Vodafone Catalogue of Mess Ups

wooly2708

Hi folks

I am absolutely frustrated with Vodafone's Customer Services. I am a pay monthly customer and have been for well over a year. I've never missed a payment or had any issues until fairly recently when I completed a 12 month contract and foolishly agreed to a 24 month contract in exchange for a Blackberry Bold handset.

Firstly, even though I'd already opted out of receiving unsolicited sales calls and texts from Vodafone or them passing my details on to third parties they did so with the new contract being signed and I was suddenly inundated. They refused to acknowledge they'd done anything wrong until I threatened to report them to the Office of the Information Commissioner after which they gave me a new mobile number free of charge and made sure I was off all sales lists.

A couple of weeks ago I informed Vodafone that I was coming off direct debit and going onto paying on the bill by email. I received an email acknowledgement of that and so I cancelled the direct debit with my bank. They have since raised the issue of unjustified "admin charges" being payable if you use any method other that direct debit and I have questions the legality of this. They claim it is just to cover costs but refuse to provide any detailed breakdown of what costs they are talking about and I am not happy having over £2 added to my phone bill just for paying by debit card online or over the phone.

Last week I suddenly had a call bar placed on my phone, absolutely no warning from Vodafone. I rang Customer Services on my landline as I couldn't even ring them on the handset and the guy who dealt with me could not find any reason at all why the bar had been placed on so he removed it.

Since then I've sent countless messages via email to their Customer Services and the nearest I got to an answer was "credit alerts" on my account but nobody would explain what these were or why. It is extremely frustrating when you send a message by email and it isn't properly answered but when you end up sending it 4 or 5 times and it is repeatedly not answered properly that is in a league of itself and I am now realising just how terrible Vodafone Customer Services is. Finally I rang them again and managed to speak to a lovely lady in the Collections Dept who said it was entirely Vodafone's fault and that they had messed up. The bar was placed on because my direct debit had been cancelled but it shouldn't have been and she apologised.

I thought that was the end of it until tonight when I receive an email back fom Vodafone full of lies. Apparently they text me to warn me about the bar but I didn't reply - BUT I RECEIVED NO TEXT! Also apparently they "attempted to write to me" (how can you attempt to write a letter? You either do or don't!) but I hadn't replied to that - BUT I HAVEN'T HAD A LETTER. It is quite obvious this is entirely fabrication.

And on top of that they are now about to increase my monthly line rental without my consent. They claim the contract allows them to do this but again I've made it clear I am not happy about this and questioned how fair this contract term is.

I am at the end of my tether. My understanding is that, under English contract law, if one party in a contract lies to the other then it frustrates and breaks the contract. I therefore believe I am no longer tied to the contract period because of Vodafone's actions. What do others think and am I alone in having such terrible experiences with Vodafone?

OneADay

Admin charges for paying without direct debit are the norm with most if not all networks.
So you should have continued with direct debit.

wooly2708

OneADay wrote: »

Admin charges for paying without direct debit are the norm with most if not all networks.
So you should have continued with direct debit.

It might be the norm but my understanding is, like with the banks, they are not allowed to make a penny of profit out of them and they must be justified and fair. It must also cost them to have a direct debit facility but I'm sure they just use admin charges as a way of coaxing you onto DD so they control when the money comes in and their cashflow. I don't want to be on DD anymore as they've varied enormously when the money has come out of my account and I want to be in control of the date it is paid, not them.

OneADay

wooly2708 wrote: »

It might be the norm but my understanding is, like with the banks, they are not allowed to make a penny of profit out of them and they must be justified and fair. It must also cost them to have a direct debit facility but I'm sure they just use admin charges as a way of coaxing you onto DD so they control when the money comes in and their cashflow. I don't want to be on DD anymore as they've varied enormously when the money has come out of my account and I want to be in control of the date it is paid, not them.

I don't see how you are linking profit to banks and admin charges on mobile billing which you are informed about in the T&C.

If you have a problem with the timing of the direct debit, the sensible approach might be to ask for change in the billing cycle so its more suitable for your needs, not cancel the direct debit.

If you insist on non direct debit, then you have to consider admin charges which are norm because it does cost businesses money to pay for someone to manually process your payment.

Tony5101

Personally I think that you are having a MAJOR over-reaction.

1) Your gripe about the sales calls and getting a new number - justifiable I guess.
2) Admin fees for a payment method other than DD. It's all in the contract. Whether the actual amount is justifiable or not is a seperate debate.
3) Bar on your phone caused by changing the payment method - a simple mistake which VF appear to have acknowledged, fixed and apologised for the error.

