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Vodafone have mis-sold me, what can I do about it?
lostunsunghero
Posts: 6 Forumite
TL;DR: Was promised 3 contract lines would total £71 inc VAT in September, I have routinely been over charged since. I'll let you know if my next bill works out if they ever get their website up and running again.
I've got everything documented in a word file about my problem with Vodafone in a format that I can email to someone if the need arises. I'm posting that below.
Beginning on the 14th July 2015 I have been in a billing dispute with Vodafone UK over my 3 contract lines. My original long standing line was £33.60 per month and I added another line in February of 2015 which was agreed to at £28.50 per month both including VAT.
Simple maths will tell you my bill should have been £62.10 inc VAT for both lines. On 25th June 2015 I took out a 3rd line via Vodafones VEA program which entitles me to a 20% discount. The terms were agreed at £25.20 inc VAT with the discount applied.
When a new line is taken out they pro-rate their bills so instead of paying for a full month you only pay for the days you have used until the next billing cycle. My bill for that next month was dated 14th July 2015, so with the 15 days of pro-rating the total should have been £37.59 + £4.12 = £41.71 (new line pro-rated + 1 month advanced payment). Add that to the previous agreement for my 2 lines comes to £103.81. For that month I was charged £116.80, therefore paying an extra £12.99.
At this point I make my first contact with Vodafone’s customer service department. They tell me that the VEA discount had not been applied properly and that they would do so from the next month and give me a credit for the amount I over paid (£12.99)
On 13th August I was expecting a bill for £87.30 inc VAT (not inc the credit I was owed), however that month the bill came to £93.60. I was over charged £6.30. I call again to explain the situation and they tell me that there is a note on the account showing that my agreed to price is £25.20 and that the VEA discount has still not been applied. They promise to credit my account during the next billing cycle.
On the 4th of September I received a call from the Vodafone marketing department (upgrades/promo team? ) who told me that having been a customer for many years they were calling to see if they could give me “more for my money” (verbatim). He then informed me that for the 3 lines I have he could double the data for 2 of them to (6GB) and double it for the new line I took out in June (to 2GB). I asked him how much it would be and he told me £71.00 inc VAT. Before I hung up the call having agreed to the terms I again repeated “So the bottom line is £71.00 inc VAT for all 3 lines?” (verbatim) to which he repeated and agreed.
Now consider that I was paying £87.30 inc VAT for 3 lines before that call who would say no to ~£16.00 decrease in their monthly bill. I would certainly not agree to terms which were more than £87.30 simply because I didn't need the extra things they were offering. I believe that no sane person would agree to pay more than what they were already paying if they didn't need to. Either I've been mis-sold a product or i'm insane.
On 14th September I received my bill which stated £91.26. Again I had been overcharged. If you pro-rate the 21 days it comes to £60.10 for the 3 lines and then pro-rate the new terms of £71.00 which I had agreed to for 10 days it comes to £23.28. Which should be £83.38, however I was overcharged £7.88.
Again I make a call to Vodafone and let them know the situation, bearing in mind that at this point I am still within my 14 day cooling off period no mention is made that the price I was offered on the 4th September was wrong. I also have 2 emails telling me that 1 line is being charged at £0.00 with no discount applied and another is being charged at £49.00 with a 20% discount. This tells me that for 2 lines I will be paying £39.20 inc VAT per month. The 2nd email I received was regarding the 3rd line which states £40.00 with a 20% discount which works out to £32.00. If you add the 2 together you get £71.20, this is not the price we agreed to which was £71.00 however who is going to wait on hold for hours over 20p so I let it go.
Now that all the pro-rating is done I wait for my October bill which should be at least £71.00 (£71.20 if you go by the emails). To my dismay it is £79.68. I call Vodafone again (17th Oct) and let them know of the error. At this point I am talking to a customer service rep who acknowledges the mistake and credits my account the £35.85 which I had been over charged for the months prior. She then puts me through to the billing department to see if we can get this error sorted out.
The billing department told me that they would raise a “call listening request” (verbatim) to see what the rep who called me on 4th September actually said what I claim he said. He told me this process takes 7-10 working days and I will receive a call back in that time period.
3rd November, after not hearing from them I call them up wondering what is going on. The person I originally speak to in the billing department tells me he will try and sort it out. Put’s me on hold and then transfers me to the “upgrades team”, I wait on hold and someone from sales picks up the phone and I explain to him what’s happened. He told me that I should have been put through to customer services. I wait on hold and then I’m put through to some other department. They explain that it’s the wrong department and that my call must have dropped (at this point I’ve been on the phone for at least 40 minutes).
