Is it worth complaining to the ODTR about Vodafone?

dahamsta

Excellent post.

adam

De Rebel

Originally posted by dahamsta
Excellent post.

adam

And there was i worried that you might accuse me of being flatulent (ahmmm verbose) again !!

Dun

I went roaming in Venice in July with Vodafone (Ready To Go), and when I flew into Stansted I noticed that my last fiver of credit was gone. When I got back to Ireland, another €5 was taken out when I topped up with another ten. I presumed that it was like the old text messaging situation where you could text w/o credit and they would take it out when you topped up next. I had made loadsa calls, so I thought that was bought right anyway.

I was rather shocked to get a text message from them a few days later saying that due to a technical fault, calls were not billed to my phone until I returned. The bit that shocked me was

As a gesture of goodwill, we are reimbursing the credit to your phone

And they did - something like €11, even though they I had made the calls..

Strange world

sunbeam

..involves a postcard I received last week suggesting I change my phone a friend for free number to the e-merge isp number. After numerous phonecalls to Vodafone and sending them the card in question to prove I wasn't having them on they tell me it was all a big mistake and *several* customers received this in error. As they make a small fortune out of me in HSCSD calls it would have been nice.....

seamus

Originally posted by De Rebel

One other suggestion. Under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998 you are entitled to a copy of everything that Vodafone (or anyone else) hold on you on computer. They actually type a log of every call, with a summary of the content. (Honestly!!)

Confirmed. They have a small db on every call you've made to Customer Services since you've joined them...what time you rang, how long you were on for, and what your problem was.

Roll on true number portability - now re-scheduled for 31/12/2002 - another ODTR fiasco - its the one thing that prevents us walking in these situations.

Full number portability is a nightmare and should never have been implemented. How will you know what network people are on without asking them? You'll spend 20 mins to someone, thinking that you're just using your free minutes, only to discover a €2/3 bill on your account later. Whoops, OT, I keep doing that today.....

Tom Dunne

Well, I am one unhappy bunny.

Complaied to the ODTR. Nice chap, he complained to Vodafone. They claimed that all I had to do was ring them and they would re-connect me without any upfront payment, all nicely worded and apologetic.

So they are telling the ODTR one thing and me another. I rang Vodafone yesterday, told the poor unfortunate twat what Vodafone had told the ODTR and after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, she was to put me through to the credit dept. They obviously didn't want to talk to me, and after about five minutes holding, she came back and said she would re-connect me immediately.

I'm still going to write a letter of complaint to Vodafone as DeRebel stated (I echo dahamsta's sentiments, btw). I have been without mobile since the 12th of September. If I don't get any decent response, I'm going to cancel my Vodafone account.

TD.

evie

Hey!
Forgive the mistakes as I am indeed a "newbie"!

In relation to your rather interesting story about Russia, I have seen something similar occur with the banks in Ireland.

I work in a fairly respectable clothes shop in the centre of the city and on monday, we had a customer who was, quite obviously, on a spending spree. When she came to our cash desk, she tried to pay with her credit card. Her card was declined and one of my fellow employees rang the bank to get an authorisation code. The bank told her that they could not give her an authorisation code as they had been told that the card had been stolen.

The customer herself then took the phone and rang her branch to straighten the story. The bank apologised and told the customer that she was not usually one to spend so much in one day so they assumed that the card had been stolen. They had put a block on the card so that the "thieves" would not do any more damage.

So in conclusion, this does not just happen with vodafone but with banks too. Although, I must say, you wouldn't really expect it with a phone company.

spongebob

The plastic company spotted a fraudulent pattern and acted to prevent further abuse, the customer was not at home or work and probably could not be contacted in the shop. I suspect the card was authorised later on Evie...was it? If so all is well IMO.

Vodafone also spotted a pattern but they then rang the customer, were assured it was not fraudelent and THEN cut him off. They compounded it by trying to get him to pay for a failure in their fraud control system with a reconnect charge.

M

dahamsta

Credit card companies have been mining data for odd behaviour for a while now, as have other financial institutions and operators[1]; in fact, it's been said that PayPal's success can be directly linked to the algorithms the creators developed to prevent fraud. The difference here is Vodafone's arrogance with the customer, something PayPal has suffered from too.

Stopping someone's credit card because you're worried their card may have been stolen is inconvenient, certainly, but it works to everone's advantage in the long run -- you'll be glad of it when your card /is/ stolen, and you're so flustered you forget to report it. Blocking a SIM is almost exactly the same. However, blocking it and refusing to reconnect because you /mightn't/ pay your bill is just idiotic.

You can bet your bottom dollar that the Vodafone PR guys are tearing the policymakers a new one for not consulting with them right now.

adam


[1] Except AIB, obviously.

Ruu_Old

i got narky over a simcard that went astray. They said i signed for it and that my signature was on the package, even tho i was at work! and it was delivered to the house. I emailed the ODTR bout it, even tho it was a petty matter. They called me the next day and told me they had contacted Vodafone on my behalf and it was sorted out in the end so yeah go for it, make a show of them!

Dawg

Real interesting thread. Cant believe they did that.

I think De Rebel nailed it, some great advice there. One thing I didn't see mentioned is breach of contract. Sure, they can cut you off for non-payment but with a perfect payment record and no solid reason to cut you off then you must have a case against them.
However I would pay the bill in full as soon as you get it, otherwise you throw any argument you have aginst them out the window, not to mention the possibility of a bad credit rating.

Maj. TightAss

zynaps

Hm, is there a card for "one who, on having nothing useful to say, must respond to a thread with a card to slag another user's post"?