Vodafone - warning!!!

WARNING WHEN NEGOTIATING A NEW DEAL WITH VODAFONE

This is the first time I've heard of anything like this. UNBELIEVABLE!

I mentioned elsewhere about the sis in law getting a pretty good deal on an N95 from Vodafone. Will re-cap:

I was helping her get a good contract & phone when she called them. She was out of contract and had been with them for a few years so was in good stead. She was still paying £35 a month for a pretty rubbish package, but as we all know you can get a much better deal now a days.

She was offered a lesser phone, so I was prompting her to ask for the N95.She did and the bloke on the other end said that was fine. Then it came down to the mins. We're on a good deal through Orange with 600 mins and unlimited texts for £25 pm (free N95) so this was the benchmark.

She negotiated £20 for 500 texts and 500 mins. Pretty similar deal to ours so she was happy with that. Me doing my 'challenge dom' thing, told her at the end of the call to also ask for a blue tooth headset which they threw in.

All good! UNTIL.....

She gets her first bill - and it's for £35 (the old rate) and not £20 as promised by the sales person.

Thinking a pretty simple thing to sort out, she emailed them and the response was incredible. I'd paste it in here, but this one could be taken to court so won't do that for now, but to summarise:

It goes along the lines of

Vodafone - "Let me assist you"
(how patronising) - it wasn't to assist at all - just to back up the crime.

Vodafone - "You called to renew your contract at £35 per month"
erm - no she didn't!

Vodafone - "There's no notes on your account to say that you were offered a new contract at £20"

erm - not our problem? Maybe the salesperson has pocketed the commission and wanted to look like they've sold the package for more? You're incentivising your staff to lie to customers aren't you!?

Vodafone - "If you have a letter stating the new offer of contract then send it to me."
How would there be a letter? You phone up, agree a tariff, the phone arrives, you use it, and get a bill for what you agreed, you pay for it. Perhaps if the tarrif does get changed by the sales man then there is a letter. But you can't send a letter that you haven't been sent. Vodafone now this.

So what now, cancel the contract? You'll love this bit:

Vodafone - "If you were still in your 14 day cooling off period you could have cancelled your new rip off contract that you're now tied into for 18 months, but you're too late" - wait a minute - I didn't know I was going to be conned until I got a bill!

You couldn't make that bit up! If it wasn't so damn frustrating it would be funny.

And then to cap it off:

Vodafone - "I trust the above info has been helpful"

Speechless. Are these people for real? Are they from planet earth? Can they for one second think that that could have been helpful?

It should not be possible for them to offer a contract or contract extension verbally, and then not require it to be confirmed by signature. If it is, there needs to be electronic fall back on the conversation.

I personally think there's a salesman who's picked up a commission for contract extension by saying yes to everything, but not put the agreed items through the system. Perhaps he gets more commission for the more the customer pays. Basically encouraging lies. He said to her at the end of the convo: "Tell your friends to call if they want me to match the deal"!!! I'll bet!

Ok so what next? Carrie, you work in a call centre? Do you know what proportion of these calls are recorded? If they can use them in their own favour, they can certainly check out to see what a customer has been promise.

What do you guys think? Ever come across this? A new one on us and we have religiously updated phones for the past 15 years.

Will keep you updated as the case develops.

She should threaten them with court action and hope they do have a recording which can be used against them.

Sounds like a right scam! At least there are witnesses and not just 1 person against them.

I stick to PAYG since I can barely spend £5 a month so all the sales calls hang up pretty quick.

D

Thanks HC. Obviously hope it doesn't get that far, but this is certainly a case that will set the cat amongst the pigeons as it's certainly a flaw to the order or renew-by-phone system.

What worries me is that this is such a blatant scam that the operator might have been savvy enough to know that he wasn't being recorded. Hope I'm wrong.

But yep, we were there and will help her fight this one all the way. A huge principle.

You should get Dom involved! http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and...ntheshow.shtml

and while you're at it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and...ct_index.shtml

D

all calls are recorded frug m8y. do you know the date and approx time of call ? go throught to complaints and get em to find the call (if they say they cant find/do it they're lying, calls are recorded and kept for quite some time for secruity and training purposes).
hope you get it sorted. i'll help if i can but i can only advise on what t-mobile do as a comparison.

Good plan. We'll see how they respond to the next email. The crux is on that tape. But then, I wonder if they'll listen to it and realise they're in the wrong and conveniently lose it!

Maybe we should all be recording such conversations.

i write down cca's name and call date/time now. especially when calling tax credits....

Thanks Carrie. That's very useful.

Thats Shocking.

Similar (ish) thing happened to me when I was renewing my Orange contract but didn't get that far;

I was in Plymouth looking at new phones on 3 network and saw one I liked so rang up Orange to arrange disconnection. They did their usual trick of matching or bettering the deal. They offered me a VERY good deal £7.50 a month for first 6 months, £15 for the remaining 12. 1000 texts/60mins compared to 3's £15pm for 600text/75mins. They offered me a few phones and as I was near the store I asked if I could go and check them out and they offered to ring me back in 20mins.

60mins later, no call back so I rang them and explained. They said there was no way they could offer me that contract as it wasn't financially viable for them and the bloke I spoke to must have made a error... I couldn't be arsed arguing so just asked to be disconnected.

I do wonder now if I had said yes straight away the same thing could have happened to me.


RE Recording phone calls, something happened with my Uncle when he rang up a company, can't remember what it was now, but he said "I'm under the impression that you record all your calls so surely you can go back and find my conversation to back up what I'm saying" they couldn't be bothered going through them so backed down. Not sure it will work with your case tho... worth a try tho.

Hope it all gets sorted swiftly, thanks for the warning!
I agree with HC about getting Dom involved

If you do that personally you have to inform the other person you are speaking to otherwise it is completely void.

Friend of mine had a really dodgy landlord and they recorded a phone call proving that he had ripped them off... but they couldn't use it there was nothing saying the landlord was informed of the recording.

Sucks that it can't be used as evidence even tho the proof there!