I finally get through to the right person and explain my situation for the 4th time. Admittedly I get quite short with her due to a combination of being on the phone for so long and having to call up every month. She tells me that no call listening request had been raised on the 17th Oct when I had called in and that she would raise another request. I tell her that this is not acceptable and want it fixed today. She explained the price plan for the 3 lines and came to a conclusion that I should be paying ~£100 inc VAT for all 3. At this point I tell her to go ahead and cancel all 3 lines and I will not be paying Vodafone another penny due to the fact that this is not even close to the price to which we had agreed terms. She puts me on hold and comes back to tell me that her manager will contact me on Friday regarding the situation.
4th November, to their credit a manager got back to me earlier than expected. He tells me that he is in charge of customer complaints and will be assisting me today. I let him finish talking while he explains the price plans to me. I then tell him my side and what was promised. He asks me to forward the 2 emails I got from Vodafone. He tells me he will call me back after talking to the upgrades team regarding the emails.
He calls me back roughly 10 minutes later and tells me there has been an error and that I should have received a 3rd email. For each line I should have terms set. He then reads out the 3 price plans there were 2 which were over £30 (I don’t remember the exact price but prior to this I paid £30+ for only 1 of the lines) and 1 at £28.50. I disagree and he tells me about the call listening request again. However this time he tells me I need to contact Vodafone in writing (if this is the case then why have the 2 previous reps who mentioned this not told me). He says that this is something different and the only way to do it is via Vodafone.com/privacy. At this point I hang up the call as it appears that we have found a way to a solution.
I go to the website and I find a form, however this is not the form he explained. Apparently not all calls are recorded and the recorded calls are only kept for between 3 and 120 days with most calls only being kept for 60 days. As I write this (04/11/2015) 61 days have passed since 4th September 2015. They also require £10.00 to process the request and at this point I’m wondering if I should be giving Vodafone extra money.
The form which I am referring to can be found here:
(link removed because MSE won't let me post it, but you can easily find it at vodafone.com/privacy)
So what do I do now? The form says it will be £10.00 and 40 days and even then i'm not likely to get a desired outcome. All I want is for the £71.00 we agreed to to be applied, if they can't do that then the least they can do is revert me back to my old price plan. There is also a mystery £20 credit on one of my last 2 bills, I have not asked for this credit nor have I been given an explanation as to why it's there. My next bill will be published on or around the 15th November.
It should also be noted that I will be leaving the country on 7th December until 17th January. So if this does not get resolved in a timely manner it will have to wait until I get back. I already spend a lot of time on hold trying to get a straight answer out of them, i'm not going to let them put my life on hold.
I've got everything documented in a word file about my problem with Vodafone in a format that I can email to someone if the need arises. I'm posting that below.
Beginning on the 14th July 2015 I have been in a billing dispute with Vodafone UK over my 3 contract lines. My original long standing line was £33.60 per month and I added another line in February of 2015 which was agreed to at £28.50 per month both including VAT.
Simple maths will tell you my bill should have been £62.10 inc VAT for both lines. On 25th June 2015 I took out a 3rd line via Vodafones VEA program which entitles me to a 20% discount. The terms were agreed at £25.20 inc VAT with the discount applied.
When a new line is taken out they pro-rate their bills so instead of paying for a full month you only pay for the days you have used until the next billing cycle. My bill for that next month was dated 14th July 2015, so with the 15 days of pro-rating the total should have been £37.59 + £4.12 = £41.71 (new line pro-rated + 1 month advanced payment). Add that to the previous agreement for my 2 lines comes to £103.81. For that month I was charged £116.80, therefore paying an extra £12.99.
At this point I make my first contact with Vodafone’s customer service department. They tell me that the VEA discount had not been applied properly and that they would do so from the next month and give me a credit for the amount I over paid (£12.99)
On 13th August I was expecting a bill for £87.30 inc VAT (not inc the credit I was owed), however that month the bill came to £93.60. I was over charged £6.30. I call again to explain the situation and they tell me that there is a note on the account showing that my agreed to price is £25.20 and that the VEA discount has still not been applied. They promise to credit my account during the next billing cycle.
On the 4th of September I received a call from the Vodafone marketing department (upgrades/promo team? ) who told me that having been a customer for many years they were calling to see if they could give me “more for my money” (verbatim). He then informed me that for the 3 lines I have he could double the data for 2 of them to (6GB) and double it for the new line I took out in June (to 2GB). I asked him how much it would be and he told me £71.00 inc VAT. Before I hung up the call having agreed to the terms I again repeated “So the bottom line is £71.00 inc VAT for all 3 lines?” (verbatim) to which he repeated and agreed.
Now consider that I was paying £87.30 inc VAT for 3 lines before that call who would say no to ~£16.00 decrease in their monthly bill. I would certainly not agree to terms which were more than £87.30 simply because I didn't need the extra things they were offering. I believe that no sane person would agree to pay more than what they were already paying if they didn't need to. Either I've been mis-sold a product or i'm insane.
