This is about my Mum's account with Vodafone. She is 87, frail, with a heart condition. This is where we are at.
Mid-January: Mum moves to Vodafone from 02 for her mobile. They offer her broadband and landline cheaper than Sky, where was currently at. It will be no hassle to move, they say. We say OK.
February 6th: Broadband and phone line due to go active. Broadband does. Phone doesn't work. I go to Mum's to try to sort it out. I'm disabled, and have to take a taxi. Vodafone refuse to admit there is anything wrong, and say it will go live by midnight. I come home.
February 7th: Phone line still doesn't work. Vodafone won't speak to me without Mum present, so I get another taxi. Speak to Vodafone at Mum's. It will be working within a few hours, they say. I get added as authorised to speak on Mum's behalf.
February 8th: Phone line still not working. Vodafone asks me to try different things with the phone. I can't do that at home, so I get a third taxi, and a third wasted afternoon, to do these various things. Still doesn't work.
February 9th: After a fourth taxi fare to try out even more things, the line finally goes active thanks to nothing I have been asked to try. So far, I'm £120 down in taxi fares.
February 10th: We realise that something is not right with the phoneline, because it has call waiting on it (which we don't want), and doesn't have Voicemail (which we do). We report this to Vodafone. They say they will get on it.
February 11th to 15th: Numerous calls to Vodafone as the situation doesn't change. Call Waiting is unsafe for Mum. If we call her when she is on the phone, we get a ringing tone. That doesn't tell us whether she's talking to someone or whether she is ill/fallen over and can't get to the phone . But Vodafone tell us that Call Waiting isn't showing as active at their end, and therefore they can't remove it. Meanwhile, they say they are also unable to add Voicemail.
February 16th: I go to Mum's again to sort things out once and for all. Taxi fares are now £150 altogether. Vodafone tell us that they cannot sort out Mum's phoneline. We have three or four days left in the cooling off period, and decide to leave. After a bit of arguing, Vodafone agree to keep phoneline active until Sky take over again, but will still class it as leaving during the cooling off period. We ring Sky the same day, and put the order in for them to take over.
Over the next few weeks it is clear that the order isn't going through with Sky. Eventually we find out that Vodafone rejected the request for Sky to take over the line.
March 16th: With the previous order from Sky closed down, we now put through the order again with Sky to take over the broadband and landline from Vodafone.
March 21st: We are informed that Vodafone again have rejected the request for Sky to take over. Sky ask me to ring Vodafone and check there are no cancellations pending. I do this. I am told that there are. As asked by Sky, I request that they are removed so that the takeover can take place.
March 25th: Before putting through the third order with Sky, I call Vodafone again to check that those cancellations requests were removed. I was told that they were.
March 27th: We put through the third order with Sky. Third time lucky?
March 28th: We get a message from Sky saying that the takeover of the line has been rejected by Vodafone for the third time. I ring Vodafone to see what was going on. It turns out that the cancellations from the previous week were NOT removed as I was told on two occasions the week before.
Now: At the weekend, I need to place the order for a fourth time with Sky in the hope that a miracle might happen, but I'm guessing it won't.
So, what do I do now?
How do I make sure that Vodafone will release the number and the line as they should do?
Will they still waive the cancellation fee as promised on February 16th? (They'd better!)
What do I do if this goes wrong again???
I'm disabled. I have severe arthritis, and I have bipolar. The last two months have been a complete misery due to the actions of Vodafone. I neither have the patience or the health to keep dealing with this. We need it sorted. So if anyone has any ideas of what we should do, please let me know. While I'd like to threaten Vodafone with Ofcom, I probably don't have the strength to go through with it. My mental health has plummeted. My meds have been increased. I'm like a zombie. Someone, hopefully, can help with some advice. Thank you.
