Vodafone - Court Proceedings whilst ongoing complaint with Ombudsman

[ArmchairPundit]

Hey guys,

 

Just wanted to know if this was possible? Have a dispute with the retailer, and the Ombudsman is delaying and delaying with giving its response - I've got to the point where I'm happy just to go to court.

 

Thank you

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Hi, welcome to CAG.

 

There is not enough detail here to offer any specific advice.

 

 

While a matter is with an Ombudsman service starting a court claim before adjudication would be unwise I think.

[ArmchairPundit]

Hi, welcome to CAG.

 

There is not enough detail here to offer any specific advice.

 

 

While a matter is with an Ombudsman service starting a court claim before adjudication would be unwise I think.

 

Hi Brigadier,

 

Thanks for your response. I'll explain in further detail - Vodafone broke the terms of their agreement (T&Cs) so I wrote to them asking them to cancel the contract, which they refused to do.

 

I raised a complaint with the Ombudsman, who got an investigations officer to look into it. I wasn't happy with the investigating officer's judgment, so the case has now been passed onto the Ombudsman proper for resolution within the next 8 weeks.

 

My issue was, that I'm unhappy to wait 8 weeks, and then have to issue Vodafone with a 'Letter Before Action', then wait a period to allow them to respond, then wait to get a court hearing (I'm sure Vodafone will finally choose to respond right before this) - in this time I would be paying £40 odd a month for a service that they should have cancelled months ago.

 

Thank you

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Hi Brigadier,

 

Thanks for your response. I'll explain in further detail - Vodafone broke the terms of their agreement (T&Cs) so I wrote to them asking them to cancel the contract, which they refused to do.

 

I raised a complaint with the Ombudsman, who got an investigations officer to look into it. I wasn't happy with the investigating officer's judgment, so the case has now been passed onto the Ombudsman proper for resolution within the next 8 weeks.

 

My issue was, that I'm unhappy to wait 8 weeks, and then have to issue Vodafone with a 'Letter Before Action', then wait a period to allow them to respond, then wait to get a court hearing (I'm sure Vodafone will finally choose to respond right before this) - in this time I would be paying £40 odd a month for a service that they should have cancelled months ago.

 

Thank you

 

 

 

 

Hi, If you have made a formal complaint to VF the time scale for " investigation and response" is 56 days.

 

The Ombudsman Service is much overworked some matters will take considerably longer to be dealt with.

 

 

It is unwise to start litigation whilst the Ombudsman is investigating, a court will not look favourably on " jumping the gun" before full investigation and response has be exhausted.

[ArmchairPundit]

Not sure if anyone had the chance to watch Watchdog last night, in regards to their section regarding mobile phone operators.

 

What was highlighted was that (as many are already aware) unfair T&Cs favour the mobile phone operator considerably when it comes to network issues. So many people, including myself simply aren't able to make calls when we want (or suffer the dreaded 'call failure' during an important phone call), but any hopes of cancelling the contract (in the face of unresolved network issues) fall on deaf ears.

 

So what are the options? Well, I can raise a complaint with the communications Ombudsman, but the outcome of this is unlikely to be any more favourable than the inadequate resolutions that the mobile phone operators offer (ie strongly in their favour) - the reason why, is that the Ombudsman seeks to match the consumer's complaint against the retailer's T&Cs - and we all now how unfair and biased those are.

 

Until Ofcom puts pressure on operators to amend their T&Cs, consumers are always going to be heavily disadvantaged when it comes to legitimate complaints.

 

So, quite simply, it seems that court action is a much better option if you have severe, prolonged and unresolved network issues - it would be interesting to hear from anyone on here if they have taken an operator to court over network issues/breach of contract as a direct result of this?

[colin11]

I can understand why operators don't let people cancel phone contracts part way through

 

with the cost of smart phone these days costing in excess of £500 which are given free as part of the contract, they have to make that cost back

[ArmchairPundit]

I can understand why operators don't let people cancel phone contracts part way through

 

with the cost of smart phone these days costing in excess of £500 which are given free as part of the contract, they have to make that cost back

 

The cost of the phone is irrelevant really to the point I was making. A contract is a two-way agreement; if I fail to meet my direct debit payments, my credit rating gets trashed - if the operator fails to provide an adequate service I have to jump through several hoops of internal dispute to be fobbed off, because their "T&Cs say so"

 

You would have though that the phone being given for free (and therefore not being part of a hire-purchase agreement) would incentivise operators to provide a better service, so as to prevent people from legitimately cancelled fee-free and getting a phone for below the retail price. But they're well aware how hard it is to cancel the contract, even if you have legitimate reasons to.