Requesting transcripts from call centre (update)
Discussion
Some of you may be aware that I have had trouble with an ex mobile phone provider taking unautorised payments out of my account. This happened over a month after I disconnected from their service. They also charged me a disconnection fee even though I disconnected in the way described in my contract.
After weeks of ridiculously useless email responses and hassle, I finally have some sort of answer from them. I find this ironic, however, that their most helpful response was sent after I threatened them with Ofcom and the media/press!
Their response (still far from useful) is the following:
Good evening Mr. ****,
Thanks for your email to Vodafone about the credit on your account.
After going through your email I myself feel very disappointed for which I sincerely apologise for all the inconvenience caused. Let me see what I can do for you.
Mr. ****, I'm sorry to tell you that we won't be able to give you any details of calls recorded as there are only some calls which are recorded for our training purpose. As there is acfedit balance of £0.90 on your account please get back to me with your bank details so that I can arrange the credit to be add to your bank account. I’m happy to offer you £10 with my compliments for the time you have spent to resolve this issue and all the inconvenience caused to you. If you accept thos offer please get back to me with sort code and account number here you which the credit to be credited.
I’ll look forward to your reply. Should you need any further assistance in the meantime Mr. ****, please feel free to contact me.
What does everyone on here think? I have the following issues with this:
1. They credited my account which has been closed for three months. How am I supposed to get my money out? I do not feel comfortable sending bank details to them over email.
2. Is he telling a little white lie when he states that they do not record all calls? Aren't these providers, by law, supposed to be able to supply a transcript of all calls? I had an email last week from them saying that if I sent them £10 to their data manager they could supply me with a transcript. Now they are backing out of this and saying they can't provide this? I think its because they know they are wrong and I had been mis-informed about the ending of my contract.
I thought Vodafone recorded all calls? They always seem to be able to check back when I have called them to complain in the past.
3. Once again, the email promises help but offers little. Isn't it ironic that the £10 they are offering me was the cost of requesting a transcript from them last week?
I'm getting quite fed up with this now and have contacted Ofcom, but they are, in effect, quite useless. They say they can't investigate personal claims. What is the point in having them?
I am going to escalate this further and I think I have to contact Vodafone's alternative resolution service or something. But, for what its worth, I am thinking of going to the media. Would this be a bad thing?
Anyone in the know got any ideas?
Thanks all!
After weeks of ridiculously useless email responses and hassle, I finally have some sort of answer from them. I find this ironic, however, that their most helpful response was sent after I threatened them with Ofcom and the media/press!
Their response (still far from useful) is the following:
Good evening Mr. ****,
Thanks for your email to Vodafone about the credit on your account.
After going through your email I myself feel very disappointed for which I sincerely apologise for all the inconvenience caused. Let me see what I can do for you.
Mr. ****, I'm sorry to tell you that we won't be able to give you any details of calls recorded as there are only some calls which are recorded for our training purpose. As there is acfedit balance of £0.90 on your account please get back to me with your bank details so that I can arrange the credit to be add to your bank account. I’m happy to offer you £10 with my compliments for the time you have spent to resolve this issue and all the inconvenience caused to you. If you accept thos offer please get back to me with sort code and account number here you which the credit to be credited.
I’ll look forward to your reply. Should you need any further assistance in the meantime Mr. ****, please feel free to contact me.
What does everyone on here think? I have the following issues with this:
1. They credited my account which has been closed for three months. How am I supposed to get my money out? I do not feel comfortable sending bank details to them over email.
2. Is he telling a little white lie when he states that they do not record all calls? Aren't these providers, by law, supposed to be able to supply a transcript of all calls? I had an email last week from them saying that if I sent them £10 to their data manager they could supply me with a transcript. Now they are backing out of this and saying they can't provide this? I think its because they know they are wrong and I had been mis-informed about the ending of my contract.
I thought Vodafone recorded all calls? They always seem to be able to check back when I have called them to complain in the past.
3. Once again, the email promises help but offers little. Isn't it ironic that the £10 they are offering me was the cost of requesting a transcript from them last week?
I'm getting quite fed up with this now and have contacted Ofcom, but they are, in effect, quite useless. They say they can't investigate personal claims. What is the point in having them?
I am going to escalate this further and I think I have to contact Vodafone's alternative resolution service or something. But, for what its worth, I am thinking of going to the media. Would this be a bad thing?
Anyone in the know got any ideas?
Thanks all!
Edited by funkyrobot on Wednesday 22 October 09:10
Hiya, I remember your last thread. Not all calls will be recorded, this is true as it takes up huge amounts of space (where I am is on hard drives). If it is the same week, then they may have been kept but thereafter is random I'm afraid.
I would suggest that you ask them for all notes and associated information they have if you are following up (am assuming that you have already sent the £10), and email back to tell them that their response is unsatisfactory and you wish to escalate it further.
Saying you are going to the media won't usually have an effect, unless you go through the consumer issues bit (i think) where the paper will fight it on your behalf, and that takes a while anyway.
