Warning - Vodafone / Onecall

Nagme

We had fraud committed recently on our Vodafone account and I want others to know of our experience and to watch out;-

A company called "Onecall" rang both myself and my husband on our mobiles. They were trying to clarify what tarrifs we were on, but I would not divulge any information as I was suspicious of the phone call. They then rang my husband and didn't get through (he was at work).

Shortly after that, he gets a text to confirm his order for an iPhone 5.

He rang Vodafone who said that Onecall is an agent of theirs and they would investigate the fraud. It seems that the order was placed online. He asked them to change our security codes.

We then went away for a week, came back, and there was a letter saying they'd detected fraud on our account, deleted our online account, but couldn't contact us (eh?!)

He has now been on the phone to Vodafone for 1/2 hour yesterday to close the accounts as we feel they have not protected our details adequately, they didn't ring back this morning as discussed, and currently 1 and a half hours (and counting) on the phone now, trying to close the account, get the PAC codes and be released from the account without cancellation charges. He's getting passed from pillar to post, they have our address from 4 years ago on their system, and we have to use two pin numbers (the old one and the new one) for ID, depending on who we speak to. My husband has had the phone put down on him today after 30 minutes of being passed around and whilst speaking to a customer services person. He's currently on hold whilst waiting for someone in the cancellations team.

Vodafone

Hi Nagme,

I'm sorry to read about your experience here.

If you and your husband are still in need of some help with things could you 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

fluffnutter

Vodafone are an absolute nightmare for trying to flog you stuff and they contract out to sales team which clearly see fit to ignore your marketing preferences.

I got sales calls from them even though they're not allowed to call me and when I phoned to firstly confirm that my marketing preferences are set to 'do not call' etc. (they are), I was told by their clueless agent 'But this is such a great deal we thought we'd call you about it anyway'. !!!!!!??

I've had nightmare after nightmare with marketing from them. They changed my preferences without my consent. The first thing I knew about it was when I started receiving loads of spam texts from them. It took me months of calling them to complain before it was finally resolved.

TBH, I'd leave tomorrow and go elsewhere but can't cope with the inevitable battle I'd have re. cancelling my contract part way through the term. Personally I think it's reason enough to cancel without penalty but I bet they wouldn't and they'd trash my credit rating etc. etc.

Appalling company.

Nagme

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Nagme,

I'm sorry to read about your experience here.

If you and your husband are still in need of some help with things could you 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

Hi Lee,
We've now transferred to another provider and await a final bill to dispute the cancellation charge; which is the balance of the sim only for the remaining months for my husband's phone, and a nominal balance for mine. I don't think at this stage there is anything you can help us further with but if you can help with the above (or wish to look into it for yourself), or can more speedily arrange for my husband's old phone to be unlocked from Vodafone for me to use with my new sim card, then I will be pleased to hear from you.

To add further to my initial post, my husband finally got through to a very helpful person who was able to close the account, request the PAC codes and explain that we would need to wait for the final bill for disputing any cancellation charge - I think this was the sticking point that sent DH around in circles with Vodafone as there was no-one authorised to make a decision on the cancellation charges.

After being a loyal customer of Vodafone for well over 10 years it is a shame that DH endured such bad service that he felt he needed to close his account. If anything can be gained from our experience it will not have been in vain. Thank goodness Vodafone texted us a confirmation of our "order" for the iPhone as we would not have been able to react so quickly otherwise.

Regards,

Lisa

Vodafone

fluffnutter wrote: »

Vodafone are an absolute nightmare for trying to flog you stuff and they contract out to sales team which clearly see fit to ignore your marketing preferences.

I got sales calls from them even though they're not allowed to call me and when I phoned to firstly confirm that my marketing preferences are set to 'do not call' etc. (they are), I was told by their clueless agent 'But this is such a great deal we thought we'd call you about it anyway'. !!!!!!??

I've had nightmare after nightmare with marketing from them. They changed my preferences without my consent. The first thing I knew about it was when I started receiving loads of spam texts from them. It took me months of calling them to complain before it was finally resolved.

TBH, I'd leave tomorrow and go elsewhere but can't cope with the inevitable battle I'd have re. cancelling my contract part way through the term. Personally I think it's reason enough to cancel without penalty but I bet they wouldn't and they'd trash my credit rating etc. etc.

Appalling company.

Hi fluffnutter,

It's disappointing to read about your experience.

From the details you've posted I can see that it's taken a while to get things sorted.

In the event that you need help with anything else you're welcome to email me as per the details post above.

Nagme wrote: »

Hi Lee,
We've now transferred to another provider and await a final bill to dispute the cancellation charge; which is the balance of the sim only for the remaining months for my husband's phone, and a nominal balance for mine. I don't think at this stage there is anything you can help us further with but if you can help with the above (or wish to look into it for yourself), or can more speedily arrange for my husband's old phone to be unlocked from Vodafone for me to use with my new sim card, then I will be pleased to hear from you.

To add further to my initial post, my husband finally got through to a very helpful person who was able to close the account, request the PAC codes and explain that we would need to wait for the final bill for disputing any cancellation charge - I think this was the sticking point that sent DH around in circles with Vodafone as there was no-one authorised to make a decision on the cancellation charges.

After being a loyal customer of Vodafone for well over 10 years it is a shame that DH endured such bad service that he felt he needed to close his account. If anything can be gained from our experience it will not have been in vain. Thank goodness Vodafone texted us a confirmation of our "order" for the iPhone as we would not have been able to react so quickly otherwise.

Regards,

Lisa

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for coming back to me.

Although I can make no guarantees as the outcome I'd be happy to look into matters further.

If you'd like me to just email me as per the details provided on Monday.

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations

Vodafone UK

fluffnutter

Ha ha! This is happening to the OH now. He was getting marketing texts from Vodafone so he texted back STOP as instructed. He then received a text saying that his details will be removed but it might take up to 28 days for the texts to stop. No texts for a while but now they've started up again in earnest, two months after his request that they stop.

Honestly, Vodafone, SORT IT OUT. Ignoring your customers' requests to opt out of marketing contravenes consumer law. Either your systems are really badly coded/designed (the infamous 'technical fault') or you deliberately and routinely ignore people's preferences. Given the guff I was told about 'this is such a good deal we thought we'd call you anyway' I suspect the latter.

I've complained up the ying yang, as has my husband. I think the next stop is a letter to the ICO.

Vodafone

Hi fluffnutter,

I’m sorry to see what’s happening.

If you can email us as per Lee’s post above, we’ll be happy to help get this sorted,

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

Thanks,

Jenny
Web Relations
Vodafone UK