Vodafone earlyexit fee..

dippenhall1

Hi,

I just wanted to write my experience here perhaps as a warning to others, and have a general rant!

I had a 2 year contract with vodafone, which ran out yesterday, about a week ago I called them to say I wasn't going to be renewing it and planned to move to another company at the end of the contract (a week's time from then) as they had a better deal & reception with vodafone is bad in my area and asked what I needed to do.

They advised me that normally I had to give 30 days notice of not continuing my contract and as I was telling them late I would have to pay for maybe an extra month after the end of my contract, I said no problem, that's fine, I was OK to pay it all up in full. I asked whether I should call back when my contract ran out to get my PAC code to port my number, the rep said, no that's fine you can take it and port the number when you're ready.

So I order my new phone from the other company, it arrives, port my number.

Today I get a bill for £660 for early termination of the contract from Vodafone!! !!!!!!!! I phone up & can hardly make sense of what the person from vodafone is saying, there's no real explanation of what has happened, although he seems to imply that it's a correct charge because technically I used the PAC code a couple of days before the end of my contract ran out!! But I hadn't been told that if I used the PAC code before a certain date there would be a problem, or a charge, infact I'd asked whether I should get it after the contract ended, I'd also made it clear that I would continue to pay my bill in full, including the extra 30 days, and wasn't leaving early.

The 2nd rep said they would cancel my direct debit so that the £660 didn't go out, but there was no explanation of what had gone wrong, was I misinformed on the first call, and I cannot believe even if I had decided to leave my contract 1 day early that the penalty would be £660!! My bills were only £30 a month, so how does that work!! Again no explanation. I don't feel sure that this will be actually cancelled or removed from my account, just cancelling the direct debit!.

Absolutely appalling & probably not the end! Vodafone staff seem to have no idea of the 'rules' behind their company, billing etc, don't have any explanations for customers as to what they need to do, or when something goes wrong what has caused it or a proper solution to put customers minds at ease.

Utter rubbish - Rant over!

grumbler

dippenhall1 wrote: »

... I phone up & can hardly make sense of what the person from vodafone is saying, there's no real explanation of what has happened,

Well, after two years of dealing with them you have to know that you can't expect anything sensible from these idiots.

although he seems to imply that it's a correct charge because technically I used the PAC code a couple of days before the end of my contract ran out!!

This is nonsense.
The ETC is either a monthly amount or the cost of the remaining months of the minimum term whichever is bigger. And, as you pay for ~1/2 month in advance, part of this amount is usually already paid.

The 2nd rep said they would cancel my direct debit so that the £660 didn't go out, but there was no explanation of what had gone wrong, was I misinformed on the first call, and I cannot believe even if I had decided to leave my contract 1 day early that the penalty would be £660!! My bills were only £30 a month, so how does that work!! Again no explanation. I don't feel sure that this will be actually cancelled or removed from my account, just cancelling the direct debit!.

You are right not to believe a word they say. I bet they won't cancel anything.
Be prepared to a long exhausting battle unless their web reps pick up this thread and offer help. Or contact them proactively like they suggest in endless other threads that flood this board.

dippenhall1

Thanks, I think you're right! I'll contact them via the links on this website just to confirm!

mobilejunkie

Extremely wise.