Vodafone Are Bullying Me To Pay Them ...

kriss1977

emmasam wrote: »

I am desperate. I don't even know if I'm putting this in the right place. I am at my wits end and I could cry. Its the same old story that I keep reading on forums over and over ref Vodafone.

I'll try and keep it short - I've been a customer of Vodafone for years (in excess of 15). We use our phones for our business and every month spend approx. £200 (plus). We upgraded in November 12 and as part of the account had 2 x iphone 5s. Needless to say they didn't work properly. Both had different faults. We arranged an exchange with Vodafone in April. New handsets came and they've been fine. No problems.

On May 1st I received a bill for £380 (!) asking me to pay it by May 2nd for 'exchange - physical damage'. I immediately got on the phone to Vodafone to ask them what was going on. The crux of this is not one single CSR or CSA at Vodafone has been willing to help me. No one will take it on (and I've been told this by one of their agents). I sent a complaint in writing (as requested) and not one person has contacted me properly by letter, or email, to respond. I've asked for a copy of the technical report, photographs and the phones back so I can have them independently tested but my requests go nowhere. I finally, after a month of asking, got sent two identical photographs (ie of the same phone)! I already had mobile insurance (not with Vodafone) so could have exchanged them at no cost. I could also have taken them, myself, to the Apple Shop. I try to explain that I would not have exchanged them with Vodafone if it was going chargeable as I could have had them exchanged for free - or repaired even. Their 'Plain English' policy is quite clearly not 'Plain English' at all.

My complaint letter went in on the 2nd May. I've communicated with Vodafone no less than 26 times between 2nd May and today but get nowhere. On the 8th July Vodafone started putting black marks on my credit file despite my paying for my mobile services on time every month. (I have no problem paying my phone bill as that is only right). As far as I'm concerned my complaint about the £380 is very much still open as I've taken it to the Ombudsman.

I've called Vodafone again today as I've had a letter (at last! something in writing!) threatening me to pay my bill or else we'll be cut off completely on Monday. I've just paid my August bill (early) but feel as if my business is at stake here and I'm being bullied into paying for something I legitimately have a right, as a consumer, to make a complaint about. Everyone has a right to make a proper formal complaint if they're not happy about something. Its the law!

What am I going to do? I know once I pay the £380 (under duress) I'll never get it back even if the Ombudsman agrees with me. Can anyone help?

Hi there,
I had a similar problem with Three except my problem is they were charging for bill time after I had cancelled the contract and paid off the bill that applied. Like you, calls and letters got me nowhere. I was passed around different depts in one such call (5 over a half hour period) all telling me they were not the dept to talk to. If I recevied a reply to my lengthy letters stating my case and evidence why I wasn't liable for the amounts they were chasing and all the history of contact I had had with them, I would receive a standard letter answering none of my points and asking in two lines for me to pay the bill or contact them. Eventually they referred me to 3 Debt Collection agencies all of which dropped the case as soon as they learnt the details, (I sent them copies of all correspondence so they could see I had a valid case, that I'd tried to resolve it in writing many times and that 3 either hadn't responded or had sent standard letters that addressed nothing. Each time Three would chase me again eventually. Finally they decided to write it off but this was after 8 months of stress every time I received any mail and having to spend hours reiterating my case in full quoting name times and details of calls, and dates and content or copies of letters. They called it a goodwill gesture which rankled but I was so relieved I accepted it without argument. This year, approx one year on I started receiving letters from them again, chasing the 'debt' and interest accruied, accusing me of possibly moving and not receiving their recent letters (there had been none for a year and I hadn't moved at all). They threatened to sell my 'debt' to another company if I didn't contact them in 28 days. I wrote to them showing enclosing the letter I'd received stating they were writing it off. A day later I received a letter from the Debt Management company stating they had been sold the debt by Three 4 months earlier because they hadn't got hold of me! I wrote to that company asking them how they had bought a debt 4 months earlier that Three had only written to me the week before to say they were considering selling to a Debt Management company. I also sent them all correspondence and history including the most recent one. They dunned me for it again saying they would write with a court date so I referred them again to all previous letters including mine to them before they wrote to say they would write it off (oh so kind of them!). About 2 weeks later I received a letter from Three stating they would write it off - no mention of having 'sold' the debt elsewhere or that they'd made any mistakes along the way at any time. Hopefully the same thing will not happen when they reach next Financial Year end and this time it is truly an end to the matter.
My point is I know how you feel. The Ombudsman are generally no help but don't give up, fight your corner and don't pay the bill as immediately I beleive you will then be admitting liability. It's unlikely they will really take you to court at any ponit for so small an amount. I appreciate you have a business and this may not be as easy for you as for a personal customer but if at all possible I would change providers in the meantime so you still have mobile connection and then hunker down to fight the VF issue over several months until they accede your rights of the case or 'write off' the amount as a good will gesture. As soon as it's resolved in your favour, check your credit report and if you still have poor ratign for the months it spanned, send copies of all letters and details of contact to the credit agencies and ask them amend your records. They will need compliance from VF to do this too (or anyone could spin a story that they weren't actually in debt) however the letters you have from VF by that point will mean they won't be able to deny you are correct and a notice will be put on your record with the agencies that you were not a bad risk while with VF.

Hope that helped a bit. Good luck.

emmasam

Kriss - thanks for your reply. I appreciate it. It's dreadful how they treat customers. We're not all bad people! So I'm in for the long haul then. Loyal customers like me (and you) who normally pay for our bills no problem have made mobile co's rich. I keep being told its their 'system' that's doing all this and the system will disconnect me on Monday. The system is seriously flawed then. I am a law abiding UK citizen who has rights.

If I ever make it to the other side of this, and after the damage they'll do to my credit, I can't bear the thought of continuing to be one of their customers till my contract ends. They're fine while you're paying (for me about £2500 a year) but the minute there's a problem no-one is interested.

I've learnt my lesson. I'll never have a contract like this again.

Vodafone

Hi emmasam,

Thanks for making me aware of this.

To enable me to get things looked into further could you, as suggested by fermi, email me with your details via the link in our profile here?

All you need to do is copy and paste the link into your web browser and it'll take you to the Contact us form on our website. To make sure it reaches me could you also quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line?

Once sent you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Could you update the thread with this and I'll get back to you as soon as possible?

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations

Vodafone UK

emmasam

Hi Lee - thank you for your post. My ref - 11733633.
Thank you

Vodafone

Hi emmasam,

Thanks for coming back to me.

I've got your email and will get back to you as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations

Vodafone UK