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Banned for 90 days from taking out a Vodafone contract - due to Vodafone's cockup

haroon1984
4: Newbie

Can someone give me the details of the CEO or Head Office? I never normally complain about anything, but the saga I have endured over the last few days is unbelievable. I will try to summarise concisely here.

 

1) Last week I purchased a Vodafone pay monthly SIM from a third party retailer. This went through fine. Vodafone still has the details of the plan on its system.

2) I bought the SIM because I believed it came with Gloaming Roaming Plus. I like to be 100% sure so I thought I should check directly with Vodafone.

3) Couldn't get through to a Vodafone call centre, but eventually spoke to Live Chat within the My Vodafone App. They insisted that my deal did not include Global Roaming Plus, only Global Roaming. And that I would have to pay an additional monthly fee to add GRP.

 

My critical mistake was listening to this person. I wish I hadn't.

 

4) I then contacted the retailer and told them to cancel the SIM.

5) On the very same day that the SIM was disconnected, I received the Welcome letter from Vodafone. It included a table of my plan which which confirmed in black and white that the plan does include Global Roaming Plus. Unfortunately by that point it was too late - the SIM had already been cancelled.

6) I called Vodafone, explained the issue and tried to get the line reconnected. They said they couldn't do it because it was purchased from a third party. Vodafone instead advised me to reorder the same SIM as a new order.

7) I then went back to the retailer to reorder the same SIM that I purchased last week. Immediately my credit check is declined. Yes, the exact same credit check that I passed last week. No explanation. All they can suggest is that I should speak to Vodafone.

😎 So I go back to Vodafone again and explain what has happened. They pull up my account and see that I am now blocked for 90 days from taking out a Vodafone contract. There is no explanation why from Vodafone. It's nothing to do with my credit score - 958/999. It's not because I've missed a payment - I haven't even received a bill.

9) I now cannot take out a Vodafone contract from anyone - neither a third party nor Vodafone direct - until February. Vodafone's advice: "just sit and wait".

 

Vodafone can't escalate my issue to anyone in the organisation who knows what's going on. I've been told that nobody at Vodafone will know why this has occurred, and nobody in the entire organisation can override it. It's literally "Computer says no". 

 

All of this is despite the fact that:

 

- I passed a Vodafone credit check less than a week ago

- My credit score remains very good (and unaffected by this whole saga)

- All I am trying to do is reconnect a previous line that should never have been disconnected. I don't even want a new contract -- I want to go back to the one I had until yesterday!

- None of this would have happened if Vodafone had given me the correct information about my plan in the first place

 

Who can I complain to about this insanity?

9 REPLIES 9

AnnS
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Hi @haroon1984

 

Third party dealers have different plans and tariffs than contracts taken out directly with the network.

 

I am not quite sure the reason for contacting Vodafone to ask them about the deal you were sold through the third party, you should have gone back to the point of sale and asked them to clarify exactly what they had sold and the terms.   Indeed when the SIM was sold to you, the agent should have gone through everything included and the third party should have provided this information in writing before leaving the store or by email. 

 

As you had already been credit checked by the third party and accepted for a Vodafone contract, there should have been no need for any further check, this was already done just over a week ago and should have been sufficient for them to set up a new contract.


@AnnS wrote:

Third party dealers have different plans and tariffs than contracts taken out directly with the network.

 


Yes they do. I'm not sure how that is relevant here.

 


@AnnS wrote:

I am not quite sure the reason for contacting Vodafone to ask them about the deal you were sold through the third party, you should have gone back to the point of sale and asked them to clarify exactly what they had sold and the terms.   Indeed when the SIM was sold to you, the agent should have gone through everything included and the third party should have provided this information in writing before leaving the store or by email. 


Perhaps because it's the network that provides the service? If you had a signal problem, would you walk into Carphone Warehouse to complain about it? It's only the service provider who can confirm what service is actually being provided.

 

The retailer did tell me what was included - I checked with them first. But after speaking to Vodafone, I thought the retailer had misled me in order to make the sale. Turns out the retailer was telling the truth - but I only established that when it was too late.

 


@AnnS wrote:

As you had already been credit checked by the third party and accepted for a Vodafone contract, there should have been no need for any further check, this was already done just over a week ago and should have been sufficient for them to set up a new contract.


You're making the mistake of trying to apply common sense to what I have learned is an absurd Kafkaesque drama. 

Jason-S
1: Seeker

We have just experienced something of a similar nature.

 

we foolishly took a contract out just before Black Friday,  however the day after receiving the handset, a third party were doing an identical deal for half the price. 

 

So we though we would give VF a call and see if they could at least give discount to soften the blow, but they were unable to lower the monthly contract. This was a shame as although i am fully aware we can return the phone/contract within the first 30 days, it means more hassle for VF to be fair having to take back the phone etc. But after a good chat with an advisor this was the only real option, as the difference was too big to take a hit on.

