Discuss the Vodafone Warning guide

Mandarobinson16

Hi all. If this isn't a reason (or 20!) to complain, be compensated and released from contract then I don't know what is!!!! I am experiencing the following issue: I have had problems with Vodafone since July 2015. I was Mis sold a wifi dongle which was sent in the post and put in a drawer as I had no idea what it was. Only in September when I called to discuss an upgrade did I realise that I had a '2nd line' on my account that I was being charged for. Ie the mobile wifi. I spoke to the people I discussed the upgrade with who could see I hadn't touched it and reduced the monthly charge to £0. This was absolutely fine until the new year. All of a sudden in Jan 16 I started getting charged £15. Only last week did I find out that my wifi dongle was upgraded to a £15 contract on the 4th December 2015. I questioned why I would do this for something I have never used and they said they didn't know but I did it! It took 3 months of CONSTANT calls to Vodafone to get this £15 a month charge removed. I kept being told by Vodafone workers over the phone that they had my bills in front of them and in October November and December I was charged for the wifi but I had my bills in front of me and they said £0! So I sent them in along with a written complaint and this was completely ignored! I finally spoke to someone in April! Who confirmed that it was due to a system migration and this has caused the problem. So she applied a £40
Refund to my account. This is evidence that Vodafone accepted they had reduced the line rental to £0. Vodafone had also cancelled my direct debit and I have written confirmation of this from Barclays. They cut off my phone line which caused great distress as I am a single parent of 2 young children and charged me for not paying my bill! This was even though it was Vodafone that cancelled it! I thought that was the end of my woes! I went into a store to add data to my mobile and even the store representative confirmed that the wifi was showing as £0. Next bill comes along. Charged £15. On closer examination, not only had I been charged for this but my 20% line rental discount had been ADDED to my bill rather than applied as a discount! In April I moved house and had no wifi so given the trouble with the wifi dongle I decided to try it. It was all ok until I received a charge of £90 for data. I paid this bill but called them to say that this could not be right. I was told that Vodafone have to inform me that my data is ending or they can't charge me. When she checked, they had not informed me and therefore I was told that all data charges relating to the wifi would be removed. I called again as my request to sort my 20% discount had completely been ignored and I was told that the bill had gone for complete re-issue and once again it was confirmed that there would be no charges for wifi. I stopped using the dongle but by the time I had received the £90 charge there was already another £130 charge waiting to be applied. As soon as this bill was produced, as instructed I called and was told there was no way would charges be removed. The bill I was told was being re-done over 2 weeks ago had fallen into the same black hole. My bill paid in May was £130. This was £70 too much! My complaint was escalated and I received a call from a 'manager'. I was told there was no way they would refund the charges, that it's not up to them to let me know my data is ending and that they would offer a 20% discount off the charges. This day I was kept on hold alone for over an hour. Once again they absolutely insisted that I have never ever had a £0 line rental for the wifi. Once again insisted that I had my bills in front of me and it states £0! None of the other issues were even mentioned! It was like he was targeted to get as much of that £130 bill and &185 bill as possible. I was called back by someone else last Wednesday evening and as they were unable to help I was told it would be escalated to the highest level and I would receive a call back in 24-48 hours. 7 days later I haven't heard a thing and as I haven't paid the £185 bill for this month I am facing being cut off again. I asked the last agent I spoke to if they would send me a deadlock letter and he said the next person would do that but I haven't heard a thing. I cannot afford to pay £185. As if Vodafone haven't caused me enough trauma, if I was to pay that incorrect bill it would put me in financial hardship. Everything on my bills is wrong. Every month this year I have had to ring up and sort problems. I have spent hours and hours and hours on the phone to Vodafone and the mess is bigger now that it already was. My calls don't get returned, my formal written complaint which must have strict response times was completely ignored and I have been over charged well into triple figures now. I can provide all bills proving this along with an email from Barclays proving the cancellation by Vodafone of my direct debit. I can also provide proof of the amount of time spent dealing with this and I can assure you it will make frightening reading.

andreb_2

I used to like Vodafone and have been a customer of theirs for over 4 years but I am looking to switch to EE.

Reason is that the customer service is useless and they promise that they will act on your request but don't. That seems to be synonymous to what everyone else is going through.

