EE/Orange/T-Mobile - Reclaim ALL price rises AND cancel contract re T&C change - 2

birdontheshirt

In April 2013 I found an iPhone5 going for free with £38 a month on O2 via the website HealthServic!!!!!!!!!! This was due to my mum being a former NHS worker (recently retired) and could therefore nominate a certain amount of friends and family to use this site and it's offers.

I decided to go ahead and cancel with Vodafone although in all honesty I was hoping they could better it and they did by £2 a month so felt it best to stick where I was.

I had explained the HSD offer I found and that my mum was a NHS worker previously and now retired and they said I could apply a Vodafone Employee Advantage to my contract to activate the cheaper offer. To be clear, I explained my mum (and not me) was not in the NHS anymore and although had done.

I was advised to go in store once the phone was received to give her employee number that she used to have and they could set the discounted deal up. When we went in store they stated it had to be a NHS email to set things up which wasn't possible as she could no longer access it. I was fobbed off with the "try it anyway" on her personal email account and since have submitted numerous complaints over the phone and online, also a recorded delivery letter.

I've now been paying £42 per month rather than £36 and was also charged an additional £20 for the handset. I'm at a loss and have read how uncooperative OFCOM appear to be.

Has anybody else had anything similar or can offer any further advise?

Thanks in advance!

RandomCurve

birdontheshirt wrote: »

In April 2013 I found an iPhone5 going for free with £38 a month on O2 via the website HealthServic!!!!!!!!!! This was due to my mum being a former NHS worker (recently retired) and could therefore nominate a certain amount of friends and family to use this site and it's offers.

I decided to go ahead and cancel with Vodafone although in all honesty I was hoping they could better it and they did by £2 a month so felt it best to stick where I was.

I had explained the HSD offer I found and that my mum was a NHS worker previously and now retired and they said I could apply a Vodafone Employee Advantage to my contract to activate the cheaper offer. To be clear, I explained my mum (and not me) was not in the NHS anymore and although had done.

I was advised to go in store once the phone was received to give her employee number that she used to have and they could set the discounted deal up. When we went in store they stated it had to be a NHS email to set things up which wasn't possible as she could no longer access it. I was fobbed off with the "try it anyway" on her personal email account and since have submitted numerous complaints over the phone and online, also a recorded delivery letter.

I've now been paying £42 per month rather than £36 and was also charged an additional £20 for the handset. I'm at a loss and have read how uncooperative OFCOM appear to be.

Has anybody else had anything similar or can offer any further advise?

Thanks in advance!

Sounds to me like you were mis-sold the contract - do you have anything in writing from Voda that outlines the discount above? If not you will need to use circumstantial evidence (e.g. something in writing from the health service website about the deal and its cost, the date of you called Voda and the date you took out the new contract (i.e. why would you take a more expensive contract for the same thing unless you were led to believe Voda were going to offer you a better deal)?) Hopefully you also have the email from the Voda store to your mums email account trying to activate the discount.
Once you have your evidence in place write to Voda - explaining the circumstance and request that they apply the discount as agreed AND refund the difference you have paid to date.
If they refuse (my guess is they will) then you need to write back basically saying the same as above but adding that they have breached the Unfair Trading Regulations in that they have created a "Material Distortion" (NOTE 1) when selling you the contract and have mis-sold to you in contravention of Ofcom GC 23.2 (NOTE 2)
If they still refuse ask for a deadlock letter so you can take a case to the Ombudsman Service (it costs you nothing). If they refuse to issue deadlock letter then send a letter reminding of them of their obligations under Ofcom GC 14 (NOTE 3)
When making the application to the Ombudsman Service don't forget to ask for say £50 compensation for the stress and anxiety Voda have caused by not complying to the original agreement and a FURTHER £50 for Vodas breach of GC 14 by initially refusing to issue a deadlock letter to a customer who has specifically requested one.


(NOTE 1) Unfair Trading Regulations
3 General prohibition
3.3 Regulation 3 contains a general prohibition of unfair commercial practices.
3.4 A commercial practice is unfair if:
• it is not professionally diligent, and
• it materially distorts, or is likely to materially distort, the economic behaviour of the average consumer. Essentially, for the general prohibition to apply, the trader’s practice must be unacceptable when measured against an objective standard and must also have (or be likely to have) an effect on the economic behaviour of the average consumer.
The second condition is likely to be met if, for example, because of the practice, the average consumer would buy a product they would not otherwise have bought, or would not exercise cancellation rights when otherwise they would have done so.
Misleading and aggressive practices
3.5 Regulations 5-7 of the CPRs prohibit commercial practices which are misleading (whether by action or omission) or aggressive, and which cause or are likely to cause the average consumer to take a different decision.

(NOTE 2) Ofcom GC 23.2
Mis-selling prohibition
23.2 When selling or marketing Mobile Telephony Services, the Mobile Service Provider must not:
(a) engage in dishonest, misleading or deceptive conduct;



(NOTE 3) See page 1 post #8 on this forum - you will need to reword to fit your circumstance but he "legal" details of GC 14 are there.


