Vodafone, breach of contract?

[bowserman]

First of all, hi everybody from a new user.

 

Here goes, my wife has been a Vodafone user (as have I), for a number of years now and have been perfectly happy with the service, until now.

 

A couple of months ago, my wife (who has two phones on the contract, one for our daughter) received a letter telling her the tarriff she is on, now no longer exists, bearing in mind the contract (18 months) does not run out until Oct 09. They were offering unlimited landline calls instead of unlimited texts and removing stop the clock and it said in the letter that if she was happy with the new plan she did not need to contact them. She did contact them and said she wanted to remain on the same plan as our daughter only uses the phone for texts. She was paying £58 a month for both phones and useage was more or less constant.

 

When the next bill came in it was for £300 and the following £260!!

 

She has made numerous calls to Vodafone and has names of various team leaders and managers, to no avail. They simply do not call back. Lets be clear here, my wife has stopped the direct debit, but continues to pay her contracted bill of £58 whilst the dispute goes on. Today, Vodafone have switched off both her phones and we are hitting a wall with them.

 

Where do we go from here? We have spoken to my unions, legal advice line and they say Vodafone seem to be in breach of contract.

 

Any ideas anyone?

 

Chris

Newcastle.

[reallymadwoman]

Phones are not something I know much about, but my first step would be to stop phoning and start writing, by recorded, and headed 'complaint'. Give them 14 days to sort the problem out failing which your wife will consider her contracts to be terminated and will take her business elsewhere. They will probably do nothing and then try to claim the rest of the contract charges at which point you are bound to get into a lengthy dispute with them, but you will get lots of help on the Forum.

[buzby]

There will be no breach of contract - at least not in the way you hope. Tariffs are not part of the contract terms, but if you sign up for 18 months, then you have an expectation of that tariff being in place for that time. The 'gotcha' is if it was a promotional offer, that was billed at full price, and they rebated the fee monthly as a credit. By doing it this way, providing they give notice of the change, they have discharged their liability to you.

 

Now, if the change materially affects your enjoyment of the service, this is the time to state (In WRITING) that their change will seriously disadvantage you, and as a result, require them to release you from your contract if the original tariff is not restored.

 

It is unlikely the tariff would be restored, but at least you've staked your claim for cancellation. You need to get into this situation ASAP, so write to the network by Recorded Delivery, stating the date of your call of objection, and note that there has been no satisfactory response. Give them 28 days to resolve the issue before you take further steps to protect your interests.

 

This often does the trick.

[bowserman]

Just a quick update.

 

After one final call before going to print, an advisor again put the issue to her manager (who by the way still would not come on the phone) and after much to-ing and fro-ing the matter has been resolved. The bill has been settled, January's is now £61 instead of £530 and the original tariff is now restored.

 

Not good enough to restore faith in the company and we will all be leaving when our contracts are up. If this had of been sorted on the first phone call, which it quite easily could have been, we would have been happy.

[hightail]

Tariffs are not part of the contract terms

 

This has shocked me. Is it really true that they can be changed on a whim part way through the contract? Such a thing could leave me seriously embarrassed. For example, my daughter is on a contract allowing for 1000 texts/month included in the line rental (note I'm not stupid enough to call them free). Can the company suddenly take those away and change it all with months still to run until we could get out of the contract?

[reallymadwoman]

In think either (can't remember which) the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regs or the Unfair Terms in consumer Contract regs specify that a term which allows the trader to alter the price without giving the consumer the right to cancel any contract without penalty is unfair.

[buzby]

They could, but in reality this seldom happens. I recall someone calculated that the UK non virtual networks have between them some 3,200 tariffs active and in use by their customers/subscribers.

 

If you actually read your contract, you'll note two things - it does not contain pricing information, and phone tariffs are not mentioned. This is because these are ancillary to the business of providing you with a mobile telephone service.

 

Back to those 3,200 tariffs - just as financial houses offer differing products with specified rates, when the bond is subscribed, over-subscribed (or just plain too good to believe) it is removed from sale. Those who were lucky enough to sign up still retain the agreed rate(s), but the plan/tariff is no longer available to new customers.

 

Mobile networks work the same way - they can fiddle at the fringes (say, change the price of calling certain codes, decide that your calls will no longer be priced by the second and will be rounded up to the next full minute, or there could be a new charge for itemised billing that was previously free of charge), but if you were promised 1000 inclusive texts per month and 500 voice calls then that cannot change whilst you remain locked in to your minimum contract period.

 

If they DO implement a change that affects your use, then not only do they have to give you 30 days notice, they must allow you the opportunity to break your contract should you wish. This does happen, but things are planned so that this option is avoided at all costs. Your tariff is simply 'retired' and is no longer available. Providing you stay on your existing contract (and do not upgrade) then you will continue to enjoy it.

 

For example, I'm currently with 3UK on a tariff that offers no inclusive call elemnt, but they don't charge me any monthly line rental either. I buy my replacement handsets on eBay, and 3UK must continue to offer me my existing tariff until I eventually give it up.

