I have been a customer of Vodafone for 6 years, yet in the past year they have offered a truly shocking service.
I am posting a copy of my emails etc to them, as it can't be just me who has to deal with this level of imcompetance? Sorry if its hard to follow. the first bit is my latest reply to them (with their email and my answers to it in blue) and under that is previous emails between them. This is not even a little bit of all the correspondance between us! I have forward to all departments, email enquires, special delivery, and still haven't had proper reply. They did say today they wanted to call me but I told them
"As I am sure you can understand, I want all correspondance documented as I cannot trust Vodafone. Even when you have put things in writing, promising to attend to my complaint, they have not been resolved and there is too much error for mis-understanding over the telephone.
Therefore I expect your response in writing."
Lets wait and see what happens.................................
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From: pulling out hair
Subject: RE: URGENT ONGOING COMPLAINT FW: Vodafone Ref: CS00009301084 FPC Debt Collection Agency: 265337039 [#8878830]
Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 13:31:55 +0000
I have replied to the questions in your email as below.
I am still yet to receive a copy of my contract. In fact, as you have not responded to my request for this (made in every correspondence since 13th February), I can only assume my emails on 13th February (and after this date) are clear and correct; "If you cannot provide me with a copy of the contract I signed, I can only assume we don't actually have a contract." This must be the case as you have not refuted it at any time; therefore you are currently harassing me by hiring a company to recover a debt that does not even exist.
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Date: Wed, 2 May 2012 21:43:45 +0000
To: pullingouthair
Subject: Re: URGENT ONGOING COMPLAINT FW: Vodafone Ref: CS00009301084 FPC Debt Collection Agency: 265337039 [#8878830]
Hello Sam,
Thank you for writing back to us. I apologise for the inconvenience caused to you.
I understand that you have written to us with your ongoing concern with the current outstanding balance in your account.
I have gone through the entire e-mail trail starting from 21/12/2011 and found that you mentioned in your initial e-mail that you are unable to pay for 2 mobile phones and hence need to cancel or reduce the tariff. I found that our first reply confirmed that we can not downgrade a price plan. We also confirmed that your account was already suspended by our collections team since you had not cleared the outstanding balance of £90.21 at that time.
This is incorrect. You confirmed on 4th January "We have offered you £45.16 credit as a gesture of goodwill and also we provided sure signal free of charge however the original cost is £50 and hence this makes total credit of £95.16" You did not apply the £45.16 credit onto my account until 18th February, and I did not receive a sure signal as you had promised (nor the cost of it against my account). If you HAD applied the total credit of £95.16 as you had promised, I would have been in CREDIT £4.95, and you would not have had to hire FPC in the middle of January to claim the debt on your behalf (as I didnt have one!)
In the subsequent replies you were confirmed that when you purchased the contract you were at a different address and later on you moved. We also offered you repairs for the fault that you encountered with the handset. We also confirmed that we can not lower the price plan simply because you can not afford and now have a land line as well.
This is also incorrect. I suggest you read the previous correspondance clearly. I had already moved to this address when I took out this contract. Everytime I have called and given my address and postcode as one of the security questions, I have given my address in Hilton. It wasn't until I sent my complaint in December 2011 that you said I wasn't registered at this address. As per my letter 12-04-12, "Despite me being at the above address in Hilton when I got both contracts in October 2010 (and giving this address information EVERY TIME I have called Vodafone when you have asked for security purposes), I was told on 31st December 2011 that I had not changed my address with you. I do not understand how this could happen, and how your so called security procedures would not have picked up on this before? I thought I had taken out a contract for 18 months, yet am now told it is 24 months" This is why I then requested a copy of the contract you sent me (and I would have signed) in October 2010 as I couldn't understand how this has happened. I am STILL waiting for the copy of my contract. Also, in your letter to me 2nd March, you told me there IS a fault with the signal in my area (the correct Hilton address!) and was nothing to do with the handset. So which is it?I had to get a landline as Vodafone did not have signal coverage, which you yourselves have since admitted.
The general reason why Vodafone doesn’t allow customers to downgrade their contract within commitment period is because the handsets are usually given at the subsidised rates. Moreover, the plan offered to you is depending upon the value of the handset too. Also the handset cost is spread over and supposed to be recovered from your tenure.
I understand this, but when you take out a contract, at your address, and are told there is suffiencent coverage there and there isn't, is this not breaking your side of the contract? Not supplying a service as promised? If I had a copy of my contract, as requested numerous times, I would have been able to check all these details.
I can now see that based upon one of our replies to the recent letter, we have credited your account with £189.44 and hence the total outstanding balance now comes to £189.44 from £378.88.
