Vodafone cancelled my broadband contract!

DanHam

HI
First time post this one, so hope it works out. Prior to a house move beg. Sept, I signed up for Vodafone's £25 per month deal for b/b and tel. line with a free gift as an incentive to sign up. As I was due to move within appox. 4-6 weeks, they delayed the contract start up until the 19th October. Received emails to say direct debit had been set up, but no login details as yet.
They said the router would be delivered to my old address before I moved and would then be able to connect to the line. Chased them up on the 25/10 as no router received only to be told that the contract has been cancelled without notification. They said that they 'did not know who cancelled the contract', but certainly wasn't me. After a 45 min call of which 10 mins was actual talk time (the rest on 'hold') they said they could not reinstate the offer as it had now expired!
Fuming to say the least, and after a few choice words, hung up. Surely they cannot do that if there has been an agreed contract / setup. They said there was nothing they could do and that was that - so the 'gift' I was to choose was a £200 Sonos speaker which I'm now not going to get, and I now have to look for another b/ deal which potentially is going to cost me more - do I have any rights to get them to reinstate the original offer as was agreed at the start when the offer was live? Need some closure on this one...Thanks

spadoosh

Have you got any documentation from when you signed up for the deal?

I would escalate it to a complaint providing information about the deal i was accepted on.

I imagine it will be unusual if they dont have a get out clause for covering such eventualities. Probably limited by the number of 'free gifts'

DanHam

Thanks for the reply spadoosh....I have emails to say 'thanks for signing up with vodafone' and also have an email confirming the direct debit account setup...but then nothing. I knew it would be several weeks until the account went 'live' which is why I left it until now to chase them up as I'm due to move into my new house tomorrow.
Have sent them an email conveying my disgust, and asked them that if they didn't have any of the 'gifts' left, then they should write me a cheque for £200 which is the value of the speaker I was going to choose
My biggest gripe is the way they have simply fobbed off a brand new customer who could have given them repeat business - it seems completely alien to me that they would behave like this to potential customers...I dread to think how they treat existing customers who have problems. The deal they signed me up to has been blow apart before it's even started. Disgraceful...for want of a better / stronger word

spadoosh

DanHam wrote: »

Thanks for the reply spadoosh....I have emails to say 'thanks for signing up with vodafone' and also have an email confirming the direct debit account setup...but then nothing. I knew it would be several weeks until the account went 'live' which is why I left it until now to chase them up as I'm due to move into my new house tomorrow.
Have sent them an email conveying my disgust, and asked them that if they didn't have any of the 'gifts' left, then they should write me a cheque for £200 which is the value of the speaker I was going to choose
My biggest gripe is the way they have simply fobbed off a brand new customer who could have given them repeat business - it seems completely alien to me that they would behave like this to potential customers...I dread to think how they treat existing customers who have problems. The deal they signed me up to has been blow apart before it's even started. Disgraceful...for want of a better / stronger word

Youre looking for words that arent needed.

You want this to work in your favour, naturally vodafone want this to work in theirs. Somewhere in the middle you try and reach a reasonable ground.

Things do go wrong. You demanding £200 is just likely to frustrate any person who reads your email and make them less inclined to help. If you want the deal, you will need people to be on your side.

Beyond a welcome email did you recieve any kind of contractual information, any mention of the gifts in the emails? Did they give prices and contract length?

If you dont want the deal and have been put off vodafone your welcome to just do nothing (you can let people know, no harm in sharing your experiences) and never use them again.

Try and avoid the emotion, its rarely solves anything and tends to prolong and stress situations. Be reasonable, its much harder to say no to someone being reasonable.

Vodafone didnt honour a deal when i took out a new contract. It started off with them suggesting i pay them £700. It ended up with them paying the 30% discount they offered on the contract, an additional 25% off the following 3 months bills and a few data bundles, no courts, no rights just being reasonable.

I never highlighted disgust (making an admin error isnt that disgusting imo, someone peeing in the street maybe but not clicking the right buttons isnt the same league), i didnt suggest they wrote me a £200 cheque or didnt say they where disgraceful. I was just nice (i asked Fatima how her day was going, we had a conversation about childcare), its much easier getting things if your nice than hoping someone will bow in to your superior fury in terror.

Play it cool :cool:

Buzby

I take the more relaxed view - you weren’t meant to have them as your supplier (for whatever reason). So go to someone who actually wants your business - and view this as a lucky escape!

jb66

Bt have a £120 giftcard and £80 quidco

esuhl

To be honest, I think you're lucky that Vodafone cancelled your contract. I signed up with them, and they told me they'd disconnect me from my old provider... and then connect me to Vodafone two weeks later.

I was also enticed by the free gift (I fancied the action camera myself) and the cheap price of the contract.

I spend hours on the phone to customer services, once waiting on hold for two hours, as I was bounced between different departments. I tried emailing, and they told me phone them. I tried live chat, and the same thing happened.

In the end I had to cancel my credit card and direct debit, and beg BT/Sky to take back the line without Vodafone's authorisation.

I was furious to have missed out on the free gift and decent prices, but, honestly... After that experience, I wouldn't give them another go if you paid me. You've had a lucky escape from Vodafone. There's no way anyone should have to cope with that level of professional incompetence.

Never had a problem with their mobile network... :-/

JimArnold

same boat
signed up with Vodafone in sept, got router etc but didn't go live on promised date was promised they would sort it and I would be OK then a few days later lost BT broadband !@@#$@ BT said I was no longer their customer
Vodafone said the phone line had been transferred but not the BB
after a week with no BB and no hope of when they promised me a mobile dongle FOC which they have now charged me £72 for - will be chasing them tomorrow
free gift has probably evaporated now
Another promised BB activation date has passed and no sign that Vodafone even knows what is going on !

Avoid Vodafone BB