Vodafone unfairly cancelled contract. Next steps?

[Paydayhostage]

Back in late 2018 I took out a two year contract with Vodafone for a new smartphone plus calls, data etc.

 

In late 2019, due to an error after moving house and connecting my pc to run off my phones internet and not my broadband (yes really) I ran up a bill of several hundred pounds.

 

I called Vodafone, paid £100 and agreed to pay the remainder in November.

 

However, less than two weeks later they cancelled my contract for non payment and when I called to complain, and advise I had set up a payment plan and paid a large chunk already, they denied all knowledge and said I'd be forced over to PAYG and would immediately owe the full contract balance, plus the remaining excess data charge from my mishap.

 

Despairing of this, and numerous other customer service issues with them, I gave up and have simply used a PAYG sim with phones bought outright ever since.

 

I had a couple of letters from DCAs regarding the o/s balance (now approaching £1k) but ignored them.

 

I wanted to resolve it last year and put in a SAR, but never heard anything back.

 

Now almost 3 years after initial dispute I looked into it again and submitted another SAR request.

 

My luck is in as I actually got a response. It shows they refused my SAR last year due to 'incorrect details' and claims they tried to contact me. More importantly it gives account notes (partially redacted by me):

 

"[October 2019] Customer made a part payment of £100 Payment confirmation number: xx and set up a tokenised payment arrangement for the amount of £xx which will be
paid on November 10th.

 

[Slightly later in October 2019] What was the customer's issue?

customer called as he has been restricted when he paid £100 and set up an arrangement on the xx Actions taken by you.

I advised no arrangement has been setup the account has now been put on PAYG and we require the whole balance."

 

This proves they abandoned the agreed payment plan (presumably due to poor internal comms).

 

They even terminated the account before the agreed payment for the excess data was even due.

 

Not only has this damaged my credit file, but I now owe the full contract, even though I was denied the services of it and was also expected to PAYG for a phone I can actually use.

 

I will of course be complaining about this to Vodafone.

 

Does anyone else have a similar experience?

 

Is there an industry body I can also complain to?

 

The SAR was marked as partially redacted and, barring initial DCA contact, the total lack of any chasing for the balance suggests to me they know they're in the wrong.
 

[brassnecked]

While one of the phone issues Team replies to you  might be a good idea go have a look at other Vodafone threads to see if any similar to yours, each case is different but reading around the Forum will help you place your issue within the quagmire that is Voda Customer Services, or lack thereof.

[dx100uk]

Pretty STD for voda sadly 

 

Use written letters only from now on 

 

Write briefly telling them what you want to happen.

 

Ensure you get free proof of posting, give them 28 days to resolve 

 

Dx

[Paydayhostage]

Hi, I spoke to them on the phone, because they insisted. Negotiation went something like this:

 

Vodafone: We'll give you £20

Me: No, you unfairly cancelled my contract and your own notes show it. I want 12 x the monthly contract payment waived.

V: Yes, we reneged on the payment plan, and terminated your contract, but you should just have paid the whole balance as soon as we reneged [even though my agreed payment wasn't yet due]

Me: Er...no. Also your notes show you were terminating the contract even before the phone call.

V: Ok we'll think about waiving what you asked for.

[2 day wait for response to this]

V: Ok, we'll give you £100 but not the amount you asked for because you still had the phone.

Me: No that's far too low.

V: ok how about £150? If you don't accept we will take further action.

 

A slimey response to any complaint. If their mistake is worth £150 to me, why only offer £20 initially. Straight up dishonest. Even with that. I want far more than £150 and will escalate to OFCOM if needed. I doubt, given they did nothing for 3 years, that there will be any further action and have told them they'll lose in court.

 

I recorded all of these conversations and I think this kind of lowballing is worth a complaint in itself.

Edited September 28, 2022 by Paydayhostage

[brassnecked]

Also check any harms to your credit files and demand corrections from Voda if they trashed them.as part of any resolution.

[FTMDave]

Open.

[Paydayhostage]

Update. Early January I received an update I couldn't believe:

 

"Thanks for getting in touch with us about your recent experience. I'm really sorry this led to your complaint on xx December 2022.

 

In your email you explained that you'd contacted us with regards to the outstanding amount but were told that the final amount above the £100 had been cancelled. This has led to your number moving from Pay Monthly (PAYM) to Pay As You Go (PAYG), and then disconnected. I looked into this and found the notes confirm you contacted us at the time, but the next day the payment arrangement was cancelled and a new one was never put in place. During the three years, there was no more contact from yourself with regards to this issue and therefore was a disconnection and an Early Termination Fee (ETF) applied to the debt and subsequently sent to a Debt Collection Agency (DCA).

 

In response to this, usually we'd ask you to contact the DCA and pay via them. However, I feel that this has been unfair, as there was no other payment arrangement given to you. As such I've raised a request in order to get this balance cleared as I understand that this wasn't your fault. In order to resolve this, I'd ask you to take out a new connection and then fill in a "Keep my Number" so the number you previously had with us can be used again.

I do really apologise for the way in which this has been handled."

 

Seems great, if delayed, right? From a balance approaching £1k to zero.

 

However, I grew more concerned as I didn't receive a final confirmation, despite chasing. Finally, in February I received another update, that they've done a U-Turn and cancelled the cancellation!

 

"To recap, you were previously offered £150 goodwill credit due to the payment plan being set-up incorrectly on your account.

 

We can see that you have requested for the overdue amount to be cleared, and your credit file amended, as it is currently showing negative marks from Vodafone.

 

I reviewed your complaint today, and I completed a thorough investigation into what was discussed with the previous case handler, Alex. When we reverse a write-off amount unfortunately, this doesn't bring the balance to £0 and I'm sorry you were advised of this. The overdue amount is from when you went over your mobile data in 2019, and these charges are valid. 

 

I understand that the payment plan wasn't set-up correctly but unfortunately, we didn't receive any correspondence from yourself. As per Ofcom guidelines, customers are required to check their bills every three months. Due to this, the overdue amount is still a valid charge and we're unable to waiver this amount for your complaint.

 

If you choose to accept the £150 goodwill credit, this will be deducted from the overdue balance. The overdue balance on the account is £xxxx, if you choose to accept the £150 goodwill credit, the overdue amount will reduce to xxxx

 

If you choose not to accept our offer, you can escalate your complaint to the relevant Alternative Dispute Resolution scheme if you wish (CISAS)."

 

I've replied expressing my dismay at this.

 

How can having an excess data charge (before the incorrect termination) lead to them the redress. Terminating the contract meant I lost all use of data for almost the entire contract! They could have cancelled the whole balance except the data charge, but didn't even do that (it was more than the £150 they're offering).

 

At worst I intend to challenge the data charge as a separate issue, although I think it should also be waived and I've let them know I will be escalating to CISIS. I'm glad the previous responder admitted their fault in writing.