hi,

my case was transferred to the local county court after which i had to send an allocation questionaare and wait for the defendant to reply. i called today and i was given a reply from the local court that now i need to request judegement as the defendant didnt reply. i wanted to knw what do i need to enter judgement. I asked the advisor and she replied that i was sent it in the first letter. But i havent received anything related to enter the judgement. cn nybody help me..

thanks

Channel 4 tonight, Monday 28 April 2008 - Dispatches, 8 pm - "The Mobile Phone Rip-off".

E-mail on it's way...

thanks

This has become a stitch up. I would suggest that the best route given that OTELO (on whose board Vodaphoney are represented) are choosing to prejudge the matter is to take the case against Vodaphoney direct to your local County Court. Unfortunately this will be slower than the 'arbitration' (more like arbitrary!) would have been but which is, of course, less open to influence.

Get my contact from my profile and drop me a note and I'll reply with notes on how to prepare your case for the small claims track.

Complain to Oftel and to your MP that the system of regulation and the mandatory arbitration provision are not working and that the networks apper to be controlling the system of redress.

KRs Funforus

Vodafone have put it in writing now that OTELO have told them not to issue deadlock letters.

But I sent my complaint onto OTELO anyway, clearly stating that my complaint was with Vodafone.

The hopeless idiots have come back saying that Chatterbox are not a member of OTELO, so they cannot investigate.

OFTEL seems like the next step, though I'm beginning to lose all hope here...

Hi everyone,

well i spoke to Three myself as well, and they offered me jack S***, as that contract has now been terminated after the original 12 months and is now on pay as you go, so they said they wont do nothing.

I've given up on this, very expensive lesson....

I'll keep an eye on this with any hope that something might get done

Regards

Hi,

Yesterday I was called up by Three and was offered £150 credit onto my account to settle the cashback matter. I was owed £355 by chatterbox.

Three network say have had a specialist team looking at it for a while now, and this is the maximum they will offer customers.

They also said that if this offer was rejected, then they will close the case, and letter would be sent to me stating that the offer was rejected and the case is now closed.

I am on a very good deal with three, where I get 300 minutes and 150 text for £5 a month, so with this offer, i will get over 2 years free.

I decided to accept, as I cant see any better options at the moment

Heard back from the manager, apparently OTELO have told Vodafone not to issue any dead-lock letters as they have already agreed with the view that these contracts were clearly with the cash-back companies.
i.e. OTELO have pre-judged this without looking at individuals evidence or any legal arguments

The manager didn't want to accept the argument that we couldn't have known about the dual contracts, he even said at one point that whilst there might not have been two contracts signed (and of course there weren't) that there were nevertheless two, and the one with Vodafone would not have mentioned cash-back.

He didn't see the point that it was the advertising and order forms that we actually bought up to, and these clearly did use the Vodafone logo & were very loose in their definitions & failed to set out that two contracts were actually in place.

His only suggestion was to go to Trading Standards to take it up with them, as despite the fact that we didn't agree they couldn't issue a deadlock letter as OTELO have told them not to. (He's going to put this in writing - as I didn't want just an e-mail)

Anyway like yeah, Trading Standards will do anything.

I think I'll take my complaint to OFTEL as I can't see how OTELO can make a blanket pre-judgement like this...

Finally heard back from Vodafone, long-story short they're still going down the line of it being the third-party company (Chatterbox) that I should contact, and they're not responsible for the contract that wasn't with them.

The lady in the customer services couldn't offer any more than the deals that the normal retentions department had. She thought that these were very good offers & whilst they're not bad they don't redress the cash-back issue at hand.

Rather bizarrely they've got a "Rescue Pack" set-up for Dial-a-mobile & Mobile Media customers but apparently the manager of this cash-back department isn't setting up such a pack for chatterbox customers as they're all "very old" contracts (not so in my case). So get complaining to Vodafone folks please!

A manager is supposed to be calling me back in 48 hours to see if they can issue a deadlock letter - as I wouldn't budge from my stance.

I politely requested the deadlock as we obviously were not going to agree...

Mmmm, from here, where I'm getting reports back from all over, it is clear that Vodaphoney and 3 in particular are developing long term stalling tactics. It may be time to get tough with them as the big advantage of arbitration, speed and cheapness, is being lost.

I'd like to say complain to Ofcom and they will prompt 3 to abide by the letter and spirit of the conditions of their license and of the Code of Practice that they signed . . . unfortunately the chances of Ofcom actually prodding a network to carry out their obligations are pretty slim, they'd need to carry out a consultation first then ruminate for a year or two . . .

How are you placed to pay the modest issue fees in the County Court? (Or if you are 'poor' you may get remission of fees and you get anything you pay back if you win) The case is no less strong taken that way the only disadvantages are that if arbitration worked properly it would be free up front and very quick - My whole claim took three and a half weeks from sending 'cage rattler' to agreement to settle. However if you are being denied access to arbitration . . .

The fact that a network has denied or blocked access to arbitration will actually be a very strong point against them in Court and, frankly, my feeling is that it is time someone put these people through the wringer . . . unfortunately it wont be any of our lily livered consumer protection (sic) organisations.

If any of you want to try that way (and it must be your choice) let me know and I'll go through the process with you and help you all I can with the case structuring and presentation. I have to make clear though I am not a lawyer (thank God) and if they really wanted to get heavy they would probably field some big guns . . . On the other hand you have right on your side and the moral high ground!

You should remember also that you cant have costs awarded against you in the Small Claims track and you can insist on the case being heard in your own local court. This means that big compaines sometimes find it cheaper to just to settle on a 'no admission' basis and have done with it.

So . . . it's up to you.

KRs Funforus (and anyone who'd like to come to watch)

Yes, but I wouldn't expect anything back via that route, follow the thread & Irfy has the complaint templates...

FunForUs, another question please.

Do we need to take a blind bit of notice of this?

"

Check-list for contacting Otelo:

• Have you complained to your service provider and made every effort to complete its complaints procedure?
• Have you received a 'Deadlock' letter? Or..
• Have 12 weeks passed since you first made the complaint to the service provider?
• Is your service provider a member of Otelo?

"

I haven't had anything back from the 'phoneys, and they've had 3 weeks so far.

Presumably I can complain on the grounds that they haven't replied at all within a reasonable time-scale?

I gave them just the 14 days in my initial cage rattler letter, and they have verbally promised to get back to me several times now...

Many thanks

Hi,

I have sent all asked docs to Valentine & Co. a few weeks back. Did you all do the same? Can we expact anything out of that? Any updates? I had T Mobile deal and lost about £260 with Chatterbox.com. Please update me with that or any other latest solution. Thanks.

I've filled the survey in & would encourage others to do so.

I think that OFCOM need to clamp down even further, making the mobile provider (three, vodafone etc) liable in the situation where their agent doesn't pay out on a reasonable claim or where their agent goes into liquidation. To my mind that's the only way to make the networks take more care over who they let sell their products/services.

Yes, this will affect competition a bit, but it's preferable to the competition being at the expense of the implied 20% who have issues with cash-back. "Around 80% of cashback customers are happy with their offers and have found the process for claiming them relatively easy." OFCOM. 20% is a lot of people!

Now if we can just convince them to back-date the rules, then our job will be done! (Doubt it though...)