Vodafone complaint taken to Ombudsman

ajames90

My issue started back in June 2016, after I had already complained about a one off charge that was added to my bill.

Vodafone added £103.94 another one off charge, without notice or any reason why. I went onto live chat to dispute it and was promised the charges would be removed.
It took 5 months and several calls/live chats to try and resolve the issues which after I complained the charge was finally removed in November 2016.
During the time my bill was in dispute, I cancelled by direct debit, as otherwise they would have taken the amount for the one off charge which they said they would remove but took months to do so.
There was never an option given to me to make part payment or to set aside the amount I was disputing from my bill during the 5 months.
Anyway, the bill for November arrived and the charge was finally removed. This left £334.94 to pay which is the line rental I owed whilst the account was in dispute. Shortly after by November bill reflecting the correct amount, Vodafone disconnected my phone line.

I went through to Vodafone and they advised the account was passed through to a Debt Recovery firm (Zinc) and that I had to speak to them.

I spoke with Zinc and they said could I make a payment. I said I was able to if I could set up a repayment plan but I wanted my phone line reinstated. They said they would have to pass that query back onto Vodafone and that they would come back to me.

It came to January 2017 and I hadn't heard anything from Vodafone to I assumed that my account was closed.

In July 2017 I checked by credit record and could see bill had increased to £1,120.47. Which was a shock as the last I heard it was £334.94 (Novembers bill), but I hadn't heard from Vodafone at all.

I spoke with Vodafone and they said the account still was with Zinc. I called Zinc, they said the account is closed and was closed in January 2017 and it's nothing to do with them, went back to Vodafone they said they would get back to me. They never did. I spoke with the Vodafone credit file team to ask them to remove the charges or at least show my account was under query on my credit record. At this point they agreed to take away the one off charge which would leave me £334.94 to pay. Which I agreed to. They said they would speak with Zinc as apparently the account was still with them.
I didn't hear anything back so I made a complaint. I raised the complaint in July and received a letter in September apologising for the delay and asked me to call them. Which I did, again was promised the charge would be removed leaving £334.94 to pay and that she would call me back once the account was handed back over to Vodafone from Zinc. Surprise surprise, didn't hear back from Vodafone, AGAIN!.

So as the complaint is still outstanding and was over 8 weeks since I raised it, I logged a complaint with the Ombudsman. I am now claiming for all charges to be removed (even the £334.94 which I agreed I should pay had they removed the other charge initially), as well claiming for 10.5 hours of my time I have taken to deal with Vodafone (which I have kept a record of). I also suffer from anxiety and took two days annual leave to deal with these issues, so I am also claiming for them to reimburse me for the days I took off.

Ombudsman are now looking into my complaint, but has anyone had anything similar which they took to Ombudsman and what was the outcome?

Also surely Vodafone should have updated my credit record when I was querying the account?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

bris

Why didn't you just pay the £334.94 and get the rest dropped. Companies don't want to deal with you until you show commitment to pay, as you made no payments they were not going to take you at your word.


There is no advice anyone can offer as you already have it in the hands of the Ombudsman so they are the best chance you have, but remember the other side will tell a different story.

ajames90

As I said In my post, I called them when I received my November bill that reflected the incorrect charge had been removed, after 5 months of waiting! I called them to make a payment or to discuss a repayment plan however they had already disconnected my phone line and had already passed through to debt recovery.
Even when it was with debt recovery, I was prepared to pay it as long as my phone line was reinstated. The debt recovery said that as I was willing to pay they would pass my account back to Vodafone so the phone line could be reinstated. This never happened and I didn't hear back from Vodafone until I CALL THEM in July to try and resolve the issue, but by then the bill had jumped up to £1,120.47, for no reason or explanation given.

As I said in my post, when I called them in July and spoke to the credit file team, they said they would removed the charge and said I could pay the £334.94 to close of my account with them. I AGREED THIS and wanted to pay just then but they couldn't take any payment because the account was still with Zinc.

So I have pretty much chase THEM to sort this issue out, with the view of my paying the £334.94 but after months of getting no where and me calling them, I'm fed up!

The reason for my post is so see if anyone else has had similar problems and if they had taken their complaint to the ombudsman and what the outcome from that was.

bertiewhite

My case was to do with a family member using my details to obtain a new contract/handset so not similar to yours but I did take it to the Ombudsman.

Initially the Ombudsman found in Vodafone's favour as they believed the fraud was entirely blamed on the person using my details.

BUT....

I appealed and the Ombudsman subsequently found that instead of freezing the account and attempting to look into the matter, Vodafone had allowed further charges to build up and had done nothing to try and resolve the situation themselves. Because they had allowed the dispute to carry on, the Ombudsman then advised that Vodafone cancel the contract with no charges & confirm that no adverse information was applied to my credit file.

Maybe this is of some help in your dealings with the Ombudsman?

Fosterdog

Why did you need a repayment plan set up in November? You knew the line rental was due and that you had cancelled the direct debit so should have been keeping the money ready to pay as soon as it was sorted.

With most providers you can pay online and pay whatever amount you choose so you could have gone online each month and paid your due line rental only and only left the disputed amount outstanding.

