Vodafone, death of a company - Advice Taking Vodafone to the Small Claims Court.

Loosetooth

Hello.

So.... a quick skimming of my mobile phone history is this... Long time and loyal Vodafone customer who upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S4 in mid-2013ish...

I regretted it instantly as the beloved Vodafone (once the best mobile company in the UK) just repeatedly messed things up :-

1) Terrible upgrade deal which I tried to reverse in the alloted time allowed turned into a fight.
2) Promised Spotify did not materialise, then they charged £10 a month due to sending me wrong link (supposed to be free).
3) They, as part of new upgrade deal and apology, had me on a more expensive tarriff that they discounted and suddenly the discount/extra data were being charged for.
4) They promised me that I was on a 4g deal and that when 4g came I would just get it.... I was not, that turned into a massive fight.
5) They began charging me Late Payment Fees even when I paid on time.

All of these things (and there were more) were set against a backdrop of a deterioration in Vodafone's customer services. The website never worked for me, it just never loaded. Vodafone have consistently argued that that was due to my hardware and it was not. Ringing Vodafone used to be easier and, when compared to today, a pleasure. You would get through to a solid sounding guy in Slough or Newcastle or Scotland. They would be polite, listen and attempt to resolve your problem quickly.

Now you spend 20-40 mins listening to the same tune over and over before someone from SA, Egypt or India picks up the phone.... I would not mind if the Customer Service was good. But it is terrible.

In February this year... after nearly 2 years of spending anywhere upwards of 4+ hours on the phone to try and get erroneous late payment fees refunded (a process that would take so long that often I would get a "legitimate" late payment fee because the time to pay my bill expired whilst I awaited non-forthcoming managers "48 hours" callbacks).

I had attempted all manner of things to engage with Vodafone.... e-mails, Live Chat, calls and letters. None would Vodafone engage with. I stopped paying my bill and reported them to the Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman was pathetic... taking months to decide anything, accepting anything Vodafone sent them as legitimate evidence (I was not allowed to see what Vodafone was telling them) and ignoring my testimony as not really evidence at all. They took a long time to uphold my complaint and offer me a pathetic settlement (£40 compensation, a lesson from Vodafone in how to use a computer and a letter of apology).

By this time my bill was £200... although I had not actually had use of my phone as it was cut off in February. I decided to stop the Ombudsman process as it would bind me to and unsatisfactory outcome and was biased (despite what they said) in Vodafone's favour.

Since then Vodafone has closed the shutters.... I have written to Mark Bond, rung, Live Chatted... no-one is willing to talk to me about a reasonable solution, despite evidence of poor customer service, well terrible actually and consistent overcharging me.

Now I am compiling a Letter Before Action as I want to resolve this and move on.

Anyone been through anything similar or have any advice?

Many thanks

mobilejunkie

See my answer on the main thread.

XxXDebbieGXxX

Hi There. What happened in the end? I'm going through no end of hell and most of what you typed I'm experiencing exactly the same. I feel like I'm on deaths door the energy it's drained from me.