Vodafone customer services

I’ve been a mobile broadband user for a few years using a 3g mobile device from Vodafone with my laptop. Until recently the device I was using was a PCMCIA device but in April I upgraded my laptop to the latest model which didn’t have a PCMCIA slot so I called Vodafone customer services and asked if they could send me a USB device. This is how the conversation went (paraphrased):

ME: Hi, I’ve just brought a new laptop and it doesn’t have a PCMCIA slot and I wondered if you could send me a USB device so I can continue to use the service.

VOD: Sure, and I notice you’re on our old tarrif, You’re currently paying £25/month and we can now do it for £15. Would you like me to switch you?

ME: Thats sounds great. Yes please.

Then I get my bill, which until then had always been £25/month month in month out but this time it came in at £58.74

So on 12th June I called customer services and spoke to William Lindsay at the Belfast office:

ME: Erm you’ve sent me a bill and its wrong.

VOD: No, you switched tariff and this is what it costs and by the way you agreed by switching tariff to another contract of 18 months

ME: I never agreed to any such thing, and your guy told me it’d be £15/month. I have an unlimited broadband service. No one told be it’d no longer be unlimited, but they did tell me it was a better tariff and it’d cost me £15/month rather than the £25/month I’d been paying. I’m not paying this bill until you get it right, and please cancel my account with immediate effect.

VOD: I can’t do that you agreed to a new contract

ME: Did I fuck! No I didn’t

VOD: Well I need to talk to the guy you dealt with to establish the facts. It’ll take a few days but we’ll call you back

ME: Call me on my Orange phone number. You’ve got that right?

VOD: Sure

That was 12th June. I’ve not had a call back since, but I have canceled the DD. Today 15th July I’ve had another bill, for £117.48. so I called customer services again. After connecting I could hear talking but no one spoke to me for a period of minutes. I was left shouting hello down the phone repeatedly until finally a guy called Ken again at Belfast came on the line:

ME: Hello, I spoke to you on 12th June and I’m telling you again I’m not paying this bill. No one has called me back since the last call.

VOD: Let me read the notes……OK, I need to speak to Chris Ward in the Banbury office. Is it ok if I put you on hold

ME: Sure

After holding for a few minutes the call was disconnected.

I’m so angry and frustrated with Vodafone that I’m not sure I could ever deal with them again.  If they persue me for the bills I shall defend and counterclaim.

++UPDATE++

Tom from Vodafone Webrelations has called me and cancelled the charges except for two months rental totalling about £30.  This was supposedly for the subsidised cost of the Modem which I had paid for, but given that I was already of the mind that the last months rental was due fair and square and that it would have been £25 I’m happy to have it resolved at that.  I have also cancelled the account and am no longer a Vodafone customer.