Vodafone have definitely not been the best in dealing with this for you but you haven’t exactly helped yourself either by cancelling payments and not safeguarding the money you did owe them.

KeithP

ajames90 wrote: »

The reason for my post is so see if anyone else has had similar problems and if they had taken their complaint to the ombudsman and what the outcome from that was.

Then wouldn't your thread be better placed on the Mobile Phones board?

There's a Vodaphone representative who posts quite frequently there. Most recent post was yesterday.

Can I suggest you get a board guide to move this thread to that other board?

ajames90

Fosterdog wrote: »

Why did you need a repayment plan set up in November? You knew the line rental was due and that you had cancelled the direct debit so should have been keeping the money ready to pay as soon as it was sorted.

With most providers you can pay online and pay whatever amount you choose so you could have gone online each month and paid your due line rental only and only left the disputed amount outstanding.

Vodafone have definitely not been the best in dealing with this for you but you haven’t exactly helped yourself either by cancelling payments and not safeguarding the money you did owe them.

I had kept the money aside. I was never advised I could make payment of the part of the bill that was correct, otherwise I sure would have.
In November when I call, I had card in hand ready to make payment. Had they given me the option to make the payment for normal line rental, I would have. If they said "No you need to pay the full £334", then I simply would have. But the fact is, there was not the choice of either as they account was passed onto Zinc. When I called them I said I could make the payment now but wanted my phone line reinstated, so they said they would pass onto Vodafone which never has happened even though I've chased several times.

When my phone line was disconnect in November, I couldn't log into my Vodafone account.

Wish they said I could have continued to pay even when I was disputing my bill, at no point have they.

ajames90

bertiewhite wrote: »

My case was to do with a family member using my details to obtain a new contract/handset so not similar to yours but I did take it to the Ombudsman.

Initially the Ombudsman found in Vodafone's favour as they believed the fraud was entirely blamed on the person using my details.

BUT....

I appealed and the Ombudsman subsequently found that instead of freezing the account and attempting to look into the matter, Vodafone had allowed further charges to build up and had done nothing to try and resolve the situation themselves. Because they had allowed the dispute to carry on, the Ombudsman then advised that Vodafone cancel the contract with no charges & confirm that no adverse information was applied to my credit file.

Maybe this is of some help in your dealings with the Ombudsman?

Thanks for sharing the story. Glad it was sorted out in the end!

Roughly how long was it until you heard back from Ombudsman when you originally logged the complaint with them?

I just want to get this sorted out as my credit record is still being affected. I was happy to pay them in November!

bertiewhite

ajames90 wrote: »

Roughly how long was it until you heard back from Ombudsman when you originally logged the complaint with them?

About 7 weeks for the first reply then another 8 weeks for the appeal.

I must add that although I received the confirmation letter from Vodafone stating that they would comply with the Ombudsman's recommendations at the beginning of July, my credit file still shows as having a Vodafone balance because they "forgot" to update it.

ajames90

bertiewhite wrote: »

About 7 weeks for the first reply then another 8 weeks for the appeal.

I must add that although I received the confirmation letter from Vodafone stating that they would comply with the Ombudsman's recommendations at the beginning of July, my credit file still shows as having a Vodafone balance because they "forgot" to update it.

That's great. It's been with ombudsman for just over a month so will leave it another month before giving them a call for an update.
Doesn't surprise me with Vodafone forgetting things. Each time I've called and they've said they will call me once they get the file back from Zinc, they have forgotten to call me back!

They literally are the worse. No wonder why the were fined by Ofcom £4 million this year for the same reason I am experiencing!

unholyangel

ajames90 wrote: »

I had kept the money aside. I was never advised I could make part payment otherwise I sure would have.
In November when I call, I had card in hand ready to make payment. Had they given me the option to set up a repayment plan, I would have. If they said "No you need to pay the full £334", then I simply would have. But the fact is, there was not the choice of either as they account was passed onto Zinc. When I called them I said I could make the payment now but wanted my phone line reinstated, so they said they would pass onto Vodafone which never has happened even though I've chased several times.

When my phone line was disconnect in November, I couldn't log into my Vodafone account.

Wish they said I could have continued to pay even when I was disputing my bill, at no point have they.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but is that really something you would need to be advised of? If a friend owed you £200 and said heres £100, would you tell them no, you can only accept full payment?

There are several issues here. One is their charge that was wrongly applied. Another is that you failed to adhere to the terms you agreed to (ie paying £x per month in exchange for y per month).

And I know you probably won't feel like it, but vodafone seem to have been very reasonable allowing the service to continue for 5 months without a single payment being made (usually providers cut you off as soon as next months bill is produced without receiving payment for the previous month).

The ombudsman is probably the best route for you to take as they aren't bound to stick to the law like courts are and I'm not convinced a court would be sympathetic to your claims. When you're in a contract and the other party breach it, you're entitled to your reasonable losses - however you also have a duty to take reasonable steps to minimise those losses and not take unreasonable steps to increase them.

I'd also say theres a possibility you owe them more. You said £334.94 is the amount owed for approx 5 months line rental. Yet if the service is terminated early, they'd be looking to recoup the cost of the handset + at least part of the remaining contract value. Which may well explain why zinc had a balance of £1120 as owed.