Broadband offers with a promise of a voucher

Unsuited0101

So in February I helped my mum sign up with vodafone through a referral from the MSE broadband price comparison tool thing. A £145 voucher was advertised for signing up.

We tried to sign up though their online service, but had to call vodafone repeatedly because there were technical problems. At every stage I asked if we'd still get the promised voucher and was told yes.

We have a confirmatory email from giftcloud, the thirdparty somehow involved in this scheme saying we'd get the voicher in 120 days and not to contact them before that.

I've had a saga of "not our problem" and refusals to log a proper complaint from Vodafone, finally on getting through to someone who wasn't first tier I was told they'd need to locate the phone calls and listen to them, and this would be escalated to a specialist team.

Almost immediately I had someone call and try to fast talk me in into accepting a token amount. They hadn't listened to the calls or even tried to find them, and spoke over me with well practiced high speed "policy chatter" every time I attempted to offer further details that might help locate the calls. Then they accused me of profanity and threatend to disconnect. I spoke no profanity, so I can only assume this was some kind of power move. 

Where do I stand legally with Vodafone and the voucher third party? My contract is with Vodafone and the contract agreement should be recorded. Where is the onus of proof with this recording?

What's the actual chain of responsibility for adverts with a voucher attatched? My understanding is Vodafone is responsible for third parties they contracted to advertise their product, I did not chooose to subcontract the voucher thing.

Furthermore a verbal contract was made in the belief that vodafone was making an accurate record. If vodafone can't produce the recording, is that their problem? Does the whole contract become unenforceable?

Where do I go next if their "specialist team" announces deadlock, is this OfCom, Advertising Standards, Trading Standards?

PHK

It's not clear. Are you unhappy that you had to wait 120 days ? Or has 120 days passed and you received no voucher? Or has 120 days passed and Giftcloud say that you won't get one. Or are you unhappy that Giftcloud are involved?

PHK

Generally speaking, the introducer eg MSE gets a commission and that is used to buy the voucher which giftcloud supply,  

I don't know if that was the case here.

Alderbank

I went through this process last year. I had to wait for the Amazon voucher but it duly arrived about a week before timeout and I have been very happy with the deal overall

It was made very clear online that you would only get the voucher if the deal was set up online exactly as per the T&Cs, and was clear that you would not get it if there was any interaction with Voda's call centre staff. To make sure of this after I had had some email discussions with them about T&Cs I set up a new email account for the contract, with the result that now Voda's correspondence with me about the account is all sent to my dog Max.

The rule about all these cashback deals is 'their money, their rules'. You must jump precisely through all the hoops they set up. 

pushpull

Unsuited0101 said:

Furthermore a verbal contract was made in the belief that vodafone was making an accurate record. If vodafone can't produce the recording, is that their problem? Does the whole contract become unenforceable?

The burden of proof is on the accuser, as the saying goes.

If you're going to claim there is a verbal contract it is up to you to provide evidence of this.  You could SAR Vodafone for copies/transcripts of the calls but you may find they don't hold onto them for very long. I've worked for a large telco in the past and 6 months was the absolute max for them, and I think that was only for sales calls.

I doubt that the voucher is part of your contract with Vodafone anyway. I'd guess it is with Giftcloud, so outside of maybe narking off Giftcloud, Vodafone could likely say what they want about the voucher with impunity.

The contract with Voda will be entirely separate from that of the voucher, so the failure to supply the voucher won't nullify the contract with Vodafone. These schemes are essentially the same as those offered by cashback sites. What the site would normally earn as cash for referrals is split with the customer, although in this case in the form of a gift card. But just like a cashback site any contract over the supply of the voucher/cash/reward is between you and the company whose link you sign up with, rather than the retailer/provider you purchase from.