vodafone issue. any advice greatly appreciated

lanavdt

Hi there, hoping someone will be able to advise me on what to do next. I'm sorry but it's a bit of a long story...

In April, I got a text from vodafone saying I hadn't paid my bill. Phoned them straight up and discovered my bank hadn't switched my direct debit over (they transferred everything except my vf one). I paid with my card and set up the direct debit with a chap from the Egyptian call centre.

In May I received the same text saying I hadn't paid so called up once again and spoke to a different chap from the Egyptian call centre who informed me there was no start date on the direct debit. He set it up to begin taking payments from my June bill. I attempted to pay via my card but was unable to do so (that's another story). I asked if I could pay instore and he said no the only way to pay would be to go to a Barclays branch and do a giro payment. I took the details and then realised there was no way I could get to the nearest branch during it's opening hours.

My lovely partner then stepped in and offered to swap shifts at his work so that he would be able to go into the branch and make the payment. I withdrew the money from my bank account so he could pay it in.

En route inspiration struck him and he called vf and asked if he could pay via his card. They accepted this as he has access to the account. He asked to pay £144.79 which was the total bill for May but was informed the bill was only £125.01. He paid this then and that was that. I was confused at this point but when I called vf they said there was no money outstanding on the account. This was on the 16th of June.

On the 18th of June I called my bank to transfer money to his account (still had no bank card) only to discover I'm over £100 into an unauthorised overdraft. Spoke to a customer adviser who informed me that vf had taken £144.79 by direct debit on the 13th of June. I explained the situation and was advised to go into a branch and do a direct debit indemnity. I then called vf and spoke to a guy at the uk call centre who apologised and said it showed on my account that the direct debit was only to start from the June payment. It turns out my partner paid June's bill istead of May. He said he could process a refund but that it would be quicker to do an indemnity as the person at the bank advised. He said vodafone was totally at fault and that any charges I incurred would be refunded by vf.

I went and did the indemnity and as it was a Saturday I didn't get the money back to my account until Tuesday morning. I had a web chat with someone called Amir during which we went around in circles with him apologising and me saying as politely as I could that sorry wasn't helping me to buy shopping nor would it help me to get home or to work the following week. He eventually advised me to email my complaint as he couldn't help. I did this and became increasingly frustrated by the responses I received. The staff kept saying they were sorry and that my charges would be refunded in spite of me explianing that I was looking for more than that.

Anyway, the money went back into my bank account and then the customer service advisers started saying there was no outstanding balance on my account and when I asked them to clarify they said I was due no money for the May bill. I went into a vf shop and they confirmed that there was no outstanding balance. They suggested it had been cleared as a goodwill gesture due to the inconvenience vf had caused. This was on the 25th of June.

On the 30th I went back into the vf shop to look at adjusting my package and was informed there is an outstanding balance of £144.79 on my account. I showed the staff the emails I'd had and they agreed that it sounded like the balance was clear. They suggested an error on vf's computers. As I left the store I emailled vf asking that my complaint be escallated. I called vf on the Friday morning but the first person, Andy, hung up on me when I asked to be transferred to a manager. I called back and spoke to Luke who advised me the computers were down and he said he'd look into my account. He left me a voicemail asking to call back at 12.50. Due to the nature of my job I do not have access to my phone during the day.

I called at 6 and spoke with Lesley. She read the emails and agreed that it sounded like my balance had been cleared. She spoke to a colleague sitting next to her who agreed and she brought it to the attention of the floor walker who looked closer into my account and decided that it was just a poorly worded email. Apparently it doesn't matter if you pay your bill or not with vodafone-as soon as they request money via direct debit they mark your bill paid. By this point I was struggling to make Lesley understand that the issue was that vf had taken money without permission from my account as the dd hadn't been authorised for May's payment. She advised me to email again saying I was furious with the way things had been handled and that I required a response detailing exactly how they were going to rectify things.

I did offer to give her my card details but she recommended I wait until my issues have been resolved. I sent the email but am extremely doubtful that it will make any difference. This is the second muck up vf have made in 3months and I'm reaching the end of my tether with them. Does anyone have any advice on how best to proceed with this? Thanks for taking the time to read

mobilejunkie

If I were you I'd set aside at least another 3 months of hassle before there's any prospect of them sorting it out. Mine took 7 months - and I'm still not completely certain it's now going to work ok.

Vodafone are completely useless at - well - EVERYTHING. Administration is a joke; managers hide and won't speak with you; the complaints department ignores complaints; customer representatives always insist they can sort it all out and then proceed to make it even worse.

I sympathise - been there/done that and know how futile it all is. My problems started from a slightly different point but were compounded by incorrect bills, direct debits not being set up properly and a complete waste of weeks of my time. Your ONLY chance is to search for the Vodafone complaints thread(s) on here and sent an email with the appropriate code in the heading to the Web Relations Team. Although that wasn't a smooth ride at all they do seem to actually make a genuine attempt to sort the mess out that is created by the rest of their - er - "organisation".

lanavdt

Thanks, I just found the link and have emailled them. Took almost 2 months to sort out cancelling my dongle with them so not looking forward to trying to sort this out.