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Vodafone - Deadlock letter or take offer

Thats what i thought, it was never about compensartion and i was never requesting it.
All i wanted was for them to admit their error and apply the correct monthly amount as agreed

Thanks for the advice about this whole mess anyway
 
Myself I would take the deal but also take action in ensuring Vodafone suffered by leaving factual reviews and warning people not to use then. BT messed up my 56K internet in the days before ADSL and I have never forgot their initial denials for 18 months that there was anything wrong, before at last they admitted they had added DAC to the line cutting my speeds but would do nothing to restore the speed. I am sure my efforts have over the ensuing years cost them more than the savings they made. I got my speed back by ordering ADSL through another provider and then they had to upgrade the line.
 
Out of interest, is this a cityfibre or openreach broadband connection?

If it's the latter but for some reason their systems created the offer for you based on duff data that they could provide the service on Cityfibre that could be a potential reason for the mess. Just hypothesising.
 
There was the deal below - and as per screenshot:

"Pro gigafast 900 XTRA 24 months / Half Price - £34 per month (Save £3 per month if current Customer) + Apple TV 4K - £816 @ Vodafone"​


"Normal Price "£68", £0 upfront, £34 a month"

You get:
- Vodafone Wifi Hub
- Wifi-Plus with Alexa Built In
- Broadband Backup 4G
- Apple TV 4K on us w/ 3 months Apple TV+


And the slightly cheaper one you refer to:

"Gigafast 900 Pro – Gigafast Pro Broadband with Alexa Built-In at no extra cost – with 910Mbps average speeds£30 per month*. Offer of Alexa Built-In at no extra cost valid until 29 November 2021. 50% off CityFibre 910 Mbps in select locations."

I'd remind Vodafone that they're full of nonsense as the deal is on the sodding Vodafone Web site:

Early Black Friday offers from Vodafone UK

"Gigafast 900 Pro – full fibre broadband with download speeds of 910Mbps in select locations, plus a Super WiFi Plus booster with Alexa Built-in at no extra cost, for just £30 per month."

or they mentioned it again here:

Black Friday deals from Vodafone now live

...they can absolutely make that happen, because that's the deal you took. Don't settle, persist. With all these things you do have to persist with large companies as they will try and BS you, but there is zero doubt the deal existed.

Plenty of press coverage mentions the deal too.

Don't take "no" for an answer is my advice, persist, escalate, point them to own offer details and make it clear that's what you agreed to and that's what you want.
 

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Cheers buddy, believe me i would persist as i know that everything i done was 100% right from the very beginning and was consistantly told that it would be resolved and discount applied when bill generates but now they have said that the next step is deadlock letter,but at no point in the email i have now recieved does it mention what happened and who's responsbility it was, obviously they wont because by defacto it would put liabilty firmly at their door.
So now i don't know how an independnant body would view there offer as being acceptable or apply the correct tariff as originally agreed to which they (Vodafone) are saying can't be.
 
Out of interest, is this a cityfibre or openreach broadband connection?

If it's the latter but for some reason their systems created the offer for you based on duff data that they could provide the service on Cityfibre that could be a potential reason for the mess. Just hypothesising.
Openreach done the install
 
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I might have a clue what had gone wrong here.

I suspect that somehow the OP has been offered a cityfibre deal when they are not in a cityfibre area or the OP is in a cityfibre area and Vodafone have incorrectly tasked the install out to openreach.

Whilst there are frequently good deals with Voda in Cityfibre areas they generally cannot offer the same pricing over Openreach infrastructure due to the higher cost base currently levied. You can have a look back on HotUKDeals.com for all the recent VF deals and the cheaper ones are always restricted to cityfibre areas. You can see this specific black Friday deal being shared and discussed here.

Obviously if Vodafone accepted the order and processed it for delivery over Openreach then that is Vodafone's mistake, and the OP should get everything that was advertised on the VF website and in their order confirmation emails without any financial detriment.

If the OP has clear evidence of what they signed up for shown clearly in emails they have received at the time of order that clearly show the full details of the promotion etc then they should continue to adjudication, and if that does not work onto the small claims court. I can't see a small claims court siding with Vodafone if the OP has good evidence of what they ordered. Vodafone have deep pockets, it's just that the level of escalation of this case hasn't found its way to the individuals with the correct signoff
 
From Darren's post on the £ of the original deal and the new offer.

