Incorrect line takeover causes business loss. Is there any other way to get compensation?

hawaza

Hoping someone may be able to offer advice on if there are any other avenues left to explore in terms of getting compensation from Vodafone.

A very condensed summary is:
We live above a business (which we also operate) and have a consumer line for the home and a business line for the attached business. A consumer phone and broadband package was taken out with Vodafone for the flat above the shop and in the process of taking over the consumer line Vodafone erroneously, and without any prior authorisation, took over the business line as well. The end result was a completely unusable business line (a new line has had to be installed with the loss of our 40 year old business number) and has resulted in loss of business (estimated in £1000's). Vodafone refuse to accept any loss of business on its consumer package and that is the view that the Ombudsman has taken as well, with a measly goodwill gesture (barely 3 figures) which doesn't even cover the time put in to resolve this (> 30hrs) let alone anything else.

I've rang Citizens advice, who put me through to Consumer Advice, who have basically said the only remaining avenue is the small claims court, but given the Ombudsmans ruling they don't believe a favourable outcome is likely as basically Vodafones T&C's state they accept no loss of business on their consumer packages. The fact they ended up destroying a business line through negligence is apparently irrelevant.

My question is - is there anything else which can be done? It doesn't seem fair or just that Vodafone can cause a business that they weren't even authorised to deal with thousands of pounds but not be liable for any of the damage they caused? Any advice at all is greatly appreciated.

Sib2018

I used to work in telecoms, to be honest there terms and conditions cover them for no liability of loss of business. I know this does not help the situation, but I used to see this quite a lot in the industry. I agree it is not good and ofcom need to change things. I am not sure what the business insurence was called but it is a special type of insurance you can get for this type of thing. Buy I think it has to be in place first.

JJ_Egan

As you are a business take legal advice in regards to taking them to court .
Take them to court for your quantified losses .
Proper legal advice as opposed to opinions from unqualified forum users .

iniltous

We're there always 2 lines ( 1 business and 1 residential) and you asked for Vodafone to migrate the residential line from whoever you rented it from (BT or whoever) to Vodafone, but they somehow entered an order to takeover the business line, or was this Vodafone line in addition to the line or lines that already existed, so would have been a 'new' line rather than a migration ?

Although it's of no use now, if Vodafone correctly entered an order to 'takeover' the residential line in the flat, you would have known it was progressing, because you would have received a letter from the company that was providing the original residential service, saying we have received notification that another company wants to take over the ( residential) line , call this number if it's incorrect (slamming) to stop the takeover....if they did they took the business line, I don't know if a similar letter is sent, but obviously the address on it would be the business name, not your 'residential' name.

It comes down to there is no consequential loss on residential lines, but although you ordered a residential line (so no consequential loss) it affected your business line , which may have consequential loss provision , maybe time to speak to a lawyer, but proving the amount lost could be tricky

hawaza

@iniltous - yes - they have always been 2 separate lines - before takeover neither were with Vodafone. During takeover the applied the same number down both lines and the broadband didnt work. When they fixed the broadband a few days later they completely took out the business line altogether so it was dead. No letter was received about them taking over the business line - only the residential one. The most annoying bit about it all is they were warned the premises had 2 lines and to ensure they took over the correct one!

I take the comment about proper legal advice but asking if anyone has any ideas or knows of any other routes (which i can then investigate) costs me nothing other than time - professional legal advice is a lot more costly.

On that note my concern is by the time we take expert legal advice (which i guess would run into £1000's????) it will cost us more in fee's than we would seen to gain if compensated for the lost business . If at the end of any legal action the courts take the same standpoint as the Ombudsman then we're even further in a hole. It is a very very small business which really cannot afford anymore financial drama.

I know it seems like I'm asking for a magical solution - and maybe i am - but the reality is i just want to know what the remaining options are. If that means sucking a lemon because Vodafone are legally allowed to get away with such actions then fine, if its professional legal advice (which i doubt we can afford) then thats fine too. Knowledge is power in such situations and I'm just trying to get as much info on the remaining options as i can.

onomatopoeia99

Why can't the original supplier of the business service reinstate it? It appears Vodafone have "slammed" that line by taking it over without your consent, whether deliberately or through incompetence, so it would seem likely that the original supplier would fall over themselves to help you re-establish it.


By your description, Vodafone have no contract with you on the business line so it seems difficult to understand how they can talk about their residential contract having no liability for losses when that's for your residential line, not the business line.



It's too late now I suspect but you should have gone back to your original business supplier when Vodafone messed up that line and reported the fault to them so they could fix it.

hawaza

@Onomatopoe - We did but they were unable to work out exactly what Vodafone had done. As they managed to put the same number down both lines it became almost impossible for anyone to determine which line was which. In addition Vodafone claimed a routing issue but no one could verify that either so the lower risk option was to get a completely new line installed with the loss of our original number.

That was our logic as well - no loss of business was applicable on the residential line but that would no longer be valid as they ruined a business line - apparently not. It seems that Vodafone could literally have burnt our business to the ground because their T&C's state they accept no liability for loss of business or damages to them.

pmduk

A decent lawyer will have a pretty good shot at stating Vodafone's terms are unreasonable as the direct cause of the problem is their negligence. You've done the sensible thing in having separate consumer and business contracts for each line which will be a boost to your case. But, as others have said, you need proper legal advice and not from a forum.