Dot Mobile Help?!?

little_witch_2

I have recently found out that dot mobile has gone into administration and it's looking like all of their customers will be migrated over to Vodafone. I've had bad experiences with Vodaphone and don't really want to go back to Vodafone. I've got 6 months left of a 18 month contract (at £40 a month). I really don't want to pay £240 to get out of the contract.
Is there anything I can do? Do you reckon passing me on to another company would come under breach of contract as they are no longer the people providing me the service?

acr86

Have you had any luck with this? I was also a dot mobile customer (a new one, signed up in January), now with Vodafone, and I'm also not sure that's really where I want to be.

Here are some FAQs which appear at http://www.dotmobile.co.uk:

• Can I end my contract early? Your agreement is with Vodafone with Dot acting as our agent. Therefore you're still subject to your original contract.
• Who will be collecting my payments? They'll still be collected through Dot, but under Vodafone control until you are transferred to their systems. Worry not, we'll tell you when that's happened.
• I paid a deposit to Dot, when am I going to get it? If it's due for return already, Vodafone will get this back to you as soon as your account has been transferred to their systems (and after they've matched your claim against Dot Mobile's records). Otherwise they'll get the deposit back to you as per the original agreement. Either way, there's no need to worry.
• I am due money as part of the "refer a friend" scheme, when am I going to get it? Vodafone will get this payment to you (once they've matched your claim) as soon as your account has been transferred to their systems.
• I am a NatWest customer and was due a credit to my NatWest account upon getting my phone from Dot Mobile, when am I going to get it? Vodafone will get this payment to you - after they've matched your claim - as soon as your account has been transferred to their systems.
• I have recently requested an upgrade through Dot Mobile, am I going to get my phone and if so, when? You'll be pleased to know that Vodafone are working on this as a priority and are in the middle of supplying stock to fulfil any outstanding upgrade requests.
• I have applied for a new connection from Dot Mobile, am I going to get my phone and if so when? Vodafone are currently looking at all outstanding requests for new connections. Once your application is approved, they'll be in contact to process your order.

When I signed up to dot mobile, I signed up to the "six month half-price line-rental" contract and had also been referred by a friend, so I was due £40 cashback and, of course, half-price on six months of my contract. The above FAQs make no mention of the latter.

Now I'd probably be reasonably content if Vodafone let me have my six months half-price, but if they don't, then I don't see how they can on the one hand say "you are bound to your original contract with us" and then not honour the terms of that contract.

Anyone else got any thoughts on this?

Kanduru

I'm in the same boat as you two as i've got about 6 months left on my contract.

Not really too bothered about transferring to vodafone but im hoping that if i have a right to cancel i'll be able to get a better deal and free phone through retentions.

Just got an email which says that we'll be losing some of the services like the call limiter and our minutes and texts wont rollover anymore "[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]It's all designed to make things a little easier to understand"

Im sure that when we agreed to the contract, they agreed to provide these services so surely they are in breech of the contract meaning we can cancel. (its probably buried in there somewhere that they can do what they want, but i cant stomach reading through the whole thing)

Anyway, so im gonna send a letter to vodafone, and keep ringing and emailing them, and generally be a nuisance and see what i can get out of it.

I'll post here if i get any joy
[/FONT]

agsnu

Relevant bit of the agreement:

8) Ending of this Agreement

a)You may end this Agreement immediately by writing to us if:-

· we do not do what we have to do under this Agreement and do not put it right within 7 days of being asked in writing to do so;

· all of the Services are permanently no longer available to you;

· we increase the monthly (or other periodic line rental charge under clause 7a) and such increase (calculated as a percentage) is more than the increase in the Retail Prices Index Figure ("RPI", also calculated as a percentage) for the period from the month of the last increase (if any) to the month before we send the notice of the change in tariffs and you write to us before the increase takes effect. If we increase the monthly (or other periodic) line rental charge by more than the increase in the RPI we will tell you; or

· during the Term

i) we increase in the United Kingdom and under clause 7a, call or other usage charges which have the effect of increasing your call or other usage charges by more than 10% or the increase in RPI calculated as in 8a above (which ever is the greater) based upon your previous call or usage pattern;

ii) you write to us before the increase takes effect.

If it's going to increase your cost based on your usage pattern, then you probably have grounds to cancel.

rich225

Am in the same situation, guess i've got to stick VODA, not happy about that at all. Got this email from dot:

Hi Richard,

Thank you for your email.

