UPC Number Porting Issue

pelluci

Folks,

I moved TV, Phone and Broadband to UPC last month and ported my Vodafone landline number as part of it. Expecting a small (or even negative) last bill from Vodafone, I was a little annoyed to find I'm still being billed for the full month. According to Vodafone, I should have cancelled with them after the number had been ported (at which point the landline was inactive) but the following is on UPC instructions for porting:

2. Do I need to cancel my phone line with my previous provider?
No, you should NEVER cancel your phone line; it will happen automatically as part of the porting process. If you do cancel your phone line, it could potentially cause you to lose your number and result in significant time and expense to retrieve it.

So, who's right and what should I do?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated, although I already know both Vodafone and UPC's responses.

Cogsie

I'm in a similar situation.

I believe that Vodafone should have cancelled my account when UPC ported the phone number.
I just need to get Vodafone to agree to that!

I moved from Vodafone to UPC last month.
In arranging for my existing phone number to be ported to UPC I was assurred by UPC that the act of porting the number would cancel my account with Vodafone.

So, it was quite unexpected to receive an invoice from Vodafone to charge me for line rental for August.

I phoned Vodafone yesterday and spoke to a customer service agent who is claiming that Vodafone require a 30 day notice period of cancellation and the act by UPC of porting the number does not fulfill that.

I don't think that Vodafone are right - so I ask the agent to refer me to someone else in Vodafone.
I am waiting to get a 'supervisor' callback.

In the meantime, I rang UPC to double check on what they believe should have happened.
The UPC agent checked and came back to quite clearly say that the action of porting the number does cancel the account with Vodafone.
She recommended going to ComReg if Vodafone don't recognise this.

I am trying to find the '30 day notice period' thing that the Vodafone agent was referring to.
I haven't found that yet.

Given that the broadband (DSL) service was cancelled by Vodafone indicates that Vodafone did take some action on my account when UPC contacted them.
So I don't agree with Vodafone that they needed me to contact them.
Vodafone clearly have enough of a system in place to take action on the broadband services when UPC notifies them of a number porting.

I don't accept that Vodafone cannot also take action on the phone line.

The Vodafone agent I did speak to earlier did say something about it being different when porting for UPC because of equipment differences.

As a consumer I don't believe I should pay just because Vodafone don't have sensible internal processes.

So, I'm going to pursue this again with Vodafone.
And probably I'll get in touch with ComReg to get the regulator's take on this situation.

ted1

Eircom cancelled automatically when I switched. Have you asked Vodafone how they provided a service when there was no number on the line. A call to comreg should sort them out.

pelluci

Cogsie,

Maybe they're just getting sick of losing customers, coz that's exactly what happened to me (broadband cancelled, not phone). I've asked Comreg and they came back with the "Vodafone at Home do require you to give notice of 30 days upon taking the decision to move your services and will bill you for the 30 days so there are correct in doing that"

However, I've also been looking at Vodafone T&C's and it keeps mentioning that 30 days written notice is needed to cancel the service, but no mention is made of what to do if the service is cancelled without written notice. Basically, we're not looking for the service to be cancelled, as this is already done.

Talking to Vodafone, they just keep repeating that I need to give 30 days written notice to cancel, even though I'm not getting any service.

I'm waiting to see if Comreg come back with anything different this time.

pelluci

Further reply from Comreg:

If you failed to contact Vodafone at Home prior to your service being switched to UPC, then the service would have been cancelled and the 30 day notice period would have begun the moment your service stopped being provided by Vodafone at Home. At this point, on 26/07/2011, your service would cease being provided by Vodafone at Home, and begin to be provided by UPC.

Your account would be set into the cancellation procedure, on that date, and would be cancelled once the 30 day period of notice has been served. While Vodafone at Home are not providing you with a service at the moment, they would be entitled, as per your agreement with them, to charge for the 30 day notice period. The reason that they are not providing you with a service at the moment is because UPC have taken over provision of the service, and no two operators are allowed to provide the same service to a customer on the same line.

As a result, unless any of the information above is incorrect, you would be liable for the charges of the 30 day period of notice, even though you are not being provided with a service by Vodafone at Home. It would depend on your contractual Terms and Conditions with Vodafone as to whether you are billed per day of the 30 day notice period, or in cases where this rolls over into a further month, any months included in the 30 day notice period

Also, tried to get someone at Vodafone to show me where it says that I need to keep paying after the service is cancelled, if 30 days notice isn't given but all I got was a link to all the T&C's and told to use the search bar!

Cogsie

Hey Pelluci,
thanks for all that info. and doing the legwork of getting advice from ComReg.

I got a call back from a Vodafone customer service rep. today

The upshot is
1. Vodafone have a 30 day notice for cancellation buried in T&Cs somewhere on their website. I've asked the customer service rep. offered to email me the link. So once I have that I'll post it here.
2. The customer service rep. did accept that the actions to complete the porting of my phone number from Vodafone to UPC should have resulted in my account as flagged as to be cancelled.
3. The 30 day notice period for the cancellation should be considered to have started when the phone number porting was completed.
4. The customer service rep. is following up to confirm what record Vodafone have on their side of when the number porting transfer was done.

So I expect I will be charged for a the 30 day period.
I can stomach that so long as they acknowledge that period starts from the day of the transfer from Vodafone to UPC.
I'm expecting the Vodafone rep. to confirm that.

All this tallies with what ComReg has advised you - expect that it seems Vodafone don't seem to have taken the action to start the account cancellation procedure.

You probably have them keep pushing them to acknowledge that your account should be considered to have moved into the 'cancellation procedure' on the day service was transferred from Vodafone to UPC.

Jon_459

I moved phone and broadband from Vodafone to Eircom in August 2010. I didn't notify Vodafone as Eircom told me I didn't have to.

My final bill from Vodafone covered rental up to the time my line was ported.

I suggest you tell Vodafone to get lost -- what are they going to do - disconnect your service !!!!!!!!!!!!

An Bradán Feasa

Jon_459 wrote: »

I moved phone and broadband from Vodafone to Eircom in August 2010. I didn't notify Vodafone as Eircom told me I didn't have to.

My final bill from Vodafone covered rental up to the time my line was ported.

I suggest you tell Vodafone to get lost -- what are they going to do - disconnect your service !!!!!!!!!!!!

Exactly, just don't pay them!

pelluci

Update:
Nobody in Vodafone could show me where in the T&C's it says they can continue to charge me after the service was disconnected, so I payed the remaining call charges, cancelled the DD and left the rest. DD was returned on 22nd and I've heard nothing yet.

I did, however, notice that my "My Vodafone" account has been restriced to only viewing the bills, but I managed to get to "Order History" and there is a new completed order, started on 25/8, under the heading "Discounts & Rebates", with no product details.

Maybe they've realised their mistake. Probably not!