Vodafone Nightmare!

ricky8r

Hey Guys

I am writing in absolute disgust at the service provided to me and my mother by Vodafone. I've never really dealt with anything like this before, so was hoping to get some advice from you guys! I am writing with regard to a payment of £263.74 taken twice from my mother's bank account on 22 May 2015 for an outstanding bill of £263.74 on my account. Only the fact I have meticulously checked her bank account have I actually come across this payment.

On noticing this double payment, my initial action was to confirm with the bank payment had actually been taken twice; this has been confirmed by NatWest bank. Following this is where my nightmare with Vodafone begins.

My mother and I have made countless phone calls to Vodafone to try and resolve this issue, to no avail. My most recent phone call to Vodafone was over 1 hour long only to be told "it will be 3-5 working days" before the issue is even looked at. This is 4 weeks after the payment has left my bank, following numerous promises. In the meantime, Vodafone have "turned off" the phones due to an "outstanding bill" - fortunately they are now re-activated (after another 40 minute phone call)

We have also had various "Live chat's" with "representatives", who have made all sorts of promises ranging from "We will call you back within 24-48 hours" to "The money will be back in your account within 48 hours". I have chat transcript's showing all of this information. Not one of these various promises have been made yet!

As a bit of a background, we have 5 contract phone's with Vodafone, including mine and my mother's, my brother's, my father's and my grandad's. We have had these contracts for 5+ years, paying around £150-250 a month to Vodafone. Quick maths, over £10,000 to Vodafone!! My mother does not have a lot of money; she am currently on incapacity benefit for Schizophrenia and this whole incident is really starting to stress us both out an awful lot! This is particularly concerning given my mother's mental health issues! In the meantime, my mother has had no money to live off - I am also currently unemployed, waiting to start my new job in August; we're therefore, let's say, very pushed for cash!

I really feel disgusted by Vodafone's approach here and wonder what the best bet is for us to get the money back! I know if the tables were turned we'd have the bailiff's knocking on our door as we speak!! I also wondered whether we'd be able to cancel our contracts - to be honest, given the recent farce, this is not a company we want to be giving any more money to!

Any advice would be very much appreciated! If you need any more information at all, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thanks

Chris

d123

TLDR

There is a Vodafone complaints thread which has instructions on how to contact the Vodafone forum team.

Try and keep the complaint concise and leave out the flannel about friends and family and their issues.

grumbler

Was the money taken twice by a DD? If so and if your mother had no money to live off, why did you not ask your bank for an immediate refund under the DD guarantee?
If it was a card payment you could have similarly asked the bank for a chargeback.

If the payment was taken twice, why on earth did they switch the phones off?

As a side note, £263 monthly bill is far too big, whether it is for your single line or for 5 lines and 5 people from which one is unemployed and one is on benefits.

ricky8r

It was taken twice by card payment, I'm really not sure why!! I wasn't aware I could ask for a chargeback? Can I still do this - it was 21st May the initial payment.

grumbler

• Visa, Mastercard & Amex Chargeback

The reason in this case is either duplicate or unauthorised transaction.
The time limit is 120 days.

ricky8r

Brilliant grumbler! Thanks a lot!

stavrossthegreek192

Beware of this shower of charlatans I cancelled the DD because they were trying to charge hundreds of pounds for data during the unlimited data test drive. I used my card to pay the actual bill when on the phone to the customer dis service which was in South Africa, and today I get a call from the fraud team at my bank that someone in Cape Town was trying to use my card details in a pizza shop.

It would seem too much of a coincidence that I've used my card with the Cape Town call centre and an attempted fraud in Cape Town occurs on my card!

Vodafone

Hi ricky8r,

If you and your mother still need help with this, email me with your details via the Contact us form here.

To access the form you'll need to enter the code WRT135.

As well as stating your query in the question box, please also quote "MSE Forum".

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

stavrossthegreek192 - I'm sorry to see this.

If you haven't already contacted us, please email me via the above contact details so I can get things investigated.

Kind regards,

Lee

Social Media Comms

Vodafone UK

stavrossthegreek192

How surprising I follow the link given in the previous post whereby I'm told I'd be contacted within 24 hours regarding the fraud and hear nothing.

Sorry Lee social media bod but your company sucks and is full of liars!

Vodafone

Hi stavrossthegreek192,

I replied to your email yesterday.

The automated reply you received should have stated that we reply to most emails within 48 hours.

So I can look into why the one you received stated 24 hours, please forward it to me.

Kind regards,

Lee

Social Media Comms

Vodafone UK