 

We then proceeded to take the a new order out with the 3rd party, at the heavily discounted rate, and all looked to be going swimmingly well, until an email was received advising Vodafone had refused to do a new contract. Like yourself, the exact same credit checks, that were passed 5 days previously, and again with a 999 exp rating this should not be a problem. 

 

So my recommendations, as to what i will also do next are:

Contact the Vodafone complaints team.

Get reasons as to why you were refused. They only have to tell you this if the decision was based on an automated one.

Ask for a copy of all your personal data from VF, incuding phone call and all customer notes.

After no resolution, Contact the ombudsman, and explain the situation, with all the details from the above.

 

Like me, you probably won’t get it resolved, but unless enough people follow it through to the end, VF will keep getting away with this behaviour. 

 

I suspect although it isnt meant to be obstructive behaviour, and detrimental to the customer on purpose, but it nether the less is not in line with treating customers fairly. 

 

 

 

 

 

jeffkinn
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

There is a simple explanation for this irritating situation. When you take out a contract with a third party you are their customer and not Vodafone's. They supply the air time and credit check you for that as they bill you directly. But for the details of the package your dealer is the first point of contact.

 

Also Vodafone won't price match with dealers and the reasons why dealers can be cheaper than the network has been given on here multiple times but it has to do with a lack of overheads and being commission based.

 

The third and most important problem is that applying for multiple contracts in a short space of time is bound to raise a fraud flag somewhere in the nerwork's systems. This would be an automatic process and is probably very difficult to circumvent even if you call them. To assume that the network is somehow trying to block you personally or circumvent your choices is daft. With 19 million customers, nothing this network does is personal be it something good or bad.

 

Good luck how ever it works out.

Jeffkinn_Sig.png

I think I can understand what has happened to get me to this point. 

 

However, what I would like Vodafone to do is recognise that it has some responsibility for the situation. It needs to be accountable for passing on misinformation to customers and the problems that result from that. Two separate CS advisors told me my plan did not include Global Roaming Plus -- who were then contradicted by other colleagues. The final answer from Vodane -- after speaking to about 6 different people -- was that my plan did include it and I shouldn't have cancelled it. Gee, thanks.

 

I was looking forward to joining Vodafone, but this experience will put me off the network for a good while. Will stay with EE instead.

Mark
Community Manager
Community Manager

I'm sorry to hear of the experiences you've had @Jason-S and @haroon1984. I can understand how frustrating this must be. So we can take a look into this for you and see if there's anything we do to help resolve your issues, please contact by following the instructions in this private message.

As my recent business SIM only contract was coming to an end and Vodafone couldn't give me a decent deal, I purchased a new SIM only Vodafone contract through a third party.  This was rejected by Vodafone with the explanation it was related to my credit rating.  My Experian credit rating is 999, so no it isn't!

 

As my contract was ending within a week, I used my PAC to transfer to another network and then applied again for exactly the same 3rd party contract and this time it was approved!  That was within a few days of them rejecting it.

 

The only conclusion is that they didn't want me to have two Vodafone contracts, despite one of them coming to an end.

 

This hasn't been an issue in the past when I've had my own Vodafone contract and one for my son, both in my name.

 

Since getting my new SIM only contract I've attempted to move it to my business so it can pay the monthly bills, just like previously.  They have refused this on the grounds that the contract needs to be 90+ days old before it can be transferred - for fraud reasons.

 

More arbitrary policies from a company that in my opinion is going downhill in terms of service to its customers!

The issue here is that Vodafone have a restriction in place for new accounts where you need to pay three months bills before they allow another connection (might not apply on business accounts). It's usually not because you're failing a credit check as such but down to the fact Vodafone want to make sure you pay your bills and you pay them on time so refuse a new connection. I'm not sure what happens if you terminate an account under any cooling off period, could be that you need to wait a few days for their systems to catch up or worse case the full 90 days. I was told when I terminated a Vodafone contract under the 14 day cooling off period a few years back that I wouldn't be able to get another one with them for three months if proceeded with the termination, I did and went with another network.

I've been a Vodafone customer for over 10 years.  During that time I've taken out many different contracts as Vodafone, like many other companies, refuse to treat existing customers as well as new customers when it comes to contract deals.

In that 10 years I've lived at the same address and used the same mobile number.  Sometimes the contract was through my business, which also has my home address as the trading address, sometimes it was a personal contract.

The fact that they are now saying I need to wait for 90 days to transfer the new contract from personal to business, for fraud reasons, is simply bad customer service.  I don't care if it is their policy, they need to become more flexible and treat long term customers with the respect they deserve.

Unfortunately, the support desks at company's like Vodafone are manned by faceless robots who get paid a measly salary to follow a script rather than make any decisions themselves.  This inevitably leads to poor customer relations.