Vodafone - sneaky sales attempt
Discussion
I just got a call from a 01709 number from a guy claiming to be from Vodafone. I didn't google the number as wasn't by my PC. The guy asks a few questions about the level of service and mentions details about my account i.e I now believe it's Vodafone and not random scammer. I mentioned I go over my data a bit and had to bolt on £10 for some extra Gb (frustrating when I was on unlimited giffgaff). He then starts quoting my recent bills and when I added data on and says he can cap my bills at £60. He's also then says he is going to give me another 2gb for free and reset my monthly data as of midnight tonight.
Obviously I'm suspicious at this point and ask, when I'm tied into this contract for another 18 months, why he's in such a generous mood....it's not as if I'm about to leave. He trots out some stuff about wanting me to remain loyal and spread the good word. I'm actually thinking at this point that OFCOM are about to make changes for the better and Vodafone are trying to change contracts so they don't fall foul of some new reg coming out.
Then he says he can send me a free Vodafone tablet. Again, I immediately ask why he would want to do that? I specifically asked whether their would be any change to my contract in terms of cost or duration or whether it was a new contract and he stated their would not be. I also said I assume that should I google this amazing offer and find a hidden catch that there is a cooling off period. He said yes, no problem and if I want to revert back to my uncapped account etc I just post it back in 14 days. Feeling that it was a genuine Vodafone call and protected by OFCOM regs I said go for it (being more interested in the data and capping). He cheerily tells me I'll just have to pay 4.95 delivery which will go onto my next bill and I'll have my tablet in next few days and changes to my account come into effect at midnight tonight. He then finished off by confirming the delivery address.
After he called, I then googled the number and the offer and found that it's a 3rd party company acting on behalf of Vodafone trying to sell you a tablet contract for 20/month over 24 months.
I ring Vodafone and they deny all knowledge to start with but then find some activity on my account that a sales call was made and 'customer declined contract' !
Sneaky! There was never a mention of a new contract and I declined nothing so I can think of three possibilities?
1 - I am going to get a tablet with a 24 month contract (surely that won't stand up!)
2 - The salesmen realised he wasn't going to be able to get a 24 month contract past me unnoticed and went through the motions of the rest of the call so I didn't take offence at being mislead and complain to Vodafone etc
3 - The salesmen has a quota to meet and is sending me a free tablet with no contract that is just linked to my account and will never cost me anything. And then he'll come round and install a new kitchen for free as well...
regards
Ben
Obviously I'm suspicious at this point and ask, when I'm tied into this contract for another 18 months, why he's in such a generous mood....it's not as if I'm about to leave. He trots out some stuff about wanting me to remain loyal and spread the good word. I'm actually thinking at this point that OFCOM are about to make changes for the better and Vodafone are trying to change contracts so they don't fall foul of some new reg coming out.
Then he says he can send me a free Vodafone tablet. Again, I immediately ask why he would want to do that? I specifically asked whether their would be any change to my contract in terms of cost or duration or whether it was a new contract and he stated their would not be. I also said I assume that should I google this amazing offer and find a hidden catch that there is a cooling off period. He said yes, no problem and if I want to revert back to my uncapped account etc I just post it back in 14 days. Feeling that it was a genuine Vodafone call and protected by OFCOM regs I said go for it (being more interested in the data and capping). He cheerily tells me I'll just have to pay 4.95 delivery which will go onto my next bill and I'll have my tablet in next few days and changes to my account come into effect at midnight tonight. He then finished off by confirming the delivery address.
After he called, I then googled the number and the offer and found that it's a 3rd party company acting on behalf of Vodafone trying to sell you a tablet contract for 20/month over 24 months.
I ring Vodafone and they deny all knowledge to start with but then find some activity on my account that a sales call was made and 'customer declined contract' !
Sneaky! There was never a mention of a new contract and I declined nothing so I can think of three possibilities?
1 - I am going to get a tablet with a 24 month contract (surely that won't stand up!)
