I am owed a £842 refund from Vodafone

[tierney25]

Soo I have no idea where to begin but here goes...

Monday the 11th of November my monthly bill was ude to be taken by direct debit - Vodafone instead decided to take £842.62 instead of my usual £67.64...completly unaccetpable.

So i contacted them and they gave me all the rubbish that they give everyone...yu'll receive your refund between 3-5 days. Ohhh guess what...it got to five days and no refund! So I contacted again on the friday, they said there had been a 'glitch' which is just an absolute fob off, and that they have processed the refund which they'd promise I'd receive by Wedensday the 20th (Today).....

You guessed it...no refund was in my bank. £842 was taken from me just before christmas and I am livid! 

I contacted them again and they said there was another glitch for god sake! They have now promised that I would get my refund within 48 hours - So I have given vodafone 48 hours to refund me my money which takes them to 11am Friday the 22nd of November. They gave me a refund reference, whether this is real or not i don't know.

I've informed them that I will write a formal complaint and go to the press about all the false informaion I have been given - which I have proof of. 

So please vodafone just give my my money back.

Anyone else had these problems? Did you actually receive your refund? This isn't silly money to be messing with, it's a lot.

[AnnS]

Hi @tierney25 

If this is a genuine error by Vodafone and there has been a mistake with the amount of money taken from your bank account don't wait for Vodafone to refund the money.

The best thing to do is to invoke the banks direct debit guarantee, with this being the bank own guarantee they are obliged to honour it.  You will then have the money back in your account within 24 hours.

[BandOfBrothers]

I would certainly go down the complaints  route @tierney25 

Perhaps give the Vodafone Social Media Teams via Contact-us-for-account-specific-queries  a try at resolving this. They are the same teams that reply here but cannot help with account enquiries from the forum.

If you do go down the route of invoking the Direct Debit Guarantee then be sure to carefully watch things because if Vodafones Systems still somehow show that they are owed the money then this can set of a chain reaction of debt collection etc.

I wish you all the best with this situation. 

[AnnS]

Hi @tierney25 

If there were any changes to the amount due to be taken by direct debit, Vodafone would have needed to give you at least 3 working days notice before the amount was debited from your bank account, if the correct procedure was not followed or there has been an error you are quite entitled to invoke the banks own guarantee.  Indeed this is something Vodafone mention here:  Direct Debit Guarantee 

Going the complaints process or waiting for the forum team to help is fine when you are not in a hurry but this is your money, it's a large amount that has been taken by error and you want it back in time for Christmas.

[chistery]

As others have said, use the direct debit guarantee if Vodafone took the wrong amount.

If they do this, I'd also make a one off payment for the correct bill amount so your account would be paid, to save any questions over late payment.