mobile phone contract taken out with my details

hazzbean

I am sorry if this is posted in the wrong place. I had a direct debit taken from my account for a phone contract a few weeks ago. I imediately rang bank queried it, it was a vodaphone. got that stopped/blocked and then began the traumatic/stressful time dealing with vodafone. they sent me a disclaimer which i duly filled out and have rung numerous times to find out the outcome and when i will get my money back since. this is cutting a very long story short when i say i have contacted them, dozens of times. according to them they dont send out in writing the outcome of disclaimer, a demand letter for whole amount is generated. so no paperwork no details of the contract except an account number from the demand letter for whole amount. they verbally said on the phone that the outstanding balance still stands as in store application was granted and could have only been the cardholder i.e. signature looks same, contact phone number similar. they do not state what id was used to make the transaction , but i did lose a debit card earlier in the year which was blocked and a new card issued immediately. i tried to explain about the card being lost but they are not interested.
ive now got 14 days to pay this huge demand notice for something that isnt/wasnt mine and how do i prove otherwise.
thanks

Absinthe_2

Perhaps this could be a police matter? Have you contacted your local CAB?

hazzbean

Police matter? I lost my debit card weeks ago , reported it to the bank and got a new one lost one blocked. There was no need to ring the police for that., but, if you are suggesting informing the police retrospectively that I now know a crime/fraud has been committed, they are not interested in giving crime numbers but could provide a lost property reference for the card. this has made no difference to vodafone with lost property reference. neither will VF provide any original paperwork for the contract that i am being accused of taking out.

thanks

grumbler

hazzbean wrote: »

... in store application was granted and could have only been the cardholder i.e. signature looks same, contact phone number similar....

Typically for Vodafone they are talking rubbish. As far as I understand their staff in the store had not even tried to take a nominal charge from the card to check if it was active.
Neither a card, nor a signature, nor a phone number cannot prove the identity of the customer.
Stick to your guns. They have to prove that it was you who bought the contract and the phone, but as I can see they don't have any proofs.

Their store !!!!ed up and has to pay.

Police matter?

The fraud in Vodafone store is the police matter. However, as the store seemed just to had given the phone away without checking anything, I think the police cannot do much with so little evidence.

Plushchris

If it was an instore application ask for CCTV footage, you can put in a subject access request, it will cost you a tenner but they will have to provide you with all documents they hold about you?

hazzbean

with thanks,
@grumbler, no nominal amount has been taken off my card, i cannot believe (or am I just naive) that they are suggesting that signature etc is their only grounds for proceeding with the demand. Proving it wasnt me is going to be the difficult one as it is an open and shut case as far as they are concerned. my debit card does show ac no s/code and signature and because it was taken out close to where i live they suggested I contact the third party/friend (insinuating that I know the fraudster) who knew these details including date of birth, and have it out with them! Third party, if I knew who it was that would be easy! how do i stop the demand/14 day notice in the meanwhile its over a £1000?

@plushchris , cctv at the store is only kept for 28 days and is now destroyed. I rang the store as I managed to glean the store information on a phone call to VF. ggrrrr

why do they not send copy contract out etc that i have asked for instead of putting a brick wall up against everything . apparently thats not their policy , so I said "if I had never rung how would I know the reason for rejection " and they said "by getting the demand notice" . they said they dont send out reasons in writing or how they came to their decision.

hazzbean

does anyone know how best to proceed now with this demand notice and obtaining further information from VF. there is only a few days left of the 14 day deadline and I am panicking about debt collectors etc.

sparky93

how was money taken? dd? get a refund from bank.

jonewer

Have you tried reporting the fraud to the police?

The police arent generally interested in card fraud because its bizarrely seen as the banks problem. Generally it isnt worth the bank's while to do anything about card fraud because its not economical to do so. However, the bank should pay up for this.

hazzbean

thanks for your replies sparky 93 and jonewer, yes the first i knew was an amount/direct debit out of my account and immediately rang the bank. they cancelled the DD and i had to reset my security settings and they said that i keep my card no need for a new one as security re set. they never mentioned claiming refund from them, they gave me details of who DD was for and suggested I contact them to pursue the enquiry about why they took money out of my account, and this is where all my problems began with VF. I filled out their disclaimer they sent me and I have rung non stop for weeks to gather all the knowledge I know about it verbally. shall I reply in writing to the demand notice from VF asking for reasons or time to explore the matter further, and then contact my bank for refund.

nicolax

if its a direct debit thats been taken your bank will be able to refund this instantly as a 'direct debit indemnity claim' ... this is part of the direct debit guarantee