Vodafone - Taking them to court

cw212010

HI all,

I'm at the stage now where I have issued Vodafone a letter before court.

I have a full subject access request with all notes, calls etc.

I cancelled my account having been given the opportunity when they raised their out of bundle charges.

Since then they have pestered me for 3 different amounts.

Eventually customer relations sent me a letter to which I was promised a resolution by Monday, then tuesday, then today and no outcome as of yet.

They have also marked my account as closed on their system, however continually default my credit report. Can they continue to default a closed account?

There's more to this one but I would be interested to hear from anyone who has taken them to court in the past.

I'm craving the court to have the termination fee written off, my credit file repaired and £1000 in costs.

I plan to act as a party litigant and the matter will be dealt with in Scotland.

cw212010

I'm wary of ombudsman services as it was a lengthy process when I used the FOS.

I've a little experience in court as a party litigant in other matters so I am confident in the procedures in the court room - It's just interesting to hear other peoples stories.

In short, I'm hoping for a short, sharp fix.

mobilejunkie

The FOS is entirely different. Telephone regulators dont' take years - nor even months in my experience.

As for the court; it may be a little different in a Scottish court, but to get them to remove the default from your external credit files you'd have to sue for that as well as a full refund of all costs (mobile and court fee costs) after you cancelled.

Although going to the small court is fine if you have prepared and have a sound case, going in blind with the hope that the court will look after you is a bit niave. If you have any kind of legal advice service on your home insurance poilcy I would try talking with them - even if they won't take it up under the policy they would be able to offer some proper advice without forking out money you wouldn't recover from a small claims court.

Silk

cw212010 wrote: »

I cancelled my account having been given the opportunity when they raised their out of bundle charges.

If they agreed to cancel your contract penalty free and failed to do so then I can see you would have a case if you can prove they agreed to it. If they didn't you need to go to the ombudsman first to try and resolve it otherwise it may go against you.

cw212010 wrote: »

They have also marked my account as closed on their system, however continually default my credit report. Can they continue to default a closed account?

If there are outstanding charges that haven't been paid then yes the default would be correct, it makes no difference whether the account is open or closed


Did you contact the rep on here when you started the thread about it last year ?

wealdroam

OP, where do the £1000 costs come from?

In the small claims court you will need to substantiate your losses... you cannot just pick a figure out of the air.

That's in England... things might be different in Scotland, but please do check.

cw212010

The £1000 includes my time and effort in terms of calls, emails, letters etc

I then had to pay for a subject access request, however for the most part it is for defamation (damage to my financial standing which I am required to show for my employment) and for distress and inconvenience.

I have full account notes and it clearly shows that the account was cancelled and various notes state the ETF has been escalated to a manager to be waived.

There are around 19 different notes stating that a manager has failed to call back or carry out other promises so if anything they have failed badly at customer service.

I cancelled my contract on the understanding that they were waiving the fee. Had they not been willing to I wouldn't have cancelled.

I can't remember if I spoke with a rep or not - however it is now being referred to their legal team so it's at a stage higher than Joe Bloggs at customer services.

wealdroam

cw212010 wrote: »

The £1000 includes my time and effort in terms of calls, emails, letters etc

I then had to pay for a subject access request, however for the most part it is for defamation (damage to my financial standing which I am required to show for my employment) and for distress and inconvenience.

Then most of your costs will be thrown out.

You can forget about defamation, distress and inconvenience.
Those are not issues that a small claims court will deal with.

Silk

cw212010 wrote: »

The £1000 includes my time and effort in terms of calls, emails, letters etc

You have no chance with £1000, it's fixed costs and very restrictive, the courts will be able to advise you what you can claim for

cw212010 wrote: »

I then had to pay for a subject access request, however for the most part it is for defamation (damage to my financial standing which I am required to show for my employment) and for distress and inconvenience.

SAR will have been £10 but defamation is again no chance.

cw212010 wrote: »

I have full account notes and it clearly shows that the account was cancelled and various notes state the ETF has been escalated to a manager to be waived.

Unless it states that the ETF was actually waived rather than requested it's a waste of time.

cw212010 wrote: »

There are around 19 different notes stating that a manager has failed to call back or carry out other promises so if anything they have failed badly at customer service.

Sadly poor customer service is not a reason to take them to court and whilst it may add to a case for minor compensation if they failed to comply with protocols or directives etc it has very little to do with the claim

cw212010 wrote: »

I cancelled my contract on the understanding that they were waiving the fee. Had they not been willing to I wouldn't have cancelled.

That seems to be the problem, you cancelled the contract when it seems the waiver wasn't in place

cw212010 wrote: »

I can't remember if I spoke with a rep or not - however it is now being referred to their legal team so it's at a stage higher than Joe Bloggs at customer services.

Your kidding, the rep made the offer to help in your last thread which it seems you ignored as you would have made initial contact by email so you would have an automated reply at least and would have been included in your SAR if you had!

mobilejunkie

Apart from all of that, you wouldn't make a great impression on the court if you appear to be unreasonable. In law, despite what you think your time is worth - it isn't.

macman

£1,000 is far too 'neat' an amount to claim. If you can produce itemised costs totalling, say, £972.48, by all means claim it. What hourly rate are you basing it on?

Marktheshark

It would be libel not defamation, you would also need top joint claim against the publishers of the credit reference as they are jointly liable for what they publish.