Pay monthly services

[mparack]

I was with Vodafone until recently. Last month my contract was due to expire on 25th April. I was paying circa £25 a month for the previous 18 months. I asked for a PAC code after having had problems with the HTC magic and Vodafone support regarding this. I got a call from the Retentions team and they offered me a Sony Ericsson Experia Arc on pre-order for £20 a month which I accepted. I was told I had a 7 day cooling off period to change my mind.

However, I was unsure of availability of the phone and had enough of Vodafone already so called the helpline a day after the offer was made and cancelled the order. It must be noted that at that time the phone was still on pre-order and I hadn't received it. I have written confirmation from Vodafone support saying that my contract was cancelled on 19th April

A few days later I got a bill for £35. I emailed Vodafone as I couldn't access the 191 helpline and preferred having a written record of communication. I was told that any excess would be returned in the May bill. They said that the bill was charged on a pro-rata basis for the old and the new tarrif However, they failed to explain how the bill for a month charged partly at £25 and partly at £20 could amount to £35. It should have been somewhere between £20-£25. Three emails later, there is still no resolution to this.

However, the icing on the cake came this morning when I received an sms from Vodafone saying that my May bill was £595.22 when I have not even been with Vodafone since 19th April.

I don't want to waste time and money by calling the 0870 number. All I want is the following

1. My contract was £25 a month and changed to £20 a month which I cancelled within the 7 day cool off period. Why am I being charged £35 for the month? The most I'd expect to pay is £25 at the old rate.
2. Why am I now being asked to pay £595.22 when I am not even with Vodafone?

I can't access my bills anymore on the vodafone website and I have requested a copy to no avail. If this is not resolved and my money is not returned in the next 7 days, I will be forced to initiate an indemnity claim under the direct debit scheme rules to get my money back. The reference number of my initial contact via email is 6208255

[Dave]

Hi mparack,

Don't worry, I think I can see what's happened. I'll need to get to the closed account to be sure, so I'm popping you an email to get some details to your registered email address.

The most likely answers are:

1/ The bill was not just pro rata'd between the two plans, but was also moved to anniversary billing. This is where the billing dates change to run from a given date each month (say the 5th Jan to the 4th Feb, then the 5th Feb to the 4th Mar) instead of the start to the end of the month.

Everyone is being switched in this way as they upgrade, but your actual dates of payment are being kept as close to the same as possible. What it means, though, is that your first bill after upgrading may cover more than a single month to allow for the slight change in the period the bill covers each month. It may therefore be that that £35 bill covered a month and a week, for example.

2/ This sounds like the account cancellation failed to register the upgrade cancellation, and therefore included the early termination fee for the new agreement on the bill.

Just reply back to the email and we can get this all tidied up for you.

Dave

eForum Team