Vodafone cancellation/ Ardent credit threats

daw2000

Hello , my situation is a quite complicated one and also a really unfair one.

I had a contract with Vodafone took out for 2 years, the contract was about to end in December 2015, therefore I decided to call around a month before my contract end date to give them notice (I called a month early incase they require one months notice). When I called Vodafone offered me a fantastic deal over the phone to upgrade my contract. I had a think about it and decided that I will go ahead with it. I took out the contract, when taking this out I explained to one of the Vodafone team that I had changed address and that means the device has to be sent out to my new address as the system has my old one registered. The member of staff took down my new address and told me he had added it to the system and that my parcel will definetely be delivered to this new address. Before ending the call I made sure with the guy that he had definetely changed my address, he reassured me that I had nothing to worry about because the address has been changed. So everything seemed like it was sorted but this was only the start of my problems with Vodafone.

The following day in the morning I had received a text on my phone from a DPD courier stating that "Your parcel will be delivered to this and this address tomorrow between 10am and 5pm" unfortunately the address stated in the text message was the address of my old property. This had made me very furious so I called Vodafone straight away explaining what I had received, they apologised for their mistake and said the delivery address will be changed immediately and I would receive another confirmation text, but that never happened.

2 days had gone and the parcel was unfortunately delivered to my old address as I had received a text stating that. Due to this I called Vodafone AGAIN complaining about this even though I had told them about my address change twice. The person at Vodafone told me they would get DPD to pick up the parcel and re-deliver it to my new property. I told them "what if no one is in when DPD go there?" which resulted in them making up some silly excuse. The day after in the afternoon I had received another text from DPD saying "Sorry we missed you" so that told me that they didn't pick the parcel up. I called Vodafone once again and they promised that they would send DPD out there again.

Days had went and nothing had happened so I kept on calling Vodafone, I spoke to so many people from their team and everyone had a different story to tell. After countless hours of staying on the phone with them I had found out that a DPD courier had only gone to pick up the phone from my old property once as Vodafone didn't actually instruct no one from DPD to go a second time.

I had then got so frustrated with Vodafone that I decided to cancel this upgrade that I had took out as I was still within my 14 day cancellation period. When I called to let them know of that, they told me that everything will be done and cancelled, but to fully complete the cancellation process, they will need the device back in the warehouse. Which left me in confusion as I told them that I do not live at that address anymore and I can't just get this device back. They promised again that they would send someone from DPD out there but the same happened, they didn't really.

I kept calling and calling this so called "great" company and like previously everyone had different stories to tell and I kept getting transferred from person to person getting treated awfully with absolutely no respect towards me. I was even asked to go there and pick the phone up my self eventually, which I said 'no' to as I think this was unfair.

Eventually I did decide to take this into my own hands and I did go to my old address and knocked on the door but no one answered even though the lights were on. I didn't previously mention this but the delivery confirmation text I received said that my parcel was left with my neighbour at number 5. I knocked on my old house door and I had no reply, so I went to house number 5 and they said yes they handed the parcel back to my old house at number 7. I left my number with them and the following day they knocked on their door but again no one answered. I called Vodafone again and told them that my contract still hasn't been cancelled and the man on the phone told me that I HAVE to get that device back otherwise I am liable to paying a 24 month contract. I got very angry then which ended up in me having a go at him and he just told me we're going round in circles and hung up on me.

I was in shreds then and I went to the old address once again a day or two later with a friend and we literally had to knock the door and window so hard it was as if were going to smash them until someone opened, a quite lady come out she said she gave the parcel to the landlord. The landlord lived 6 doors down at Number 1 and I had bad relations with him due to the past this is why I moved out. So I knocked on my ex landlord's door and his wife opened, I told her this and she made up an excuse saying her husband took it to the DPD depot. I decided to call the depot and they told me that you CANNOT just drop something off at a DPD depot like that, I even had a previous reference number of one of the texts and the woman checked for me, she said there has been no parcels dropped back off at any of the DPD depots in the UK that are in my name or with my reference.

I then called the landlord and said he has until Monday or this goes to the Police.

Monday came and nothing happened so I went to the Police, the officer advised me not to care about that parcel as it is not my responsibility to pick it up, he told me that I cancelled the contract within 14 days therefore I have nothing to worry about. He told me to call them, tell them I am ending the contract, paying off my last bill then cancelling the direct debit as I did not physically receive or sign for anything either. So I went ahead and done that and I also recorded the phone call for future proof if needed.

It is now March I thought everything was okay and today I got a letter from some company called 'Ardent Credit Services' telling me they are working with Vodafone for debt recovery purposes, I had been told that if my device is disconnected then a default will be listed on my credit file and my account will be fully outsourced for debt collection. I got told in the letter I can even pay straight away and they provided their bank details.

I do not know what to do now as I have been treated absolutely awful by Vodafone and I think I made fair choices, please help me as I do not know what to do. I do not want them to ruin my credit history.

forgotmyname

Cancelled the new contract and gave 1 months notice for the old one?

A quick call to the DPD driver could have prevented the phone being delivered.

I love the fact that Voda use DPD, the text to give a time slot is usually spot on and they give the drivers name etc if there are any issues.

mobilejunkie

Mr Plod is not only a waste of space but doesn't know what he's talking about - and I'm not sure you do. Upgrades don't usually have a cooling off period, leaving you liable for the full cost whether you keep it or cancel it.

The only way you have any chance of getting this resolved is by contacting the Web Relations Team as constantly instructed on the main Vodafone thread near the top of the page (main becuase MSE got fed up with endless new threads - just like this one - on this company).

daw2000

Hey thanks for the reply,
I do not understand This because I got told by Vodafone that when I take out my upgrade I have 14 days to cancel it if I change my mind?

I never actually received the actual phone either.

mobilejunkie

Well, firstly don't believe anything Vodafone tells you unless it's in writing. It is possible they give you a cooling off period, but on upgrades normally you don't get one. Secondly, it would run from when you receive the phone. The fact that you didn't negates everything else, although there may be a grey area if they weren't properly informed of a change of address before they sent it (you can't prove it by the sounds of it).

As I said, regardless of the circumstances you will get no-where unless the WRT can help. It is them you should be investing time with.

daw2000

Thanks for the reply, actually getting some decent help after months of fighting with Vodafone.
Who are the WRT and what do they do and how could they help me as I haven't heard of them before.

Jon_01

daw2000 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, actually getting some decent help after months of fighting with Vodafone.
Who are the WRT and what do they do and how could they help me as I haven't heard of them before.

The Official Vodafone complaints thread. The first thread in the forum...

pmduk

Remember, you may live in a 4g area, but the likelihood is a lot of the time you will only get 3g signals anyway.

Vodafone

Hi daw2000,

If you still need help with this, email us 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 it on here and we’ll check we’ve received it.

Kind regards,

Becky

Social Media Operations

Vodafone UK