2 - The salesmen realised he wasn't going to be able to get a 24 month contract past me unnoticed and went through the motions of the rest of the call so I didn't take offence at being mislead and complain to Vodafone etc
3 - The salesmen has a quota to meet and is sending me a free tablet with no contract that is just linked to my account and will never cost me anything. And then he'll come round and install a new kitchen for free as well...
regards
Ben
Edited by turboslippers on Monday 14th September 16:12
I had much the same happen last year. Voda initially refused to cancel the contract, despite the sales girl lying through her teeth. A chairmans office complaint eventually had it cancelled, compensation paid and we kept the tablet. But it was a massive faff and we were unable to go back onto the same tariff as before, though this actually worked out well for us in the end.
Yeah, it was a bit odd why he continued the call? Having read of other peoples experience with this call they usually just hang up when they get rumbled. Maybe they've had bad press and figured that if I complain after they can just say they made a mistake. The cynic in me thinks they go through the convo and then replay it after so see whether they can send a tablet with a new contract.
I read on money saving expert where someone got the tablet as she only asked whether the tablet was free and then got told she had to pay to use it although, yes, the tablet itself was free as described.
Oooh...interesting...as I type and after speaking to Vodafone...I just got this txt from them?
'HI Ben about the tablet device and the changes to your account we have put you 2gb of free data from now until the end of your current plan but the cap on your data has not been accepted today sir so your account is the exact same as it was before but you're now getting 2gb of data free of charge instead of paying £10 a month. Thankyou for your custom and loyalty'
Haha....so I'm not getting a free tablet then! I wonder how much Vodafone are involved with this? Do they tolerate the sneaky sales tactics and then just offer a gift to the people who complain? If you get enough people suckered then a few free gifts here and there doesn't matter? Dangerous strategy though what with social media etc....
I think I will be taking this up with Vodafone...twitter or FB I think. Reckon I can get the free tablet as promised on the phone? (should have recorded the call!)
regards
Ben
I read on money saving expert where someone got the tablet as she only asked whether the tablet was free and then got told she had to pay to use it although, yes, the tablet itself was free as described.
Oooh...interesting...as I type and after speaking to Vodafone...I just got this txt from them?
'HI Ben about the tablet device and the changes to your account we have put you 2gb of free data from now until the end of your current plan but the cap on your data has not been accepted today sir so your account is the exact same as it was before but you're now getting 2gb of data free of charge instead of paying £10 a month. Thankyou for your custom and loyalty'
Haha....so I'm not getting a free tablet then! I wonder how much Vodafone are involved with this? Do they tolerate the sneaky sales tactics and then just offer a gift to the people who complain? If you get enough people suckered then a few free gifts here and there doesn't matter? Dangerous strategy though what with social media etc....
I think I will be taking this up with Vodafone...twitter or FB I think. Reckon I can get the free tablet as promised on the phone? (should have recorded the call!)
regards
Ben
turboslippers said:
Yeah, it was a bit odd why he continued the call? Having read of other peoples experience with this call they usually just hang up when they get rumbled. Maybe they've had bad press and figured that if I complain after they can just say they made a mistake. The cynic in me thinks they go through the convo and then replay it after so see whether they can send a tablet with a new contract.
I read on money saving expert where someone got the tablet as she only asked whether the tablet was free and then got told she had to pay to use it although, yes, the tablet itself was free as described.
Oooh...interesting...as I type and after speaking to Vodafone...I just got this txt from them?
'HI Ben about the tablet device and the changes to your account we have put you 2gb of free data from now until the end of your current plan but the cap on your data has not been accepted today sir so your account is the exact same as it was before but you're now getting 2gb of data free of charge instead of paying £10 a month. Thankyou for your custom and loyalty'
Haha....so I'm not getting a free tablet then! I wonder how much Vodafone are involved with this? Do they tolerate the sneaky sales tactics and then just offer a gift to the people who complain? If you get enough people suckered then a few free gifts here and there doesn't matter? Dangerous strategy though what with social media etc....
I think I will be taking this up with Vodafone...twitter or FB I think. Reckon I can get the free tablet as promised on the phone? (should have recorded the call!)
regards
Ben
Here's the thread when it happened to me: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...I read on money saving expert where someone got the tablet as she only asked whether the tablet was free and then got told she had to pay to use it although, yes, the tablet itself was free as described.
