Vodaphone are stopping me buy my first home!!!

[clairejohns]

If anyone has time to read my (extremely long) vodafone saga i would really appreciate any advice anyone may have!!

 

I decided to join vodafone back in May - at the time i thought of them as a well respected phone company.

I purchased the iphone 4 in the colchester branch.

I took out a contract with a gentleman there who assured me that vodafone was one of the leading phone providers for signal coverage.

When I got the phone home i realised there was no service.

 

I took the phone back and was told that because i was transferring my old phone number across it was taking a little longer and that within 24 hours it will be fine.

Still, nobody in the colchester branch thought to check for signal coverage.

 

A few days later i returned to the store and spoke with the original gentleman who sold me the phone.

I explained i still had no service and that the phone was unusable to me.

The man told me that if i take the phone off 3g he was 99% certain the phone would work.

On returning to my home in Manningtree, Essex i checked for a third time and still the phone did not work.

 

I decided to call the vp helpline and a man advised me that there was no signal what so ever in this area hence why it was not working.

He told me the only option was to take it back to the store and cancel my account as there was nothing he could do.

 

I returned for a fourth and final time where a young boy was happy to help and cancelled my policy.

I do not believe it should have taken me four trips to the vodafone store before this had been resolved.

When my contract was first taken out surely the Vodafone staff should have checked for signal coverage before selling me the contract?

 

Unfortunately my vodafone experience then went from bad to worse.

 

A few weeks later i received a bill saying i owed vodaphone £740 contract cancellation fee.

Straight away i called the helpline and spoke with someone who said it was standard procedure that they had to take it out of my account but that it would be refunded straight back because i did not breech the contract.

Despite thinking this was a bit odd, i thought nothing of it and was reassured that i would be refunded.

 

For some reason Vodafone took £740 from me then refunded it back then a few days later repeated the procedure! I feel this was rather unnecessary.

 

A few days later i received a letter saying i still owed £740 and if nothing was done they would contact a debt collection agency.

Again straight away i contacted vodafone and specifically asked whether i owed any money.

I didnt understand how i could owe money when it was vodafone taking it from me in the first place.

 

I spoke with a lady on the 2/7/11. She assured me i did not owe vodafone anything and that she had cancelled my account and there was nothing further for me to do.

I accepted this advice and thought that was the end of it.

 

Meanwhile I was currently looking for my first home.

I had previously had a mortgage offer so with this in place i put an offer in on a house.

My offer was accepted and i thought everything would go through smoothly.

However I got a phone call explaining that a recheck of my credit rating revealed i had missed repayments.

I checked experian and was horrified to see that vodafone had listed that i owe £740 on my credit report.

I instantly called vodafone again on the 19/8/11 and spoke a different gentleman.

 

I explained what had happened and asked him to look into this.

Again he told me i did not owe anything and that he would call the debt collection agency to take my name off the list.

This he did, and he then told me he was going to email his manager to get my name taken off the credit rating which would be dealt with Monday 22/8/11.

He also sent me an email admitting it was a vodafone error and that the company were going to take the error off my credit rating.

I urged him to get this sorted and he assured me it would be dealt with on Monday and that an email would be sent to me to confirm it was being sorted.

 

I did not receive anything so on Tuesday 23rd i called up again to check and still apparently nothing had been done.

I had previously explained that because of this error i could potentially lose my house!

The lady i spoke with then told me it wouldnt take 5 working days to sort which is what i had previously been told but in fact up to 28 days!

I cannot afford to wait this long to get a mistake by vodafone rectified.

I was very dissapointed to have been told two different bits of information from two different colleagues.

 

The last correspondence was on the 23/8/11

where i was told my case was being passed to another manager who would need to look into it.

 

I have been passed through two lots of different people who claim they will help but as of yet nothing has been done.

I have been told on two occasions both on the 2/7/11 and 19/8/11 that i do not owe vodafone anything and yet the company has given me a bad credit rating which is completely unfair!

If this is not sorted i am now in danger of losing my house because of a vodafone error. I

should not have been sold the contract in the first place as there was no service at all at my home!

Then to charge me a fee that was irrelevant because i hadnt breeched any contract and then to give me bad credit claiming i owe them money is completely unfair.

 

This whole experience has been a waste of my time and effort and is causing me a lot of stress and worry as i potentially have lost my house.

I just dont think they have any idea what effect they have on peoples lives!!

 

I really need to get this sorted asap but i just dont know what else to do. Can anyone give me any advice? It would be greatly appreciated.

 

Claire

[Bazooka Boo]

Get Lee from Voda to have a look into this for you, unfortunately Voda have opened themselves up to a claim for damages here, as the info on your file, if found to be incorrect, can be taken to court and damages for defamation of character can be sought from Voda.

