Vodafone are destroying my business

gasmonkey

Vodafone have managed to deactivate my account and my phone number on Thursday by mistake, and after nearly a week of going to their shop and spending hours every day on the phone to them, they have still not given me back my number. I am a mobile mechanic and none of my customers can get hold of me so I am losing money every day, and no one at vodafone seems to know what they are doing, or care. I keep being told that my number will be activated (and now transferred to the new sim they gave me Monday), and it should be up and running within 24 hours, except they have been telling me the same thing since Friday morning!

I have been a loyal customer for over 6 years and this all started when I tried to upgrade, but when I got my bank statement they were charging me twice, so I called them and was told that instead of giving me an upgrade, they had created a new contract. The new sim card that came with my new phone was deactivated, and they reduced my monthly charge. Then last Thursday at 5.30pm with no notice, my phone went out of service, and it transpired that vodafone had cancelled my old sim too, and my whole account. I have given them till tomorrow morning then I am cancelling the new contract that they started on Monday (without telling me- another customer services agent let it slip yesterday) as it is within the 14 day cooling off period. I will have to go to another provider then I will have the expense of getting my van re-sign written with the new number, not to mention new uniform and business cards, and I will have no choice but to re-advertise to try and get my customer base back. This has been such a headache, and the worst thing is the staff on the phone and on the web chat just don't care, and revert to script when you ask them anything out of the ordinary. Vodafone have breached so many of their T&C's over this that I am considering making a claim through the small courts for the expense and time this has cost me.

DCFC79

Complain first, give them 8 weeks to remedy the situation then go to the ombudsman. There is a Vodafone rep on here you can contact, try searching the forums for him or try the Vodafone thread on here, its the complaints thread.

gjchester

gasmonkey wrote: »

Vodafone have breached so many of their T&C's over this that I am considering making a claim through the small courts for the expense and time this has cost me.

Sure, you will of course have a business account with consequential loss cover so you will be fine.

If you have a consumer contract, then consequential loss would be a lot harder to claim for. Not impossible but very difficult.

Good Luck.

gjchester

gasmonkey wrote: »

Vodafone have breached so many of their T&C's over this that I am considering making a claim through the small courts for the expense and time this has cost me.

Sure, you will of course have a business account with consequential loss cover so you will be fine.

If you have a consumer contract, then consequential loss would be a lot harder to claim for. Not impossible but very difficult. Small claims will only consider reasonable expenses which may be hard if you have a lot to have re-done.

Good Luck, i fear it may be an uphill struggle..

gasmonkey

Its not a business contract. Vodafone would not let me have one without having a business bank account, but since I am self employed and don't have a big enough volume of transactions, it was not worth the expensive charges of business banking. I have a personal bank account, but funnily enough my insurance company were happy enough to give me a traders policy without a business bank account. I just had to show them copies of my invoices. Vodafone want you to jump through hoops but then can't deliver a basic service. As for consequential losses, my phone number is emblazoned across my van. I have spent the last 4 years building up a customer base and now no-one can get hold of me!

gasmonkey

DCFC79 wrote: »

Complain first, give them 8 weeks to remedy the situation then go to the ombudsman. There is a Vodafone rep on here you can contact, try searching the forums for him or try the Vodafone thread on here, its the complaints thread.

Is it better to go to the Ombudsman rather than the small claims court?

DCFC79

gasmonkey wrote: »

Is it better to go to the Ombudsman rather than the small claims court?

Feel free to go to small claims court but you could be asked why did you not go to the ombudsman first ( to resolve the issue ).

If it were me I'd contact the rep on the forums first and see what the rep can sort out.

d123

gasmonkey wrote: »

Its not a business contract.

So how do you intend to sue for consequential losses? It's excluded from the consumer contract iirc.

You might want to take some legal advice before considering court (or at least first exhausting the Vodafone procedures and then going to the ombudsman).

gjchester

gasmonkey wrote: »

As for consequential losses, my phone number is emblazoned across my van. I have spent the last 4 years building up a customer base and now no-one can get hold of me!

I didn't say you would not suffer consequential losses only claiming them will be hard on a consumer level contract.

macman

I'd say your chances of successfully claiming consequential business losses on a consumer contract are between zero and nothing. The fact that you did not have a business bank account is not relevant.
You can't go to the Ombudsman until you have exhausted the supplier's own complaints procedure (minimum of 8 weeks): you haven't begun that process yet, which requires a formal written complaint.

mobilejunkie

Contact the Web Relations Team following the repeated instructions on the Vodafone Complaints Thread. You can't miss it - it's invariably on the first page of this forum.