Vodafone are Dire. So Dire.

Guys_Dad

You got a good result and that's the main thing. Clearly, they have either checked the "tapes" or decided to offer a goodwill gesture. So well done.

However, my main points about your belief that a contract didn't exist and my advice about being less confrontational are, I believe, still accurate.

As for me not being confrontational, the difference here was that I was not seeking to persuade a major corporate to waive t&c. It mattered little to me whether you chose to listen to my opinion or not. Post #1 stated there was a contract and then you wrote "This is my point, there is no contract, i haven't signed one." As we said, you don't need to sign a contract for one to exist. You had a valid point about a duff handset, but many incorrect assumptions about what actual protection the law/SOGA gives, but refused to accept the correct advice on the mobile contracts that you were given by people who, for one reason or another, actually DO know the law. That provoked my quoted comment.

This time you got lucky, - I think you were 100% correct about the Executive Office deciding it was easier to get rid of the matter to avoid protracted hassle - but don't make the mistake of believing your incorrect interpretation of contract law for future cases. But I guess you will, based on the good result you got this time.

But maybe in a perverse way you have hit on the answer. Nuisance value and they will pay up just to get rid of the hassle. Write a long rambling factually incorrect letter to the company, making it clear you are not going to go away and they give in just to get rid of you. I think you may be on to something there!!! I'll try that next time.

Mehman_2

It was just the condescending tone of your messages..
Perhaps you dont think they come across that way - to me they do.

Whether you are correct or not doesnt really matter when because of the tone, people are unreceptive to your advice. Notice how most of the other messages in this thread giving the same advice come across so differently..

Sadly though, all this has a risen from my inability to articulate myself... i try to stay away from forums until i have to go to them.
All the time i was trying to say:
'There is no WRITTEN contract, and the proof of the verbal contract is the proof im relying on'

But its unimportant.. and im sure you feel justified to talk to people the way you do and my messages wont have any effect. i just get that feeling. so i will bow out gracefully and let you keep your alpha male status as 'king of the moneysavers'

Again though, thanks for taking the time to try and give advice.. Its just a shame about the tone of your messages, at least how i interpreted them.

Guys_Dad

Really sorry to have offended you. Not my main intention to being on here, truthfully. And I agree that my second post was sarcastic - it was meant to be. But for the right reasons.

if you look at your first 4 posts, you contradicted yourself about a contract being in existence (you now explained you meant a written contract, but unfortunately that isn't what you wrote and not what the basis of your argument was either).

You also wrote that you had cancelled the contract and I took it that you had cancelled the DD. "You say i don't have a right to cancel a contract.. Despite there being no contract?
(Furthermore.. i have Already cancelled my contract.. i had done that before i posted the above yesterday.. im now disputing the cancellation fees as according to trading standards, im not liable)"

Again, later, you put us right on that.

The points we made about contract rights are factual, but you replied in a way that suggested that you knew better and I admit that put my back up.

I also apologise if I disrespected your writing style. But good advice, even on the MSE web site, is to keep complaint letters brief, unemotional, factually accurate and it is always best to get a 3rd party to read what you have written impartially,also picking up any grammar/spelling slips. You need to come over as a reasonable person when dealing with Chief Execs and remember that they are coming to this cold from a start point of your complaint letter, not carrying the baggage you have got from being passed from pillar to post in the run up to your complain

Maybe I should take my own advice if my writing style comes over as condescending and patronising. And certainly don't stay off the forum because of anything I or anyone else wrote.

But you got a result, so well done. :beer: