Pay monthly services

[ratmanhk]

Sorry..... Here is the link http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly-Services/Vodafone-are-Stealing-from-me/td-p/1031659/page/...

[farmboy]

biffo1963 not sure what you're saying.

reb90 don't stress to much, this used to be called sharp practice. Your phone probably dialed 2222 mine did so they will charge you. This doesn't make it right.

Vodafone. Are customers worth anything to you ?.  Do you want them to stay or do you want them to leave ?.

Your £25 isn't much compared to a lost contract.

[ratmanhk]

Farmboy, read the post from Vinod on my thread and use that in your argument. This guy admitted that his phone called the number and they refunded it all! Surely they can't favour some customers over others??.

[farmboy]

Spoiler

Hi ratmanhk

When i first saw the bill and saw road watch assumed error (hadn't even heard of it). I used google to find the number, checked the phone log and sure enough it was there exactly as billed. I keed the phone in trouser pocket all time so it was unfortunate that it found a real number to dial, and a premium rate one to boot.

They made it plain in an e mail that there was no error and no refund.

I would love to know if anyone uses this service and if after you conect there are any options to choose, Because as I said earlier if no option is selected them surely no service if provided therefore FV keeping the line open for 19mins and 59secs has to be a bit iffy.

[ratmanhk]

I've just tried it and if you keep pressing 2 then you don't get any info. Must be getting charged while you hear the options. I'd complain to roadwatch too. You'll probably find it's a wholly owned subsidiary of VF! Hey James i know you won't talk to me on my thread but can you explain why Vinod gets a refund and these guys don't?

[farmboy]

to Ratmanhk

Thank you.

[ratmanhk]

This post belongs next to the other one.

[Sjclay]

I too had have this charge of £25 on my account on a Sunday morning at 8am and clearly didn't make this call. I queried it with customer services and was told I made it and the advisor was extremely rude and wouldn't listen to me at all. I asked to be put through to a supervisor to be told one its not a valid reason and two then told no one available to speak to. I got very angry with the member of staff as they were basically telling me tough you have to pay it!!!!! After I started to demand to speak to someone he hung up on me. Moments later I had a pre recorded call for my feedback and left a message of complaint and still nothing. I am absolutely disgusted and judging by the amount of posts on this forum, Vodafone know about this but where is the communication in the company for their advisors to deal with this call!!! A joke!!! I too would like to get this sorted by the tech team also please or considering further action via various consumer rights channels or even media and perhaps police as this is theft The part that made me laugh was the advisor told me that this can be done via the pin entry on the iPhone which is absolute rubbish as I would have to slide the lock, put in my pin which is not the 2222 number and then call 2222 for what reason I was in bed!!!

[vinod]

I suspect the main cause these calls are may be due to unaware "touches" happening on touch screen phone and "2" being at the centre of the touch keypad ? Buy an iphone ...

[vinod]

I wonder if that is a right forum ethic to bring in conversation from other threads and discuss the same without making the original poster aware of it. Ah, by the way what is "ethics", it is so contextual

[ratmanhk]

Hi Vinod,

Hello again. You get around. I hope you don't mind, I was just helping out these unhappy customers saying that they need not worry because this bloke called Vinod just rang VF and explained the situation about calling 2222 and they refunded his money without discussion. So according to case law then all these people will be able to get refunds too. What a great week!!

Well I still have to pay £1,103.00 so not such a great week for me but ....

Cheers my friend.

[vinod]

>> So according to case law then all these people will be able to get refunds too.

Not really, modern Customer Relationship Management(CRM) systems are intelligent enough to present the right level of information to the agent's computer screen, so that the decision making process becomes quiet easy and simple.. They attach "profiles" and "worthiness" factors to customer accounts based on many many factors and applying heuristics.

I know for a fact that vodafone have been investing heavily on CRM - both telephone and online.

Now coming to your analysis -  why I got a refund and while other did not, there could be many reasons...

Part of it could be due to my luck and part of it could be down to the agent I spoke to "know" how to use their CRM systems wisely to make decisions that are rationale rather based on "laws"...

[traff12]

In the last couple of weeks two of the numbers on our contract have had this £25=VAT charged!

Both users swear they didn't dial it.

One has a touch screen phone and the other doesn't.

