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!!! Vodafone unauthorised payment taken !!!
Morning Guys,
Just wanted to see if anyone can help me or offer some advice as I am getting literally no were with Vodafone and now I am seriously considering seeking legal advice about whats happened.
I called up to make my payment to Vodafone on 25th June as I had agreed (I fell behind with a few payments and agreed a payment to catch up which included my monthly payment going forward) and spoke to a women in a foreign call centre who took my card details and took a payment from me.
Alarm bells should have started to ring at this point as I was on hold for a very long period of time then when the women came back to me I asked her to call me back when the payment was sorted as I had been on the phone on a landline for some time.
No one called me back however I did get a text message but this only included the payment reference number no mention of amount. Again alarm bells should have rang however I have paid by this method on many occasions and had no issues.
Anyway I got on with it and went about my business as normal, Saturday night came (29th June) I was taking my fiancé out for a meal and went to the bank to take some money out for the meal to find that there was nothing in my bank. Not a single penny.
So I called the bank to be told Vodafone have taken a payment of £641.00 from your account (£441.00 more than I authorised the women to take), so I called Vodafone to be told that there was a error within the system when the women took my payment and a refund was being set up there and then and would be issued first thing Monday Monday morning for the £441.00.
I then called Vodafone back Monday morning at 8.30am and spoke to another overseas call centre again and came up against the language barrier which made matters even worse. After explaining my situation yet again and trying to make the agent understand I have been left with no money what so ever I have commitments to maintain aswel as a general life style to live also (this sounds like I live a lavish lifestyle however petrol and groceries is what I mean).
I also tried to stress the point to the agent that I had a bill coming out of my bank on Monday morning (1 July) for my car insurance and this had already bounced due to Vodafone taken the payment they had taken and the car insurance company had also charged me a further £25.00 fee for the privilege however all I got from the agent was "Vodafone apologises for the situation".
This does not help or resolve my situation!
The women I was speaking to "DO" then went away a couple of times and came back and said I would like to resolve this give me 2-3 hours and I will call you back. 1.30pm came and I hadn't received a call so I called back yet again to speak to another advisor "NEIL" and this is were it becomes interesting and namely why I am seeking advice from you guys.
Neil went through the call trying to lead me into conversations being patronising and in my opinion provoking me into saying something or retaliating so he had an excuse to terminate the call he even threatened to terminate the call on numerous occasions for me talking over him.
This gentlemen is a disgrace and needs a lesson in manners and good customer service!
However during the call I asked Neil, if I hadn't of went to the bank on Saturday evening and found out this what Vodafone had done would Vodafone have contacted me to make me aware you had £441.00 of my money without my consent.
He replied with NO! no one would have contacted you as we wouldn't have been aware we had the money, which is worrying in itself however after this I then proceeded to ask well can I ask you what I am supposed to do in the meantime whilst waiting for the refund to be sent to me as I have no way of getting to work until such time the money Vodafone owes me hits my account.
Seen as I work 56 miles (round trip) from work aswel as having to use a tunnel each day at a cost of £3.20 I don't think is an unreasonable question to have asked, considering the position I am in is no fault of my own.
Neil then proceeded to reply with:
"It is not Vodafone's responsibility to ensure you get too and from work Mr Avis however it is Vodafone's legal obligation to be seen to be putting the money we owe you back into your account within a timely manner"
To start with I don't believe Neil is legally trained let alone in a position to be giving advice so this is why I am here as I feel that this is not something that a customer service representative should be doing?
Also after a lot of going back and forth I asked how do I get my bank charges back again this was a task in itself with Neil which in the end we got to the bottom of and I asked could he arrange a manager to call me back aswel as text me the details of how to send in bank charges info aswel as the process to make a complaint.
Neil also made me aware that when I asked about logging a formal complaint (bearing in mind I work in a customer relations area myself), Neil told me that Vodafone do not have a complaints department and that all complaints are passed to the management team in the customer services. The reason for this and again in Neil's works "The management team within customer services are more than capable of dealing with customer complaints so we have no need for a customer relations department".
This in itself is a blatant lie as I am now aware they do have not only by being informed by the internet but a member of Vodafone's staff who told me to submit a complaint via there website.
Again I am less than impressed!
I am still waiting for the managers call back from Neil along with the managers call back I asked for on Saturday evening when I originally made the request for the refund along with the text message he said he would provide me with.
In the meantime of me waiting the allotted 24 - 48 hours for a managers call-back as I was told I had to wait I took it upon myself to contact Ofcom.
