Vodafone DD fee and the right to cancel

irongecko

I am having extreme difficulty cancelling my vodafone contract under section 11b of the T&Cs. As stated on wxw . vodafone . co . uk /campaigns /paying-by-direct-debit /non-dd-fee-1310 /?cid=rdr-12899-01 if the admin charge for paying by a method other than direct debit (which I do not wish to do) increases my total bill by over 10% (which it does) then I have a right to leave. I have spoken to several managers so far, the one I spoke to last night confirmed my right to cancel, and I thought the issue would be finally resolved after being lied to by several other agents about the contents of the webpage mentioned. This morning I had a phone call from another manager saying they were overriding the decision of the previous manager because there is no mention of the 10% clause in the website I previously linked - This is clearly not the case.

Vodafone seem to be intent on lying giving me the runaround, and I have had enough of dealing with their customer services. Would the best course of action be to pay the early termination fee and then claim the money back via a small claims court?

NFH

In addition to the contractual term to which you refer, such fees have been unlawful since 6th April 2013. The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012 state:

A trader must not charge consumers, in respect of the use of a given means of payment, fees that exceed the cost borne by the trader for the use of that means.

Therefore Vodafone can charge you only what it costs them to process the payment. Clearly £3.53 is a lot more than what it costs them to receive payment by bank transfer for example.

BIS gives detailed guidance on the new regulations and what is allowed; Vodafone are blatantly breaching them. Your right of redress is through Trading Standards.

There's another thread on this subject here.

irongecko

Thank-you kindly for pointing me in the direction of the other thread on the subject. I did have a senior manager confirm that I could cancel free of charge, but then a last minute call from someone else overruled it. I have escalated the issue and will wait for the response from vodafone before I have a word with my local trading standards on Monday. I will try my best to keep everybody updated on the outcome - especially if I am successful!

Buzby

The trouble is you have already agreed to it - it wasn't arbitrarily imposed giving you any opportunity unity to leave at no cost. Further, no other network will provide you with what you seek.

As you have already given the the ability to wreck your credit file - you are playing with fire, for a very small amount of money.

JJ_Egan

Pay the contract off .
Then find a service on better terms ??

Recovery of money you pay to cancel the contract can then be your choice . That would be subject to getting enough evidence to prove your are right .In regards to the 10% right to cancel includes DD charges .

You don't really have any other choice .

NFH

Buzby wrote: »

The trouble is you have already agreed to it - it wasn't arbitrarily imposed giving you any opportunity unity to leave at no cost.

Agreeing to something unlawful makes it neither lawful nor binding.

irongecko

Buzby wrote: »

The trouble is you have already agreed to it - it wasn't arbitrarily imposed giving you any opportunity unity to leave at no cost. Further, no other network will provide you with what you seek.

As you have already given the the ability to wreck your credit file - you are playing with fire, for a very small amount of money.

I have not agreed to the charge yet, as it does not apply until next month, nor have I actually cancelled my contract. If I were to cancel, then I would pay the early termination fee and then seek the money back from the courts.

T-Mobile don't charge an admin fee to pay via BACS transfer (online or telephone banking) as well as direct debit as far as I can see, and that will probably be the network of choice for me in the future.

chanz4

Its in the contract that you agreed to, if you don't like it setup a dd and pay 2 days before the bill is produced

simax

NFH wrote: »

Clearly £3.53 is a lot more than what it costs them to receive payment by bank transfer for example.

How do you know that?

Earthworm

simax wrote: »

How do you know that?

It is more or less impossible to estimate. I was under the impression this fee also covered the increased cost faced to hire collections agents, chase debts, late payments, paper billing and bill reminders. I think it still in some way generates a profit for Vodafone as a whole though. Personally I agree with a fee but £3+ seems a tad high. It would be far fairer to charge £0.50-£1.00 depending on the monthly fee and then impose a late payment charge to those who are late paying their bill.

Not having a fee results in prompt payers and DD users covering the cost of company collection teams and isn't something I would want to be paying for.

NFH

simax wrote: »

How do you know that?

No UK bank charges £3.53 to process an incoming payment from within the UK.

The costs of fraud detection may be included on each payment, e.g. verifying that each card payment does not use a compromised card number. However it is not permitted to include the costs of chasing other customers' failed payments.

If a customer pays on time by bank transfer, then Vodafone incurs no costs. Under Regulation 4, it may not charge any fee to receive this payment compared to a direct debit transaction.