Both phones have keypad auto-lock settings applied.

Funny how most people have the same 20 minute phone call charged!

Also suspicious how this has just begun to happen only now!

One very unhappy business account customer.

[Magicman13]

Personal roadwatch has a 20 minute maximum call length at which point the call is automatically ended.

Auto locks dont guarantee prevention as the lock usually kicks in after 30 or so econds of inactivity. it the touch screen phone has a built in gyro then any movement could trigger this, preventing auto lock from working.

[biffo1963]

A very good point, that one.  By chance I got into the habit of locking mine before putting it back in my pocket, I'm glad I did after reading this !

[farmboy]

Large amount of silence from tech team !!!.

[G5BOY]

Hi

Thank goodness i found this forum and thread - I thought i was alone with this and going mad..

I too have just been billed £25.54 for a call I didn't make to Personal Roadwatch for 20m 0s (spookily round number I thought - no seconds?).

I too have never heard of PR and was interested to find it has a tie up with Vodaphone.

I called 191 and got the same rude and unhelpful response as others here have received.  i explained that my iPhone 4 was in my pocket, with the keypad locked, when I heard a voice message saying it could not connect to the number.  It did that a couple of times and I just thought it was a glitch, until I received my bill............!!!!  The rude and unhelpful girl I spoke to insisted that only i could have made the call so I will be charged.  I also explained I have a perfectly good satnav with traffic alerts so why would I need PR - especially as I was gardening on the Sunday morning it connected - i do know my way around my garden.

So I now have to go to a Vodaphone shop (later today) to hammer this one out.

I did some research online yesterday (didn't read all the posts so maybe this has been covered already) and found that if you go.......... Settings>General>Passcode Lock>Voice Dial...........and switch that to 'off'.........someone thought that was the issue, with voice dial thinking you said "Personal Roadwatch" when your keypad was locked I guess,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,no, me neither but i did it anyway.

[ratmanhk]

This has come up before. There is a guy on my thread who had the same thing and he rang and they refunded him the full amount without question. Maybe refer to my thread on the phone to customer services and see what they day then. Second post down on this page.,,,, http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly-Services/Vodafone-are-Stealing-from-me/td-p/1031659/page/...

[KellyCurtis41]

Hi Everyone,

      I had a text from Vodafone today to advise my bill for April is a whopping £86!!  I nearly fainted!  I have recently switched over to pay monthly which should cost me £8 per month!  I phoned Vodafone who scanned through my bill because at the time I couldn't access my account and the customer service lady advised I had made 2 calls on 15th April to 'Personal Roadwatch'  "what the hell is that?!" I asked.  I have no idea what it is, how I accessed it and more importantly phoned this number twice at the exact same time! (see below)

Oh sorry excuse me a minute apart apparently for 20 mins at a time!!  I have been told that I should unsubscribe even though I have no knowledge of subscribing in the first place by texting STOP, to whom do I text this?  I am not being offered a refund but a you can pay next month soft blow.  I want to leave Vodafone now but I am still under this pay monthly contract for the next 12 to 18 months I think.  Like most contracts you're tied in, don't pay the bill but get the debtors baying for your blood as you still have to pay.

Can someone please advise how I can get this resolved?  This clearly is a scam and Vodafone need to be held to account for this as I can see that it has happened to one person but to a hell of a lot of customers!!!

Sun 15 Apr 12:57		Personal Roadwatch	20m 0s	25.540	25.540
Sun 15 Apr 12:58		Personal Roadwatch	20m 4s	25.626	25.626

[G5BOY]

Thanks ratmanhk, but I met with a complete (and quite rude) blank on the phone and also my visit to the store yeaterday, so talking time is over.

I then wrote (special delivery so I can track and see who signed for it) to VCS giving them 7 days to sort this out, otherwise I will copy to Offcom, Watchdog, Trading Standards etc. I have posted my letter on other forums and emailed my contacts list in case others are unfortunate enough to be on Vodaphone.  I also plan to report them for fraud.  They may be big but no-one rips me off and gets away unscathed.

What really annoys me is that this scam (because that is what it is) has been going on for years.  A quick search showed complaints going back to 2007......!!!  So why do VCS and their stores all deny knowledge of it and expect us to pay up and swallow this?