Vodafone turns on the charm again

About a year or so ago I got a mobile broadband plan from Crazy Johns. I asked the sales person if there was good coverage in my area as I wanted to replace my ADSL as it was costing a lot of money. She told me that there was excellent coverage. I asked her about speeds and she assured me that it was as fast as, if not faster than my ADSL.

I attempted to use the service and was disappointed to find that it just wouldn't work. After several frustrating calls to their tech support I was told that it must be my fault. I followed their instructions and pleaded with them to come and see for themselves. They refused. There just simply was no reception, anywhere in my house. At most there was 1 bar of EDGE reception that would appear occasionally but not for long enough to connect for more than a few minutes and the best download speed I ever reached was something like 20bps, that's BPS, not KBPS.

I asked them to cancel the service, and I was told that their people would contact me. Surprise, they never did. A couple months passed and I called again to confirm that they'd canceled the service. The man on the phone told me he could not tell me anything til I paid the past few months balance. I was annoyed but he gauranteed it would be refunded anyway as the service didn't work and that this was just a formality. I paid it via credit card and was again told that they'd be in touch regarding any issues with the cancellation.

I never heard from them again. My mobile phone is with Vodafone, so they know my phone number, they could've called me if there was any issues.

This morning I get a call from an overseas number and straight up the woman asked for my full name, date of birth and address. I told her I don't hand these out to random international callers. She said she worked for NRG solutions on behalf of Vodafone for debt recovery. I was confused because my Vodafone bill for my mobile is fine. I gave her my details and she told me I owed over $900 for the broadband service. I was shocked.

I explained to her that I'd been assured the service would be canceled a long time ago. She told me if I wanted to place a hold on the account, I'd have to pay $90 right now, of course I said no. I told her there was no way known on this planet I was going to pay for a service I never received and had canceled. I told her I'd already paid too much for it as it was! She said I'd need to provide written proof that it was canceled and of course I've never received a letter from them. I told her the proof was that the service was never successfully used and there'd be logs of my calls canceling the service. She stated that this wasn't enough and that collection proceedings will commence immediately. I asked her to get vodafone to call me, she said I have to call them but they'd just tell me to call NRG solutions.

Great. So now I have a bad debt record for a service that never bloody worked.

From another reader

I had similar frustrations with Vodafone for many months, finally going to the TIO (Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman). That got a response after 10 days (they had to respond within 10 days). I got a poor compromise, they refused to budge on cancelling my mobile phone contract even though I said the coverage according to their maps was misleading (it said there was coverage in the area when I repeatedly found there wasn't.) I finally wrote a letter to the CEO Nigel Dews which prompted a person from Vodafone to call me, and I finally got a satisfactory resolution. If you want to send him a letter his address is:

Mr Nigel Dews
CEO
Vodafone Hutchison Australia
Level 7, 40 Mount St
North Sydney NSW 2060

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