Vodaphone Cancellation Fees

horseist

I am fighting exhorbitant cancellation fees from Vodaphone. The 3 phones each with their own contract suffered prolonged degradation of service for several weeks, we weren't bothered about internet access, we just needed to be able to make calls from a rural location where we have enjoyed good service for years. I made numerous calls to customer support, as a mast was not down they said they couldn't do anything. I wrote to them by recorded delivery explaining our dilemma, no response at all. I wrote again by recorded delivery giving them 7 days to respond or we would have to change networks , no response. I have only EVER been with vodaphone since mobiles were the size of house bricks and had no ulterior motive for NEEDING to leave. We moved to 02 and have had trouble free service ever since (so far). Vodaphone refused to back down or offer a compromise and quickly (one of the only things they have done quickly) passed us to a debt collection agency. We are arguing that the contract is void as they are unable to continue to provide a service that we had become accustomed to and could rely on, they could no longer do this . We took our complaint to the Communications Ombudsman. Vodaphone claim that the service has always been excellent at our location so our complaint was without foundation, the Ombudsman accepted their assurance and evidence on the grounds that if they didn't, they couldn't accept our evidence either they have to accept the evidence from both sides 'in good faith' good faith is the least of the things vodaphone have demonstrated. The Ombudsman are recommending that vodaphone to give us £30 compensation and a letter of apology for poor customer service. Some result, I'm furious.
Vodaphone have jacked the cancellation fee up to £990 now ( it was around £800).
On principle I want to fight this to the bitter end, we would not have wanted to go to all this trouble if Vodaphone was functioning as it used to.
Other people in our area were affected at the same time but of course we don't have a list, and the rumour is that a mast wasn't down, but copper wiring was stolen by scrap thieves and Vodaphone won't admit it to avoid paying compensation, but of course we can't prove it.Essentially Vodaphone are calling a long standing customer a liar ( they offered us a sure signal box at one point but there is no broadband at the most important location, if there was no problem why did they offer it FOC)
What are my next options? Is it worth trying Trading Standards? Can Vodaphone be forced to disclose if there were or were not technical problems during this period they don't have to share with the toothless Ombudsman? I have had brief legal advice that suggests this case revolves around 'frustration of contract'. Should i just bite the bullet and take on a solicitor? Or am I on a loser come what may. I just find it hard to accept that they were unable to provide our usual service, so we couldn't enjoy the benefits of it, how can it be that we have to pay the penalty for that?
Its not a case of poor customer service, its been a case of what was a loyal honest vodaphone customer being treated like dirt.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I'm on a crusade with this for the sake of normal consumers facing up to the Vodaphone Monolith as well as myself, they should not be allowed to get away with it?

forgotmyname

If you cannot prove the service was bad in your area then im not sure how you could win?

If you had made a list of dates and times and supplied vodafone with that each time, They may have replied back.

legal action could be costly, But saying that your bill isnt exactly small change.

Do solicitors still offer the fixed fee 30 minutes or something? Legal advice from your home insurance?

horseist

The period is well documented and dated by us in writing, the letters were sent recorded delivery giving them notice each time of our detailed concerns and planned actions and intentions . No other course of action was open to us as all the phone calls amounted to nothing, it was like speaking to a brick wall, which I think is there strategic wayof dealing with even genuine issues like ours,

spiro

Personally I dont think you stand a good chance of getting them to back down and in the mean time they are trashing your credit rating.
Personally I would not have left them until AFTER I have gone to the Ombudsman.
In courty they will say they have sent out a 'man in a van' to check the signal in your area and the signal is OK. If this is the case and they have done no work in the area you'll loose.

Vodafone

Hi horseist,

I am sorry to hear about your recent issues.

So that I can take a look into this further for you, can you send me an email to the address here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject.

Please could you also include a link to your post and a contact number.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

horseist

Thank you for responding I have followed your instructions

chanz4

Sounds like the regulator didnt believe you, hence £30 compo

horseist

chanz4 wrote: »

Sounds like the regulator didnt believe you, hence £30 compo

They heard the whole story verbally before I files an official complaint, they were VERY sympathetic and left me feeling it was worth going ahead with.By the way the Ombudsman isn't a regulator, Ofcom are but they don't take on individual cases, ofcom have suggested I take the legal route.
Also the ombudsman accepts the opinion of each party in good faith even if Voda haven't shown any good faith, all you get is a letter of apology and £30 from vodaphone

horseist

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi horseist,

I am sorry to hear about your recent issues.