Ofcom were very interested in my complaint they advised me to log a formal complaint and then they asked me if I would log a complaint with them too so they have it on record. The gentlemen I spoke to even asked me to contact the communications ombudsman with this as he said that this is not a case which should be taken lightly.
So I allowed them the 48 hours they asked for then called back and after 5 days got to speak to a manager who took ownership of my complaint and I explained everything which had gone on and she herself even said how much of a disgrace the situation was and this was not on.
This went on for approximately 1 hour, She then even said she was going to go away and find the quickest way to issue my refund as Neil had actually cancelled my refund on Monday (which was nice of him) despite him and the women before him telling me the refund had been set up and had went that morning so infact yet again I had been lied too which is the second time from two different people one being Neil on two separate occasions on the same call.
No explanation as to why he cancelled it just it was cancelled. So we are at Wednesday after 5 days and Vodafone still have £441.00 of my money and I potless still for want of a better word.
After hearing this I became extremely annoyed and said I am not willing to wait a further 3-5 working days as potentially this is going to roll over into next week and I may be without money now for 13/14 days which is not acceptable in my eyes.
So in the meantime as the Team Leader was going away to find another method of making my refund, she offered me (which I accepted at the time)
I was also sent an email form her confirming what was going to be done aswel as making sure I got it down on the call what they were going to be done so I have two forms of proof.
Now after getting this email It stated that they are looking at refunding the refund back to my card which is not what we agreed.
I then emailed back in asking for a urgent call-back which I didn’t receive until I called back in myself on my lunch at 2pm.
I spoke to a women who repeatedly asked for my details and said the TL I spoke to earlier was infact her manager however wasn't sure if she was available as at this point I refused to leave the call until I spoke with her the agent went away and infact after waiting close to10 minutes on hold she hung up on me!
So as I was in work I went to my car and proceeded to call-back in I then spoke to a further 3 agents two of which hung up on me and another said as he was based in the Indian call centre and the women I needed to speak to was in the Egyptian call centre the best thing he could advise me to do was hand up and call-back until I get through to the Egyptian call centre.
This is not good customer service and as far as I am concerned a joke!
I then got through to a gentlemen called Ryan who again was a waste of time he was based in the UK I yet again explained my situation and was passed through to the refunds department to a women called Adele.
I must start by saying this women was a complete pleasure to deal with couldn't do enough for me and was astonished at the way I had been treat.
However she proceeded to explain that no one within Vodafone has access to process a refund apart from the refund department and an agent would need to submit a case to them which can take 3-5 working days to be processed which I have never been advised about until now plus a further 3-5 working days for me to receive the actual refund.
Which she repeatedly apologised for, as I am not happy to hear that an organisation such as Vodafone can take an unauthorised payment (as far as I am concerned I feel that there is some law that someone has broken at this point) and they feel it is ok to potentially impact the customer for up to 10 working days in total 14 days in my case without any money what so ever.
I am sure that this a breach of my civil liberties and also the FOS state that a customer cannot be financially impacted due to a companies error (please correct me if I am wrong).
Adele even went as far as to tell me to complain told me what I should put into my complaint aswel as her sending me a text message with the refund reference so I could chance this with my bank.
I took her advice and now I have tried to log a complaint in total 8 times on the Vodafone site and each and every time I keep being told I need to enter a valid email address. I have used my email address (which the TL above emailed me on) aswel as a previous email address I used to use aswel as trying my partners and each and every time I keep getting the same message "please enter a valid email address".
Again I am not happy with this service as you can't even complain effectively with Vodafone.
After all of this we are no on 4th July I still have no money and still have no resolution which I feel is suitable to this issue.
Overall:
Someone please help or point me in the right direction as I cannot get anywhere with them they wont admit fault and I now feel that what they have offered is no were enough to compensate me.
Sorry about such a long post for my first post guys.
Just wanted to see if anyone can help me or offer some advice as I am getting literally no were with Vodafone and now I am seriously considering seeking legal advice about whats happened.
I called up to make my payment to Vodafone on 25th June as I had agreed (I fell behind with a few payments and agreed a payment to catch up which included my monthly payment going forward) and spoke to a women in a foreign call centre who took my card details and took a payment from me.
Alarm bells should have started to ring at this point as I was on hold for a very long period of time then when the women came back to me I asked her to call me back when the payment was sorted as I had been on the phone on a landline for some time.
