Requesting a tranfer order

[Srobertson1995]

Hi All,

I recently switched to vodafone from plusnet last month, after plusnet hiked up the price to £42 a month! I got things set up with vodafone, and was told they would contact my old provider and cancel my account with plusnet on my behalf. 

However, a couple of days ago plusnet took money from my direct debit, despite vodafone having been providing my internet for the past 3 weeks. I was told this was because vodafone had not sent them a "transfer order" to tell them they were taking over, and that I should get vodafone to send them a transfer order back dated from my activation date, and their system will automatically refund me.

However, nobody on the customer services at vodafone seems to be able to help. I've been sent a bill, but thats not what plusnet are requesting. I think the customer services call centres in Egypt I get through to aren't equipped to deal with this, as I've spoken to 3 people in CS - one of them said she would call back and she didnt, and two others have just passed me off. I'm starting to think that I'm not ging to be able to get through to anyone competent enough to deal with this... can anyone help? would I be better tryng to get through to a manager in the sales department?

This is the message I got from plusnet,

As per our conversation i am unable to see any transfer order or take over date from a new provider. If you can contact your new provider and request a transfer order to be sent over to us we can then close the account.  I apologize for the inconvenience

[Mark]

That's strange @Srobertson1995, we'd have contacted your previous provider before switching your service over to ourselves. So one of our team can look into this and get the correct information sent to them, please contact us via Twitter using the handle @VodafoneUK, or through Facebook at Vodafone UK. 

[BobH]

 @Srobertson1995

Is your new Vodafone service fibre broadband?  If it's fibre and your previous provider was copper wire (phone line) they don't need to cancel your previous provider as it's a new separate line.  

[Srobertson1995]

Hi @BobH - I managed to get to the bottom of it. Vodafone were clueless, so I made a last ditch attempt with my plusnet provider. They did a check and found that there were 2 active lines at my address. So instead of just taking over the old line (which was fibre optic) they installed a new one and didnt even bother to close the old one, which is probably why the customer services folk were scratching their heads. When I initially phoned I was told theyd need to install a new line, and there was no way to avoid it. Seems pretty clear that sales people have targets to meet, this could have been avoided if theyd simply taken over the existing line. 

Plusnet were able to refund me for the latest month, but not the date the line went active as there would be no way to put it through their system together a few days as opposed to a full month. However plusnet were very helpful and discovered what the issue was, and giving me a refund of what they could. Result is I'm about £15 out of pocket as opposed to £60 out of pocket for paying for two lines. 

Although its sorted now, if anyone is reading this id reccomend you stay well clear of Vodafone. Their customer services advisors try to help, but really just lack competency to deal with complicated issues and I got nowhere with them. I have no idea why they insisted on installing a second line when I already had perfectly working fibre broadband either, seems to be pretty shoddy buisness practise.