vodafone, is it a scam?

reidydawn

hi,

has anyone else heard anything similar happening to my story.

6 months ago i took out a 2nd contract with vodafone in order to get a new phone, i had 6 months left on my exsisting account so continued paying the line rental on this number until march this year when i emailed to cancel contract. i was told it would take a month to do so which was fine. however 4 weeks ago my phone was cut off due to over usage after a week of phone calls vodafone finally explained this was because my old number (which had been inactive for months) was taken to China & Hong Kong running up a massive bill which I am now liable for.

frustratingly this matter has now been going on a month with the outcome being that I am being refunded only £30 of the £175 I am due. they are only refunding this because there customer service has been so poor. I have found it impossible to speak to anyone in there customer service team who speaks fluent english, I posted a previous thread on the forum where I was told to contact customer relations but I really just think this was to make themselves look interested as she aswell has done nothing except offer the £30 refund.

i am worried there is some sort of scam going on because I went into a vodafone store where the sales assistant called his retail support team & they said this was the 2nd case they'd heard about that day with similar details.

sorry for going on. hoping someone here can offer some advise & if anyone was thinking of beginning a contract with vodafone i'd strongly advise against it.

OneADay

How did your old number end up in china/hong kong?
Or more to the point, how did your old sim end up there?

Why did you take out a second contract for when you had one contract already? Did you lose the first phone? Or did you flog the old mobile on ebay with the sim still in it? The number would have been active till you ended that contract.

reidydawn

i have no idea how my old sim ended up there, the sim card wasnt used for 5 months, i just dont understand why as soon as i cancelled the contract the sim was then used over there.

i got a 2nd contract because i broke my old phone & stupidly didnt have insurance. i received cash back from a store to pay my bill monthly until the end of the contract.

OneADay

Well in that case, you probably handed your old phone and sim card inside to the cashback company, who in turn sold the phone on in China.

The sim would not have been deactivated until end of contract - the only way that would have been possible was if you offered to pay 6 months line rental in advance.

If you didn't it continued to be active - not vodafone's fault but your responsibility to know where the sim card was.

reidydawn

no i gave my phone back but kept the sim as i needed to transfer numbers. i moved house 4 months ago & unfortunately cant find the sim now, as it wasnt in a phone it was loose. but i think its strange that a sim has not been used for anything for 6 months, then 2 days after i contact vodafone to cancel the contract it is used in China & Hong Kong. vodafone however are not willing to look into this matter at all for me, which i find frustrating as i have been a loyal customer for 5 years without any late payments.

cgk1

i have no idea how my old sim ended up there,

Sounds like you either lost it or left it in the old phone and it was taken that way. It's not what you want to hear but it's your duty as part of your contract to control access to your sim card.

mitch161

by losing the sim or giving it away left you open to others using it.

if you had the sim in your hand or destroyed it to prevent usage then this would have been ok. but the new tenants of your old house must have found it and decided to do the naughty thing and use it.

should have reported it lost/stolen earlier.

obviously next question is. to ask when were phonecalls made and what was the billing address.

as for those 6 months the phone company should have kept you informed of all calls.

if you did not change address of orginal sim to new address then this im afraid to say is a second fault on your part as the bills would be going to the old house.

ok sorry for the put downs but this is not the phone companies fault about your life choices to move or to take sim out of phone. but now for some supportive help.

ask phone company for a full call breakdown of phonebill so you can atleast see when calls were made.

this atleast proves that calls actually existed. then it would have to be a case of you fighting with new tenants of old house to seek them to pay the bill as they found and used your sim card without your permission.

mention to the phone company that the tenants used it without your permission and what their policy is on placing holds/ bars on usage of simcard/ bills in matters concerning calls made without permission.

i know most companies have policies where if you misplaced your phone they had a discretionary period that if you say "i did not realise it was missing because..." but this is normally a short period.

just be nice and pleasant and tell them the whole chain of events. when you moved away (proof being change of address being new contract address details) and how you are seeking a hold on this bill ATLEAST or if they can remove the debt in any way.

hopefully others have greater experience on how to say it or what to say then me. but it seems like its not a phone company scam. just bad luck where the new tenants of old house done this to you.

hopefully next time if you want to change sims to contact company to keep line active but bar out going calls.

reidydawn

thanks for your help, i'll try speaking to vodafone again.

the reason i asked people for advise was because the sim wasnt used for the last few months to make any calls or texts, it was only used in china & hong kong after i phoned up to cancel the sim. which i find strange if someone had it why did they wait until 2 days after i called to cancel to use it when they could've had it for months.

cgk1

after i phoned up to cancel the sim. which i find strange if someone had it why did they wait until 2 days after i called to cancel to use it when they could've had it for months.

Could be pure coincidence - otherwise you are building a conspiratorial situation in your mind that requires whoever handed your contract to then contact the people with the sim to use it before it's cut off - highly unlikely. I just don't think you can get around the fact that you either lost or misplaced the sim and never reported it as such - that's where you are going to struggle to get any more money out of vodafone.

mitch161

this story has more splinters in it then a lumberjack who refuses to wear gloves..

first you break phone, then its sold back to shop

then you lose sim - but say how your addiment calls were not made.

you say you kept sim to transfer number. - doesnt that mean all calls/ bills transfer to new contract. making old sim redundant piece of plastic

some info for you
the china charges are not links to the original phone that was damages/sold - they are linked to the sim/phone number attached to sim.

did you get number transfered? sounds like no as you mentioned that you kept the old contract alive and just didnt use sim.

sim got lost. so how do you know new tennants of old house didnt do the naughty.

again get the phone statement. and usee your email cancelation request as a date that vodafone should have barred all calls.
even if the line rental had to continued to end of month excessive call charges after a cancelation request seems bad.

but something seems not quite right about your chain of events. i think your not telling the whole truth about something.. the story does not seem fluid and in a straight line.

grumbler

mitch161 wrote: »

again get the phone bill for this old sim. if you truly requested to cancel contract. all calls would be barred blocked from that day you called.

It was a cancellation notice. The contract had to be terminated in due course later when the contract term expired. Voda blocked the sim card earlier only because of unusual "over usage".

as vodafone should have disconnected the service at the date of the phone call,

They should have not.