On the 18th April I went into the Vodafone store to change my contract as I could "upgrade" and was on a tariff that didn't work for me. So despite the sales guy selling me the most expensive contract he could without looking at whether I would use 20GB, he was quite unfriendly. I also asked him to cancel my mobile phone insurance and my paper billing. My allowance on my old contract prior to the upgrade had been refreshed, so I assumed that they would recalculate the bill. I called and spoke to a guy who said I was owed money. So I waited and ended up getting charged the full amount.
I waited for the next bill expecting a pro-rata refund but got charged even more for the data on my old contract. No refund of my minutes, text messages or so on.
I have tried ringing them up and stated this asking for an investigation. Nothing has happened and if I don't get any joy Inwill be complaining as well.

What used to be a really good network has turned into a really poor service. Really sad and have drafted a letter waiting for the date to finish with them.

Paulchamberlain3

Suprise surprise, even after receiving an e mail today from Vodafone stating you bill is ready for review, the web site is still down!!

Siannie

Regretably, I signed a pay monthly contract back in March. I was sold by the great looking deal and the offer of 20% discount through a family members workplace.
Apparently they cancelled and automatically recreated my order time after time without informing me - so who knows what tarriff etc I was to actually be on.
Vodafone failed to deliver me my handset when they said they would and couldn't even tell me when I could expect it, so I began the cancellation process, completely within their 14 day cooling off period. I was at first told that they would not cancel my contract as the handset would still be sent and they couldn't stop it. I wrote to them - email and snail mail, still within my 14 days - and the handset was brought to my door by the courier, where the delivery was refused. A "free gift" was sent separately and unfortunatelly not expected so delivery was accepted by a family member. I asked for collection of this to be arranged by Vodafone.
I expected that to be the end of that. No such luck.
A bill landed on my doorstep.
I got in touch with my local Trading Standards office, who were great! Following their advice I wrote again to Rescind the contract, using specific quotations and legislation I had been helped to find.
Vodafone replied telling me that because I had then received the handset, all was well and my contract could and should continue as normal.
I wrote again and again following the advice I had been given by Trading Standards at each stage, eventually being told via Online Chat that everything was sorted; account closed, all amounts cleared and arrangements being made for collection from me of the "free gift" that was sent separately, as part of the original deal.
I felt a sense of relief...until I then had a "Final Notice of Overdue Payment" land on my doorstep. They said I had 14 days to pay more than twice the amount I had ever had bills for. (The letter also arrived more than a week after it was dated) If I failed to pay within 14 days of the date of the letter, they would list my account as bad debt, affecting my credit score and they would instruct a collection company to recover the amount.
I got straight back in touch...2 hours of Online Chat (with who knows how many agents) later, I was assured that nothing would happen, the courier would collect the "free gift" and all would be resolved.
The courier never arrived. So that evening I got on the phone. I was told that they would need to check with the warehouse that I had infact returned the handset. I would be called back the following day.
That didn't happen.
So I called again. Apparently the call back wasn't the only thing to not happen - there was no record of a check with the warehouse made on my account. So again...I was told they would have to perform this check again the following day. (The warehouse is only open 9-5 apparently) I was assured that nothing would happen - no one would show up at my door and my credit rating would be untouched. As a sign of reassurance, I was given direct contact details for the team member I was speaking to. If I emailed then I would deffinately get the call back from the same person.
On day 14, the day after being told nothing would happen, I had an email from Experian saying a change had been made to my account. My credit score had been hit.
I emailed the team member with this information, straight away.
I did get a call back that evening, I was given a returns reference number and the date of the handset being received back into the warehouse (surprise surprise, it fell in line with everything I had been saying for the last 2 months!)
Following that I was told that everything else was being sorted - the account was already closed and all amounts would be removed within 3 working days by another team and that my credit file would be rectified, but that could take up to 30 working days.
It's worth noting that I was quizzed about how I knew that my credit score had been hit. It would seem that they think we are all oblivious to this (I probably would be more so, if it weren't for MSE, to be fair)
I got everything in writing from her. I made sure I had the emails before I hung up the phone.
True to her word, I got more emails following our calls, telling me that things were being processed, and then a few days later my credit score returned to normal...there isn't even a trace of Vodafone on my report, that I can see.
I will thank this single, helpful team member - I'm just not daft enough to do it before I am satisfied that it's all over.
It's been 2 months of stress, upset and annoyance. But it looks like I'm finally going to be rid of them.
I wish I'd known about Resolver from the start...that sounds like it would have been very helpful. But I can't praise Trading Standards enough. This one lady I spoke to was knowledgable, unbiased and fair. She had information I didn't know existed and was more than happy to research things or ask others. I really couldn't fault them.
It's reassuring to know that people are there to help you to get things right.
I wish the rest of you luck in resolving your issues, I say keep records, copies of conversation transcripts and post with a signed for service so that you have some evidence, I wish I'd been clever enough to record my calls as well, because at one point it looked like I might have needed them...but that's why I insisted on written confirmation of everything - I for one will never use Vodafone again.

