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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU? With A WARNING! (WWE scam on Vodaphone)

14 replies

Pandamanda3 · 05/09/2017 20:12

Good Evening to you all,
My AIBU is...... To be utterly pissed off with Vodaphone?

So a few weeks ago i decided it was time to upgrade my phone i was out of contract and my phone was doing that random shutting down with numerous other issues. Fairly simple you'd think, just call them up sort out the deal, get your phone, done.
Nop it became drama after drama they send me the wrong phone, i then send it back, they then send me the wrong colour so i send it back. Bearing in mind waiting in between each return for it to be accepted and noted on the system before i can have attempt no 3 sent out, by which time i am now loosing all hope.
So still no phone, now during one of the 6th call's made to them the lady advises that the rose gold is out of stock but it will be back in stock soon in just a few day's.
To be fair she was very nice and she kindly gave me a credit on the account for the messing about.
During the call we go back over my order as she wanted to double check so phone number 3 wasn't incorrect.
Fair enough, now during the call she's trying to give me a breakdown of the cost with discount but it doesn't add up? so after 40 min of this she then say's "oh i know what it is stop", the extra £10 a month is your WWE subscription Hmm
WWE?? what? i do not have a wwe subscription.
She say's "yes you do you've had it since june". Now my bill's have been ski whiff but voda had been telling me that it was the way they break it down as it's a business account so it will all even out in the end, plus i had not had wwe.com listed on my bills.

So i calmly try to explain again that i really have not started a subscription to wwe I'm 40+ (some) and it's not really my thing Blush

Anyway after a long frustrating call she tells me there is nothing she can do, i need to log in to my account (the one i didn't set up) with my passwords (that one only the scammers have access to) in order to close it.

Virtually every night this week i have been sat trying to figure out what the hell is going on and what i do to stop it, 3 more calls to vodaphone lots of transfers and all say it's up to me to stop it.

Anyway i call's again this afternoon to ask were phone number 3 actually is? as i had received an email to say its going to be dispatched. Only to be told that they can't get it after all because the new iPhone 8 is due soon so we are slowing down the stock of iPhone 7's.Confused
Now if i was trying to order an old nokia fair enough but they are a bloody phone company with no phones.

By this time i am ready to flip my lid, i am on and off hold listening to constant repeat's of michael buble (on repeat for an hour get's a bit much)
I mentioned that i had tried to email WWE several times to no avail, that they in fact told me to report voda for fraud. wwe insisted they aren't charging me despite it now showing on my bill.
The lady on the phone say's casually "oh yeh! it's a scam".
loads of people have it on there bill, you just call up this number, and they will stop it for you.

FFS after all the call's, the email's, the stress now i find that yes they are aware of it and they do have a way to solve it.

So Aibu? to be completely pissed?
Aibu to warn others so they don't suffer from the cowboy scammers too?

So for anybody that has been or is currently affected you can call,
phone pay plus on 0800 500 212.
They take all the information and make a report, then they email the company and force them to stop.
They also advised me that this is a huge problem thousands of people affected, and they are building the case now to take action for breaching the codes or whatever it is.
She also said that vodaphone make a profit from each subscription.Angry

Apparently it can be activated by simple closing a pop up which you may not even recall doing, so please do be aware.

I have told vodaphone i won't be wanting phone number 3 after all they can shuv it, not that i was gonna get it anyway like lol!
Sorry it's long 'i actually feel better for getting it off my chest.

OP posts:
PinkSparklyPussyCat · 05/09/2017 20:26

Vodafone are shit, there's no other way of putting it. I made the mistake of changing to them last year to save a few quid but I'd gone back to O2 within a week as Vodafone couldn't get anything right.

A very helpful person on here gave me a number for Customer Relations based in the U.K. - 0333 304 0567 in case it helps anyone else. They sorted out my issues when Customer Services couldn't.

londonrach · 05/09/2017 20:31

Ofcom kerp it factual. Good luck x

HaudYerWheeshtBawbag · 05/09/2017 20:40

Vodaphone are so bad the ombudsman have there own contact centre for them, if you call ombudsman they say press 2 for Vodafone complaints Hmm

Pandamanda3 · 05/09/2017 20:45

They really are shit then lol!
After the fine they got you'd think they would have got their act together a bit.
It's really annoying me though that they know these scammers are ripping people off but yet they say and do nothing. They make money from them but when your rep is on the line you'd think they would see it as a bad investment.
Shit for brains that company!