Please could you also include a link to your post and a contact number.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Well Heidi was very nice but it was a complete waste of time all round
1/ Once you lodge a case with the Ombudsman recommended in their terms and conditions as I did, thats it, they wash their hands of you .
2/ I said that I obviously should not have complained via the ombudsman? She replied, 'It wouldn't have made any difference we couldn't have helped anyway'!

After I ran through the whole debacle with her she said that she could understand my frustration but there was nothing she could do.
That has been the stance of every single Vodaphone person I have spoken to from the outset

Its a brick wall, they should not be allowed to treat ANY customer in this way. I strongly advise anybody thinking of joining the Vodaphone network to think again...next stop the court, if anybody else is having the same trouble over cancellation fee's it might be worth making a bigger noise together. I've contacted Watchdog for what its worth and I am considering ways of highlighting this companies attitude more widely, I simply do not like being stonewalled or bullied when all I have tried to do is defend my rights as a consumer.

gjchester

horseist wrote: »

Well Heidi was very nice but it was a complete waste of time all round.

Heidi has to follow the rules and although they were not what you wanted that doesn't make her a "waste of time". If you started this process with this mindset that may explain your negative results. The people you call are trying to help but have to follow their rules, usually if you polite and friendly they will try and help but going in all guns blazing and getting peoples backs up does not start things off on the right foot.

horseist wrote: »

I simply do not like being stonewalled or bullied when all I have tried to do is defend my rights as a consumer.

What rights are you trying to defend?

Vodafone (or any other mobile compnay) relies on radio networks, regardless of the reason why the network was down it's a fact of life you cannot get a signal everywhere, from blackspots due to topological issues to theft of hardware. There may have been other circumstances that meant the repair could not be done in a timely mannor, parts or people not available, you have the right to be informed and maybe compensated for the lack of service (say the months line rental returned) but the terms and conditions do state the networks don't guarantee a perfect service, they simply can't.

You chose to break the contract and so became the party at fault, Vodafone may have had been awful at customer service but a signal issue is permissable within the terms you agreed to on signing up, although not somethign they want to do. As you became the party that broke the contract you need to pay compensation for that contract break. I guess you also stopped making payments as it's gone to a debt collectors.

I don't know the details of the cancellation offer, I guess the £190 reduction may have been a goodwill gesture, which the network have now withdrawn.

The only option is now probably a legal one, and I suspect that if you do take it to court Vodafone may back down before it actually gets to a judge, but going on what you have said here you iniitalted the actions and so are the party at fault.

I know this is not what you want to hear, but you need to think long and hard before continuing, have you got logs of all the times and dates you complained, as you can bet Vodafone will have a log of every time someone was in the area and tested the signal was OK, they may also have the call logs that show that the network was working generally in the area when you say, and it was your specific location (say a black spot).

If you go to court you probably will use the small claims track, you cannot usually claim soliciters fees that way so you may find your legal costs mount up to more than the debt.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Vodafone's poor service they should have been better, but you seem have gone about this in a headlong rush and generated more problems than you solved.

Good Luck...

Guys_Dad

It seems to me that your problem is independent proof of the deterioration of service.

You say that others in your vicinity suffered similar problems. Could you not get 3 or 4 independent customers to back you up with any written statements? Has Vodafone rectified the problem now, do you know? If so, what did they do?

You made a mistake in going to O2 with an unresolved situation. Perhaps getting an O2 sim on PAYG and a diversion message on your Voda ansewrphone might have helped a bit until the situation was resolved.

But, being where you are now, if you decide to take it further, then, as I said, you will need some witnesses that are independent to show failure of contract and Vodafone will need to be pressed on what, exactly, cause the outage, what they did to fix it and how long they took.

The last point in crucial as, if it was theft, then Voda should have a reasonable time to replace the stolen wiring. The court would need to determine just how long is reasonable.