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Class action suit against vodafone

asal
3: Seeker
3: Seeker

Interested to know if there is any ongoing (or plans) for a class action suit against Vodafone for breaching thier broadband contract and rushing to put a default on customer's credit score which impacts their life?

 

Here is an approximate time line of events that happened to me which I know other people who experienced the same:

 

1- Broadband contract bought (month 0)

2- Minimum speed not met and calls for action from vodafone (months 0-3)

3- Vodafone finaly sends an engineer to fix things up and succeded (month 4)

4- Speed and dropout get worse again (months 7-8)

5- Calls to fix the issue with no luck from vodafone side (months 7-8)

6- Called to cancel contract but promised solution by sending a new router (month 9)

7- Router never arrives despite chasing so I switched provider (month 10)

8- Vodafone tried to charge early termination fees which I refused and I asked for a reimbursment of payments for months (7-10).

9- Vodafone refused my request, issued a defualt on my credit file for failled payments (£134).

10- So far three debt collection companies have been harassing me over the payment.

11- Issued a GDPR subject access request and callls and notes on account proves vodafone's breach of contract.

11- Talked to my lawyer who advised that I take it forward to the small court claims.

 

So I prefer to have my suit as part of a class action as I know how bad credit defaults affect other people's life who are in much less position to recover from it. If not, I will pursue this individually.

 

7 REPLIES 7

BandOfBrothers
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

I totally understand and appreciate you were not happy with the Broadband service provided @asal 

However if a person does not cancel a service properly I-want-to-cancel-my-home-broadband-service  and stops paying or does not pay any Early Termination Fee after switching while in contract , then the business your in contract with can take action too as detailed in the Terms and Conditions you signed upto when taking on the contractual term.

So if for example a person stops payments / does not pay any Early Termination Fee then a default can be added that lasts 6 years from the default date if Vodafone feel they've exhausted means of collection and engaged with debt collection agencies.

They are not required to pre warn the account holder they are adding a Default.

I understand you felt frustration and why acted as you did.

You can raise a complaint via Complaints and if Vodafone cannot come to an amicable solution they can offer a Deadlock Letter for you to then approach the Communications Ombudsman.

To add the Vodafone Social Media Team's are contactable via Twitter or Facebook via private chat or DM's and they can have their dedicated Credit File Specialist Team's investigate whether the default was warranted or not.

Contact-us-for-account-specific-queries. 

Citizens advice can advise too and or follow the advice given by your lawyer.

I wish you all the best with this. 

Current Phone  >

Samsung Galaxy s²³ Ultra 512gb Phantom Black.

 

 

Thanks for the info. @BandOfBrothers

 

I came here after exhasting all means of communication with Vodafone. They seem very disorganised to me and sometimes whoever I am in touch with doesn't seem to care, hence I am moving to the next step.

 

I like the below example of a class action which happened in Australia and I think it succeeded. Lawyers basically created a website for affected users to formally register for the lawsuit. This seems like a reasonable way to move on with a class action, but I wanted to check if there is already something like this. Otherwise, I will check with the legal team I am consulting on how to procced with something like that. I guess making the website reaches a large number of users won't be an issue in this case.

 

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/vodafone-faces-multi-million-dollar-class-action-claim-334576

 

I also searched the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) for suits made against vodafone and found some interesting stuff over there.

https://www.bailii.org/

 

It may take longtime to get this sorted, but it needs to start for the sake of those users who suffer from the defaults on thier credit profiles. This could really drive thier life bad just because they refused to pay when Vodafone is in a breach of the contract and hopefully Vodafone pays attention to not using defaults as a way of forcing customers to pay first to get on with thier life.

gipjon
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

Ask vodafone for a deadlock letter and go to cisas 

This is what cisas is here for and its free . I my self took vodafone here and all in all about 3 weeks from start to finnish. i was surprised how quick and easy it was, not to mension i did very well out of it 

https://www.cedr.com/consumer/cisas/

You can get your vodafone account notes here https://www.vodafone.co.uk/gdpr-sars-form/#:~:text=Other%20ways%20to%20ask%20for%20your%20data&text=....

 

 

1 complain to vodafone and escalate it to the directors office 

2 after 8 weeks from the very first contact when you complained ask for a deadlock letter from the directors office

3 upload your complaint to cisas ,you need to upload your deadlock letter, how much money you want for stress and any thing the issue has cost you,  what you want or need vodafone to do and any evidence you have . ( i used screen shots from vodafone own recorded notes and pm chats from transcript)

4 cisas will look into it and decide if its a case they can take on 

5 cisas will send your case to vodafone deadlock team and give them 14 days to sort it and make you an offer 

6 deadlock team will try and sort the issue and make you the best offer they can 

7 if you reject the offer then cisas will step in and decide for the both of you and you both have to accept the outcome 

I my self only got as far as step 6 and vodafone decide to make me a offer i really could not turn down . 

Lesson for anyone else . Dont just leave wile you are in contact. You will owe vodafone money and end up with the debt collectors. Now i dont know what will happen here as this person is now not with vodafone 

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

Unfortunately by not following the correct procedure, which would be Official Complaint - Deadlock - Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) (CISAS) you have brought this on yourself.

I'm sure as soon as CISAS saw the complaint is against Vodafone they would almost certainly have ruled if your favour.

I do however wish you luck. Dealing with Vodafone is frustrating at the best of times.

It's a shame you didn't come here when you were having the problems, someone would have advised the correct procedure.

tbh, I don't mind to go to a lengthy process (legal action) and the cost associated rather than just leaving the case as is.

 

Defaults stay in profile for 6 years and evidence on material losses have been accumulating as a result of such defualt. I intially thought of representing myself at the small claims court but I realised that the cost of my time and lack of legal expertise would make it uneconomical and not widely effective unless it is a class action. This is why I opted for a legal advice to start with and came to ask for info here.

 

I will keep updating this thread on how I am getting on with that. Thanks

gipjon
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

If cisas accept the case and i cant think why not they will email you a link . You just click the link and that will log you in to your case where you can view everything . It be nice if you can come back and let us know the outcome 

@asal  - where did you get to with this. 
I am also fighting to get a default removed with no luck and looking to go through legal channels. 


On my part, the cost and time is 1 thing, but not sure doing this through small claims court is the right way, as its not monetary i am claiming for; It is for the removal of a default on a credit file.

Any update or advise on how things went for you would be appreciated.