Oooh...interesting...as I type and after speaking to Vodafone...I just got this txt from them?
'HI Ben about the tablet device and the changes to your account we have put you 2gb of free data from now until the end of your current plan but the cap on your data has not been accepted today sir so your account is the exact same as it was before but you're now getting 2gb of data free of charge instead of paying £10 a month. Thankyou for your custom and loyalty'
Haha....so I'm not getting a free tablet then! I wonder how much Vodafone are involved with this? Do they tolerate the sneaky sales tactics and then just offer a gift to the people who complain? If you get enough people suckered then a few free gifts here and there doesn't matter? Dangerous strategy though what with social media etc....
I think I will be taking this up with Vodafone...twitter or FB I think. Reckon I can get the free tablet as promised on the phone? (should have recorded the call!)
regards
Ben
The Chief Exec's details are on page 2, it was a letter to him that got it resolved.
I've sorted an upgrade on my phone today, and VF chucked 2GB for free and also seemed to imply they had done the upgrade for free instead of £. No idea as to whether there was an upgrade fee as I did not get around to checking, but I was surprised at how customer friendly the offer was. Now wondering what I've missed.
DSLiverpool said:
I pay £45 a month for a 5s on Voda, I got a random Virgin email with a 6s 64gb at nothing upfront and £42 a month like for like - miles better than Voda so I called them and they said they couldn't get near it.
However I don't know if the Virgin network is any good so won't risk it.
They piggy on the back of EE. Probably quite good in that case.However I don't know if the Virgin network is any good so won't risk it.
http://shop.ee.co.uk/coverage-checker
I had something similar happen to my wife a good few years ago and Vodafone refused to cancel the new contract despite the fact that she could even prove she was lied to and that they were breaking their own terms and conditions. My wife was too embarrassed to tell me about it and actually had a miscarriage due to the amount of stress this had contributed to, which is how I found out about it.
I spent a lot of hours on the phone dealing with the mess they had created thinking it would be easy, but I was passed around endlessly and promised call backs that never actually happened. Writing to them didn't help and in the end even I gave up and told them they could take us to court if they wanted their money.
Eventually they sold the debt on to a company who did chance it and put a claim through the small claims court. Thanks in no small part to the knowledgeable folk on here, I managed to deal with the claim and finally managed to get in touch with someone at Vodafone who could be bothered to at least look in to the case. He did agree there were issues with it but shamelessly still demanded roughly £40 to close the account.
I paid up just to make it go away but vowed to never ever go near anything to do with Vodafone ever again, I don't think I will ever forget that experience.
I can't find the thread on here about it as I'm posting from my phone but it really was a shocking experience, never in my life had I dealt with such incompetent and completely ignorant employees who had no intention of dealing with the problem, some would actually put me on hold and hang up on me after a while.
I spent a lot of hours on the phone dealing with the mess they had created thinking it would be easy, but I was passed around endlessly and promised call backs that never actually happened. Writing to them didn't help and in the end even I gave up and told them they could take us to court if they wanted their money.
Eventually they sold the debt on to a company who did chance it and put a claim through the small claims court. Thanks in no small part to the knowledgeable folk on here, I managed to deal with the claim and finally managed to get in touch with someone at Vodafone who could be bothered to at least look in to the case. He did agree there were issues with it but shamelessly still demanded roughly £40 to close the account.
I paid up just to make it go away but vowed to never ever go near anything to do with Vodafone ever again, I don't think I will ever forget that experience.
I can't find the thread on here about it as I'm posting from my phone but it really was a shocking experience, never in my life had I dealt with such incompetent and completely ignorant employees who had no intention of dealing with the problem, some would actually put me on hold and hang up on me after a while.
Looks like I fell for this in 2014 at some point. A Galaxy tab 3 for £20 a month over 24 months.
