New BB customer billing issues

[Shakyzzr]

I’m hoping someone can help me here as the online chat agents (although each one has said they have sorted it) haven’t been able to get it corrected !

The story is as follows:-

I requested to move over from PO Broadband to Vodafone broadband on 24th Jan 2022. After realising that I’d got my PO BB end dates wrong and to avoid any early end charges, I got in touch with Vodafone BB and got the activation date changed to 14th Feb 2022. This was accepted and I received an email confirmation.

When I accessed my online account, it still showed a DD was going to be taken in January, BEFORE my service was even activated ! I did an online chat and the agent told me he could see what the issue was and he would cancel my DD payment until after the new activation date.

This appeared to have worked OK, although on my online account, the Jan payment just changed to a paid status. After a few days I checked my account again as the DD didn’t appear to have been registered in my Bank Account and my Voda account was also asking me to make a one-off payment. It was also saying that the correct Feb payment would be £24, not the £19 that it should be.

I did an online chat again and the agent told me that it was a late payment charge for not paying the INCORRECT Jan payment on time !!! Again, I explained to him about the change of activation date and he agreed that it was an error, he would remove the charge and it should show the correct amount within 24 hours. Needless to say, this didn’t actually happen and my account still showed that the payment taken will be £24. So, online chat AGAIN (third time now !) and this agent did his best to assure me that the payment taken WILL actually be £19, not £24 and also forwarded me the bill so I could see for myself, which did actually look correct.

However, I only realised today that the bill he sent me was the INCORRECT bill for January, BEFORE my activation date ! I’ve looked on my online account just now and……..sure enough it’s stating the payment for Feb will be £24. NOT £19 as it should be. The agent also tried to say that there will be a £5 discount applied because I signed-up via the TopCashback website, which is obviously complete and utter rubbish ! To make things even more confusing, the actual figures on my online account state:-

Bill amount - £24 which includes out of plan account charges of -£14 ??????? That makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER !!

I’ve kept the last two online chat transcripts (Had to Copy ‘n’ Paste them as the email transcript service DOES NOT WORK !) so I’ve got some form of backup if this starts to get nasty.

Also, when I logged onto my account today, the procedure changed. It asked me which phone number I would like the confirmation text sent to (landline or mobile) which I suppose is fair enough but it then asked me which plan I would like to view. There were two shown, both of which were identical and referred to my landline BB plan ! Again, WHY TWO PLANS ???

My service did actually come live today and it appears to be working OK so I suppose that’s one thing but if the billing is going to be a joke like this every month, I can see me going elsewhere.

If there is anyone on here who can actually sort this, I would appreciate it because it appears that the Vodafone online chat agents obviously can’t.

TIA.

[CrimsonLiar]

These forums are pretty much user to user help.  The best way to get this refunded would probably be to give up on Vodafone, and as they've never actually provided the service press for a full and complete refund.  

[HappyNomad]

Hi .@shakzyyr 

I too had enormous difficulty when I first started with Vodafone (way back when Superfast 2 was £28/month.  Nothing to do with billing I hasten to add but It having taken a bit of sorting out, I am now well into my third contract period and have never had an issue needing support of any kind since.  £19 a month Superfast 2 takes some beating for value when everything is working well.

Message then  is, it may well be worth persevering with your billing issues even though 'the No Support Dept' appears to be fully focussed on driving you towards the competition.  A moderator or community champion will be along soon and they will offer the following advice - good, bad or worth a try?  I don't know…

"If you have an account specific query on the Community, we’ll ask you to message our team on Facebook or through Twitter @VodafoneUK.

If you drop us a Direct Message on either of the above channels, you'll be greeted by our BOT. If you select 'Get Started' and then 'Asked to DM', you'll get through to the team. Be sure to choose the correct category when contacting us, for the best reply. 

When messaging our team through either platform, please include a link to your Community post along with your username.

Our team will be able to see your query through the link, meaning you won’t need to repeat your question again"

Good luck.

[MarkD]

Hi @Shakyzzr, the information that you've been provided so far about the Community is spot on. As we would need access to your Vodafone account, we would need to review your query on Facebook or Twitter. We would recommend getting in touch using the details in @HappyNomad's post 🙂

[Shakyzzr]

Thanks for the replies guys. However, I don't do FB or Twitter as social media is really not my thing at all. Our lass does though so I'll see if I can figure out some way of doing it through her account. Going through those channels won't just get me connected to another live chat agent will it though ? I'm not "having a go" at them as they're obviously trying their best. The only reason I ask is that I get the feeling the agents haven't got the necessary permissions to solve the problem judging by my previous experiences.

I would much rather prefer being told they can't do it and passing me onto another department than them trying (and ultimately failing) to sort it as this just leaves me going around in circles.

Thanks anyway and I'll report back with how it goes.

[MarkD]

If you've got a mobile number on the Vodafone account, you can come through to us on any social media account. We'll just need to send you over a security code to the mobile to complete a security check. Our Social Media team work a little different to live chat, we don't offer instant replies but if you have a broadband query you will get connected to the broadband team who'll be able to help. 

[Jayach]

Although in your case it may be due to the moved installation date, you aren't the only new customer who has been given incorrect advance information on payments, but the correct amounts were taken in those cases.

As for logging in and seeing two accounts, it's the same for me, but it's because Vodafone treat the broadband and landline as separate entities.

[Shakyzzr]

Thanks for that Jayach, that's exactly the screen I get once I've logged in. I'll also wait until after the bill due date (18th Feb) to see if the correct amount gets taken or not. I'm not too fussed coz £5 ain't gonna break the bank so might be better off waiting. If the wrong amount does get taken, at least I should have an easier time explaining what's gone wrong.

@MarkD - I'll try the social route if it all goes pear-shaped ! Thanks for the info guys.

[Shakyzzr]

So, thought I'd better update this thread. The payment date came and went and I was charged the correct price of £19, much to my relief. Funnily enough, my account page suddenly updated to show the correct amount after the payment was taken as well - lol.

Thanks to all who helped anyway, hopefully there'll be no other issues from now.

[MarkD]

How strange! Thank you for updating the thread and we're happy to hear that you've been charged the correct price 👍