Vodafone have taken £602.83 out of my account. can anyone from Vodafone please help

sandra120000

Grumbler- I have read all the replies and acted upon the helpful suggestions made. I just wondered it there was a way of contacting the rep via direct message, that is all.

Silk - Thanks very much for your help, really appreciated. I will now wait to hear from him.

grumbler

If you are really desperate for money, just resort to the DD guarantee as advised above, but Vodafone's robots won't hesitate to trash your credit files and it will take time and efforts later to make the idiots to clean their mess.

Vodafone

Hi Sandra,

I've got your email and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Kind regards,

Lee

Social Media Comms

Vodafone UK

sandra120000

Thanks ever so much Lee, any help you can give me would be mega appreciated.

Marktheshark

Call the bank and demand they instigate the direct debit guarantee.
You will have to shout past the fob off goons that answer the phone, this is normal when trying to get anywhere dealing with a bank.

melb

I tried that with my bank but they said the mobile phone company would have to fax them to enable them to claw back the money - even though it was the mobile phone company that suggested I do a direct debit indemnity

Marktheshark

melb wrote: »

I tried that with my bank but they said the mobile phone company would have to fax them to enable them to claw back the money - even though it was the mobile phone company that suggested I do a direct debit indemnity

Bank is Lying, the direct debt guarantee states any alteration to amounts that has not be authorised directly by the customer must be refunded if queried.
Get back on the phone and be prepared to shout at people to get up the next level.
Insits you are not requesting, you are Demanding they either instigate the direct debit guarantee or open a log for a complaint to start the timer for the ombudsman service.

d123

melb wrote: »

I tried that with my bank but they said the mobile phone company would have to fax them to enable them to claw back the money - even though it was the mobile phone company that suggested I do a direct debit indemnity

There is no such provision in the DD guarantee, they were fobbing you off.

The Direct Debit Guarantee applies to all Direct Debits. It protects you in the rare event that there is an error in the payment of your Direct Debit.

Direct Debit Guarantee

The Guarantee is offered by all banks and building societies that accept instructions to pay Direct Debits.

If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit the organisation will notify you (normally 10 working days) in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request the organisation to collect a payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to you at the time of the request.

If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society.

If you receive a refund you are not entitled to, you must pay it back when the organisation asks you to.

You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by simply contacting your bank or building society. Written confirmation may be required. Please also notify the organisation.

melb

thanks I will do. I will probably start my own thread but briefly does anyone know of any precedents whereby there is an onus on a mobile phone company to warn a user when they are (a) approaching their limit on minutes and/or (b) warn them when they are incurring considerable costs above their usual monthly amount ie £460 instead of £20?
I have been told by the company that I should have requested them to set up an "alert" that would have done such a thing - I was never informed such a thing existed.

grumbler

Marktheshark wrote: »

Bank is Lying, the direct debt guarantee states any alteration to amounts that has not be authorised directly by the customer must be refunded if queried.

This is incorrect. Varying amounts don't need any "direct authorisation". That's the main point of a DD that the amount can vary. Otherwise a SO could have done the job perfectly.

In the OP's case the rules were breached as the OP wasn't notified in advance about the new amount (if this really was the case). If the OP was notified and failed to cancel the DD, then there are no grounds for claiming the money back under the DD guarantee.