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

awkawk

That took me awhile!

Hi

Thank you for your message. I am taking your apologies, and corrective action, as acknowledgement that an error was made, and I am glad that you have been able to not only recognize it but also take action regarding it - I say this because I was always told (I was told by more than 5 Vodafone customer staff, on separate occasions, by telephone), there was nothing Vodafone could do.
I have until now made payment for the amount shown on my monthly bill, on time each month, in faith that once the error was recognized, I would be "made whole".

Will you agree to try and honour the original contract?

Kind Regards

redacted

Stevie_Palimo

awkawk wrote: »

That took me awhile!

If you resolving the issue with Vodafone there really is no need to post a complete set of each question and answer, A summary one at the end would be enough.

awkawk

Stevie, my quote, I think you got it's context wrong. That's my fault. I was referring to that it took me about 40 minutes to decide how much to include in that e-mail - I've so far spoken to 5 people (as well as another person posted here that I didn't "speak with". So, I'm trying not to write too much in each message.
Others may wish to read the entire thread, and I personally have no problem with posting the e-mails for those who are interested. If that's not you Stevie, feel free to stop reading, I won't be offended! I'm mostly posting this to give Vodafone opportunity to show they can "do" Customer Satisfaction.

Hi

>> we were unable to locate the order for Car phone warehouse in the account.

Perhaps you are unable to locate the order, because something went wrong, and subsequently the records don't tie up? Anyway, that is not my concern - you have the order confirmation documents I have provided you with.

>> We can also see that you have not contacted us regarding this issue since the order was raised

I have contacted you many, many times.
It is not my fault that no-one at Vodafone thought that this was worth making any notes about. I contacted you by telephone - the form I used on Sunday was only available to me because I had been given a special code by Carly on the Money Saving Expert forum, with which I used to gain access to it (it is not a page that is linked from your main website).
I think most people would agree, it is the "normal thing to do" to telephone a mobile network on the customer service line, if they have a problem. I do not think you intend to suggest that I "should have" posted something online about this, instead of doing that, if I wanted it to be addressed - customers should be able to resolve problems by telephone?
In good faith I did so, it is not my fault that notes were not recorded about these telephone calls.
I should nonetheless, with some time, be able to find record of them in my telephone bills - I do not record my telephone calls unfortunately.

>> as an exceptional case

As you say, this is an exceptional case. I have been greatly inconvenienced, you have sincerely apologized for that, but I am nonetheless, as it stands, not whole.

As it stands, you have admitted that there was a mistake, and you are taking responsibility. I am very thankful for that.
As it stands, Vodafone have currently sat in their bank account an amount of money that is not rightfully theirs - I did not agree to pay it. I only proceeded with the payments because as a consumer, if I did not pay the money the bills said I should, it would unquestionably have damaged my credit score, and I would have had to take you to court - since verbally, Vodafone have always maintained the line "there is nothing that we can do". I was in the process of getting documents ready to sue Vodafone, when I saw Carly's message on Money Saving Expert - I had been left with no choice.

I ask you again, could you please agree to try and make me whole? I think Vodafone in exceptional circumstances should as a responsible and honest company do that, would you agree? I realize that we might differ on definition of "made whole". I am ready to provide you with full information, I just want to hear that you intend to honour the original agreement - the only one I ever agreed to pay for contractually.


Kind Regards

redacted

On 22/11/16 18:07, eforum.web@help.vodafone.co.uk wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi redacted,
>
> Thank you for your reply.
>
> I can see that the contract has been migrated to 12 months contract with 2GB data for £15.30 on 22/Nov/2016.
>
> I have discussed the case with my Manager and we can apply the difference in the line rental for last 6 months as we were unable to locate the order for Car phone warehouse in the account. We can also see that you have not contacted us regarding this issue since the order was raised but as an exceptional case we can apply the credit for 6 months.
>
> Let us know if you agree with the above resolution so that we can assist you further.
>
> I appreciate your understanding on this matter.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> redacted
> Customer Service Agent (Social Media)
>
> Vodafone Limited
> Vodafone HQ, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 2FN
> Registered in England No 1471587
>

mobilejunkie

If everyone did that there'd be no room for anything else but Vodafone on the entire website.

awkawk

I received a response from a different member of staff (each communication so far has been from a different member of staff) around 8PM last night, and just sent the following response.

Hi

>> I have checked the details and we won’t be able to apply the credit for the whole period as we do not have the order confirmation on your Vodafone account.

I am not sure why you are unable to find these on my Vodafone account - at your request, I provided a copy of the Order Confirmation as an e-mail attachment on Monday 21/11/2016. Nonetheless, please find attached a copy of these same Order Confirmation documents.

Your above statement leads me to the assumption that you would like to offer me a credit for the whole period, if you had this supporting documentation. Is that correct?

>> And also, as an exception, we can reset the commitment term
My contractual agreement with you, as your previous investigation found, was for the 12 month period October 2015 through October 2016.

>> so it will end early.

This statement is therefore incorrect.

Kind Regards

redacted

On 22/11/16 21:01, eforum.web@help.vodafone.co.uk wrote:
>
>
> Hi redacted,
>
> Thank you for your response.
>
> I understand that you are not happy with the services. I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.
>
> The order is placed by the Carphone Warehouse directly. I would request you to please contact them as the order was not placed by them.
>
> I have checked the details and we won’t be able to apply the credit for the whole period as we do not have the order confirmation on your Vodafone account.
>
> Please let us know if you agree to the resolution provided by the previous advisor so we can apply the credit for the charges for 6 months for the difference of monthly line rental in £36.00 and £15.30. And also, as an exception, we can reset the commitment term so it will end early.
>
> Regards,
>
> redacted
> Customer Service Agent (Social Media)
>
> Vodafone Limited
> Vodafone HQ, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 2FN
> Registered in England No 1471587
>

Herongull

I think you should keep posting the responses.

