Vodafone help! Mis-sold upgrade & now stuck in 18 month contract

lucemma4

Really hoping someone can offer me advice about this, I had a Vodafone friends & family staff discount applied to my account which meant my monthly line rental was pretty cheap. I decided I'd like to upgrade my phone as I was eligible. When I called a Vodafone customer service member they took me through everything, however at no point mentioned I'd loose this discount by upgrading and even stated on the call I was well within my minutes so my tariff would NOT change.

It's now come to light that when you upgrade your tariff does automatically change and therefore any discount previously on your account is no longer applicable. I found this out when I got a nice hefty bill of £70 and complained to Vodafone via their live chat service. I explained that there was no way I could afford this and either Vodafone re-apply my discount or I want to cancel my contract. The customer service rep assured me that they could see it was removed and confirmed that I would get a refund for the discount (which I did) and they would apply my monthly discount again. I did keep a copy of this transcript to back me up but Vodafone have dismissed it since writing to them.

I received my second bill and surprise, surprise no discount was on there and have to pay £45. I tried to email Vodafone serveral times but their customer service reps couldn't quite understand the problem and wouldn't refer it to a manager. I canceled my direct debit and wrote a letter to the head of customer relations explaining my problem and that due to my financial situation there is no way I could afford to pay this amount every month and could they look into. No reply and I then get all calls and texts barred. I then get calls from Vodafone chasing for the outstanding money and not even acknowledging my complaint until I explained the situation. They basically said I should have asked at the time of upgrading if I could keep my discount and won't take any responsibility for their lack of clear communication.

There is no way I can afford to pay this, I am already in debt and it will just spiral even further. All I want is to cancel the contract and return the handset but I know I would have to pay 16 months worth of line rental charges which would be extortionate! I was going to speak to Citizens Advice but just don't know what to do and it's really worrying me

If anyone can please help me or offer an advice I'd be really grateful

Many thanks

grumbler

lucemma4 wrote: »

There is no way I can afford to pay this, I am already in debt and it will just spiral even further.

Surely you can afford paying extra fiver p.m. and to increase your allowance? Or just talk less and keep an eye on your online account if you are not sure that the discount was applied?

That said, it's a dangerous business to believe in anything Voda say you over a phone, let alone to make any assumptions. After upgrading they should have sent you all the details by a e-mail. You should have made sure that they had done this and cancelled the upgrade otherwise within 7(?) days.

Don't know how valuable the transcript is, but you should have used it to complain to the ombudsman instead of just cancelling the DD, that was a very bad decision.

Good luck with the CAB though.

in_the_Cotswolds

lucemma4 wrote: »

I canceled my direct debit

Be very careful doing this with Vodafone. They don't think twice about putting a default notice on your credit file for the next 6 years. They did the same to me luckily it's out of time now.

podd86

Why not just ask you friend to reapply the friends and family discount ?

thatsean

Your friend would have known that an upgrade will cancel th f and f discount. If they still work for Vodafone then they can re apply it. If not, you have agreed to a contract value before discount was apply, Voda are not going to reapply it. Best chance is to sell the phone and start paying the line rental again to avoid trashing your credit.

As the F and F is either 50 or 30% we are not talking a huge amount of money here are we? Is this more like buyers' remorse?