To be absolutely LIVID with Vodafone?

[ElfOnTheBoozeShelf]

Every single bloody month, they overcharge me. By ridiculous amounts. The first three months of the particular contract, they charged me over £100 each time, and it took weeks to get it sorted - turns out they'd been charging me for someone else's contract, but it took several people to work that out.

They've had to give me several refunds because they keep overcharging me, normally by £40-£60 EACH MONTH.

I was refunded in October for their error. Again. Last month, they overcharged me by £1.44, and I let it slide.

This month, having just checked my bank statement, they charged me over £78.

My contract is £15 - brought down from slightly higher as part of their apology for their repeated cock ups. I deliberately had to get a cheap contract because of my financial position, and got the cheapest phone I could get with the largest screen possible, because I am partially sighted.

I will be calling them tomorrow, again.

AIBU to think they could possibly get it right, just ONCE?

[Sistedtwister]

Nope I will never use them again. They cocked up monumentally when my DF died and were incredibly rude. They are arsewipes

[aquashiv]

They are bastards.

[80schild]

Definitely not. I had a similar experience a short while ago when I was overcharged by 700. I wrote to the ceo in the end as I had absolutely no joy through conventional means (none of the footmen really had a clue what was going on).

[DyslexicScientist]

Orange fucked me over for month, now they credit me 19 pounds every month, rather than debit. I'm keeng quiet.

[TimeToMuskUp]

They're utterly shite. DH and I both use them for work-phones and bought DS1 a cheap contract phone for the days he gets the bus to/from school (he's 10, and doesn't really use it aside from the "I'm at school" texts and the odd game of minecraft). When we got his phone we capped the contract meaning he couldn't run up extortionate bills if he lost/misused it, thinking we'd build up to trusting him. He's been an absolute star and never been daft with it at all, but Vodafone wrote to DH in September saying he'd run up a bill of over £400 using apps. I checked the history on DS' phone; we asked him outright and he said he'd never downloaded anything; there was absolutely nothing on the phone bar Minecraft which I installed for him, and the function to download apps was password protected and only I knew the password, so we were pretty certain it was an error on their part. It took weeks to sort out, eventually they admitted their error, but not before they'd frozen his phone so that he couldn't send texts or make calls. What is the point in a young boy having a phone for security if he can't bloody use it? They are asshats. I will do victory laps of their house when we finish our contracts with them.

[WoodleyPixie]

They are rubbish. Even our work phones have gone over to buying phones outright and then unsung Giffgaff.

Vidafine typically overcharged work every month at least £100. They said one of my colleagues iPads used 6gb of data extra each month despite not having a sim in it and Only connecting to wifi. At least 5 of 8 phones went over call allowance but all call
Records indicated otherwise. As office accounts manager I spent hours every month on the phone to them.

[WoodleyPixie]

Using not unsung. Sorry to much Viognier.

[HeffalumpTrap]

YANBU. DH cancelled his contract in March after the minimum term had expired. Got his PUK and transferred the number. Every month they send him a bill and every bloody month he contacts them to complain and every bloody month they say it has been resolved but it hasn't. Argh.

[BoulevardOfBrokenSleep]

I've been with them for years and they've always been fine.
Mind you, I'm also with Virgin Media who have a rep for being appalling, and they have been fine with me too. Recently. The first couple of years were very tough.

I think the thing is, if they get it wrong to start it's very hard for them to sort it out, and you end up totally screwed. If they get it right to start with, it's all unicorns and rainbows. Ish.

[Sparklycat]

I hate them. They ruined my credit rating and I will never use then again. Terrible customer service and call centres in Egypt/India no help.

[ElfOnTheBoozeShelf]

I've been with them for years, as have my parents. The service has just got more and more awful. The last 18 months have been horrendous. I am waiting impatiently for the end of this contract. It's getting to the point that I am considering having to get an overdraft because of their fuck ups.

[AnchorDownDeepBreath]

Elf In the short term, you can recall the direct debit under the direct debit guarantee if it was more than they are supposed to take. Maybe doing that every month would make them bill you correctly.

Dyslexic Although I totally share your hatred of Orange, I wouldn't let that go on too long - I believe they've got 6 years to chase up mistakes, so you could end up owing them £19 x 2 each month. Although being as incompetent as they are, they may never notice...

[unimaginativename13]

Cancel your DD so they can't just take money. We had to do this with Orange.