These start at £1,000, but as this info has stopped you from obtaining a mortgage then they will be considerably higher, this is a classic case of corporation acting with near impunity with other peoples information and lives, and for that they should be made to pay the cost.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?213340-Vodafone-Webteam-for-Customers-With-Problems

[clairejohns]

Thanks for your advice. I have followed the link and contacted vodaphone stating the special code so hopefully they will get back to me. How do i get specifically hold of Lee? sorry i am new to all this.....

[dx100uk]

there is a sticky up the top of this forum

which relates to how to get ahold of our vodafone rep.

 

follow the info their

 

i am sure lee will sort this for you in no time.

 

dx

[clairejohns]

Sorry to sound a complete newbie but i found lee from vodaphone and tried to pm him but it wouldnt let me as i needed 5 posts from different people on here?! I looked in the sticky thing but the only thing i could find was the link that takes you to the vp site where you fill in your details and type in the code beginning with W and it gets sent to them. Will this be passed onto Lee or do i need to contact him another way?

[locutus]

That will be fine, Lee will pick this up You will get an automated email reply, and that will have a 7 digit reference number. Post that here and Lee will be able to pull your details up, and help resolve your problems

[clairejohns]

#7221866

 

Thanks locutus!!

[clairejohns]

Waw that was quick! Just spoke with Lee from Vodaphone. Hopefully he has sorted it and cleared my name off the debt register! THANKS LEE! Although i just went into experian and the vodaphone debt is still showing on there. Hopefully when i check in 48 hrs experian will have removed it! fingers crossed it will all be sorted and the mortgage man gives me the go ahead!!!

[ashmk]

If your still refused the mortgage I would go in for the kil. What they did was unacceptable and they should be made to pay.

[Bazooka Boo]

Excellent, Lee has proved his weight in gold yet again, agreed it may take a while for your CRF to show this updated info, so give it a couple of days.

[locutus]

From reading other threads, Lee seems to deal with credit file issues quite a bit, so I'm pretty confidant that all is sorted.

 

Now, hopefully things will get sorted quickly and you can still get this house that you have your heart set one

[clairejohns]

yeah i really hope everything is ok now and i can get things moving with this house.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Claire,

 

Thanks again for your time earlier.

 

As discussed, I'm confident that all will be in order in the next couple of days.

 

Fingers crossed that your next update will be to confirm that your mortgage application has been successful and that you're well on your way to getting onto the first rung of the property ladder.

 

Take care.

Excellent, Lee has proved his weight in gold yet again, agreed it may take a while for your CRF to show this updated info, so give it a couple of days.

 

Thanks Bazooka Boo.

 

As ever, I do try to bring about as many positive outcomes as possible and hopefully Claire's case can be added to the list of successes we've had so far.

From reading other threads, Lee seems to deal with credit file issues quite a bit, so I'm pretty confidant that all is sorted.

 

Now, hopefully things will get sorted quickly and you can still get this house that you have your heart set one

 

Absolutely locutus.

 

Although I do handle my fair share of credit file related cases I always enjoy the challenge.

 

Best wishes to you all.

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK

[dx100uk]

lee strike again top service

 

after about 12n i wont be around for a few days

 

finally moving up north to join the rest of my family after 18mts alone

 

regards

 

dx

[clairejohns]

After a promising start I STILL am yet to be taken off the bad credit register on experian!!!! If i dont get this taken off by this week i will lose my house pretty much guaranteed and will m ost definitely be taking legal action!!!!

[Brit]

It can take credit agencies months to get rid of their error's I'd raise a on-line complaint (credit agency) to get it looked into, but if can take up-to a month, its great that companies pay credit agencies and so do we for the information, so who is the client ?

[locutus]

After a promising start I STILL am yet to be taken off the bad credit register on experian!!!! If i dont get this taken off by this week i will lose my house pretty much guaranteed and will m ost definitely be taking legal action!!!!

 

In fairness there has only been 1 full working day since you reported Lee was fixing this... with the long bank holiday I'd be surprised if this was sorted at this point. In your place I would definatly be taking Brit's advice and contacting the CRA's, especially as time is of the essence here.

[sillygirl1]

You can ask the CRA to put a marker on the information stating that this is an error by the original creditor (especially as you have the information from Lee) and show the information to the mortgage broker, if they are continually checking your credit file it will have a detrimental effect - I can understand if it takes a few months to check every three months but if they are checking before that I would complain to Trading Standards and the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

After a promising start I STILL am yet to be taken off the bad credit register on experian!!!! If i dont get this taken off by this week i will lose my house pretty much guaranteed and will m ost definitely be taking legal action!!!!

 

Hi Claire,

 

Could you check your inbox for me as I've sent you an update in regard to this matter?

 

Naturally, should you have any further queries please let me know.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK