Advice please re Vodafone contract

jcaon1971

Hi

I am at the end of my tether with the mobile provider vodafone. This is a bit long winded but there is a reason for telling the whole story in this way.

I have been a customer with Vodafone for over 12 years and have four products with them which = £120 a month. The issue is that almost three weeks ago they took almost £400 out of my bank account which took me over my overdraft limit and indeed other direct debits which were due to go out of my account were returned and i now have other penalties from bank because of this.

I have never had a situation where my bill has been in excess of £120 except for going out of the country so did not expect this bill. It was one of the ipads which despite being linked into our WIFI (i checked this and the other iPad on the contract which remained connected to the WIFI) built up £250 worth of fees.

When i contacted Vodafone they at first stated that it wasn't their responsibility to tell me there is an anomaly on my account, and despite my protestations that there had not been in over 12 years any issue like this, they said it was for me to check on a weekly basis how my account was working and that is why they give online accounts. Anyhow, i asked them to investigate this. I was advised that this would take 5 working days and that someone would be in contact in 5 working days. Fast forward the 5 working days and no call so i called them back, was told that the amount was right but that someone would call within 24 hours to talk to me about it. 24 hours later, no call so i contacted them back. a different person, a different response yet again, however, this time i was advised that a goodwill gesture of 5% had been applied to my account. I then advised the operator that this amounted to £12.50 of a £250 that i was contesting and that they had not actually told me how they had come to the final decision that they were right and that i was wrong, so, i asked to speak to a manager to be told that there was no managers on duty and that i would get a call within 72 hours from a manager. As you can guess no call and a further week passed (this friday gone) and i called yet again to be told that the manager that had been assigned to call me was on a day off and that they had called her and she will call me the next day (saturday ie yesterday) yet again, no contact. I am getting more and more frustrated by their lack of communication with me about this.

Sorry for the rambling but my questions are;

Firstly, have they broken any rules in not communicating with me and continually saying that they will get back to me; secondly can i break my contract with them as i do not have any trust in them as a business; and thirdly, would any of you have any advice how i manage this issue from here on.

Thank you all for bearing with me on this matter

JJ_Egan

(secondly can i break my contract with them as i do not have any trust in them as a busines )

The answer is not on those grounds .

Your tablet using mobile data instead of wifi is fairly common .
Difficult to understand if this bill for mobile data is what you are asking about .

mobilejunkie

You've got this totally the wrong way round.

1) Vodafone's RULE is to promise a call back from a manager and then ensure you don't get one. They haven't broken that rule.

2) No.

3) Do what you should always do WHEN you have a problem with Vodafone; contact the Web Relations Team on here (see the numerous Vodafone complaints threads which live on the first page of this forum). Otherwise you will go round in ever-increasing circles.

Vodafone

Hi jcaon1971,

I’m sorry to hear what’s happened.

If you'd like me to look into this, please 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 please quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line.

Once sent you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Please update the thread with this and I'll check we’ve received it.

Thanks,

Jenny
Vodafone UK

jcaon1971

WRT135 - MSE [#8439587]

Hi Jenny

Please find the automated email number that was sent from vodafone

Thanks for your initial reply, lets hope that there is a resolution that we can come up with

grumbler

jcaon1971 wrote: »

...they said it was for me to check on a weekly basis how my account was working and that is why they give online accounts.

So was your duty to check your monthly bill well before it was processed and made you overdrawn. That's what bills exist for.

jcaon1971

grumbler wrote: »

So was your duty to check your monthly bill well before it was processed and made you overdrawn. That's what bills exist for.

I understand what you are saying Grumbler, but i generally have the same bill and they have actually reduced the time between the bill and taking money out anyhow. I dont generally check and havent done for many years as the amount is usually within a few pounds of the other. Their response, or lack of would not have made any difference anyhow as they would still have taken the amount they say i owe them because it is almost three weeks since i have tried to deal with this with them.

Vodafone

Hi Jcaon1971,

I can see your email in our inbox, so we’ll be in touch as soon as we can.

Thanks,

Jenny
Vodafone UK

jcaon1971

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Jcaon1971,

I can see your email in our inbox, so we’ll be in touch as soon as we can.

Thanks,

Jenny
Vodafone UK

shame yet another promise to get back to me has failed, it will be FOUR weeks in a couple of days since i started trying to sort this out, Wonder what would happen if i cancelled the direct debit that is due to go out in three days, you would be on the phone then. New motto of Vodafone should be promise loads, deliver nothing.

grumbler

jcaon1971 wrote: »

...Wonder what would happen if i cancelled the direct debit that is due to go out in three days, you would be on the phone then. ...

No, they wouldn't.
In such cases it's typical for them just to report silently the missed payments to CRA(s) first, then report a default and sell the alleged debt to a DCA without even letting you know about this.