They don't ever want to refund YOUR money just credit your account.

They took too much money once which means my council tax DD wasn't taken. And you don't want to mess with them bad boys.

If there are at fault and cause a bad credit score they are fix this. We had this issue with British Gas.

If you fuck up without realising or something they won't intervene.

[TonySopranosVest]

They are dreadful. Once my contract is over I'm so out of there. The crushing sense of dread I feel when I have to call them for anything and I just know it will be a complete nightmare from start to finish.

[Starface]

I too have had a horrific time with Vodafone lately. I'very been with them about 6 years but nothing could induce me to stay this time. It took them 4 months to bill me correctly at the beginning of the contract. Since September this year they have been billing incorrectly again, taking more than they are owed. But judging by the horror stories here I've got off lightly. Customer services have been useless and it took them over 15 mins to simply load the billing information. They cannot actually fix anything. I find this theft of people's money shockingly unacceptable.

Anchor that is very useful to know. I shall certainly be employing this from now on.

[mumofsnotbags]

I screamed with joy when my contract came to an end recently, got my PAC code and left for EE/Life, after an awful 24 months with them overcharging me, my final bill was for my standard £25 a month. yet they tried to take £67 for some reason, I didn't have it in my account.... queue me getting debt collection letters for something I knew nothing about. tried to ring up and was told I had to pay the outstanding bill.

Said I would for the amount it should have been £25, she admitted it had been an error on their part, so we went through the dance of her taking my card details, saying she would put it through for £25. only when i looked at my bank account a few days later she had put through £67.

It took me 3 weeks and numerous calls to get a cheque of them. Ii would never let anyone I know go to vodaphone!

[ElfOnTheBoozeShelf]

They always offer to credit it. No, strangely enough, I don't see that working.

Am I allowed to cancel the DD / recall the DD? How does that work? In moments of rage it has crossed my mind to cancel it, but only saw that backfiring on me!

[Damselindestress]

Thanks for posting. I'm looking for a new contract and was considering them, I had no idea so many people had problems with them!

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

I too hate Vodafone. We had one of their sure signal boxes to boost our signal, as it was so crap where we live. One day they upgraded the software and it stopped working. They told me it was my problem and I'd have to fix it. Well yes, because I have access to your software upgrades. I tried my internet provider, the ombudsman - they were useless. They said I had to exhaust the complaints procedure and give Vodafone eight weeks to sort it out. That usually involves phoning customer services, being transferred to India, explaining the problem again and being transferred to the technical help desk in Egypt and being cut off. They didn't want to sort it out, they denied all responsibility! In the end I bought myself out of my contract. I was so bloody relieved.

[PinkSparklyPussyCat]

I didn't have billing problems with them but I bought myself out of my Vodafone contract because I was fed up with poor coverage and awful customer service. I phoned to complain about the signal and the woman laughed at me and put the phone down!

The final straw was when I traded in a phone and put the money towards a PAYG phone. I was told in the store that I could return it within so many days if I wasn't happy but what they didn't tell me was that I couldn't have a refund for the trade in money! It took me weeks to get my refund and I left shortly after for O2. DH is still with Voda but hasn't had to speak to customer services - I told him he'll probably be looking to leave when he does!

[PouncerDarling]

Raise a bank enquiry saying that it is an unauthorised transaction and you need the funds to be returned. And cancel the direct debit. I'm sure it is only specified in your control that you pay for your usage, not that you must pay by direct debit.

[PouncerDarling]

Contract, not control!

[RoosterCogburn]

I hate Vodafone customer services - in the past three months I have been lied to/given incorrect information by their customer service operators, live chat operators and the contact team that you write to.

[Sallyingforth]

Package deals for a phone and calls are a rip-off to keep you tied to a company, even if you get poor service.
It's always safer, and usually cheaper, to buy your phone contract-free from a reputable web supplier. If you can't afford to pay all of the purchase cost up-front, get a loan. Take out a monthly SIM-only contract with a service provider. If you don't like their service, you can always change to another company.

[Ginny365]

Adorabelle (great name btw, another TP fan here) - just out of interest, did you find an alternative for the sure signal booster? We're trapped into using Vodafone because the signal where we live is so shite that we can't use mobiles without the booster but we've had loads of problems with them (Vodafone, not the booster) in the past few months and I'd like to change provider.