Vodaphone Blacklisted me due to a clerical error. Please help

NFH

greenfamily777 wrote: »

Izools what route would you advise I take if I don't hear back from them? Would it be the small claims court route? Do you or does anyone else have any advice on how to do this or what route to take?

The amount you're claiming is way above the £5000 limit of the Small Claims track of the County Court. This is unlikely to go to court as Vodafone's lawyers should have the sense to pay up before you instigate any expensive court proceedings. In the meantime, read the Pre-action Protocol for Defamation.

greenfamily777

Hi Lee, I believe you tried to call me? I tried to call back but according to vodafone customer services on 191 your team does not exist?!

Could you call me back please, many thanks!

greenfamily777

Hi Lee,

Got a message from you saying you would call back at 12 but didn't get a call back. Please call me back!!!

izools

greenfamily777 wrote: »

I can get this information in written form if required yes. I have it in verbal form directly from them. Yes it is extremely unusual if going through a high street lender, but I am going through a bespoke small lender where I have direct access to the underwriter.

I'm not kidding, you need to get this in writing ASAP and take it to a solicitor.

Have a read of this: http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/courts-and-tribunals/courts/procedure-rules/civil/contents/protocols/prot_def.htm and have a chat with a solicitor to see what they suggest. The initial consultation is typically free so you shouldn't end up spending anything to find out from their viewpoint what is likely to happen should you throw the book at these little SOBs.

Stop dealing with the minutia like Lee from Vodafone Customer Relations and take the matter to the law. Vodafone have comitted a breach of Data Protection and comitted an offence of Defamation of Character against you and you have evidence proving a nearly unlimited financial loss as a direct result of this infraction.

You stand to win a large sum resultant from this and quite frankly, deserve it, considering the impact their infraction is having upon you.

Good luck mate, you deserve to have these defaming little toads bent over so hard they'll be begging to take a blank cheque written out to cash from them

Vodafone

Hi greenfamily777,

It's just a quick post to let you know that I've received your email from yesterday and I'll be coming back to you again as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

greenfamily777

Thanks Izools. I have had to proceed with the mortgage on higher offer as Lee has not been able to get back to me with an answer either way, so I will be taking this through the courts, just contacted my solicitor.
I feel I should let everyone know the correspondence I have had with Lee since as he has basically written me an email stating effectively that even though vodafone refunded me the money and they cant find a paper trail of any evidence either way I am the one at fault and I am effectively guilty until proven innocent. Anyway it is absolutely ridiculous and it is below:

From LEE:

Further to our conversation yesterday and my voicemail messages a moment ago.
Having spoken to a colleague from the Cornmarket store I can confirm that due to the time that has elapsed between early 2009 and now they have needed to make a archive request in order for the investigation to be continued.
As this will take a few days I'm afraid I won't be able to provide any further updates on this aspect of your case until Wednesday 24th August.
As the situation currently stands it's been concluded that you were liable for the charges as you had benefited from using the airtime service between 24th June and 12th December 2008 and as such were outside of the cooling off period.
On the basis that your airtime account, to date, has no record of the Mobile Broadband dongle having been received back we conclude that the action to adjust the balance of £131.47 (inc. VAT) was taken purely as a goodwill gesture and without admission of any liability.
With the above in mind I can confirm that the late payment status codes and default will remain on your credit file as they have been recorded correctly.
Naturally, should the investigation being carried out by the Cornmarket store provide further information we will review this matter further.
Kind regards,
Lee

From me in response:

Thanks for your email and getting back to me.

I think the approach that vodafone are taking on this is absolutely ridiculous. I was advised by the store to hand the card in and cancel my direct debit and my account would be cancelled. I did both of these on the advice I was given in store. I did exactly as I was advised and left the modem there and cancelled the direct debit.
It is not my responsibility to maintain the paper trail of the Cornmarket street store, and indeed why would one of the advisors in 2009 cancel the supposed outstanding amount due and refund and close my account down? They would surely like yourself have done some investigation and I am sure you should be able to at the very least find their paper trail on this and close this case.

I explained my mortgage is pending on this, and the 24th August is simply too late for me. I have already been waiting quite some time (I think about 25 days now) and cannot afford to wait as this will delay me moving and leave me, my wife and baby daughter homeless which is not an option. I have to make a decision today and have already delayed this to a point where it is putting the entire offer in jeopardy. I will have to proceed on the higher offer with them now.

As per the advice I was given in the forum (and my own experience from running a medium size company) I will be seeking damages through the courts for the difference over the 20 year period + damages caused for defamation of character which at this stage I need to speak to our solicitors here to quantify.
Fortunately the underwriter dealing with my case at the mortgage company has written a letter highlighting that the only reason for the increase is due the this Vodafone problem, which will essential form the basis of my initial case.
At an initial estimate as this has increased the mortgage by £60 a month however the mortgage is a tracker mortgage and the base rate is currently at 0.5%. The term is 30 years which is £21600. This is excluding inflation and accounting for interest rate rise over a 30 year period, which will both be included in my initial appeal.

If you could send me the best address to contact Vodafones solicitors that would be much appreciated so I can pass this on to my solicitor and get this moving quickly.

From LEE:

Thanks for your time on the phone.
As discussed, I'm awaiting an update from my colleagues at the Cornmarket store following their archive request and will hopefully be able to get back to you with further news within the next seven working days.
As requested, the address for service of court papers is: [Address removed by Forum Team].
Kind regards,
Lee

izools

Request the CCTV footage from the archives - your solicitor will help you with this.

Provide a sworn affidavit in regards to the in-store occurrences of 2008.

There will be interactions on your account confirming the actions the store took, assuming the staff did their duty. There will also be interactions confirming why the £131 credit was raised. The fact that this was raised atall can be interpreted as tacit admission of error on Vodafone's part and be seen as implicating them in a court of law.

Did you not have previous correspondence from Vodafone confirming that they were mistaken, back in 2008?

Good luck matey, hope you manage to get what you deserve!

Vodafone

Hi greenfamily777,

I appreciate that you remain unhappy with the outcome of your case and have as such taken a course of action which you believe to be appropriate.

As promised when we spoke last week I am still investigating matters and once I have more news I'll get back in touch with you.

izools wrote: »

Request the CCTV footage from the archives - your solicitor will help you with this.

Hi izools,

I'm afraid CCTV footage is only retained for thirty days and so unfortunately this is something which we can't call upon.

Kind regards to you both.

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

greenfamily777

Thanks for your comments IZools. Just to update everyone, I have spoken to several solicitors and will be appointing a solicitor I have used in the past, hopefully on a no win no fee basis. From initial discussions it looks like my claim could be worth substantially more than £21k as initially expected as there are inconsequential damages and the interest rate rise cannot be predicted. Some estimates are in excess of £80k so the fact that Vodafone haven't got their act together on this one will end up costing!

Despite Lees forum post (last post) I still have not heard back from him so i am guessing this has been lost in the ether at Vodafone now. Or maybe Lee you can suggest what is happening?

greenfamily777

I would recommend before taking out a contract with vodafone to read this thread carefully