Keep us updated with how you get on.

claireb1

Not sure what going do with just getting decision try contact early next week. Hard when closed it without considering things. Didnt help first time adjudicator got changed.

Mikmonken

claireb1 wrote: »

Not sure what going do with just getting decision try contact early next week. Hard when closed it without considering things. Didnt help first time adjudicator got changed.

What RC is saying is that having received your claim, and then a response from EE, CISAS should have sent it to you for comment. They didn't, so they've broken policy by not allowing you to comment.

if you had been allowed to comment you would have been able to point out that a claim under the NEW price variation clause has nothing to do with the OLD price variation clause and the change in T&Cs.

Which would have lead to the claim being impartially reviewed and you having your contract terminated penalty free.

Vodafone

birdontheshirt wrote: »

In April 2013 I found an iPhone5 going for free with £38 a month on O2 via the website HealthServic!!!!!!!!!! This was due to my mum being a former NHS worker (recently retired) and could therefore nominate a certain amount of friends and family to use this site and it's offers.

I decided to go ahead and cancel with Vodafone although in all honesty I was hoping they could better it and they did by £2 a month so felt it best to stick where I was.

I had explained the HSD offer I found and that my mum was a NHS worker previously and now retired and they said I could apply a Vodafone Employee Advantage to my contract to activate the cheaper offer. To be clear, I explained my mum (and not me) was not in the NHS anymore and although had done.

I was advised to go in store once the phone was received to give her employee number that she used to have and they could set the discounted deal up. When we went in store they stated it had to be a NHS email to set things up which wasn't possible as she could no longer access it. I was fobbed off with the "try it anyway" on her personal email account and since have submitted numerous complaints over the phone and online, also a recorded delivery letter.

I've now been paying £42 per month rather than £36 and was also charged an additional £20 for the handset. I'm at a loss and have read how uncooperative OFCOM appear to be.

Has anybody else had anything similar or can offer any further advise?

Thanks in advance!

Hi birdontheshirt,

Thanks for making me aware of this.

So I can get things looked into, 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, quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line.

Once sent, you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post back with this and I’ll check I've received it.

Kind regards,

Lee

Social Media Comms

Vodafone UK

Mikmonken

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi birdontheshirt,

Thanks for making me aware of this.

So I can get things looked into, 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, quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line.

Once sent, you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post back with this and I’ll check I've received it.

Kind regards,

Lee

Social Media Comms

Vodafone UK

Always suspected Telecomms reps viewed this, fair play to Vodafone for seeing it and responding!!

Mikmonken

*yawn* this is starting to get old now...

Thank you for your email to Ofcom received 26 September 2014.

I apologise for the delay in responding but, this was due to an administrative error. We are currently working on a response to your email.

Once again, I apologise for the delay in responding.

RandomCurve

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi birdontheshirt,

Thanks for making me aware of this.

So I can get things looked into, 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, quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line.

Once sent, you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post back with this and I’ll check I've received it.

Kind regards,

Lee

Social Media Comms

Vodafone UK

It is a real shame Vodafone don't spend more time on addressing customer issues at source and less time fighting fires by trawling these forums.


I trust you will post back explaining how this was an error on Vodafone's part and that you have now fully honoured the agreement - and paid some compensation to Birdontheshirt for the previous poor customer service.


We await your response to see how quickly Vodafone can react.

RandomCurve

RandomCurve wrote: »

I am now waiting for Ofcom to call me back - I won't hold my breath, and if I keep my expectations low I can only ever be pleasantly surprised.

So today was the day - Ofcom to call me back to explain why they can't make a decision - and my low expectations were meet. It seems the COMMUNICATIONS regulator doesn't know how to use a phone - as nobody called me
If they can't even understand how to use a phone how on Earth are they going to understand their obligations under the Communications Act?
Anyway I have some annual leave tomorrow - I think I know what I am going to be doing with part of that!!!

barrowvian

So this morning I went ahead and raised a claim online.

"I'm claiming for an immediate termination of my phone contract, penalty free. PAC code and backdated charges from the date EE changed their T&Cs to increase contract prices by 2.7% These changes have had an adverse effect on me as their customer. I entered a fixed rate contract & EE changed this contract without providing notice allowing me to cancel penalty free. I contacted EE in April to try and resolve this amicably, they refused. EE have breached OFCOM regulation GC 9.6; they changed the price variation T&C effective 26th March 2014 (2 months after OFCOM changed the definition of Material Detriment in GC9.6), which is; Paragraph 6.22“In particular, we consider guidance is needed as to price rises which we
are likely to regard as materially detrimental and invoking the requirements of GC9.6. Such price rises are likely to include any increase to core subscription prices.” I'd like to claim £166.22 (backdated charges since price increase), penalty free termination and PAC Code."

You can only put a "brief description" in, but I felt this covers enough to explain the change in the particular T&C that I wanted to challenge.

I'll keep you posted with how this progresses.