Stung by Vodafone - Please advise

Nicole22

Briefly, I sold a Vodafone contract to someone, but am now stuck with their mobile phone bill;

In March this year I entered into a two year contract with Vodafone for my mobile phone, at £30 per month. This included internet browsing, 600 minutes of talk time and unlimited free texts.

A month later I was made redundant but continued with the contract whilst looking for work. Finally in August, I was offered a position in Sweden which I accepted, with an agreed start date in October. I immediately contacted Vodafone to enquire about my options which I discovered were to either cancel the contract outright at a cost of £480 or to find a third party willing to take on the contract. I advertised through various media and included an incentive of £180, essentially 6 months free. To my relief, a young lady agreed to take on the contract.

She agreed to come to my house where the two of us would speak to Vodafone in order to make the transfer. Vodafone had previously informed me that this process would take place during a single phone call. During the transfer, I was repeatedly assured by the operative from the transfer team that all was well and not further action was required from me. The young lady who wanted the contract then proceeded to give her bank details to the operative and promised to send a copy of her bank statement to Vodafone as surety of her payments. The operative repeated his assurances to me that I need not take further action, and that with passing on the SIM card the transfer of the contract would be complete. I gave her the SIM and £180, and we went our separate ways.

My husband and I departed to Sweden two days later, and at present we don’t know if this is going to be a permanent arrangement or not.

One month later Vodafone sent me a bill via email. The money owed, they said was £222.91. When I checked the statement they directed to me online, I noted several downloads and applications invoiced to the account, all dated after the transfer, and most after our departure date. I spoke to the young lady and she said that she was aware of this and would pay the bill. However, and you are not probably surprised by this, Vodafone expected me to cover her costs. I have since spoken to Vodafone several times to query this and explain the circumstances, but they maintain their position and insist I pay for her outstanding bill. Apparently she hadn’t sent the bank statement as promised and so the contract is still in my name. She has continued her own vague assurances saying that she would get around to paying for it, and that the bank statement had been sent, but she agreed to send a second one despite this. To date Vodafone say they have not received any bank statements, and repeatedly refuse to acknowledge the phone conversation held on October 2nd as a legitimate transfer of the contract.

As we are currently living in Sweden it takes a little time for correspondence to reach us from the UK. However, my husband and I were dismayed to receive a debt collectors notice threatening a default on my credit file amongst other things. The deadline for this passed before we received the letter (it has been redirected twice) and we are very concerned that our future visits or even return to the UK maybe placed in some jeopardy.

Obviously if I had incurred these costs I would not hesitate to pay them. However I find it incredible that Vodafone (a company notorious for not paying taxes in the UK) should not be following an appropriate course of action and seeking to recover costs from the young lady, even though I have given them her email and contact number. My husband and I are becoming increasingly distressed by these events and feel very unhappy that I am expected to pay for someone else’s extravagance. I should be extremely grateful if someone could offer me some advice as to the course of action I should take.

Do I find a solicitor or do I have to pay for this womans over-indulgent expenditure that no longer belongs to me? :mad:

Guys_Dad

Until all of the steps have been completed, the contract is in your name. What have you got in writing to back up your version of events? Not that I disbelieve you, but if you can't prove it, you are in the mire.

On a parallel track, if you had a car, would you hand it over to a 3rd party on their promise to pay off the HP balance without a written ok from the HP company? Please say No to that, at least. Well, it's the same thing.

You need to get the current sim cancelled to avoid any more debt being run up for calls. You need Vodafone to check their records for the telephone call where they agreed you were off the hook.

And above all, don't sign 2 year contracts when there is the remotest chance of you not being able to complete them - which is also good advice for any reader of this thread.

gjchester

Nicole22 wrote: »

Do I find a solicitor or do I have to pay for this womans over-indulgent expenditure that no longer belongs to me? :mad:

Unfortunalty yes. The Bill is in your name and so you owe it. Your agreement wiht the 3rd party may be the case for further legal chasing.

Do you have any signed contrct with the 3rd party that she would take on the bill? Without that you may well be stuck with the bill and the continueing line rental.

Hezzawithkids

If the contract is still on your name and you cancel then you will be liable for the balance of the contract.

However it looks like the lady you sold it to has not only walked off with £180 of your money she is also enjoying free usage at your expense. Classic scam.

Sorry OP but it sounds like its time to cut your losses and cancel the SIM, cutting her off and avoiding any further costs to you. You have given her enough opportunities to put things right but it sounds to me as though she has no intention of doing anything of the sort.

Then walk away, lesson learned, and focus on your new life in Sweden.

sdduk

Hezzawithkids is right it sounds like a Scam

I would contact the police and report as theft and then cancel the sim
because it is theft if she hasn't paid the bill

Like said she would have sent the bank statements by now she as had long enough....ITS CLASSIC SCAM....

Really sorry and i do hope you get a result

Hurry and cancel that Sim before you end up with 1000s of pounds worth of debt.

macman

It's not theft, since the OP voluntarily handed over the handset and cash after failing to verify the ID and validity of the purchaser.
OP, did you check her name and address, her ID, did you put her bank account details in to check if they were genuine?
I'm guessing that the only the contact details you have are a PAYG mobile number and/or a hotmail address?
You need to get the phone blocked immediately before your losses increase, the SIM may well have already been sold on.

sdduk

macman wrote: »

It's not theft, since the OP voluntarily handed over the handset and cash after failing to verify the ID and validity of the purchaser.
OP, did you check her name and address, her ID, did you put her bank account details in to check if they were genuine?
I'm guessing that the only the contact details you have are a PAYG mobile number and/or a hotmail address?
You need to get the phone blocked immediately before your losses increase, the SIM may well have already been sold on.

Weather he gave her the Sim they had an agreement that she would take over the payments....SO it is theft she hasn't done her part of the deal and is still using it in his/hers name.

macman

That is not theft, it's a breach of contract, which the OP would have to prove. Did the woman sign something to the effect that she accepted the contract? Proving that it's criminal fraud will not be easy on the basis of the info give so far.
Either way, the OP is not likely to see their money again and now needs to minimise their losses.
I'm amazed that the bill isn't already higher.

sdduk

I must admit its a hard one but unless she gives the Sim and phone back its still theft because by the sounds of things she never had any intentions of paying for it because she had plenty of time to send bank statements into Vodafone

I do agree that Either way, the OP is not likely to see their money again
and has to put it down to bad experience.

Nicole22

Dear all, thank you for your replies and advice. Thankfully I had the SIM suspended very early on to prevent further charges.

I had no idea that we would be moving abroad, and I was unlucky to be made redundant and never thought that Sweden would be my destination; obviously my crystal ball wasn't working at the time :-S

If I carry on paying the £30/month until March 2013, I will have to pay approx £480 for absolutely nothing since the SIM won't work in Sweden (and I won't have the SIM card either). But I guess it would be instalments and won't hit the pocket as hard compared to paying for all it in one go. Plus I will have to pay the outstanding balance of £323!!!. I will enquire how much the cancellation fee will be again, but the last time I'd asked it was in the region of £500..... I'm really at a loss at the moment!!!

Thanks again.

Nicole22

Oh yes, I nearly forgot!! I did ask Vodafone to check their recorded phone conversations about the original phone call ...... and surprise, surprise, they deny having ANY RECORD OF IT! No, there wasn't a written contract as I was told by Vodafone that it could all be done over the phone .....