rocket scientist
Sergeant
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In 2014, I took out a contract with Vodafone through Carphone Warehouse for my stepdaughter. I signed a paper contract, the direct debit was through her bank account and everything was hunky-dory. 2 months ago, I signed up for a free credit report and noticed that there was a Vodafone account against my name. Having assumed that the original contract was finished I contacted her in order to see about transferring the account to her. She told me that we would both have to visit a CPW store in person in order to do this however when I visited her 2 weeks ago she became extremely agitated and claimed she didn’t have time to go.
I then contacted CPW last Monday to enquire about the account but was told they didn’t have any details for me and to contact Vodafone direct. I did this and it transpired that in Oct 2015 she was able to upgrade to a more expensive phone directly with Vodafone and also, add another ipad/data number to the account, all through online chat, without my knowledge. When I asked Vodafone how she was able to do this, they immediately opened a fraud investigation and blocked the number. 4 days later, they concluded that no fraud has taken place because I must have allowed her to use my “security details” to set up an online account through which she could then take out pretty much whatever additional contracts & upgrades she wanted. When I asked what details were needed to set up this online account the answer was “Name, Date of Birth, Address and Phone Number (the one she had). Here’s another thing – I explained that the address on the account was an old one that neither I nor she had lived at for several months so asked how she was able to have it delivered or had she picked it up in store. Vodafone informed me that she had given an alternative address for delivery.
So move on to yesterday and Vodafone have informed me that the direct debit has been cancelled. In order to prevent further misuse of the account, they have locked it down so much that I needed to travel to the nearest Vodafone store so they could verify my identity and attempt to reach a resolution. When I got there I was put onto the resolutions department and they asked me what I thought the step forward was so my answer was “I want to be removed from this account totally.”
The 2 options are:
Transfer the account to her name. We both need to be on the phone or in a store together at the same time to do this.
I cancel the contract mid-term which will cost £266.
Option 1 won’t work because she has already got another number and a nice fancy phone to use which she is no longer paying for.
So that leaves me with option 2 which is not acceptable because I don’t see why I should have to pay £266 for 2 products I never ordered, never wanted and never received. After a degree of ranting by myself I was offered a firm & final 50% discount which in my eyes is still unacceptable. As deadlock was now imminent, I stated my intent to take this to the communications ombudsman. I had previously asked their advice and was told that for Vodafone to deal with the ombudsman on this matter will probably cost over £400 so when I asked the Vodafone operator if they were still happy for me to take this to the Ombudsman when they could “take it on the chin” for less, I was just told that they could do no more and the matter would have to be escalated.
Knowing that my stepdaughter has already got another (Vodafone) number already I assume that she has simply stuck a new sim in the phone that she still has so I got Vodafone to blacklist both the phone and iPad on the account to give me the satisfaction that she won’t have 2 shiney products that someone else is paying for.
So that is where I am now. I’m not sure what I’m expected from posting this – it’s not so much a rant as a “lesson learnt” or a warning to others but I’d like to know your thoughts?
I then contacted CPW last Monday to enquire about the account but was told they didn’t have any details for me and to contact Vodafone direct. I did this and it transpired that in Oct 2015 she was able to upgrade to a more expensive phone directly with Vodafone and also, add another ipad/data number to the account, all through online chat, without my knowledge. When I asked Vodafone how she was able to do this, they immediately opened a fraud investigation and blocked the number. 4 days later, they concluded that no fraud has taken place because I must have allowed her to use my “security details” to set up an online account through which she could then take out pretty much whatever additional contracts & upgrades she wanted. When I asked what details were needed to set up this online account the answer was “Name, Date of Birth, Address and Phone Number (the one she had). Here’s another thing – I explained that the address on the account was an old one that neither I nor she had lived at for several months so asked how she was able to have it delivered or had she picked it up in store. Vodafone informed me that she had given an alternative address for delivery.
So move on to yesterday and Vodafone have informed me that the direct debit has been cancelled. In order to prevent further misuse of the account, they have locked it down so much that I needed to travel to the nearest Vodafone store so they could verify my identity and attempt to reach a resolution. When I got there I was put onto the resolutions department and they asked me what I thought the step forward was so my answer was “I want to be removed from this account totally.”
The 2 options are:
Transfer the account to her name. We both need to be on the phone or in a store together at the same time to do this.
I cancel the contract mid-term which will cost £266.
Option 1 won’t work because she has already got another number and a nice fancy phone to use which she is no longer paying for.
So that leaves me with option 2 which is not acceptable because I don’t see why I should have to pay £266 for 2 products I never ordered, never wanted and never received. After a degree of ranting by myself I was offered a firm & final 50% discount which in my eyes is still unacceptable. As deadlock was now imminent, I stated my intent to take this to the communications ombudsman. I had previously asked their advice and was told that for Vodafone to deal with the ombudsman on this matter will probably cost over £400 so when I asked the Vodafone operator if they were still happy for me to take this to the Ombudsman when they could “take it on the chin” for less, I was just told that they could do no more and the matter would have to be escalated.
Knowing that my stepdaughter has already got another (Vodafone) number already I assume that she has simply stuck a new sim in the phone that she still has so I got Vodafone to blacklist both the phone and iPad on the account to give me the satisfaction that she won’t have 2 shiney products that someone else is paying for.
So that is where I am now. I’m not sure what I’m expected from posting this – it’s not so much a rant as a “lesson learnt” or a warning to others but I’d like to know your thoughts?