I really do not understand this. How can you cancel my account because I have not replied in an impossible time limit? I refer you back to my letter 12th April 2012 "Although your letter was dated 2nd March 2012, I did not receive this until Monday 19th March 2012. There was not enough time for me to reply before I went on my 3 week holiday.
Because of the massive delay in your letter arriving to me, I could not reply to you before 6th March 2012, which is when you cancelled my account and passed to a debt collection agency. I can't help feeling this is hugely unfair, giving me 3 days to reply (providing the letter arrived on 3rd March 2012), especially when you have had the complaint since 21st December 2011!
It is also worth pointing out that, along with my letter, I also received a letter for the attention of Mrs Sandra Boulton (reference no. CS00009302668) which was dated 5th March 2012. Therefore, there would have been absolutely no way for me to reply to you by 6th March 2012, and no way to avoid you cancelling my account and sending to a debt collection agency! Aside from proving you did not send the letter to me on 2nd March 2012, this also contravenes the Data Protection Act.
I request you to look back in to this matter again and understand that we have at every stage assisted you with the correct resolution allowed by our company policy. I sincerely apologise if you feel that at times few of your concerns were left unattended.
Why could you not reply to my complaint in December/January/February?! Why can you not provide me with a copy of my contract that I would have signed October 2010? IF YOU CANNOT PROVIDE ME WITH A COPY OF THE CONTRACT I SIGNED TO IN OCTOBER 2010 THEN I DO NOT OWE YOU ANYTHING. All supposed charges on my account are because Vodafone have NOT replied as they should of. I have had to quote your own customer care policy to you, constantly send letters/emails/special delivery at my own cost. I have been in hospital a few times, harrassed by a debt collection agency, and not even an full explanation or apology (and only an apology now because I have kicked up so much of a fuss and got lots of different departments involved)? That is disgusting.
Now that the current outstanding balance is reduced to 50%, I request you to look back in to this matter and clear this balance at the earliest. You can speak with Fred prime Debt Collection agency on 0845 839 6246.
I will not speak with FPC. You have incorrectly hired them to collect a debt that does not even exist and I refuse to deal with them for money I do not even owe. You have not applied credits to my account when promised, you have not sent me a sure signal box, you have not given me ANY time to be able to try and pass the remainder of the contract to someone else (as you suggested I do in your 2nd March 2012 letter), and in fact YOU CANNOT EVEN GIVE ME A COPY OF THE CONTRACT!
I trust this helps and thank you for being with us.
Kind regards,
Manan Kshatriya
Vodafone Customer Services
I am posting a copy of my emails etc to them, as it can't be just me who has to deal with this level of imcompetance? Sorry if its hard to follow. the first bit is my latest reply to them (with their email and my answers to it in blue) and under that is previous emails between them. This is not even a little bit of all the correspondance between us! I have forward to all departments, email enquires, special delivery, and still haven't had proper reply. They did say today they wanted to call me but I told them
"As I am sure you can understand, I want all correspondance documented as I cannot trust Vodafone. Even when you have put things in writing, promising to attend to my complaint, they have not been resolved and there is too much error for mis-understanding over the telephone.
Therefore I expect your response in writing."
Lets wait and see what happens.................................
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: pulling out hair
Subject: RE: URGENT ONGOING COMPLAINT FW: Vodafone Ref: CS00009301084 FPC Debt Collection Agency: 265337039 [#8878830]
Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 13:31:55 +0000
I have replied to the questions in your email as below.
I am still yet to receive a copy of my contract. In fact, as you have not responded to my request for this (made in every correspondence since 13th February), I can only assume my emails on 13th February (and after this date) are clear and correct; "If you cannot provide me with a copy of the contract I signed, I can only assume we don't actually have a contract." This must be the case as you have not refuted it at any time; therefore you are currently harassing me by hiring a company to recover a debt that does not even exist.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 May 2012 21:43:45 +0000
To: pullingouthair
Subject: Re: URGENT ONGOING COMPLAINT FW: Vodafone Ref: CS00009301084 FPC Debt Collection Agency: 265337039 [#8878830]
Hello Sam,
Thank you for writing back to us. I apologise for the inconvenience caused to you.
I understand that you have written to us with your ongoing concern with the current outstanding balance in your account.
I have gone through the entire e-mail trail starting from 21/12/2011 and found that you mentioned in your initial e-mail that you are unable to pay for 2 mobile phones and hence need to cancel or reduce the tariff. I found that our first reply confirmed that we can not downgrade a price plan. We also confirmed that your account was already suspended by our collections team since you had not cleared the outstanding balance of £90.21 at that time.