See thats the thing, the account also includes my mobile and block credit is added to the account as a block so they told me anyway.
So accepting their offer,i would revert to £42 per month for broadband and £16 per month for mobile = total £58 per month whereas it would have been £30 broadband and £16 mobile = £46 per month.

24 × 46 = £1104

24 × 58 = £1392
Minus their credit £319 = £1073


So financially he is better off under the new offer vs the deal by £31. No small claims court will award any £ as there is no loss and probably never let it get to a hearing. An ombudsman will also not award any £ as again no loss, so that leaves the difference between an apology an ombudsman may extract or no apology.
 
Openreach done the install

That’s interesting. Because that means it isn’t CityFibre - and Gigafast is to the very best of my knowledge only available on the CityFibre network.

So I wonder if that offer even applied to you.

If you stick your postcode in the availability checker what does it even offer you?
 
That’s interesting. Because that means it isn’t CityFibre - and Gigafast is to the very best of my knowledge only available on the CityFibre network.

So I wonder if that offer even applied to you.

If you stick your postcode in the availability checker what does it even offer you?

Voda market their top 900M tier in Openreach areas also under the Gigafast name, although the two are not equal... In Cityfibre areas you get symmetrical upload and download whereas in Openreach areas it's asymmetrical.
 
I've seen a number of Openreach areas where Vodafone only offer up to 200 down, probably while they wait for sufficient subscriber numbers to make more cablelinks/backhaul viable.

If I was in the OP's situation I'd accept the offer as it seems to match the deal that was advertised, unless I had other options with better upload speeds available and wished to jump ship.
 
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Update

Dear Mr. xxxx

"Thank you for your email and we're sorry that you're having pricing issues with your Home Broadband service.

We can see that a Subject Access Request (SAR) was raised to the Customer Data Excellence Centre (CDEC) on 17 January 2022. Any notes that are on a customer account have to be raised through CDEC and will be sent to you in 30 working days.

We explained on 18 January 2022 on the call as what has caused the pricing error. When the order was initially placed for your Pro Gigafast 900 with Alexa Built-In, the 50% discount wasn't automatically applied due to a system error. The reason why we aren't able to apply the same discount is because the offer was a Black Friday deal and the discounts are no longer available on the system.

We sent you an email on 14 January 2022 which outlined what we'd be able to do in order to correct the pricing issues. We advised:

"We can offer 30% discount onto you £60.00 per month Home Broadband plan. This will reduce your monthly cost down to £42.00 per month. Following this, we'd be applying a credit to cover the remaining 22 months £12.00 difference in the agreed price. This credit will total £264. Furthermore, we'll be refunding £55.19 from your bill dated 4 January 2022, to cover the disputed charges up to 4 February 2022. Lastly, we're happy to offer an additional £100.00 to be credited towards your Vodafone account as an apology for the issue arising. In total, these credits will come to £419.19 (£12.00 x 22 months = £264.00, + £55.19 = £319.19, + £100.00 = £419.19).

Our second offer of resolution would include the ability to terminate your Home Broadband contract at any point without any Early Termination Fee. We wouldn't terminate your service without your request, but we'd amend your contract end date to a previous date, so should you chose to transfer your service at any point, or you wish to take out a new agreement from any available offer, you'd be able to do so without any fee. In addition to this, we'd be happy to offer £100 as account credit, or Amazon voucher. "

We also explained on the call on 18 January 2022 that the discount would be applied to the Home Broadband plan, so the price on your bill would show as £42.00 per month. The additional credit that we'd apply would cover all Vodafone services, and you wouldn't need to pay anything until this credit had been used. We advised that we wouldn't be able to apply the credit to just the Home Broadband service.

We're sorry if the above hadn't been made clear when we spoke on 18 January 2022. If you require any further information please let us know by replying to this email.

Should you wish to accept either offer, please confirm within your response to this email. However should you wish to decline, please confirm so we can issue you with your letter of deadlock, giving you the opportunity to have your complaint independently reviewed by the Communication and Internet service Adjudication Scheme (CISAS)

Prefer to speak to us? You can get in touch with us between the hours of 8am and 8pm Monday to Sunday by calling 08080 045 200 or +441635 693354 if you're not in the UK (standard call charges apply). A member of our team will connect you to your dedicated case handler, provide you with an update or arrange a call back at a time that works for you. Just to note, so that we can get you to the right team when you call, you'll need to enter your unique reference number 280586.