No one called me back however I did get a text message but this only included the payment reference number no mention of amount. Again alarm bells should have rang however I have paid by this method on many occasions and had no issues.
Anyway I got on with it and went about my business as normal, Saturday night came (29th June) I was taking my fiancé out for a meal and went to the bank to take some money out for the meal to find that there was nothing in my bank. Not a single penny.
So I called the bank to be told Vodafone have taken a payment of £641.00 from your account (£441.00 more than I authorised the women to take), so I called Vodafone to be told that there was a error within the system when the women took my payment and a refund was being set up there and then and would be issued first thing Monday Monday morning for the £441.00.
I then called Vodafone back Monday morning at 8.30am and spoke to another overseas call centre again and came up against the language barrier which made matters even worse. After explaining my situation yet again and trying to make the agent understand I have been left with no money what so ever I have commitments to maintain aswel as a general life style to live also (this sounds like I live a lavish lifestyle however petrol and groceries is what I mean).
I also tried to stress the point to the agent that I had a bill coming out of my bank on Monday morning (1 July) for my car insurance and this had already bounced due to Vodafone taken the payment they had taken and the car insurance company had also charged me a further £25.00 fee for the privilege however all I got from the agent was "Vodafone apologises for the situation".
This does not help or resolve my situation!
The women I was speaking to "DO" then went away a couple of times and came back and said I would like to resolve this give me 2-3 hours and I will call you back. 1.30pm came and I hadn't received a call so I called back yet again to speak to another advisor "NEIL" and this is were it becomes interesting and namely why I am seeking advice from you guys.
Neil went through the call trying to lead me into conversations being patronising and in my opinion provoking me into saying something or retaliating so he had an excuse to terminate the call he even threatened to terminate the call on numerous occasions for me talking over him.
This gentlemen is a disgrace and needs a lesson in manners and good customer service!
However during the call I asked Neil, if I hadn't of went to the bank on Saturday evening and found out this what Vodafone had done would Vodafone have contacted me to make me aware you had £441.00 of my money without my consent.
He replied with NO! no one would have contacted you as we wouldn't have been aware we had the money, which is worrying in itself however after this I then proceeded to ask well can I ask you what I am supposed to do in the meantime whilst waiting for the refund to be sent to me as I have no way of getting to work until such time the money Vodafone owes me hits my account.
Seen as I work 56 miles (round trip) from work aswel as having to use a tunnel each day at a cost of £3.20 I don't think is an unreasonable question to have asked, considering the position I am in is no fault of my own.
Neil then proceeded to reply with:
"It is not Vodafone's responsibility to ensure you get too and from work Mr Avis however it is Vodafone's legal obligation to be seen to be putting the money we owe you back into your account within a timely manner"
To start with I don't believe Neil is legally trained let alone in a position to be giving advice so this is why I am here as I feel that this is not something that a customer service representative should be doing?
Also after a lot of going back and forth I asked how do I get my bank charges back again this was a task in itself with Neil which in the end we got to the bottom of and I asked could he arrange a manager to call me back aswel as text me the details of how to send in bank charges info aswel as the process to make a complaint.
Neil also made me aware that when I asked about logging a formal complaint (bearing in mind I work in a customer relations area myself), Neil told me that Vodafone do not have a complaints department and that all complaints are passed to the management team in the customer services. The reason for this and again in Neil's works "The management team within customer services are more than capable of dealing with customer complaints so we have no need for a customer relations department".
This in itself is a blatant lie as I am now aware they do have not only by being informed by the internet but a member of Vodafone's staff who told me to submit a complaint via there website.
Again I am less than impressed!
I am still waiting for the managers call back from Neil along with the managers call back I asked for on Saturday evening when I originally made the request for the refund along with the text message he said he would provide me with.
In the meantime of me waiting the allotted 24 - 48 hours for a managers call-back as I was told I had to wait I took it upon myself to contact Ofcom.
Ofcom were very interested in my complaint they advised me to log a formal complaint and then they asked me if I would log a complaint with them too so they have it on record. The gentlemen I spoke to even asked me to contact the communications ombudsman with this as he said that this is not a case which should be taken lightly.
So I allowed them the 48 hours they asked for then called back and after 5 days got to speak to a manager who took ownership of my complaint and I explained everything which had gone on and she herself even said how much of a disgrace the situation was and this was not on.