This is incorrect. You confirmed on 4th January "We have offered you £45.16 credit as a gesture of goodwill and also we provided sure signal free of charge however the original cost is £50 and hence this makes total credit of £95.16" You did not apply the £45.16 credit onto my account until 18th February, and I did not receive a sure signal as you had promised (nor the cost of it against my account). If you HAD applied the total credit of £95.16 as you had promised, I would have been in CREDIT £4.95, and you would not have had to hire FPC in the middle of January to claim the debt on your behalf (as I didnt have one!)
In the subsequent replies you were confirmed that when you purchased the contract you were at a different address and later on you moved. We also offered you repairs for the fault that you encountered with the handset. We also confirmed that we can not lower the price plan simply because you can not afford and now have a land line as well.
This is also incorrect. I suggest you read the previous correspondance clearly. I had already moved to this address when I took out this contract. Everytime I have called and given my address and postcode as one of the security questions, I have given my address in Hilton. It wasn't until I sent my complaint in December 2011 that you said I wasn't registered at this address. As per my letter 12-04-12, "Despite me being at the above address in Hilton when I got both contracts in October 2010 (and giving this address information EVERY TIME I have called Vodafone when you have asked for security purposes), I was told on 31st December 2011 that I had not changed my address with you. I do not understand how this could happen, and how your so called security procedures would not have picked up on this before? I thought I had taken out a contract for 18 months, yet am now told it is 24 months" This is why I then requested a copy of the contract you sent me (and I would have signed) in October 2010 as I couldn't understand how this has happened. I am STILL waiting for the copy of my contract. Also, in your letter to me 2nd March, you told me there IS a fault with the signal in my area (the correct Hilton address!) and was nothing to do with the handset. So which is it?I had to get a landline as Vodafone did not have signal coverage, which you yourselves have since admitted.
The general reason why Vodafone doesn’t allow customers to downgrade their contract within commitment period is because the handsets are usually given at the subsidised rates. Moreover, the plan offered to you is depending upon the value of the handset too. Also the handset cost is spread over and supposed to be recovered from your tenure.
I understand this, but when you take out a contract, at your address, and are told there is suffiencent coverage there and there isn't, is this not breaking your side of the contract? Not supplying a service as promised? If I had a copy of my contract, as requested numerous times, I would have been able to check all these details.
I can now see that based upon one of our replies to the recent letter, we have credited your account with £189.44 and hence the total outstanding balance now comes to £189.44 from £378.88.
I really do not understand this. How can you cancel my account because I have not replied in an impossible time limit? I refer you back to my letter 12th April 2012 "Although your letter was dated 2nd March 2012, I did not receive this until Monday 19th March 2012. There was not enough time for me to reply before I went on my 3 week holiday.
Because of the massive delay in your letter arriving to me, I could not reply to you before 6th March 2012, which is when you cancelled my account and passed to a debt collection agency. I can't help feeling this is hugely unfair, giving me 3 days to reply (providing the letter arrived on 3rd March 2012), especially when you have had the complaint since 21st December 2011!
It is also worth pointing out that, along with my letter, I also received a letter for the attention of Mrs Sandra Boulton (reference no. CS00009302668) which was dated 5th March 2012. Therefore, there would have been absolutely no way for me to reply to you by 6th March 2012, and no way to avoid you cancelling my account and sending to a debt collection agency! Aside from proving you did not send the letter to me on 2nd March 2012, this also contravenes the Data Protection Act.
I request you to look back in to this matter again and understand that we have at every stage assisted you with the correct resolution allowed by our company policy. I sincerely apologise if you feel that at times few of your concerns were left unattended.
Why could you not reply to my complaint in December/January/February?! Why can you not provide me with a copy of my contract that I would have signed October 2010? IF YOU CANNOT PROVIDE ME WITH A COPY OF THE CONTRACT I SIGNED TO IN OCTOBER 2010 THEN I DO NOT OWE YOU ANYTHING. All supposed charges on my account are because Vodafone have NOT replied as they should of. I have had to quote your own customer care policy to you, constantly send letters/emails/special delivery at my own cost. I have been in hospital a few times, harrassed by a debt collection agency, and not even an full explanation or apology (and only an apology now because I have kicked up so much of a fuss and got lots of different departments involved)? That is disgusting.
Now that the current outstanding balance is reduced to 50%, I request you to look back in to this matter and clear this balance at the earliest. You can speak with Fred prime Debt Collection agency on 0845 839 6246.
I will not speak with FPC. You have incorrectly hired them to collect a debt that does not even exist and I refuse to deal with them for money I do not even owe. You have not applied credits to my account when promised, you have not sent me a sure signal box, you have not given me ANY time to be able to try and pass the remainder of the contract to someone else (as you suggested I do in your 2nd March 2012 letter), and in fact YOU CANNOT EVEN GIVE ME A COPY OF THE CONTRACT!
I trust this helps and thank you for being with us.
Kind regards,
Manan Kshatriya
Vodafone Customer Services