[hightail]

Thank you for that explanation. I too have my original 'pay up front' contract from 7/8 years ago. It cost me £99 back then, no line rental and calls at contract rates. I get my daughter's old phones every time we change her contract so I've never even had to buy another handset. My monthly usage is between 85p and £4 and I still get itemised paper bills. I reckon it must sometimes cost them more than I owe to bill me and collect by dd

[reallymadwoman]

OH also on a very old contract and has never changed his handset because he likes it. As he's effectively prevented from using a mobile whilst at work (on a ship for 28 days at a time) every other bill is zero, but they still send it out. I think they've given up trying to persuade him to upgrade though.

[bowserman]

but if you were promised 1000 inclusive texts per month and 500 voice calls then that cannot change whilst you remain locked in to your minimum contract period.

 

This is exactly what Vodafone did to us, and boy did it take some effort to restore.

[hightail]

This is exactly what Vodafone did to us, and boy did it take some effort to restore.

 

Considering we all search for the package that suits us best it is worrying that they can change it. The packaged deal is the very reason we sign up and nobody tells us it is subject to change. Not putting it in the contract terms is hardly the same as letting you know. I consider it lying by omission. I'm fairly good at reading what I sign and I'd always thought I was signing up to the package for a set time.

[buzby]

I'm fairly good at reading what I sign and I'd always thought I was signing up to the package for a set time.

 

In that case, did your contract specifically state the tariff? It can sometimes be listed, along with the phone supplied, but since the contract only refers to the supply of the SIM (as the access mechanism that provides you with service) the tariff could easily be swapped or changed providing the service continued. Because some folk selected a high tariff to get the phone free, THEN dropped it 30 days later, the networks got fly then imposed constraints on this preventing tariff changes before 3, 6 or 12 months. T-mobile now don't allow then at all.

[angryteen]

I am assuming that the price plan you where on was an old vodafone price plan which where phased out by vodfaone in 2008 to make way for the new CTR3 price plans which are better value for money.

 

I work for vodafone customer services/account management and I know some customers like yourself have had problems with this, but I can assure you it is not breach of contract, especially since they gave you notice.

 

Yes I agree the credit should of been added straight away, but it is company procedure that the Tl's (managers) cannot take calls and have to follow the call back procedure which is usually 48 hours but can sometimes be up to a week due to amount of work they have to undertake.

 

Im sorry you feel you had bad customer experience with us, but the agents whom you where talking too would not have the authorisation and remit to deal with your query which is why it took a while.

[SpiceBoy!]

Or they could of talked to the Escolations/Resolutions team who are on hand to take live calls as and when its needed...

 

And in this case it would of saved a load of hassle and stress!

[j1412]

I recently took out a new contract with Vodafone. The deal included 3 months free Sky TV. I couldn't get the free TV from day one and after visits to several shops and calls to customer service they eventually decided the phone was faulty. Because it was outside the 14 day return period by the time they reached that conclusion they refuse to take the phone back and have only offered a repair. I have said that I am rejecting the phone and the contract because the phone was not fit for purpose. They say I can't do that and are ignoring my emails. I thought it was possibly breach of contract as they hadn't provided a working phone, or the mobile TV service promised, but having read this thread am not sure now. Where do I stand?

[buzby]

The phone issue is separate from your service contract for the network connection (after the 14 days). You have SOGA rights over the phone, and in your situation I would insist you should have been provided with a new phone that worked, not a refurb or repair.

 

The service you are paying for is still available, if you swap the SIM to another phone so cancelling on those grounds is not guaranteed as the network is still there to provide you with calls.

[j1412]

The phone issue is separate from your service contract for the network connection (after the 14 days). You have SOGA rights over the phone, and in your situation I would insist you should have been provided with a new phone that worked, not a refurb or repair.

 

The service you are paying for is still available, if you swap the SIM to another phone so cancelling on those grounds is not guaranteed as the network is still there to provide you with calls.

Thanks Buzby after another hour and a half in a Vodafone store they very ungraciously offered to exchange (to get rid of us I think). However they don't have any 5800 in stock so more delay. In the meantime they had suspended outgoing calls because I cancelled my direct debit asthe bill was £48 and I had a billing credit of £60 (which was on my receipt but not on the bill)- so I dsidn't actually owe them anything -I informed them that intended to do this if they didn't issue a revised bill). They have now reinstated outgoing calls (although not my mobile internet) having applied the billing credit to cover the "debt". Does this suspension of service constitue a breach of contract. I am so frustrated by Vodafone's lack of customer care and the inability of any individual to accept that there is a problem or take accountability for resolving the issue. The phone, apart from the ability to connect to mobiule TV is great, coverage is good, and my monthly rate a good deal but customer service apalling so I would like to ditch them if I can.

[buzby]

What do you think

 

It won;t be, because the contract states that you are due to make payments as called for under the contract, so you'd be in a technical breach, and they'd respond by blocking service as a result of this until the breach is resolved r the service formally terminated.

 

So, with the beach being on your side - they could play merry hell and wreck your credit file, all for a crappy mobile! :)

 

Since you've got good coverage and are otherwise happy with what they provide, I'd stick with it. CS issues apart, the chances are once this is out the way you'll hopefully never have to deal with CS again, then things will run smoothly!