They offered quite a high data allowance which i do use, and so the deal seemed ok.. not very good with this kind of thing. What's going on then? Guess it's a rip off as I already have unlimited data on my S3 and I'm paying nearly £500 for a £200 tablet.. bummer.
They offered quite a high data allowance which i do use, and so the deal seemed ok.. not very good with this kind of thing. What's going on then? Guess it's a rip off as I already have unlimited data on my S3 and I'm paying nearly £500 for a £200 tablet.. bummer.
Edited by Pebbles167 on Monday 14th September 20:28
Pebbles167 said:
Looks like I fell for this in 2014 at some point. A Galaxy tab 3 for £20 a month over 24 months.
They offered quite a high data allowance which i do use, and so the deal seemed ok.. not very good with this kind of thing. What's going on then?
In short, Vodafone has an aggressive outbound call centre operation whose agents will happily deceive Vodafone customers in order to sell extended contracts and new connections. Vodafone is aware that it's going on and is doing nothing about it.They offered quite a high data allowance which i do use, and so the deal seemed ok.. not very good with this kind of thing. What's going on then?
DSLiverpool said:
I pay £45 a month for a 5s on Voda, I got a random Virgin email with a 6s 64gb at nothing upfront and £42 a month like for like - miles better than Voda so I called them and they said they couldn't get near it.
However I don't know if the Virgin network is any good so won't risk it.
Virgin are spot on-only reason I didn't go with them last time is they didn't appear to offer any decent iPhone contracts. Now this seems to have changed-I'll be switching like a shot when my Vodafone (utter imbeciles!) contract is up.However I don't know if the Virgin network is any good so won't risk it.
I got these calls from a company claiming to be from Vodafone when I was with them.
They had all your personal data on screen, and sounded very convincing.
The last call I had from them, I said I was recording them. They hung up, and never called again.
I'm now with Virgin....best move I ever made, and as mentioned above, they use the EE system.
They had all your personal data on screen, and sounded very convincing.
The last call I had from them, I said I was recording them. They hung up, and never called again.
I'm now with Virgin....best move I ever made, and as mentioned above, they use the EE system.
13m said:
In short, Vodafone has an aggressive outbound call centre operation whose agents will happily deceive Vodafone customers in order to sell extended contracts and new connections. Vodafone is aware that it's going on and is doing nothing about it.
Bugger. Cheers for straightening that out. No chance of ending it early then i guess?One thing I've noticed as of late is that for my original contract theybseem to just charge anything between £60 and £90 randomly. I've been putting it off for too long, time to try contacting them.
I had exactly this happen a couple of years ago. Got a call offering me a new iPad 'just because' and despite my checking there wasn't a new line being added, they insisted all was ok.
I didn't check my account for about 6 months and then discovered that I'd been paying for 6 months of a brand new contract. I went ballistic, phoned Vodafone and went through them and they apologised, claimed a 'third party sales company' had been working on their behalf but hadn't been authorised to setup new contracts without permission and canceled it, refunded me and I kept the iPad on my old contract.
Cheeky f
kers!
I genuinely believed it had been a one-off blip with a dodgy agency and am disappointed to hear they're still doing it and are clearly involved too.
On the upside, if anyone has been caught out by it, phone up and go fking mental and they'll cave as they clearly know they don't have a leg to stand on.
They tried to fob me off with all sorts of bullst like they'd 'lost the record of the call' etc etc but I just shouted over them until the agreed.
I didn't check my account for about 6 months and then discovered that I'd been paying for 6 months of a brand new contract. I went ballistic, phoned Vodafone and went through them and they apologised, claimed a 'third party sales company' had been working on their behalf but hadn't been authorised to setup new contracts without permission and canceled it, refunded me and I kept the iPad on my old contract.
Cheeky f
kers!I genuinely believed it had been a one-off blip with a dodgy agency and am disappointed to hear they're still doing it and are clearly involved too.
On the upside, if anyone has been caught out by it, phone up and go f
king mental and they'll cave as they clearly know they don't have a leg to stand on.They tried to fob me off with all sorts of bulls
t like they'd 'lost the record of the call' etc etc but I just shouted over them until the agreed.Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff