Mobile company bought, wont allow exit of new contract

[Roo654]

Hey guys,

 

Posting this on behalf of my sister. She had a mobile phone contract with a service provider (dot mobile i believe) which went bust and subsequentally bought out by Vodafone in June.

 

Vodafone then swapped my sister's contract to a new vodafone one which had increased rates and less free minutes then her old contract. She was not informed of the takeover, nor the contract switch and only found out at the end of July when she was unable to view her bill online anymore. She contacted Dot who forwarded her to Vodafone.

 

Obviously as this new contract is rubbish and more expensive then her hold one, she wants to cancel it, however Vodafone are saying that they sent her a letter in June (never recieved) telling her about the switch and that she has now missed the deadline for cancelling.

 

As further cheek, they offered her 50% off the normal early cancellation penalty so she has to pay "only" £200 to get out a contract she wasnt informed about and certainly never agreed to.

 

Am I correct in thinking that she has the right to cancel her contract without penatly? Vodafone are being utterly useless as always.

[thesehands]

It definately does sound that she should be able to leave this contract without penalty, there maybe something in her original contract about this, but certainly point out out the UCTTR (The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999)

 

Regulation 5

 

5. - (1) A contractual term which has not been individually negotiated shall be regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer.

 

Schedule 2 to these Regulations contains an indicative and non-exhaustive list of the terms which may be regarded as unfair:

 

(i) irrevocably binding the consumer to terms with which he had no real opportunity of becoming acquainted before the conclusion of the contract;

 

(p) giving the seller or supplier the possibility of transferring his rights and obligations under the contract, where this may serve to reduce the guarantees for the consumer, without the latter's agreement;

 

Hopefully this should be of some assistance.

[fredbassett]

Would recommend visiting the Vodafone e-forum where lots of DOT Mobile customers are getting help. Don't forget at the end of the day DOT Mobile went bust potentially leaving you with no service at all. It was only because Vodafone bought the customers from the official receivers that you are still conected and have a phone that you can use. If you visit the e-forum you will see that Vodafone are helping DOT Mobile customers.

[MrShed]

Would recommend visiting the Vodafone e-forum where lots of DOT Mobile customers are getting help. Don't forget at the end of the day DOT Mobile went bust potentially leaving you with no service at all. It was only because Vodafone bought the customers from the official receivers that you are still conected and have a phone that you can use. If you visit the e-forum you will see that Vodafone are helping DOT Mobile customers.

 

You make it sound as if they are doing them a favour!!! Yes they would have had no phone, but they would not have been tied into a contract you wouldnt want - its not as if its a massive job to just then go and sign up elsewhere with a new tariff at the CUSTOMERS choice.

[Roo654]

After emailing them again through the specific link on their eforums, Vodafone have replied stating they will be happy to cancel the contract upon recieveing the £200 cancellation penalty.

 

This is a total joke that they can be allowed to change a contract at the expense of the customer and then try and charge the customer for wanting to leave that contract.

 

As always, any advice greatly appreciated!

[SpiceBoy!]

Ok, I have a few questions before I can offer any help here....

 

What was her spend before the migration to Vodafone and what is her spend now? (including monthly line rental)

 

When did she contact Voda with regards to the cost increase?

 

Has she lost out on anything else? (such as upgrade offers, deposits etc)

 

The way DotMobile used to work was in 'units' and not in the way a normal contract worked, so its easy to say that she has less min that what she used to get, but in reality, all thats happened is she now has a set amount of min and texts instead of being able to apply the 'units' for individual use...

 

Bare in mind also that Voda were actually providing the network coverage for DotMobile customers so in essence she was a Vodafone customer indirectly, hence why Vodafone were able to migrate all the customers over when they went bust... So they are still getting the same service etc but are now direct customers...

 

Once you have given me more info I can direct you as to where to take your concernes and what will happen...

 

HTH

[thesehands]

given that you said your friend was not made aware of any contractual change when dot mobile went bust, and was moved over to this contract unknowingly, without any warning then as I pointed out above, regulation 5 of the UTCCR (i) states that the contract was unfair. This in conjunction with regulation 8 (1) of the same indicates: "An unfair term in a contract concluded with a consumer by a seller or supplier shall not be binding on the consumer."

 

I can only assume that there was a clause in the original Dot Mobile contract that will have allowed Vodafone to take over as default service provider in the case of liquidation. If this is available to see then this could make things easier to understand.

[Roo654]

1. Old contract: £25 p/m - 700 units (700 minutes or 1,400 texts or a combination thereof).

 

New contract: £25 p/m - 500minutes + 150 texts

 

My sister tells me that she uses far more then 150 texts a month

 

 

2. As for dates:

 

June 9th - Recieved text saying to setup online billing with vodafone (no mention of new tariff/contract)

 

June 11th - Reieved text saying managing account online (no mention of tarriff/contract)

 

June 12th - Recieved text saying to setup voice mail (no mention of new tariff/contract)

 

My sister then went to Vodafone's website to setup this online billing however it wouldnt work and she couldnt view her tariff or any bills.

 

July 16th - Recieved email saying bill is avaliable online. Couldnt view it.

 

July 30th - Emailed Vodafone saying still couldnt view anything online

 

August 1st - Vodafone reply to email including new tariff (For the first time) - Saying it was £30 a month but had a £5 discount on line rental.

 

At no time did vodafone make any mention or indication of a new tariff untill the email on August 1st.

 

 

3. She doesnt think there were any old upgrade offers.

 

 

So basically, She were aware of the takeover but was not informed untill August 1st that the price plan or tariff had changed at all, and even then it wasnt asking for her agreement but simply stating it. After recieveing the August 1st email she replied stating that the new contract was not suitable.

 

First bill for 3rd June - 31st July included £8.11 text messages charges. So above the 10% price increase vodafone are now shouting about being needed.

[Roo654]

I understand how frustrating this is for you, I will work with you to help you in anyway I can, below are the Terms and conditions you requested, i hope these help you.

Further to your request I have enclosed the link to our terms and conditions page, please not section 8) Ending of this Agreement, sub section a) i) which reads: 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;

For your full terms and conditions please follow the enclosed link, if that doesn’t work you can find the full terms and conditions here:

 

If you still feel that you are over the 10% rule, I would advise you to send us your last 3 months of DOT mobile bills (Via special delivery), from this point we will be able to calculate whether the usage has increased by 10%. I am happy to send out the paper copies of all bills you should have received, this will help both parties calculate the rule and hopefully come to the best resolution for you.

Alternately if you do decide you would like to discuss a contract change to a more suitable contract, please let us know, we really do want to help you, we understand the transition form Dot Mobile to Vodafone hasn’t been the best of experiences for you and I will do everything I can to help achieve a resolution.

Thank you very much for your time

 

They are still going on about this 10% rule as if my sister were a regular Vodafone contract, completly ignoring the unfair switching of contract.