Vodafone/CPW: Refusal to refund after overcharging. I'm posting the full convo

awkawk

NOTE 16/12/2016: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/71781087#Comment_71781087 there's a lot of emails back and forth in this thread, it's summed up pretty well in Post 61 so I recommend skipping straight to that.

Hi

My partner signed into a mobile contract, somehow she was provisioned the wrong contract. We didn't realize until several months in (she gets her statements online, and doesn't read them).
We contacted Mobiles.co.uk and Vodafone about this, they each pointed to the other, Mobiles.co.uk promised to sort it out, but we wouldn't hear from them. We'd call again, and then hear nothing.
A few months into the contract, we ported her old number across to the contract. This confused matters further.
We have access to all the bills on the My Vodafone website, and have e-mails from Mobiles.co.uk confirming the contract and it's details (2GB, rather than 10GB, and 12 months).
We've only discovered now that it's also a 24 month contract, not the 12 month one the confirmation e-mail mentions.
We've been paying £38 a month, instead of £15.30 minus £117.60 cashback (so, by the end of the contract the difference in price will be £846).
Our cashback claims were rejected.

She's been abroad with me a lot of the year, so I gave the contract to my sister so at least some use would be made of it.

We called up today to cancel it, to discover it runs for another year.

I'd like to deal with this through the Small Claims Court now, I think that that would be simpler than trying to get these two companies to communicate.

I'm going to be in the UK around Christmas, and, she hates dealing with companies, is this something I can get on with dealing with on her behalf (we're not married), and, do you think that this is our best course of action?

Or maybe taking this to someone like OfCom.

Even if for some reason, it is found that we can't claim for the hundreds of pounds that we have overpaid by so far (the contract has been used, after all), she has no interest in continuing the contract for a further 12 months, and would like these payments to end, without detriment to her credit report and maybe bailiffs showing up in 5.9 years time, if we were to just stop paying the direct debit...

Of course, the ideal outcome would be for the vast difference between what the contract should have cost so far, and what it has, to also be repaid, but it was originally for 2GB a month, and I'm reasonably sure that my sister used more than that at times. In fact she went over the allowance sometimes (I didn't realize this immediately, either, so the total cost of this £66 contract will probably end up over £1000 the way it's going).

I know, we should have dealt with this months ago, instead of just paying it, but I don't live in the UK anymore, and my partner hates dealing with this sort of thing, our flat burned down, she's studying a degree full time, we went back and forth between the two and didn't make any progress. It got put on the backburner, not intentionally, just, life. But now they want another £400, and to be honest we really can't afford it (she's studying, I'm working for half what I'd earn in the UK. I like life here though).

Frozen_up_north

I'm not sure you have a leg to stand on, basically you signed a contract a year ago without reading it... Nothing to do with OFCOM.

I guess it was for a phone and airtime, as SIM only is usually 30 days or 12 months.

custardy

I havent seen many 12 month contracts with a handset in the last few years.
At £66 a month,it sounds like a high end phone?

mobilejunkie

Mobiles.co send a copy of the contract details with the phone (and/or by email). Your only recourse would be using those IF they confirm what you say. Otherwise, kiss it goodbye.

As for the cashback; it's pretty close to take your total figure, divide it by 5 claims and subtract it from what you're paying to the figure you though the contract would cost. Sounds like you don't understand cashback deals; if you (or they) had and followed the groundrules you would have realised very quickly that something was wrong and acted immediately (not that this is necessary for a legal claim where you have 6 years to act) and would certainly have forced Mobiles.co to pay the cashback claims.

You have chosen to deal with two very poor companies (Vodafone and CPW) without knowing and checking what you were doing. Trying to find the best course of action now rather than then is a LOT harder.

awkawk

Frozen_up_north: I wasn't sure this was a matter for OFCOM, you say this type of thing isn't their jurisdiction - missold/erroneous/whatever you want to call it, with requests for it to be "fixed"/corrected ignored?
It was SIM only, but with a lot of cashback.

custardy: No, that's £66 for the entire contract (after £117.60 cashback across 5 claims), or otherwise £15.30 a month for 2GB of data etc. No free phone, just a nanoSIM.

mobilesjunkie: I probably have the paperwork that came by mail, I'll be in the UK during December, I'll dig out the paper copies. It was also attached to the e-mail but the links might not be working anymore by now.
Perhaps I wrote out the cashback incorrectly yesterday in my OP..

I spoke to them prior to the first cashback claim (unfortunately, only ever by telephone), they were trying to speak to Vodafone about this to get it corrected, I spoke to them on a number of occasions over the course of a few weeks, and was very firm (and polite) and always left with the impression that this was being dealt with.


So, of the options I imagined that I had, Small Claims Court might be the best? I thought there might be some independent mediator I'm unaware of, or something like that.
If I'm going to go that route, could I send a data protection statutory request to Vodafone and CPW to find out exactly what records they do have regarding the calls earlier in the year trying to resolve this, or is that a waste of time?

mobilejunkie

From the way you explain things I suspect you wouldn't stand a chance. You plainly have no idea of how cashback works - that's nothing to do with the network and attempting it by phone is a guaranteed failure. There are time limits on claiming cashback so most (if not all) will already have expired.

Your only possible comeback is for being put on the wrong contract - and unless you can PROVE it in court, don't bother. It sounds like it was a sim only contract and might well therefore be a 12 month one. You would still need to give 30 days' notice to terminate it after that, which isn't a good idea if they are now claiming it's a 24 month contract.

