Vodafone Cancellation Nightmare

mjbridger1989

Morning All

Please bear with me, this could be a long message...

Until recently, I had a Vodafone Pay Monthly contract at £33 a month and contracted until 23 June 2016. Because I'm off travelling this Saturday and I didn't want the bill hanging over me, I decided to buy myself out of the contract. I first contacted Vodafone on 30 September to start this process, naively thinking it would be a simple and smooth affair...

Over Live Chat on 30 September I was told the early termination fee would be £309.65. In that same call I was transferred to the cancellation team who revised that to £240.74. As requested, I paid that last figure over the phone there and then and they confirmed receipt of payment. They then gave me a PAC code (so I could take my number to an O2 PayG SIM) and I was told a final bill with any remaining payments owed would be generated once the code had been used (use of the code automatically cancelling the contract).

I used the PAC code and had my number transferred on 8 October. I then got back in touch with Vodafone to try and confirm the details of the final bill - when I'd receive it, what it would be and why and how I could pay (as I'd cancelled my Direct Debit by this point).

However, because I had switched:

1. My online Vodafone account was closed (so I couldn't access my billing information with them); and
2. With the number now with O2, every time I tried to call Vodafone I couldn't make it through any customer service team (because of the need to enter a Vodafone number)

With Live Chat constantly 'busy', I went into a Vodafone store but was told by the staff there that they couldn't access account information... To be fair to them, they did all they could and put me through to one of the call centres who gave me a figure for the final bill as of that date - approximately £92. They told me to get back in touch from 24 October when the final bill would have been generated and I could pay over the phone.

Soon after this, I received an invoice from Vodafone in the post for the early termination fee, it was dated 8 October 2015 and was for a new figure of £110.27. I contacted Vodafone again through Live Chat but didn't get the clarification I was after. Instead I was repeatedly told how the early termination fee is calculated (i.e. monthly line rental x no. of months left on the contract - vat). If you include what I owed for the September bill as well - £71 as I overused my data - the various figures still fail to add up.

Frustrated beyond belief and not knowing where to turn, I put the whole situation on the back burner until the final bill was due to be ready. This morning, I got through on Live Chat (eventually) and was told I would need to pay £265. I disputed this, said what I'd already paid and all the person on the other side could say was 'I'm not sure why you need to pay this'. I disconnected, had a cup of tea, started again and on the second attempt was told I am due a refund of £78.17. Good news? Well I definitely took the offer to have the money transferred to my bank account but, still paranoid I will owe them money, I asked how they calculated the refund and if I would owe anything more for the final bill or anything else. I had an unequivocal 'no, you won't owe anything more to us' followed by 'you have paid £240.74 for the early termination fee'.

The figures still do not add up and I'm none the wiser how they're calculating all of this... I'd wager that if contact them tomorrow, it'll be yet another new number and story to digest. All I want is to be certain I've paid what I owe and have it clearly explained why I'm paying that.. Instead, I'm fearful that later down the line Vodafone will be sending the bailiffs round and hitting my credit rating for charges I didn't know I owed.

Thanks for sticking with this. I'll be eternally grateful if anyone can help?!?

mobilejunkie

See the Vodafone Complaints thread (work back fr0om the end) as to how to Contact the Web Relations Team.

mjbridger1989

Thank you! Do you have a link to the thread please? I can't seem to find it.

mobilejunkie

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/295048

It's almost invariably on the first page of the Mobiles forum - which should tell you something.

ricardinho88

I had the same problem with them. I paid a certain amount to cancel my contract, but I kept recieving bills from them. None of the people I spoke to seemed to know what was going on, until I spoke to a manager and they finally confirmed my account had been cancelled.

For some reason though, they're still active on my credit report and it says I owe them £4. it has been there for months though and it never counts as a missed payment when I don't pay it, so I've got no idea what it is.

I'm convinced these kind of problems arise because of the way the cancellations team of these companies earn money. It's their jobs to stop you from leaving, whether that's by sweet talking you or offering you some kind of deals. It's why you always get through to a pleasant english speaker (Instead of the usual Delhi natives). They get bonuses based on the amount of customers they manage to retain, so if you're dead set on leaving it's going to impact their end of month figures (their pockets). I believe that because of this, they 'accidentally' forget to process the payments but tell you it has gone through fine - then hopefully they'll have been paid until you notice it hasn't been cancelled at all.

mobilejunkie

You give them far too much credit. They are simply utterly incompetent and those at the top don't care about their customers one jot.

grumbler

mobilejunkie wrote: »

See the Vodafone Complaints thread (work back fr0om the end) as to how to Contact the Web Relations Team.

Last Activity: 13-10-2015 3:33 PM

Have they given up?
Any reports that they react on e-messages in any way?

mobilejunkie

The last and only people who care at that place... hopefully not, but if they have Vodafone will be a fate almost worse than death...

eagle

I am in a similar boat to the OP.

Cancelled my contract last month through Lee, the vodafone rep on this forum. I had some months left, I think three. Told it would be £57 or so. Got an email from Vodafone last week, the usual "your bill this month is.. £1.67".

A little concerned that this is all they are saying will be owed. Lo and behold this morning, £1.67 leaves my account.

How on earth am I supposed to believe anyone from vodafone from what is said? This company is such a joke. I don't envy anyone that is with them or has the pain to go through to leave them. If leaving them is this bad, imagine how painful staying with them is!

Have emailed Lee and am hoping for an answer... let's see if he gets in touch. He is very good and the best person to sort out this mess.

Ozwin1818

Currently having the exact same problem.

Rang them up, was told it would cost me around £52~ to cancel a £10~ a month contract that had until March to run. I did it because I needed to transfer the number through PAC, did it all no problems...or so I thought.

Now I've received an email in the post saying the early cancellation fee is £90. How is this acceptable I do not know. I would never have agreed to this being a student and now I can't get in contact with Vodafone because my number is no longer registered. On top of that the company doesn't have a 24/7 number? What is the deal there? Ridiculous.

I'm going to ring them tomorrow again, see if I can get through somewhere along the line. This is bang out of order.

Any advice on how to proceed?

mobilejunkie

Yes. Don't call. Contact the WRT as repeatedly instructed.