On 14th September I received my bill which stated £91.26. Again I had been overcharged. If you pro-rate the 21 days it comes to £60.10 for the 3 lines and then pro-rate the new terms of £71.00 which I had agreed to for 10 days it comes to £23.28. Which should be £83.38, however I was overcharged £7.88.
Again I make a call to Vodafone and let them know the situation, bearing in mind that at this point I am still within my 14 day cooling off period no mention is made that the price I was offered on the 4th September was wrong. I also have 2 emails telling me that 1 line is being charged at £0.00 with no discount applied and another is being charged at £49.00 with a 20% discount. This tells me that for 2 lines I will be paying £39.20 inc VAT per month. The 2nd email I received was regarding the 3rd line which states £40.00 with a 20% discount which works out to £32.00. If you add the 2 together you get £71.20, this is not the price we agreed to which was £71.00 however who is going to wait on hold for hours over 20p so I let it go.
Now that all the pro-rating is done I wait for my October bill which should be at least £71.00 (£71.20 if you go by the emails). To my dismay it is £79.68. I call Vodafone again (17th Oct) and let them know of the error. At this point I am talking to a customer service rep who acknowledges the mistake and credits my account the £35.85 which I had been over charged for the months prior. She then puts me through to the billing department to see if we can get this error sorted out.
The billing department told me that they would raise a “call listening request” (verbatim) to see what the rep who called me on 4th September actually said what I claim he said. He told me this process takes 7-10 working days and I will receive a call back in that time period.
3rd November, after not hearing from them I call them up wondering what is going on. The person I originally speak to in the billing department tells me he will try and sort it out. Put’s me on hold and then transfers me to the “upgrades team”, I wait on hold and someone from sales picks up the phone and I explain to him what’s happened. He told me that I should have been put through to customer services. I wait on hold and then I’m put through to some other department. They explain that it’s the wrong department and that my call must have dropped (at this point I’ve been on the phone for at least 40 minutes).
I finally get through to the right person and explain my situation for the 4th time. Admittedly I get quite short with her due to a combination of being on the phone for so long and having to call up every month. She tells me that no call listening request had been raised on the 17th Oct when I had called in and that she would raise another request. I tell her that this is not acceptable and want it fixed today. She explained the price plan for the 3 lines and came to a conclusion that I should be paying ~£100 inc VAT for all 3. At this point I tell her to go ahead and cancel all 3 lines and I will not be paying Vodafone another penny due to the fact that this is not even close to the price to which we had agreed terms. She puts me on hold and comes back to tell me that her manager will contact me on Friday regarding the situation.
4th November, to their credit a manager got back to me earlier than expected. He tells me that he is in charge of customer complaints and will be assisting me today. I let him finish talking while he explains the price plans to me. I then tell him my side and what was promised. He asks me to forward the 2 emails I got from Vodafone. He tells me he will call me back after talking to the upgrades team regarding the emails.
He calls me back roughly 10 minutes later and tells me there has been an error and that I should have received a 3rd email. For each line I should have terms set. He then reads out the 3 price plans there were 2 which were over £30 (I don’t remember the exact price but prior to this I paid £30+ for only 1 of the lines) and 1 at £28.50. I disagree and he tells me about the call listening request again. However this time he tells me I need to contact Vodafone in writing (if this is the case then why have the 2 previous reps who mentioned this not told me). He says that this is something different and the only way to do it is via Vodafone.com/privacy. At this point I hang up the call as it appears that we have found a way to a solution.
I go to the website and I find a form, however this is not the form he explained. Apparently not all calls are recorded and the recorded calls are only kept for between 3 and 120 days with most calls only being kept for 60 days. As I write this (04/11/2015) 61 days have passed since 4th September 2015. They also require £10.00 to process the request and at this point I’m wondering if I should be giving Vodafone extra money.
The form which I am referring to can be found here:
(link removed because MSE won't let me post it, but you can easily find it at vodafone.com/privacy)
So what do I do now? The form says it will be £10.00 and 40 days and even then i'm not likely to get a desired outcome. All I want is for the £71.00 we agreed to to be applied, if they can't do that then the least they can do is revert me back to my old price plan. There is also a mystery £20 credit on one of my last 2 bills, I have not asked for this credit nor have I been given an explanation as to why it's there. My next bill will be published on or around the 15th November.
It should also be noted that I will be leaving the country on 7th December until 17th January. So if this does not get resolved in a timely manner it will have to wait until I get back. I already spend a lot of time on hold trying to get a straight answer out of them, i'm not going to let them put my life on hold.