The person emailing you back will have a limit of credit which they can raise, which is probably why they offered a tenner.
Good luck with it
I would suggest that you ask them for all notes and associated information they have if you are following up (am assuming that you have already sent the £10), and email back to tell them that their response is unsatisfactory and you wish to escalate it further.
Saying you are going to the media won't usually have an effect, unless you go through the consumer issues bit (i think) where the paper will fight it on your behalf, and that takes a while anyway.
The person emailing you back will have a limit of credit which they can raise, which is probably why they offered a tenner.
Good luck with it

funkyrobot said:
2. Is he telling a little white lie when he states that they do not record all calls? Aren't these providers, by law, supposed to be able to supply a transcript of all calls? I had an email last week from them saying that if I sent them £10 to their data manager they could supply me with a transcript. Now they are backing out of this and saying they can't provide this? I think its because they know they are wrong and I had been mis-informed about the ending of my contract.
I thought Vodafone recorded all calls? They always seem to be able to check back when I have called them to complain in the past.
No they don't record everything, that would be a huge amount of data to be stored and indexed for no real reason. When they check back to previous conversations it's actual just a note on your file written by the previous call centre slave."Cust called to complain about blah blah, fobbed him off with XYZ".I thought Vodafone recorded all calls? They always seem to be able to check back when I have called them to complain in the past.
lawrence567 said:
My mate used to work in a call centre for SKY.
They used to record every call, when someone called it would come up on their computer that they were about to receive a call & the computer would automatically start recording the call!
That's great, but we're talking about Vodafone here.They used to record every call, when someone called it would come up on their computer that they were about to receive a call & the computer would automatically start recording the call!
Crossflow Kid said:
Is it really worth it? To Vodafone you are a small cog in their very big money spinning machine, in fact, you're a little drip of oil, on a small cog.
Unless they still owe you money, forget it, there are far more important things to expend heartbeats on.
With any luck though they will have no small cogs left to treat like this. I for one will never use Vodafone again due to them doing exactly the same to me. From my experience one part of the company has no link at all to the others. I still suggest you actually go into a shop, talk nicely to a real person (as it's not their fault personally), explain the situation and then sit back and watch whilst they solve it all for you. Worked for me! Unless they still owe you money, forget it, there are far more important things to expend heartbeats on.
Ponk said:
Crossflow Kid said:
Is it really worth it? To Vodafone you are a small cog in their very big money spinning machine, in fact, you're a little drip of oil, on a small cog.
Unless they still owe you money, forget it, there are far more important things to expend heartbeats on.
With any luck though they will have no small cogs left to treat like this. I for one will never use Vodafone again due to them doing exactly the same to me. From my experience one part of the company has no link at all to the others. I still suggest you actually go into a shop, talk nicely to a real person (as it's not their fault personally), explain the situation and then sit back and watch whilst they solve it all for you. Worked for me! Unless they still owe you money, forget it, there are far more important things to expend heartbeats on.
I'm switching to Virgin next time.
Office_Monkey said:
Hiya, I remember your last thread. Not all calls will be recorded, this is true as it takes up huge amounts of space (where I am is on hard drives). If it is the same week, then they may have been kept but thereafter is random I'm afraid.
I would suggest that you ask them for all notes and associated information they have if you are following up (am assuming that you have already sent the £10), and email back to tell them that their response is unsatisfactory and you wish to escalate it further.
Saying you are going to the media won't usually have an effect, unless you go through the consumer issues bit (i think) where the paper will fight it on your behalf, and that takes a while anyway.
The person emailing you back will have a limit of credit which they can raise, which is probably why they offered a tenner.
Good luck with it
Thanks for the info.I would suggest that you ask them for all notes and associated information they have if you are following up (am assuming that you have already sent the £10), and email back to tell them that their response is unsatisfactory and you wish to escalate it further.
Saying you are going to the media won't usually have an effect, unless you go through the consumer issues bit (i think) where the paper will fight it on your behalf, and that takes a while anyway.
The person emailing you back will have a limit of credit which they can raise, which is probably why they offered a tenner.
Good luck with it

I mentioned the press in terms of informing them of my story. I'm more interested in letting people know how bad Vodafone are than actually getting compensation off them. The compensation they offer is actually very trivial and will never cover the cost of time and hassle chasing them up.
I'd rather make people more informed before they sign that dreaded 18 month contract!
Ponk said:
Crossflow Kid said:
Is it really worth it? To Vodafone you are a small cog in their very big money spinning machine, in fact, you're a little drip of oil, on a small cog.
Unless they still owe you money, forget it, there are far more important things to expend heartbeats on.
With any luck though they will have no small cogs left to treat like this. I for one will never use Vodafone again due to them doing exactly the same to me. From my experience one part of the company has no link at all to the others. I still suggest you actually go into a shop, talk nicely to a real person (as it's not their fault personally), explain the situation and then sit back and watch whilst they solve it all for you. Worked for me! Unless they still owe you money, forget it, there are far more important things to expend heartbeats on.
