Pay monthly services

[the_man_stephen]

I'm emigrating frm the UK to the Netherlands in a weeks time.

A couple of months ago I called customer services at vodafone to speak to someone about the procedure for terminating my contract early and moving my number to a pay as you go service instead. At this point they told me I had two options. I could write and give 30 days notice, or I could call them a week before I left and ask to speak to someone in the disconnections department and it would all be actioned there and then. I asked this person how much it would cost, they calculated that it would be £385 to get out of my contract, but that they could offer a 25% discount and make it £289. They also advised that I should get a pay as you go sim from the website or a store so that I would be able to transfer my number to it at the same time. All well and done I thanked them and advised that I would call back a week before.

Now, today, I've called customer services, asked to speak to disconnections and have been told that there is no such team, and that my only option is to give 30 days notice. I've also been advised that there is no discount to offer me on the early termination fees of £315. I was then also told that I didn't need to go buy a new sim, and the £10 that I spent in store for that was not needed. The top up was added to the new sim I bought and has thus been wasted.

My termination has now been actioned over the phone, however as I'm going to be out of the country when it changes to PAYG on 01/08/11 I'm concerned that it won't work properly - as far as I understand it PAC transfers and such all have to happen when you're in the country, and I'm wondering if this is the same for when a sim card changes from contract to payg due to the cancellation of a contract.

I'm also majorly concerned that the information I was given in the first call was very innaccurate - I had budgeted on a discount being applied to the early termination. I have been offered £50 compensation for the hassles, but this isn't equal to the 25% discount I was expecting. I've also bought a PAYG sim and applied £10 credit to it upon advice of the first advisor that is now sitting wasted and won't be used.

Could a moderator please look into why I have been given two sets of information, and also please confirm that my cancellation is being processed and the change to PAYG will be actioned even when I'm out the country. I'm relucant to take this to the offical complaints department just yet, but might have to given that I'm now out of pocket.

Thanks and looking forward to hearing from someone

[Noetic]

That's partly why I don't like doing things over the phone - you have no evidence for the rubbish you get told by different departments!

[mari1970]

Hi, you may find there will be problems when you transfer your number if you are out of the UK, but if this goes through successfully you can always give Customer Care a quick call and they can transfer the credit from the sim that you bought, so at least you wont lose out on that..

[frankzappasson]

the trouble is it is to big,the whole customer services department is spread out in every country vodafone operatein, as a consequence weget fedall sorts of bull, hich is of course deniable as you can never trace the person you have spoken to in the first place, good luck my friend,