Huge Problems With Vodafone - No Refund After Almost A Month And No Contact!

[MJS1996]

Where to begin.. my phone contract was coming to an end in November with Three and so I decided to look at switching to Vodafone, I wish I had never bothered! I took out an iPhone X at £68 a month with £150 up front and this was put onto back-order. After two or three days of thinking about it I decided this was far too much to pay, I had been stupid and wished to cancel the order. Considering Vodafone had informed me it would be up to three weeks until my phone would be dispatched I did not anticipate this being a problem.

How wrong was I.

After speaking to three advisors on Livechat they informed me my order could not be cancelled, I have to wait to get the phone and then return it to Vodafone. They also told me it was going to be dispatched in 24 hours, which I knew was a lie because Vodafone had no stock. I decided to call Vodafone instead, which is difficult due to my working hours. Twice I was cut off, and finally I got through to someone who assured me they had filled out the relevant forms and the order would be 100% cancelled within 5 working days and I had nothing to worry about. That was the end of that - so I thought.

7 working days later I got an E-Mail from DPD informing me my item was going to be delivered - I have read nightmare stories on here about customers rejecting parcels and them never gtting back to Vodafone and having to jump through hoops so I thought I would do the right thing and accept the phone then inform Vodafone I am returning it, and so I did.

Once again due to working hous it is very difficult for me to get to the Post Office when open - however I managed to do this using the pre-paid returns slip from Vodafone on/around 2nd January (which wasn't pre-paid, I had to pay £7!) the item was delivered and signed for the next day and I got an E-Mail from Vodafone later that day telling me 'Content Lock' had been turned on - which I found strange. I tried to log into My Vodafone and saw the account had been closed. Excellent, I thought. Problem solved.

Wrong again. I had a notification from Barclays that Vodafone had cancelled my Direct Debit on the 10th. By the 12th January I had still not had a refund of the £150 up front cost. Also, I had paid the first bill of £68 too, and as I hadn't had the phone a full billing period I was certain Vodafone owed me more than just the £150 I had paid up-front. I contacted Vodafone and Live Chat confirmed they owed me £156. I requested they refund this to my bank and I was told it would be done in 5 working days. 

5 working days passed and no refund. I called Vodafone, I was cut off the first time and the second time I was told exactly the same as above, still no refund as of the 22nd January which I was told would be the latest th refund would come into my account. I have contacted Live Chat again this morning as I am in work, at first the advisor told me there was £156 outstanding on my account, then when I quieried why this hadn't been refunded yet he told me he was wrong and there was nothing outstanding - outstanding is a strange word to use as that implies it's money I owe Vodafone.

I am absolutely disgusted with the Customer Service provided by Vodafone. At no point have they tried to contact me and let me know when I will be getting a refund, that they have even cancelled my account or that anything is even being done. Nobody can tell me what is going on, and I am here struggling to afford to eat and to make ends meet, as I had factored in that I would have had my £150 back by now! I don't even care about whatever is owed from the £68 bill, I just want my money back!

I will never recommend Vodafone to anybody, I am absolutely disgusted and appauled at this company. I have wasted every single day off I have had this month trying to sort this out and nobody can do anything for me. I either get hung up on, or told 'It's being dealt with'.

I returned something to Amazon on Saturday, I've been refunded ALREADY! It's is the worst customer service EVER.

[MJS1996]

Please can you see my post here about Vodafone not contacting Customers they owe money to? I am disgusted with them.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi 

Not a good experience at all !

The only thing I would have done differently would be to have returned the phone to a Vodafone High street Store. 

Please let the Social Media Team here who read all posts catch up with your post and im sure they'll help you with this situation if they can. 

I wish you all the best with this situation. 

[MJS1996]

Thank-you for your response.

It's funny you should say that, I actually did go into my local Vodafone store but they told me I could not return an online order through them and that I would have to arrange it with the team over the phone. I omitted that from the original post as I believed this to be true.

[BandOfBrothers]

Im afraid it's not the right advice!

From Vodafone returns

"You can return your product to any Vodafone Store, or give us a call so we can discuss your options and send you a returns pack to post your device back to us. Full instructions are included in the pack. Please make sure that the device is well-protected inside the returns pack, as you remain responsible for its condition until we receive it"

[MJS1996]

That is very frustrating - though I do not know if it would have helped my situation. Do Vodafone cancel the contract there and then in the store and refund my card, or do they send the item back on my behalf. I feel if they sent it back on my behalf, the same problem would have occurred. However, if they cancel it in the store and they are telling customers they cannot do this, is that because they do not want a -1 figure against their store? If that is the case, that's completely wrong and insensetive.

I'm just so fed up of all of this, I read these forums before I ordered off Vodafone and I thought I would give them a chance, especially because you can't really get more poor than 3's Customer Service. But Vodafone doesn't have Customer Service it feels, it simply doesn't have anything.

[BandOfBrothers · Accepted solution]

By returning via a store the staff can verify the phone is in good condition , there is no danger of it being lost in transit and the Vodafone Staff in the shop can initiate the process I believe and add notes to your Account. 

Vodafone like most networks would like the opportunity to save a contract especially if a person gets buyers remorse etc. I apprecaite this may not be the issue in your case. 

Please do let the team help. 

A further course of action could be vodafone-uk/complaints as a last resort. 

[MJS1996]

All I can say is what a coincidence, no sooner had I replied to the last post, I get a text from Vodafone saying they have been trying to contact me. When I called them, it went straight through to the refund team who told me LiveChat had tried to issue a refund to my bank when I paid on Card. Problem is now resolved and I should have my money back tomorrow, I still think the service up until today was shocking and I will open a complaint with Vodafone.

From my experience, LiveChat are shocking and calling General Customer Services isn't always that much better, let's hope this is sorted. Can't get over the irony they have done this the day I decided to post on here. I had been pondering it for a week now.