I'm a bit of a pain when I get my teeth into something as I don't give up easily at all. With this situation I have done nothing wrong and in my eyes Vodafone have committed fraudulent actions against me. Why should they be allowed to do this and then just wave it off as if nothing has happened?
Hopefully more and more people will start doing what I (and some others on here) have been doing. We may not make any difference but I am sure as hell not giving up without a fight lol!
Just another update for you all:
Good afternoon ***
Thank you for your email to Rookshana. Your email has been passed to me for a response.
In answer to your email, Rookshana is not a manager. Your email has been passed to me inline with our escalation procedure.
The information about sending a cheque for £10.00 to our Data Protection Manager is correct. Our Data Protection Manager will provide you with a copy of the personal data that we hold on you on receipt of the fee. This may or may not include records of telephone conversations. We only record a small percentage of calls for training and quality purposes and retain them for a limited duration. If you wish to obtain a copy of your personal data then you'll need to follow the procedure as advised.
We're a member of Otelo, an alternative dispute resolution service. You can find more information on Otelo by visiting www.otelo.org.uk.
We sent the original bill for **** and a copy, so I'm surprised you didn't receive either copy. I've sent you another copy so hopefully you'll get this in the next few days.
Once you receive the bill you'll see that we charged a cancellation fee of *** (VAT exempt) and not *** as previously advised. If you cancel your number on or before the expiry of your minimum commitment period then we change a cancellation fee. As you cancelled your mobile on the day your commitment period expired the cancellation fee was equivalent to one day's line rental. I've arranged for the *** to be refunded to the bank account from which the Direct Debit payments were taken.
I note that you first called us about not receiving the final bill on 5 September, and at that stage you asked us for compensation and we agreed to send a copy bill.
I've reviewed our offer of compensation. Having read all of our previous responses and given the amount of the final bill in question I won't be offering any increased amount. If you wish to accept the £10.00 please get back to me within 7 days.
Best wishes
Andrew Woodvine
Customer Relations Specialist
Vodafone Limited
Right, as in the norm for Vodafone, they have finally informed me (after months of chasing) why they charged me extra fees. I should note that I called them whilst in my contract and asked them when I could disconnect without any charges, they originally said the date they have charged me for!!!
And yet again one person says something that another says different.
So, can I do much more or have I totally exhausted all of my options? £10 is pittance for the hassle and bother they have caused and I still haven't had my questions answered.
I am still not happy, but am I being too much of a b
d with this??
Any thoughts and ideas most welcome.
I thought of asking them to use the £10 to get my personal data, is that a good idea??
Thanks all!
Good afternoon ***
Thank you for your email to Rookshana. Your email has been passed to me for a response.
In answer to your email, Rookshana is not a manager. Your email has been passed to me inline with our escalation procedure.
The information about sending a cheque for £10.00 to our Data Protection Manager is correct. Our Data Protection Manager will provide you with a copy of the personal data that we hold on you on receipt of the fee. This may or may not include records of telephone conversations. We only record a small percentage of calls for training and quality purposes and retain them for a limited duration. If you wish to obtain a copy of your personal data then you'll need to follow the procedure as advised.
We're a member of Otelo, an alternative dispute resolution service. You can find more information on Otelo by visiting www.otelo.org.uk.
We sent the original bill for **** and a copy, so I'm surprised you didn't receive either copy. I've sent you another copy so hopefully you'll get this in the next few days.
Once you receive the bill you'll see that we charged a cancellation fee of *** (VAT exempt) and not *** as previously advised. If you cancel your number on or before the expiry of your minimum commitment period then we change a cancellation fee. As you cancelled your mobile on the day your commitment period expired the cancellation fee was equivalent to one day's line rental. I've arranged for the *** to be refunded to the bank account from which the Direct Debit payments were taken.
I note that you first called us about not receiving the final bill on 5 September, and at that stage you asked us for compensation and we agreed to send a copy bill.
I've reviewed our offer of compensation. Having read all of our previous responses and given the amount of the final bill in question I won't be offering any increased amount. If you wish to accept the £10.00 please get back to me within 7 days.
Best wishes
Andrew Woodvine
Customer Relations Specialist
Vodafone Limited
Right, as in the norm for Vodafone, they have finally informed me (after months of chasing) why they charged me extra fees. I should note that I called them whilst in my contract and asked them when I could disconnect without any charges, they originally said the date they have charged me for!!!
And yet again one person says something that another says different.
So, can I do much more or have I totally exhausted all of my options? £10 is pittance for the hassle and bother they have caused and I still haven't had my questions answered.
I am still not happy, but am I being too much of a b
d with this??Any thoughts and ideas most welcome.
I thought of asking them to use the £10 to get my personal data, is that a good idea??
Thanks all!
Edited by funkyrobot on Tuesday 28th October 16:54
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