elsien

I have a slightly happier experience. When my contract ended I renegotiated a new deal involving various discounts. These did not happen so I phoned customer services. They agreed to a credit which was then put on the account as a debit leaving me owing more. First person I spoke to did nothing. Live chat (I now always use this as you can save it for future reference) then got it resolved with a bit extra for the inconvenience. Took about 3 months but got there in the end.

Jayne2016

I have been having on going issues with Vodafone for two years; unable to access account despite numerous re-settings. They have messed up various direct debit instructions and then blamed my bank, who intervened on my behalf. Charging me wrong amounts etc. Resolved this by contacting the directors office- directorsupport@vodafone.com copy to Jerone Hoencamp (CEO). They gave me a PAC code so I could leave before the end of my contract without incurring fees. Now I am with the lovely giff gaff. No doubt there will be an issue with the final bill but I gave cancelled my direct debit and will make them jump through hoops by sending me hard copies of my bills since January to check (given there contestant errors) etc.. See how they like bring messed around for a change!

gingercordial

I gave up on trying to get Vodafone to correctly set up a new DD for my bill at the end of last year and have been paying manually since. I hope they have to incur credit card merchant fees for it. Never managed to get them to remove the late payment fees caused by their own shoddy systems despite so many promises from their staff. They also ignored the formal complaint letter I sent them in December which I find frankly insulting.

Giving this Resolver tool a shot now and have attached all my documents, bills and notes of calls. We shall see...

In the meantime they also managed to charge me a fortune for roaming data in a country covered by their flat rate World Traveller when I was definitely opted in. They couldn't understand why this had happened and kept promising a refund but it still took me three web chats and a phone call to get the refund to actually be applied.

I would not stay with Vodafone beyond the end of my contract if they paid me, and I've been telling anyone I know who is coming up for contract renewal to avoid them like the plague. I only wish I had the power to influence my company to move away from them for our business mobiles. Absolute shower.

ShannonLeigh93

I had the exact same issue. It took me over 3 months for them to admit the error and for them to refund me. It makes me wonder how long it has been on my bills.

Browntoa

surely they fail ( or is that the investigation that's already been concluded and no action taken ?? )


http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/policy/metering-billing/2014


The Direction is a technical standard intended to ensure that communications providers’ systems deliver accurate bills to customers. All communications providers with a turnover of more than £40 million a year for providing landline and mobile voice services are required to comply with the Direction.


Under General Condition 11 all communications providers with a turnover of more than £40 million a year for providing landline and mobile voice services are required to seek and obtain approval of their metering and billing systems from third-party assessors against the prescribed standards set out in the Ofcom Direction

Grumpfromcardiff

I was with Vodafone for 15 years but decided to end my contract with them last year.
My wife has been with them for 12 years, then late last year they failed to take her normal direct debit out.
She spent hours on the phone & they told her they had a new system and she would have to set up a new direct debit.
The next month they took out 2 months (correct) but also hit her with a late payment charge, even though it was their fault.
She has been promised on 3 occasions the charge would be refunded, she never got it. She wrote a lengthy letter to customer services but had no reply.
She finally cancelled last month at the end of her contract, the guy on the phone actually said to her 'I don't blame you'. - that says everything really.
Between us we had 27 years of Vodafone contracts, neither of us would EVER go with Vodafone again.