Yours sincerely,


Andy Hacker
Customer Relations
Vodafone Limited

A quick request: if you reply to this email, please don't edit the subject line - it helps us identify your complaint."

The credit will be applied as a "block credit" to my Vodafone account which will also take in my mobile contract also, this just confuses the matter even further, easier for Vodafone but harder for me to budget for.
Being applied as block credit to my overall account which includes mobile will use credit quicker and leave me with a higher monthly payment over a longer period at £42 per month instead of the agreed £30 for broadband.

If I do not accept either offer they said they are going to issue a deadlock letter.

I feel cheated and I feel that I have given them every opportunity to have this resolved from the very beginning and have been told blatant lies at every step of the process and still am especially that all I'm actually requesting is for them to apply the correct discount to the account as promised, that's it, I am not seeking further compensation, just what I was sold.

Should I have the case looked at independently by the Communication and Internet service Adjudication Scheme (CISAS)

Thanks
 
To my mind yes, because the argument that they can’t make those numbers work as originally offered is totally bogus. Of *course* they can make that happen, and this only serves Vodafone and not you. They made an offer, they admit they made the offer, so they would have reached the point of it being binding. How Vodafone makes it work internally isn’t your issue.
 
We explained on 18 January 2022 on the call as what has caused the pricing error. When the order was initially placed for your Pro Gigafast 900 with Alexa Built-In, the 50% discount wasn't automatically applied due to a system error. ”

This right there confirms the deal was valid, and they had some internal systems issue preventing it working. Not your problem!

Also, being petty, simply filing the request with CISAS costs Vodafone money so you might as well - but seriously, they’ve pretty much confirmed in writing there that the price/deal you expected was valid and they have given you service so they’re obliged to provide it now. Contracts work in BOTH directions.
 
So you will slightly better off £ with the option on the table, can't see an ombudsman giving you a better settlement in £, other than confirming you were right and Vodafone were wrong there would be nothing else.
I have made them a counter offer that takes into consideration part of both offers that they have suggested.

I have asked them to apply the 30% discount, refund me the difference that I have already paid in my Jan bill (£55.10) along with the £100 either in amazon vouchers or credit as this due to the inconvenience for them making a complete mess of it and the amount of time I have been on the phone with them (5hrs) and for them to allow me to terminate my contract at any time without penalty allowing to avail of any better offers that may come up, with Vodafone during this years Black Friday deal or another supplier.
This would mean that Vodafone do not need to apply the bulk credit to account.
i would think that this is meeting them in the middle.
 
At some point its worth it just to put it behind you as you have clearly had to spend a lot of your own time on this.

The Ombudsman is likely to side with you given how much they messed up but the thing is if Voda are saying its a system error the Ombudsman can't really force them to correct it. At most you might get a bit more compensation on top of the £100.

The bulk credit is a pain for budgeting I agree. Only way around that is for them to have someone do it manually each month but they will never agree to that and honestly its a pain for you too as at some point someone will forget to do it.
 
Update :

Took the below offer but i expect a total 💩 show of incorrect billing coming my way again once the next bill comes about.

30% discount - £42pm
£406 credit applied to broadband plan only.
£55 refunded back into my bank account
Fire 8 HD tablet

Dont think that taking it to deadlock would have helped anymore as at the end of the day they were also offering me fo walk away without penalty and £100 in Amazon vouchers.

Case closes for now 😬😬
 
Update :

Took the below offer but i expect a total 💩 show of incorrect billing coming my way again once the next bill comes about.

30% discount - £42pm
£406 credit applied to broadband plan only.
£55 refunded back into my bank account
Fire 8 HD tablet

Dont think that taking it to deadlock would have helped anymore as at the end of the day they were also offering me fo walk away without penalty and £100 in Amazon vouchers.

Case closes for now 😬😬
I know its been frustrating for you fella but I reckon you have done the best thing. Hope you get the Fire 8 HD tablet as well.
I had problems with an ISP threatening me with fictitious backdated charges so I called them out and got free broadband for a fair few months and the option to end the contract with no penalty charges.
 
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