz_the_guru

Ive been with vodafone for nearly 3 years now and have always found the customer service to be absolutely top notch, however im now having a real problem with them. Back in august i signed up to an 18 month extension to my current contract, which was agreed to be at £25 a month for 600 minutes, unlimited texs and he BIS BlackBerry package. This was agreed with the retentions team via an incoming call. I dont check my bills regularly as they still go to my parents home address, however it appears ive been signed up to a contract that costs £35 a month. Im really not happy about this, and the vodafone representative Ive just spoken to about it was less than helpful, claiming that because its been 3 months since the contract began theres nothing they can do. I requested a call back from a supervisor regarding the matter as none was available at the time, and even this was refused with no reason given!

What can I do about this? It amounts to a total of £180 over the term of the contract, and the way vodafone have behaved so far is completely unacceptable.

Tech_Wiz_Kid

Ive had lots of problems with Vodafone in the past. You always get a generic message or one asking for your life story.

If you want my advice. Go to o2. Best network ever. Strong signal everywhere and lots of added extras. Never looked back.

Orange is also rubbish, hardly any signal and a rip off.

Hope this helps

Tech Wiz Kid

Blue_Parrot

Regarding my post no. 391 and Vodafone's response no. 392.

Vodafone have emailed me to say that "......our Billing Support Team have completed your bill recalculation for the period between 1st August and 31st October this year."

This resulted in just over £200 being deducted from the current, disputed, bill which prompted my appearance here.

A good result, you might think?

Nope.

There is a further £220 overcharge not yet billed, which I can see on their website. If I can see it, so can they. This relates to charges for calls made up to 31st October.

Yet again I have had to put in the hours to make the effort to draw their attention to their own data. It's all on THEIR bills so why do I, yet again, have to tell them how to do their own jobs? :mad:

By the way, it did take hours. The data as presented on the "unbilled" section is not in date order. I had to copy and paste the entire lot to a spreadsheet and then manually rearrange each line to show date order because the way they do it is not acceptable to any Sort function.

They say they'll bill me on 12th December, so they've got a further two weeks to sort this out. If they do not, the December bill will be in the region of £400 minimum.

Oh! Must give credit where credit's due (weak joke). Hey, they've discounted the November line rental as a goodwill gesture. WOW! £17.02 credit on a £400+ complaint! :j

Blue_Parrot

loz_the_guru wrote: »

Ive been with vodafone for nearly 3 years now and have always found the customer service to be absolutely top notch, however im now having a real problem with them. Back in august i signed up to an 18 month extension to my current contract, which was agreed to be at £25 a month for 600 minutes, unlimited texs and he BIS BlackBerry package. This was agreed with the retentions team via an incoming call. I dont check my bills regularly as they still go to my parents home address, however it appears ive been signed up to a contract that costs £35 a month. Im really not happy about this, and the vodafone representative Ive just spoken to about it was less than helpful, claiming that because its been 3 months since the contract began theres nothing they can do. I requested a call back from a supervisor regarding the matter as none was available at the time, and even this was refused with no reason given!

What can I do about this? It amounts to a total of £180 over the term of the contract, and the way vodafone have behaved so far is completely unacceptable.

Phone them again. You never get the same person twice.

It's complete rubbish to say that 3 months into a contract nothing can be changed. Nearly every time I change contracts at their behest, I have to phone them to change it again. Especially since the new tarriff as far as overseas calls is concerned does not manifest itself until 3 months later! (Which is precisely why I'm battling about a new tarriff applied in July: no sign of it until October.)

There is no point requesting a call-back from a supervisor either. The only time Vodafone ever phone you is when they want to sell you something; not to sort out problems. In my experience.

And check your bills more regularly. I check every single line of mine, every month.

Good luck

Vodafone

Hi There

Blue Parrot - I've sent you an email about this earlier today.

loz_the_guru - This is stange and is definitely something that I would like to investigate for you.

If you get in touch by following the instructions in my last post (above) I'll get an answer to this for you.

All the best

Kirsty
Web Relaitons Team
Vodafone UK

Mr_Thrifty

Hehe, I think it's so funny seeing Vodafone officials responding to people with names like "Blue Parrot" and "loz_the_guru". Hehehe, it's really cheered up my day!

Blue_Parrot

They're playing games now.

Two days ago I had this email:
=====================
Hi xxx xxxxxxxxxxx

I can understand your concern.

I've taken a look at your account and can see that the credit is to cover the period from 1/8/09 to 31/10/09 and so it does include the dates that you mention.

If you have any other queries please don't hesitate to ask.

All the best
Kirsty
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK
==============

My reply:

Hallo Kirsty

Since you acknowledge that a further £220 or so should be deducted from the unbilled amount awaiting collection in December, some confirmation that this will happen would be appreciated.

Can I take it that this has also been brought to the attention of the Billing Support Team and the result will be reported to me without delay?
=============
Nothing happened.

Today I sent this:

HALLO VODAFONE

Is anyone going to reply to this email which I sent you on the 23rd?

Kirsty? Lee? Anyone there?

My account should be in credit by now, yes? It was £131 balance, I've reckoned a further £220 deduction owed = ~£90 credit, PLUS the £17 line rental credit Lee said he'd granted.

Sigh.
Thank you.

---

Now I get a reply from Kay.

Is Kay up to speed, we wonder? Are Kay, Kirsty and Lee all the same person, we wonder?

Kay: Hi xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Please accept my apologies for the delay in replying. I have today requested information from the billing team as to which billing period you have already been credited for.
At the moment I don't have a definite figure as to how much is still owed to you, I will be contacting you tomorrow with this information.
Thanks for your patience, I look forward to speaking to you tomorrow.
Kay
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK
=============

He/she will not be speaking to me tomorrow. I do not switch my mobile phone on every day.

If Kay had read all the emails exchanged on this sorry saga, she/he would already know that.

<rolls eyes>

msb5262

I've been a pay monthly customer of Vodafone for about 8 years and used to be quite happy with the service, but the last 7 months have nearly finished me off...
In April I renegotiated my contract to include 200 minutes and 500 texts per month.
Unfortunately, Vodafone have been charging me for texts - My average bill has been around 50% above what it should be.

On at least 2 occasions I have called Customer Care and have been reassured that it would be put right and wouldn't happen again...this month I looked at my bill and saw that it has happened AGAIN.
I decided it was time to get this sorted out once and for all, and sent an email to Customer Care via the website asking a manager to contact me by phone. I stated clearly that email would not suffice as a means of discussing the whole issue.

(The reason for this is that when I call Customer Care, inevitably I'm told that the right person isn't available to discuss the problem - also I have poor reception on my mobile when at home, so I wanted an appropriate person to call me on my landline.)
No phone call, but an email saying it
had all been put right, I have a £98 credit to my account and asking me to contact Vodafone when the next erroneous direct debit has been taken so it could be returned.

I replied to the email AND copied the same message into an email via the website, saying that an email would not do and that I wished to discuss the problems I've been having with a manager. I stated that I was now making a formal complaint and that Vodafone has breached the terms of the contract between us.

This time I received a phone call from somebody in sales, offering me a better price package. I said I wasn't prepared to discuss any price package until the problems I've already had are resolved to my satisfaction. The sales bloke said he wasn't qualified to discuss the problems I've had. End of phone call.

Still waiting for a call from Vodafone.

WHY WON'T THEY CALL ME?

I am intending to pursue this, if necessary going via Ofcom.
Very disappointed and frustrated!

MsB