My situation is as follows: I attempted to upgrade my phone, was concerned that the billing period had started and I had been billed without receiving a handset. Upon contacting vodafone, I was told it is because there are no handsets available and they don't know when they will be available, so being within my cooling off period I decided to cancel the contract, as it seemed unacceptable to me for vodafone to sell me something that they didn't have. I was sent the below letter attempting to hold me to ransom, telling me that I should use the PAC code immediately but afterward, in a rather confusing manner, suggests that I will be charged over seven hundred pounds if I follow this advice. This contract is void to start with as you haven't delivered the handset, also UK law states that I have a 7 day cooling off period in which I can terminate a contract for any reason. These kinds of business practices you employ are unacceptable and illegal in the UK. I intend to take this matter up with the ombudsman services if it is not resolved to my complete satisfaction, and any loss of earnings and legal fees will be charged to Vodafone. I've been a customer of Vodafone for many years now, making hundreds of pounds worth of calls every month and this is how I'm treated? Utterly disgraceful.
Letter from vodafone 'customer services' follows, attempting to scare me and hold me to ransom:
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Hello John,
Thank you for writing back to us.
I have checked the status of your order and can see that the handset is out of stock as off now and we are trying our best to deliver the handsets to our customer as early as possible as per the stock availability.
I would like to inform you that if you wish to cancel the upgrade then you can refuse the delivery of the handset and once we receive handset back to ware house we will reset your commitment period.
We have received your request for the cancellation of the number xxxxxxxxxxx. We also understand that you wish to retain this number with another service provider. Your contract end date for your number is 16/02/2014.
You can surely retain your number with the other service provider. That process is called ‘Porting Out’. To port out, you need a Port Authorization Code (PAC). I have processed your request for a PAC.
The PAC for your number is xxxxxxxxxxxxYou will also receive this code via text in 2 hours.
The PAC is valid only for 30 days from the date of generation; so please ensure that you use the PAC before 22/03/2012. If the PAC expires and the number is not ported out, your account will remain active with us and a different PAC would need to be requested for.
Once your number is ported out, and your number gets active with the other service provider, your account with us will get cancelled automatically. Post the cancellation of your account a final bill will be generated as per the usual billing cycle date. This bill will include £701.19 line rental (pro-rated basis) and usage charges (if applicable) till date of cancellation.
If you wish to avoid paying the ETF please do not use the PAC till 16/02/2014. (Contract end date) and get back to us for the new PAC.
I would also like to inform you that the ETF Early termination fee is £701.19 as of today as you have upgraded the contract. The contract end date for your number xxxxxxxxx is 16/02/2014 and this commitment period can be reset only after the handset is received back to us.
I trust above information helps.
kind regards,
Nitin (surname removed for security)
Vodafone Customer Services