This went on for approximately 1 hour, She then even said she was going to go away and find the quickest way to issue my refund as Neil had actually cancelled my refund on Monday (which was nice of him) despite him and the women before him telling me the refund had been set up and had went that morning so infact yet again I had been lied too which is the second time from two different people one being Neil on two separate occasions on the same call.
No explanation as to why he cancelled it just it was cancelled. So we are at Wednesday after 5 days and Vodafone still have £441.00 of my money and I potless still for want of a better word.
After hearing this I became extremely annoyed and said I am not willing to wait a further 3-5 working days as potentially this is going to roll over into next week and I may be without money now for 13/14 days which is not acceptable in my eyes.
So in the meantime as the Team Leader was going away to find another method of making my refund, she offered me (which I accepted at the time)
- Any outstanding arrears had been wiped off.
- 1 months free line rental.
- My charges have been credit to my Vodafone account against future bills
- £441.00 refund processed.
I was also sent an email form her confirming what was going to be done aswel as making sure I got it down on the call what they were going to be done so I have two forms of proof.
Now after getting this email It stated that they are looking at refunding the refund back to my card which is not what we agreed.
I then emailed back in asking for a urgent call-back which I didn’t receive until I called back in myself on my lunch at 2pm.
I spoke to a women who repeatedly asked for my details and said the TL I spoke to earlier was infact her manager however wasn't sure if she was available as at this point I refused to leave the call until I spoke with her the agent went away and infact after waiting close to10 minutes on hold she hung up on me!
So as I was in work I went to my car and proceeded to call-back in I then spoke to a further 3 agents two of which hung up on me and another said as he was based in the Indian call centre and the women I needed to speak to was in the Egyptian call centre the best thing he could advise me to do was hand up and call-back until I get through to the Egyptian call centre.
This is not good customer service and as far as I am concerned a joke!
I then got through to a gentlemen called Ryan who again was a waste of time he was based in the UK I yet again explained my situation and was passed through to the refunds department to a women called Adele.
I must start by saying this women was a complete pleasure to deal with couldn't do enough for me and was astonished at the way I had been treat.
However she proceeded to explain that no one within Vodafone has access to process a refund apart from the refund department and an agent would need to submit a case to them which can take 3-5 working days to be processed which I have never been advised about until now plus a further 3-5 working days for me to receive the actual refund.
Which she repeatedly apologised for, as I am not happy to hear that an organisation such as Vodafone can take an unauthorised payment (as far as I am concerned I feel that there is some law that someone has broken at this point) and they feel it is ok to potentially impact the customer for up to 10 working days in total 14 days in my case without any money what so ever.
I am sure that this a breach of my civil liberties and also the FOS state that a customer cannot be financially impacted due to a companies error (please correct me if I am wrong).
Adele even went as far as to tell me to complain told me what I should put into my complaint aswel as her sending me a text message with the refund reference so I could chance this with my bank.
I took her advice and now I have tried to log a complaint in total 8 times on the Vodafone site and each and every time I keep being told I need to enter a valid email address. I have used my email address (which the TL above emailed me on) aswel as a previous email address I used to use aswel as trying my partners and each and every time I keep getting the same message "please enter a valid email address".
Again I am not happy with this service as you can't even complain effectively with Vodafone.
After all of this we are no on 4th July I still have no money and still have no resolution which I feel is suitable to this issue.
Overall:
- I have no money to buy food
- I have had no lunch at work all week
- Cannot afford to put petrol in my car until I receive the money from Vodafone
- Had my car insurance bounce so they have charged me my normal bill plus £25 charge (which I have had to endure the embarrassment of having to ask someone else to make the payment for me until you give me my money back)
- Bank charges from my bank due to the insurance DD bouncing
- Having to get someone else to bring me to work at a cost of £10 a day until the money is back in my account as I cannot pay them now (56 mile round trip a day plus a tunnel tole of £3.20).
- Unable to buy any toiletries.
- Impacted Credit File - due to the bounced DD.
- The embarrassment at work of having to make my line manager aware I may need to take unscheduled leave.
- My line manager making me aware as I work for a financial organisation they may now want to carry out a credit search on me and if needs be I will be moved arrears if they feel it necessary.
- Unwanted stress and pressure.
- Disrupted my family life as I have had to get my partner to pay a lot of bills this month until such time I am refunded. (as you can imagine has not gone down well with my partner)
Someone please help or point me in the right direction as I cannot get anywhere with them they wont admit fault and I now feel that what they have offered is no were enough to compensate me.
Sorry about such a long post for my first post guys.
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