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06-07-2020 12:14 PM
I am in UK quarantine after being stuck in Italy for 4 months cos of Covid. Vodafone have just suspended my SIM, used on my "old-fashioned" mobile phone, not a smart phone. Great. UK Border Force will have tried to contact me on this number. Great. I presume I have "violated" T&C as in "Use of our services while in our Europe Zone (excluding the UK), Roam-free or Roam-further destinations is intended for temporary, periodic travel such as holidays and short breaks" but there is no mention of any limit and the fact I was grounded abroad (four Easyjet flight cancelled in March, April, May and June) would not seem to be grounds for Vodafone to punish people. This is also a public health issue. I am alone, elderly, and in quarantine. I cannot access my account because I cannot receive the "secret code" because the number suspended. But my Internet SIM, used on separate data device on the same account is alive and well. But will run out of cash soon and I need to top up. I can't because I cannot receive the "secret code". Great. Furthermore Vodafone never made any attempt to contact me. Great. They are sitting on my credit, and preventing me from obtaining a PAC, cos I cannot log in to my account, because I cannot receive the "secret code". The local store is closed, Vodafone's "Fraud Squad" have not returned my call. Do they not work from home? All good. What next?
06-07-2020 12:22 PM
Contact the Social Media team on Facebook or Twitter, who'll be able to help you. They also normally send you an SMS code to verify your identity but can use other means if this is not possible.
06-07-2020 04:50 PM
OK so for what's it might be worth for other people in this situation here is final update: (many thanks to AnnS and Hrym for their helpful advice).
I finally managed to get through to the Vodafone UK Facebook page - the guy was very helpful (as usual, excellent individual performances) but of course despite having provided SIM numbers, Account numbers, Phone numbers, DOB, email adresses, PIN numbers etc he was actually unable to solve the problem without sending me on to Vodafone's "Fraud Dept" plus providing me with an online form which again required email address, phone numbers, account number plus an ID photo.
So I phoned Vodafone "Fraud Dept": of course it's not really Vodafone at all, which is why it's called "Fraud Dept" - cos it's a fraud. It's just another outsourced company providing front-office service "on behalf of Vodafone". So yet again we go through the "security", another really helpful guy (no flies on any individual performaneces when it comes to saying the right thing!). But still not a squeak of substance from Vodafone itself. This guy had to contact "Fraud Dept Vodafone" (the "real" Fraud dept, not just the front office) in Newbury: yet more time and expense on my wife's Italian mobile phone (calling from the UK).
Has it ever occurred to Vodafone that their obsession with all this secret security bullsh** is completely delusional? Do they imagine that there is any other telephone operator in the world that behaves like this?
Anyway, the guy finally got his reply from Vodafone Newbury. Whatever they told him (very little) he was not at liberty to pass on to me - it had been a suspected issue with "roaming irregularity" - what you would call real fraud eh? And yes, the fact that I had been stuck in Italy for four extra months because of Covid and cancelled flights had evidently been factored in the AI system's algorythms ... so an order had automatically been put out to "bar" my number (with no warning sent to me at all, another mystery), the order had then apparently been revoked by a real human being (well, can't have been a Vodafone employee!) but too late to prevent the original order being implemented. Hence five days in quarantine, alone, with no phone, thereby consituting Public Health risk having previously given this number as contact number for authorities in case of contagion on my flight back to the UK.
Apologies? Nah. I have to write to Vodafone for that. Compensation for the hours spent on a non UK mobile phone calling the UK not to mention the angst and humiliation of having to grovel in front of a "fraud dept"? Not on your Nellie! Any coherent explanation as to what happened, or better still, to make sure it won't happen again? YMBJ. If I do not get a proper apology from Vodafone plus commitment that it will not happen again next time I go abroad plus proof that they materially attempted to contact me to warn me, then as far as i am concerned they are in breach of their own Terms and Conditions and, as advised by the UK Consumer Association, i would be entitled to take the matter further.