As stated in our terms and conditions "You are entering into an agreement with
Vodafone Ltd through it's agent dot and subject to additional terms and
conditions, We reserve the right to make changes to these terms from time to
time and to introduce new terms from time to time if there are changes to the
law, or amendments to Vodafone's terms and conditions due to changes to the
licence under which Vodafone operates its telecommunications network. We will
notify you of any changes to these terms or new terms introduced. This
Agreement will continue for the Term and thereafter. It can be brought to an
end by either of us giving 1 calendar month's written notice to the other to
expire on or any time after the expiry of the Term".

As we have such a large range of tariffs, which offer different services to
our customers, we would advise you to contact Vodafone as of 01/06/2008. This
is so that they can give you the exact break down of what you will be entitled
to. We do not want to give you any incorrect/misleading information.

To cancel a contract at any point, you will need to send us a signed letter
giving 30 days notice. The 30 days start from the day we receive the letter.

When we have received the letter, we will contact you and make you aware of
the termination date.

You will be liable for any charges up until this date and any remaining line
rental for the rest of the contract.

Please write to:

140 Buckingham Palace Road.

London.

SW1 W9SA.

Please state why you are leaving and if you require a PAC code to take your
number to another network.

Your PAC code will then be sent to you by post with a letter to confirm that
your account will be terminated.

However if you do not use this PAC code by its expiry date or no longer wish
to use it, you will need to write in again giving another 30 days notice. If
you do wish to use the PAC code and it has expired, we will be able to
generate another one for you without you giving another 30 days notice.

If we can be of any further assistance then please do not hesitate to contact
us.

Kind regards,

gavin

Obi_Ben_2

Just on the phone to Dot Mobile. They say that we will be completely moved on to Vodafone on Monday (02/06/08) and they will get in contact with us then to tell us our new tariff by either phone or email.

I asked him about the (nearly) unlimited free evening and weekend calls that most people are entitled to and he could only say that some people would still be getting this but others wouldn't. He said that we would have the right to cancel if Vodafone changed the contract by more than 10%. Otherwise it would mean buying the entire contract out.

So i suppose if Vodafone were not to offer some kind of free evening and weekend calls then it would almost definitely be out of the 10%, what do you guys think? Also, its important to remember that Dotmobile charge a month in advance, wonder what the chances of getting that back are even if I do manage to cancel.

Worrying times (especially as all Dotmobile's customers are students, who will all have exams right not)

rich225

I guess we will have to wait and see. I only got my deal with them in Feb, feel like a right idiot as i was going to go on t-mobile.

I have the £50 unlimited net and 2100 units messed up i reckon. Although its free for first3 months.

Buying out will be loads

stepho

and was told that my account hasn't been moved yet, as they "received a lot of wrong information" but they'll "definitely" do it this weekend.

This is worrying for me since they have my DD details, and so for the last week I've presumably been on a contract which they haven't told me about, and they have access to my money!

I have heard of one user who has been put on the system already, so had access to his tariff - and it turned out he was on a line rental of £0 (yes nothing) a month, and then a call price of 12p a minute. Which is expensive for calls, but it means he can just stop using the SIM entirely.

So fingers crossed we'll be put on the same thing - or they'll increase our charges by more than 10%.

Although - I didn't get paper statements from dot, they were all online, and the website is now shut down. So how can we prove what our usage was?

gsg_2

Hey all, just joined because i'm having quite a problem with Dot/Vodafone debacle. When I renewed my contract with Dot I opted to get free line rental for a few months, instead of upgrading my handset. Essentially, from January I wasn't meant to be paying anything for my contract. Around February I realised that instead of charging me nothing, Dot had actually charged me double my tariff instead. After ringing them they promised me it was in the works and would get back to me. This pretty much brings us up until now, whereby Dot did sweet FA after me ringing them constantly, and even less when they announced they were going into administration. Anyways, I rang Vodafone, and they said that not only that they're under no obligation to refund the money, they also have no records of the free months Dot promised me, and therefore don't have to honour that part either (which should run up until December). I don't have any records of these either, as my account was all online. Basically, all I want to know is, is there any chance of me seeing my money, or free months, or am I high and dry?

agsnu

Vodafone are internally aware of the fact that a lot of data has been misinterpreted and mistakes have been made. Despite the fact I left Dot over 18 months ago, Vodafone created a new 12 month contract and started pursuing me for £100 in "equipment charges". They've acknowledged that this was a mistake, but they're still looking into why it happened.

The best thing I can recommend is getting their Forum Intervention Team involved. They monitor here, but they seem to be even better at looking out on their own forum at http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/.