There is a massive difference between what you agreed to pay and what you were being charged and if you have all the documentary evidence you say you have, then this should not have been difficult to sort out.

Once you have been put back in the position you should be in if your original contract had been honoured, there will be nothing more to post.

But in the meantime, I am finding it illuminating to see how they respond.

I am PAYG and I always recommend others to go PAYG. I would not want all this sort of hassle and stress on anyone.

awkawk

Unfortunately, whilst I was unable to sort this out, I started using the contract - I figured I might as well use it if I was paying £36 a month!

As a result, they are not going to refund the difference in the tariff for those months, as if they were to do so, they would also have to charge me as if I had exceeded my 2GB allowance during those months, and I would have been paying much more.

What I should have done, is not given up, and either not used the contract, or stuck to the allowance in the agreed contract. Therefore they've offered to refund me only for the months when I did not exceed the allowance, and I have to agree this is fair treatment.

Hi redacted,

Thank you for your time on call; however, we were not able to discuss it on call as you want a reply in writing.

I noticed that the deal was originally purchased from mobiles.co.uk. We had activated the deal which was sent by them to Vodafone relevant team to activate on your account. Therefore, it seems that they had sent a 10GB deal instead of 2GB @£15.30 a month deal.

Further, the price plan has already been updated in the account to £15.30 a month for 2GB. If you want us to charge you as per the £15.30 a month deal for 2GB a month, we will have to check the usage for the previous months as well. This means that we should charge you for the months when the data usage exceeded 2GB.

I found that you have used more than 2GB in the months of May 2016, June 2016, July 2016, Aug 2016, Sept 2016 and Oct 2016. The data usage is as follows:

...(account specifics)...

Therefore, a total of 37GB has been exceeded during these 13 months. We charge £6.50 for 500MB usage above the allowance, so based on this, the total charge comes to £492.54. The credit for the overcharge comes to £269.10, which still leaves £223.44 to be paid by you.

I hope this explains our position.

redacted
Customer Service Agent (Social Media)

Vodafone Limited
Vodafone HQ, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 2FN
Registered in England No 1471587

awkawk

So, I've asked to be refunded for the period after the contract ended (I didn't even have the SIM in a phone), and agreed to their refund of the difference in the tariff for the remaining months.

Hi

Due to being assigned to a 24 month contract instead of a 12 month contract, when I called in September I was unable to give notice - I was told I would have to pay an exit fee - this was the first time I learned that the contract was not even the correct length!

I have not used the SIM card since the agreed 12 month contract period ended. I have not even had the SIM card in a device.

Now that this error has been recognized, I would like you to refund any charges for after the end of the 12 month contract, specifically those are:

1. I have a bill due in a few days time, it is I believe for £36 I will be charged. I would like a credit on my account, or to in some way be refunded this amount.

2. I paid a bill on 26/10/16 of £36.00. I can see on my bank statement that this is my 13th payment. I would like it refunded - it was also outside the contract agreed, but I was forced to pay it.

3. I would like to give notice and cancel the contract. I expect I will be asked to give 30 days notice (I already tried to give notice in September, but the error had not been recognized yet, so I could not). I would like my account credited, so that I am not charged for the 30 day notice period.

>> Please let us know if you agree to the resolution provided by the previous advisor so we can apply the credit for the charges for 6 months for the difference of monthly line rental in £36.00 and £15.30. And also, as an exception, we can reset the commitment term so it will end early.
Yes, please do. This is in addition to the above.

Thank you very much for your help in straightening this out! Please reply by e-mail.

redacted

On 22/11/16 21:01, eforum.web@help.vodafone.co.uk wrote:
>
>
> Hi redacted,
>
> Thank you for your response.
>
> I understand that you are not happy with the services. I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.
>
> The order is placed by the Carphone Warehouse directly. I would request you to please contact them as the order was not placed by them.
>
> I have checked the details and we won’t be able to apply the credit for the whole period as we do not have the order confirmation on your Vodafone account.
>
> Please let us know if you agree to the resolution provided by the previous advisor so we can apply the credit for the charges for 6 months for the difference of monthly line rental in £36.00 and £15.30. And also, as an exception, we can reset the commitment term so it will end early.
>
> Regards,
>
> redacted
> Customer Service Agent (Social Media)
>
> Vodafone Limited
> Vodafone HQ, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 2FN
> Registered in England No 1471587

awkawk

The silly thing is, originally I should have paid £66 in total, for 2GB a month for 12 months (Mobiles.co.uk offered cashback, but I have not been paid it because the bills didn't match up with what they expected to see for the cashback claim). That's why I was tempted into getting a contract. I am going to stick to PAYG from now on, too!

Herongull wrote: »

I think you should keep posting the responses.

There is a massive difference between what you agreed to pay and what you were being charged and if you have all the documentary evidence you say you have, then this should not have been difficult to sort out.

Once you have been put back in the position you should be in if your original contract had been honoured, there will be nothing more to post.

But in the meantime, I am finding it illuminating to see how they respond.

I am PAYG and I always recommend others to go PAYG. I would not want all this sort of hassle and stress on anyone.

Herongull

Yes, that seems reasonable now.

All now have to do is pursue Mobiles Direct for the unpaid cashback....