Vodafone refusing to honour free sat nav deal

sangupt

Hi all

Thanks for a wonderful site & forum.

I am posting for the first time out of utter frustration with the cheating ways of Vodafone. I signed an 18 month contract for Nokia N95 8GB for 35 pounds p.m + 50% extra min. + 1st 3 months half price rental + 1year free sat nav (Nokia maps). I signed on the 29th of Jan when this deal was still on offer. Unfortunately I signed up on the phone hence I have no proof that it was on offer that day. However it was very clearly advertised on their website that day, it was in print in the London Metro newspaper and the lady who signed me up very clearly stated that I would be getting the sat nav free for one year. In fact the website said '1 year free sat nav on all price plans over 50 pounds p.m' but the lady on the phone said that they would give it me on the 35 ppm too if I signed up then and there over the phone.
However the welcome pack cover letter (which I got a week or so later) did not mention this.

The sat nav worked fine when I tried it 1-2 days after getting the phone but then I went abroad on leave. After coming back, I was surprised while trying to use the sat nav (last week) when it asked me to buy a license. I called up Vodafone and then all the fun & frustration started.

First they said it is not their responsibility and I should contact Nokia. I contacted Nokia (who were quite helpful) and they told me that the deal was offered by Vodafone and it was their responsibility. Calling back VF, I was told that the sat nav offer was "subject to availability" and maybe it had run out when I had signed up. When I shouted at them that I was told clearly that I would have the sat nav and nothing about availability was mentioned, they backed off and told me to contact Nokia again.

I called Nokia again and again they were helpful. They took down my phone's IMEI no and told me that they would see if any license was attached to it and get back to me the next day. When they didn't get back till this morning (3 days later) I called VF again. This tme they said that sat nav deal had expired and I would have to pay 5.99 for using it every time. Again upon shouting, they connected me to Nokia. Nokia guy promised to check and call back within half an hour. He did call, but after about 3 hours, only to inform me that no license was reserved for my phone and they couldn't do anything about it.

Can anyone suggest what I can do to teach the idiots at VF a real good lesson? The CEO's email is floating around on the forums, but I don't have any concrete proof that they did in fact offer the 1 year free sat nav. Does anyone know if the signing up conversation is recorded?

I have half a mind to cancel my direct debit and sell the phone off on ebay but I have no proof to back up my claim, as I said.

Can anyone give any advise? I am sick of these fellows.

They have done other really petty stuff also (all of this within the first month of my contract:rolleyes:) but I could sort that out by shouting;) and anyway this post has become way too long.

Thanks for any help

Take care all.

mobilejunkie

Yes. Whatever else you may do, DON'T cancel your direct debit!

sangupt

Thanks for reading my long rant.

I am not very good at detecting irony (I know its silvery or goldy, only made out of iron:-) but I am sensing its presence in your post. Or are you serious about not canceling the DD?

Regards

mobilejunkie

No irony. Of course, if you like the idea of ruining your credit rating totally and having the debt collectors arrive, go ahead!

Hopefullyuseful1

sangupt wrote: »

Hi all

Thanks for a wonderful site & forum.

I am posting for the first time out of utter frustration with the cheating ways of Vodafone. I signed an 18 month contract for Nokia N95 8GB for 35 pounds p.m + 50% extra min. + 1st 3 months half price rental + 1year free sat nav (Nokia maps). I signed on the 29th of Jan when this deal was still on offer. Unfortunately I signed up on the phone hence I have no proof that it was on offer that day. However it was very clearly advertised on their website that day, it was in print in the London Metro newspaper and the lady who signed me up very clearly stated that I would be getting the sat nav free for one year. In fact the website said '1 year free sat nav on all price plans over 50 pounds p.m' but the lady on the phone said that they would give it me on the 35 ppm too if I signed up then and there over the phone.
However the welcome pack cover letter (which I got a week or so later) did not mention this.

The sat nav worked fine when I tried it 1-2 days after getting the phone but then I went abroad on leave. After coming back, I was surprised while trying to use the sat nav (last week) when it asked me to buy a license. I called up Vodafone and then all the fun & frustration started.