OP posts:
peachgreen · 06/09/2017 10:12

More info on this scam. It's across all networks so while Vodaphone could have been more helpful in sorting it for you, it's not actually their fault: community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly-and-Pay-Go/WWE-Charges/td-p/1034664

MissionItsPossible · 06/09/2017 10:20

I sympathise but also you should have paid closer attention to your bills if you've been billed this unauthorised charge for four months. Vodafone are notoriously bad. For all the negative reviews I have heard about 3 I've never had a problem with them and when I noticed an authorised charge on my bill I contacted them and they credited my account with the amount the following month

Frecklemcspeckles · 06/09/2017 10:21

Similar happened me with Vodafone. I got a text telling me my order was being processed and I rang them as I hadn't placed an order. Turns out it was fraud. They tried to tell me it was my responsibility for linking an address in London to my account (I'm other end of the country) but after some arguing agreed it looked suspicious and supposedly put fraud markers in my account. This should have meant anyone phoning customer services was asked for special additional security info. Nope, never asked when I phoned. Took two years to get it removed from my account and detached from my credit reports. They were a nightmare. It was only when I threatened ofcom we got anywhere. Stay clear!!

fuffapster · 06/09/2017 10:32

Yep it's a scam and Vodafone could be doing more apparently: www.itv.com/news/2016-05-10/a-text-scam-is-charging-thousands-of-customers-for-unwanted-messages-heres-what-to-do-about-it/

Sorry to hear of what must have been an infuriating experience. I hate spending hours dealing with these kinds of things. Especially when the person on the other end of the line frequently has little ability to do much about it (though they should have told you about the number earlier).

TaliZorahVasNormandy · 06/09/2017 10:35

I just had something flash up about WWE on my phone last night. Of course cant get on my vodaphone account.

TwatteryFlowers · 06/09/2017 10:49

I don't know what wwe is but Vodafone have lost my business too after a disastrous attempt at upgrading where they sent me the wrong phone and I was told to just take it into their store for them to change it and honour the prices I was quoted because it was their mistake. No, that was wrong information. I had to call them back and I was messed around and transferred between several different departments before I could finally return the bloody thing. I specially asked for them to return my deposit by way of crediting the card I paid with but they added credit to my bill instead and that was swallowed up by other charges. I could go on and on but I'd be here all week. In the end I just let my contract come to an end and have just switched to o2 and got the phone I wanted (htc u11, unavailable on Vodafone) for less than I was paying before.

RhinoGirl · 06/09/2017 11:19

Did you manage to get rid of the WWE charges OP? A relative of mine is experiencing similar and is becoming very stressed about it!

Pandamanda3 · 06/09/2017 11:24

fuff gosh that's from 2016 so it's been going on for so long, which makes it worse to be honest that nothing has been done sooner.
mission I see your point, Id be the 1st to kick myself if I didn't check the bills. However I do regularly.
But when you have errors each month on the account and credits for this and that it becomes a jumbled mess. My bills still today do not reflect any wwe.com subscriptions. I have paperless billing so online on my account it has been a wash of incorrect figures and it's only when the adviser sent me what she was looking at on her end that I could actually see wwe, she said that there is an issue with the way bills appear online and with my tarrif rates etc being incorrect it confuses everything.
It was only her quoting figures to me on the phone that I said "hang on a min that doesn't add up".that she then started looking for what this charge was.

So how can you argue what you don't see? On my online statment it is now showing my old tarrif today which is incorrect again. I give up I do.

Im also suprised to see its not just vodaphone but others too like O2.
It's been a huge headache as other pp's have mentioned and it winds me up that after vodaphone have already been fined for all the issues they are still getting it wrong so many times.
Your lucky if you don't have issues but when you do the endless calls and crap just puts you off.

I will say this though the phone pay plus people are excellent at 9pm last night I revieved an email to say the subscription has now been stopped Smile I called them at 4.30pm so they were amazingly fast at dealing with it.

OP posts:
Pandamanda3 · 06/09/2017 11:30

rhino sorry just seen your post, whilst typing my rant which im embarrassed to see is soooo long so I appologise.
But Yes as above the finally I appear to have got rid of it.
Tell your relative to call the number I added up in my op they will address it. I just told them the issue and the number affected, I advised I had tried to contact the company and she did my report. I just wish I knew what to do sooner.
Which is why I posted, just to let people know so they don't suffer like I did going around in circles.

OP posts:
RhinoGirl · 06/09/2017 12:57

Thank you you have been really helpful!

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