Vodafone reneged on agreement

Mcdoddles

Hi folks
I wonder if any of you can give me some advice? In June My 14 year old son ran up a bill of over £700 on his mobile phone, that I pay for on my account. He mistakenly thought he had 3000 minutes per month instead of 300. I had set up the contract for him months ago, but up until recently, he had hardly used any of his monthly allowance. I discovered part of the way through June that he had clocked up about £600 of unbilled calls. I immediately rang Vodafone, to see if they could help in any way. The customer service agent was very understanding when I explained the situation to him. He said he would talk to his manager, and call me back. When he rang me back
a short time later he said that he and a manager had reviewed my case. They had looked over my records, and said they could see that in the 10 years I had been with Vodafone, nothing had happened like this with me before. They also noted that I had 3 accounts currently with Vodafone ( my husband also has 2) The customer service agent said that taking everything into account, the manager had approved a 50% discount on my bill. I agreed to the discount, and thanked the agent for his help. I then got my Monthly bill from Vodafone. It showed I owed £780 and did not show the discount Vodafone had agreed.
Again I rang customer services - who then said although the discount of 50% was shown on my records as being agreed- they couldn't give it to me. They said that it shouldn't have been offered to me.
I have appealed the decision, but they say that they can now only offer me a 10% discount.
I do accept that my son made the calls on his phone, however, I do feel that Vodafone should honour their offer. My sons normal bill is £20, and surely there should have been some sort of warning that he was way over his allowance. This bill was 30 times more than normal!!
I have been told by citizens advice and a few other people a few options that I could consider:
1. Go to the ombudsman- ask for a deadlock letter from Vodafone and request a copy of my records. Vodafone have told me it will take 40 days plus £10 to get a copy.
2 complain to head office
3. Contact one of the radio stations who deals with consumer complaints
4. Start a Facebook campaign asking Vodafone to honour their offer.

Anyone been successful in any of the above?

Heinz

As this is a dispute regarding the (legitimate) size of a bill, I doubt Otelo would be interested.

An expensive lesson learned IMHO.

Tea_spiller

Disgraceful, When asking for notes make sure to include a specific request for calls in/out from any mobile/landline used & system notes.

Mcdoddles

Thanks for the advice. Do Vodafone say it will take 40 days to get a copy of the customer's notes to put people off asking for them? The customer service agents can see them on their computer screens, surely they can email a copy much more quickly than 40 days?

MothballsWallet

40 days is the maximum time limit specified in the Data Protection Act, and it's actually 40 working days (8 weeks).

I think a Subject Access Request means they have to provide a copy of all the data they hold on you, so Vodafone probably say the 40 days to give them enough time to do that.

stampede

Vodafone are great as long as you don't have any issues, once you do you wish you'd never signed up to them.

You can never trust whatever their customer service team say, as they are clueless. Their customer service is by far the worst I've experienced.

There is a vodafone complaints thread on here somewhere, probably best to post on there & don't give up until it's solved.

macman

I totally agree that they should honour the discount offer made, but are you seriously saying that your son was not remotely aware that he spent 30 times longer on the phone that month than usual?
3,000 minutes a month is 50 hours, or over 2 days of talk time.
Once again this shows that the only sensible mobile arrangement for children is PAYG, or a capped contract.

Tea_spiller

Vodafone MSE complaint thread.

Jemma-T

They should (must!) honour their agreement -just as you have to too obviously. Wait to see what they have to say and if you have their email point them to this thread. An offer is a contract and it should be binding. End of.

Tesco Mobile (O2) offer a great service where you can restrict calls/data by putting a cap (easily changed) on your account via their web page.

"Safety buffer" http://www.tescomobile.com/help-and-support/1081-pay-monthly/1095-tariffs/cap-your-contract?search=cap

Mcdoddles

Thanks Macman for your reply. It has been a very hard lesson for me, but in my defence my son has had the mobile contract for a year past in March. Up until recently he used the phone very infrequently, mainly just to keep in contact with me. He is a normally a really sensible kid, and has had a mobile phone since he was 11 with no issues at all. Some months he hardly used any minutes. He met some new friends in May (girls!) and that is when he started using his phone. He mistakenly thought because he always gets a warning when he gets near his data limit, he would get a warning if he went near his call limit. He was convinced his contract was for unlimited minutes as well as unlimited texts. He has been so upset since this incident. He has offered to sell some of his belongings, and even volunteered not to go on holiday to help pay for the bill. When we were offered the 50% discount -he was so relieved, now he is gutted!

macman

I hope Voda see sense. But remember that it's not his contract, it's yours.