Whenever ordering anything over the internet it is essential to print off a copy of what you are buying into at the point of sale. Then you can't really lose out, provided you meet your side of the contract. Otherwise you are relying months later on producing the paperwork and emails you did receive - which is fine if you can, but still worse and harder than doing it at the start.

awkawk

mobilejunkie: We didn't try the cashback by phone. We submitted the claim correctly, with a note attached mentioning that the number had been ported from another contract. It wasn't until the time of the first cashback claim, that we looked over the paperwork in comparison to the bills and saw something seriously amiss.
At this time, we spoke to them by telephone, trying to get the contract changed for the correct tariff, but were unsuccessful.
Simultaneously, a cashback claim winged its way through the post to them, complete with a note explaining why the telephone number was different than the one they were expecting (ported old number after the purchase of the contract) and why the tariff was different (had been put on the wrong tariff).
There was also supposed to be a note on the account at their end, as a result of the phonecalls (which took up a lot of time over the course of weeks), but nonetheless the cashback claim was rejected.
Like I said, our flat had burned down and we were being put up in temporary accomodation, and moved around, I was in the process of selling a lot of our belongings to emigrate, she was studying a degree full-time, and then, since I arrived here, she hasn't wanted to bother me with this - I was busy looking for work, nor wanted to speak to them (has been busy enough with her own work).

I know, excuses excuses.
Why am I feeling so defensive.

I think, because mobilejunkie, you are rather critical. Are you a troll?

I didn't come here to be told what I should have done.

I was hoping that someone who frequents this forum might have read similiar tales of woe, and have some idea how you go about resolving such a matter.

I get the impression from responses so far, that this companies are very much laws unto themselves, and should never be entered into any sort of contractual agreements with under any circumstances, however generous their offer seems - because they can stick you on a totally different contract (surely for £38 a month on a 2 year contract with 10GB data we should have been getting a free handset of some descript, probably an iPhone even I'd imagine) and you're left trying to get them to do "something" about it, which they have little interest in doing.

It seems likely to me, that this might be some flavour of "identity theft"; that her information she had submitted at time of purchase was used by an employee to sign up for an entirely different contract, for the purposes of earning some commission (I mean, really, £38 24 month term with no free phone, what sort of contract is that, I can imagine the commission on TCB even...).

I digress.

Anyone got anything constructive to say?

awkawk

Sorry, I re-read what you said, I take asking if you're a troll back. And, I understand your not reading my posts properly, I'm oversharing with the level of detail.

mobilejunkie

Not entirely. However, they wouldn't get away with that with me. Cashback claims for the last few years are also done on-line - as is the change of number on your account after porting. A wrongly declined claim doesn't wash provided you follow the groundrules and take the appropriate steps. Long live such companies; they have paid me for over a decade and saved me thousnads on all my mobile contracts.

keith1950

Awkawk.....you haven't a clue about what you are doing or talking about.
Mobilejunkie is probably the most knowledgeable person on mobile matters and you call him a troll.
Unless you have written or photographic proof of your contract, conversations, etc save your money and write it up to experience.
You have been given advice but because you don't like that advice you think people are being critical.....they are not.....they are being realistic.
If you can prove you were given the wrong contract then sue them but you can forget about anything to do with the cadhback.

awkawk

"If you can prove you were given the wrong contract then sue them but you can forget about anything to do with the cadhback."

I can prove that, I have the documents all organized in a folder.

I'm not concerned about the cashback - the difference in price between the contract signed (£15.30*12=£183.60) and the contract I'm (£38*24=£912) on is £728.40 (if we were to continue to make payments until the end of the 24 month contract, we're in month 13 I think so the difference so far (not taking cashback into account) has been (12*(£38-£15.30=£22.70))=£272.40 + £38 = £310.40.

For a claim of this size, I imagine doing things independent of a solicitor, through the Small Claims Court, is my best option.

I had already come to this conclusion, prior to visiting here, but hoped someone here would have some experience (I tried searching previous threads but didn't find a good discussion to learn from).

I'm thinking that the process will involve something along the lines of, submitting all my bills, and the documentation confirming the contract, along with a letter explaining that I am claiming for the difference in price between the two contracts, as well as either the cost of terminating the contract "early" as quoted to me by Vodafone, or on the condition that the contract is terminated immediately with no further payment requested.

I would also like to claim for the cashback, since I will be making this claim against CarphoneWarehouse/Mobiles.co.uk.

However, the snag is that my sister likely used more data than the original contract allowed.

Do you think this will matter, or they will just want to settle this rather small claim with minimal time/effort on their part? I suspect that they might decide it's not worth appointing someone to represent them in court (or the equiv for Small Claims Court, which I think is a session with people sat opposite sides of a table) to contest it).

Also, she only submitted the first cashback claim, so contractually isn't due the other cashback amounts, even if she didn't submit them down to their incorrect refusal to recognize the first claim.

So, we could just submit a claim that allows us to get out of the contract at no further expense.

Thoughts? She is ultimately £310.40 + £117.60 = £428.00 worse off than she should have been at this point.

Perhaps the entire contract could be cancelled and repaid, on the basis that it was "missold", or with the suggestion that there was some foul play, negligence, or something like that - great time and effort was, once upon a time, made, and many promises were broken on their part. If we were going to take this route, would you recommend she sends mobiles.co.uk a Data Protection request for the release of any information they have (perhaps they'll have notes of the undealt with issues).