Hardly a catalogue....and as far as I can see - you have absolutely no grounds whatsoever for breaking your minimum term contract.

grumbler

wooly2708 wrote: »

A couple of weeks ago I informed Vodafone that I was coming off direct debit and going onto paying on the bill by email. I received an email acknowledgement of that and so I cancelled the direct debit with my bank. They have since raised the issue of unjustified "admin charges" being payable if you use any method other that direct debit and I have questions the legality of this. They claim it is just to cover costs but refuse to provide any detailed breakdown of what costs they are talking about and I am not happy having over £2 added to my phone bill just for paying by debit card online or over the phone.

http://www.vodafone.co.uk/vodafone-uk/about-this-site/terms-and-conditions/products-and-services/pay-monthly-terms-and-conditions/index.htm

If you don’t want to pay by direct debit we may accept other forms of payment, but we will charge you a fee each month.

If you think that the amount is unfair complain to the regulators. I don't think that Vodafone have any obligations to supply you with 'breakdown'.

My understanding is that, under English contract law, if one party in a contract lies to the other then it frustrates and breaks the contract. I therefore believe I am no longer tied to the contract period because of Vodafone's actions.

I am no expert, but I think your understanding of the law is too 'wide'.

gjchester

wooly2708 wrote: »

Firstly, even though I'd already opted out of receiving unsolicited sales calls and texts from Vodafone or them passing my details on to third parties they did so with the new contract being signed and I was suddenly inundated.

There are only so many mobile numbers, and it's possible someone else put your number in a form by mistake say they meant to type 07123 456789 as there number and instead put 07123 345678 simple mistype but they have entered your number by mistake. It's also possible it's an auto dialer dialing 07123 000000 and then 07123 000001 and working through numbers till they get one that works

Not sure why you think it's Vodafones fault, it could be but by no means a certanty

wooly2708 wrote: »

And on top of that they are now about to increase my monthly line rental without my consent. They claim the contract allows them to do this but again I've made it clear I am not happy about this and questioned how fair this contract term is.

You may not like it but as long as it's less than the RPI inflation rate they can do so, like any business.

Like the non DD admin charge these terms are clearly in the contract that you signed up to (did you read all the small print?)

You can choose to cancel the contract if you wish, the usual penalty is payment of line rental x months left.

wooly2708 wrote: »

I am at the end of my tether. My understanding is that, under English contract law, if one party in a contract lies to the other then it frustrates and breaks the contract. I therefore believe I am no longer tied to the contract period because of Vodafone's actions. What do others think and am I alone in having such terrible experiences with Vodafone?

The cold calls may not be vodafones fault, the price rise is just inflation and costs and the issues over extra fee's and the admin charges and barring looks to have been caused by cancelling your direct debit. Vodafone have not helped but your actions were the start of the problem.

Look at it another way these issues have come from you wanting to change your payment terms. You chose to change the contract, so would Vodafone be right in saying you frustrated the contract and they want could charge you for the entire term of rental?

sandspider2000

When I moved to Vodafone (a mistake) I too started receiving cold calls and texts. I called Vodafone and they said it wasn't anything to do with them, but the calls and texts stopped...

I agree that it's extremely frustrating to have to send the same e-mails over and over again, and always to receive copy and paste responses that are semi-coherent and don't answer your questions. Grrr...

gjchester

sandspider2000 wrote: »

When I moved to Vodafone (a mistake) I too started receiving cold calls and texts. I called Vodafone and they said it wasn't anything to do with them, but the calls and texts stopped...

If you take a new number it's entirely possible you will get calls where the prior owner has given away the number to all and sundry.

wooly2708

I do think them lying to me is grounds for the contract to be terminated. I know my rights re admin fees and they have to be fair and justified. If I pay by debit card over the net when I want to pay my bill it is just as automated a system as direct debit except I am in control over the timing. And I have already tried to get them to change the DD collection date in the past with nil success. In fact, the issue has been they seem to vary when it comes out.

And surprise surprise, after switching to manual payment I get a message today from them to say my payment method is DIRECT DEBIT!! Two weeks after I've switched to manual payment. You couldn't make this up.

MissKeith

wooly2708 wrote: »

I do think them lying to me is grounds for the contract to be terminated.

I'm afraid you're wrong - bad service (although sucky) is not grounds for termination but good luck trying.