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Comments
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Almost impossible to read and understand your post .You need to be brief as to the actual current problem .0
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After 8 weeks complaints can be sent to the ombudsman.SO... now England its the Scots turn to say dont leave the UK, stay in Europe with us in the UK, dont let the tories fool you like they did us with empty lies... You will be leaving the UK aswell as Europe
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Here is a brief statement of facts:
On 4th September I was called by Vodafone to renegotiate my price plan. This negotiation did not affect the length of my contract.
On the phone I was told the total for the 3 lines would be £71 inc VAT. Since then the terms of my contract have changed to reflect additional data as agreed to however the price I am paying is roughly £100. NOT the £71 as agreed to.
Prior to this I was paying £87.30 inc VAT. I did not misunderstand the CS agent and repeated the deal to him and he confirmed. So given that I was paying £87.30 before I was called why would I agree to ~£100 when I didn't even need the extra data that they were offering me.
Since then I have made numerous calls to Vodafone to rectify the situation and on one occasion I was refunded the amount I was over paying.
Also to add my bills since July have not been consistent. I have confirmed with Vodafone that all my usage was within limits and have not been charged extra. Here are my bill totals:
June (prior to 3rd line): £62.10
July (3rd line added): £116.80
August: £93.60
September: £91.26
October: £79.68 (only paid ~£40 due to refund for previous overcharges)
As you can see since September I have not been charged £100 which is what Vodafone are telling me my price plan adds up to.0 -
lostunsunghero wrote: »Here is a brief statement of facts:
On 4th September I was called by Vodafone to renegotiate my price plan. This negotiation did not affect the length of my contract.
On the phone I was told the total for the 3 lines would be £71 inc VAT. Since then the terms of my contract have changed to reflect additional data as agreed to however the price I am paying is roughly £100. NOT the £71 as agreed to.
Prior to this I was paying £87.30 inc VAT. I did not misunderstand the CS agent and repeated the deal to him and he confirmed. So given that I was paying £87.30 before I was called why would I agree to ~£100 when I didn't even need the extra data that they were offering me.
Since then I have made numerous calls to Vodafone to rectify the situation and on one occasion I was refunded the amount I was over paying.
Also to add my bills since July have not been consistent. I have confirmed with Vodafone that all my usage was within limits and have not been charged extra. Here are my bill totals:
June (prior to 3rd line): £62.10
July (3rd line added): £116.80
August: £93.60
September: £91.26
October: £79.68 (only paid ~£40 due to refund for previous overcharges)
As you can see since September I have not been charged £100 which is what Vodafone are telling me my price plan adds up to.
I understood it, I posted the action needed
http://www.vodafone.co.uk/vodafone-uk/forms/complaints/#
If we can’t resolve your complaint within eight weeks, you can refer your issue to the independent Alternative Dispute Resolution service provided by Ombudsman Services Communications. As long as your complaint is within their remit, they'll investigate it free of charge.
You can ask that your complaint goes to Ombudsman Services Communications before the eight weeks are up – to do so, you need to request a deadlock letter from our customer services team. However, if we’re confident that we can sort things out within eight weeks, we have the right to insist that our process is followed.
Ombudsman Services Communications contact details
Ombudsman Services Communications
PO Box 730
Warrington
WA4 6HL
Phone: 0330 440 1614 (standard call charges apply)
Fax: 01925 430 049
Email: enquiries@os-communications.org
https://www.os-communications.orgSO... now England its the Scots turn to say dont leave the UK, stay in Europe with us in the UK, dont let the tories fool you like they did us with empty lies... You will be leaving the UK aswell as Europe0 -
I'd submit a claim to the SCC for the difference in the total cost - thus leaving it to Voda to prove that I agreed to a different monthly price.0
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OK, so i've gone ahead and submitted a SAR form in regards to every call i've made to and that have come from Vodafone since Sept 1st. I believe at this stage I am still using Vodafone's own internal dispute resolution service.
They say it will take 40 days from receipt of the letter (I have sent it via recorded delivery). From what I understand if the information is in the documents provided to me, proving my case I can go ahead and get this resolved immediately without any further action.
If I they get back to me and information is missing or not available I believe my next step is to contact the ombudsman as suggested, after receiving a deadlock letter from Vodafone. Does anyone know how to obtain this?
Is this correct or am I missing anything?0 -
After 8 weeks you don't need a deadlock letter.0
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Yup, 8 weeks from first contact... go to the Ombudsman now, your are past the 8 weeks where you need a deadlock letter.
Keep the SAR in place, vital evidence may help you to use as evidence SO... now England its the Scots turn to say dont leave the UK, stay in Europe with us in the UK, dont let the tories fool you like they did us with empty lies... You will be leaving the UK aswell as Europe0
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