First they said it is not their responsibility and I should contact Nokia. I contacted Nokia (who were quite helpful) and they told me that the deal was offered by Vodafone and it was their responsibility. Calling back VF, I was told that the sat nav offer was "subject to availability" and maybe it had run out when I had signed up. When I shouted at them that I was told clearly that I would have the sat nav and nothing about availability was mentioned, they backed off and told me to contact Nokia again.

I called Nokia again and again they were helpful. They took down my phone's IMEI no and told me that they would see if any license was attached to it and get back to me the next day. When they didn't get back till this morning (3 days later) I called VF again. This tme they said that sat nav deal had expired and I would have to pay 5.99 for using it every time. Again upon shouting, they connected me to Nokia. Nokia guy promised to check and call back within half an hour. He did call, but after about 3 hours, only to inform me that no license was reserved for my phone and they couldn't do anything about it.

Can anyone suggest what I can do to teach the idiots at VF a real good lesson? The CEO's email is floating around on the forums, but I don't have any concrete proof that they did in fact offer the 1 year free sat nav. Does anyone know if the signing up conversation is recorded?

I have half a mind to cancel my direct debit and sell the phone off on ebay but I have no proof to back up my claim, as I said.

Can anyone give any advise? I am sick of these fellows.

They have done other really petty stuff also (all of this within the first month of my contract:rolleyes:) but I could sort that out by shouting;) and anyway this post has become way too long.

Thanks for any help

Take care all.

Hi sangupt,

Sorry to hear of the problems you've had with Vodafone and Nokia Maps subscription. Our team would be happy to have a look at your account to see if there's anything that we can do to help (we would need to see the account as we're unable to see and address any points with you via an internet forum such as this one).

If you wanted to get in touch, if you could go to www.vodafone.co.uk, selecting 'contact us' then 'email'. If you leave your account details, a full synopsis of your problem (even a link back to this thread which would give us a full description of what has happened) then our team will be able to access your account and look into ways of resolving this for you.

Importantly, if you also please leave the short-code FIT135 in the body of your email (this code makes sure that your email will come through to a member of our team).

Hopefullyuseful1
Vodafone UK

sangupt

Hi Hopefullyuseful1

thanks for volunteering to help. I have dne as you have asked me to just now.

Assuming you work for VF, good luck mate trying to help - all others I have spoken to so far don't really seem to give a rat's a**e ;-) tho' this morning someone did promise to call me back in 48 hours (i won't be losing sleep waiting for that call tho').

mobilejunkie:

my credit rating would get ruined only if I defaulted on a payment and not on canceling a DD, AFAIK. Plus here I have every right to as I am the wronged party.

danuk

sangupt,

Hopefullyuseful works for vodafone. They have a customer care team that monitors forums like this one. If anyone can help you she can, i have had two big problems that hopefullyuseful was able to sort that had been ongoing for 6 months.

My only concern is it took hopefullyuseful 2 days to sort out what the rest of vodafone could not sort for 6 months but hey it got sorted.

Anon

sangupt - good to see that Hopefullyuseful has suggested a way forward. As a minor suggestion, don't shout at the Customer Service staff (no matter how tempting it is - and we have all been there when the frustration kicks in!). Being courteous generally gets you further and if you don't get anywhere with one CS, hang up and phone back - the chances of getting the same CS each time is very slim and many are genuinely helpful.

They claim to record all calls to CS therefore if this is not resolves a suggestion to them may be to check their tapes.

Cancelling the dd, without paying in an alternative way, will show on your credit reference report and may affect your ability to get credit in future.

Good luck

Anon

sangupt

Thanks guys for your suggestions. I'll keep them in mind.

I am also happy to inform you that I got a call from VF this morning and they sorted it out in 5 minutes. They gave me a credit of £43 (cost of 1 year's Nokia Sat Nav license) over the phone. Way to go guys (now only if your 191 folks could be trained a little better, and pardon the sarcasm, this call centre is in probably the UK, not in my native India).

Anyway, thanks to Martin, and all the well wishers/money savers on this wonderful forum - I still can't believe this thing got sorted out within one day of posting it on this forum.

Take care
sg