Previous renter blocking line, zero answers from Vodafone

[jujubeess]

Dear Sir/Madam,

I apologize for the English, but my German girlfriend has gotten zero assistance over the phone or at Vodafone Stores for the past 3 months. At this point, we are frustrated beyond measure.

We are current mobile phone customers and former Internet customers. We would like to remain internet customers, but Vodafone has been incompetent and unable to provide any answers.

We moved apartments in Hamburg in February 2018. In January 2018, we contacted Vodafone to tell them we were moving. We gave them the new address. Vodafone confirmed they could move our service to the new address. The day after we moverd, Vodafone cancelled our contract and told us they could not service our new address.

We tried multiple service providers (1&1, Telekom, etc.). None could service us. We discovered that the previous renter still had a contract with Vodafone on the line in our apartment. In March, we contacted Vodafone again, and they confirmed that the previous renter still has the line, but that they could switch it to us.

1 month later, Vodafone has not switched the line and refuses to tell us why they cannot switch the line. And further, have told us we cannot get internet at the new apartment until May 24, when the contract of the previous renter expires.

When my girlfriend called the Vodafone service/sales line, they put her on hold for many minutes, then told her there was nothing they could do. When she said she was not satisfied and discovered that the representative had not actually contacted the technical team like he said he would, they hung up on her.

She left a horrible review for the caller and she has faxed Vodafone to let them know she is cancelling our phone contract and we are taking our business elsewhere. 

We have been without internet for 3 months. Vodafone has been completely unhelpful. They are allowing a previous renter to block our phoneline even though he has not lived in the home since February. Every phone representative we have spoken with has given zero answers. My colleagues have no explanation for me and my family in USA is shocked that a company could display such disregard for their own customers.

I hope to get this resolved at some point. But I have zero faith in Vodafone's ability to simply communicate in good faith with a paying customer, let alone provide satisfactory customer service.

With sincerest disappointment,

Matthew

[DSS1]

tl;dr

[Der Ritter]

What I fail to see is why you put the blame on Vodafone in a first instance.

There most probably is an existing contract between Vodafone and the previous owner/renter.  Vodafone cannot simply (and possibly prematurely) cancel this contract.  The only person you should feel disappointed about and your family in the USA should be shocked about in a first instance is hence the person actually blocking the line.

Vodafone has also no legal rights to approach the previous renter and demand that he/she should cancel the contract.  It is rather sad, no doubt, but there is not really much that Vodafone or any other provider can do if the previous renter decides not to let go of the line beforen the contract ends.

Imagine it this way:  You're driving through town in the USA on a sunny day at 10 a.m., trying to find a place to park your car.  There is a parking spot where a person is simply sitting idly in his/her car, doing nothing.  However, this person has bought a parking voucher that is valid until 11 a.m. and has decided to wait until the ticket expires.

Do you then blame the city, feel disappointed and frustrated because of the city officials, and is your family shocked that no city representative had the car towed away immediately so that you could use the parking spot the other person has paid for?  I guess not.

[jujubeess]

But the previous renter does not live at the apartment anymore. By your logic, I can sign a 2 year contract at every residence in the city and hold them hostage,even though I do not live there. Once you give up residency at a location, you give up your rights to hold the line. They cannot cancel his contract, but they cannot restrict the owner of the property from the ability to get internet.

In your analogy, the person would not be sitting in their car, they would place a cone there so no one can use the spot, but they would not actively be there using it.

And this is something I forgot to add to the post, but the previous renter is still a Vodafone customer at his new address. But Vodafone created a new account rather than simply transferring the old.

[jujubeess]

TL;DR  Previous renter is still blocking line 3 months after leaving apartment - Vodafone offers no solution and hangs up on us during phone call

[jujubeess]

Vodafone Service contacted me and confirmed that previous tenants have more rights to a phoneline/DSL than current tenants do...

[Der Ritter]

So just to understand this:  You have obviously been told multiple times and over various contact channels that Vodafone has no legal means of "kicking out" the previous contract owner in your favor, based on contractual laws and legislation in Germany.

What precisely is it that you wish to achieve with this post?  I don't quite get it.

[jujubeess]

They do have legal means. The customer no longer lives at the residence. He continues to pay his bill, they continue to charge him. But they have no legal right to restrict my access to a phoneline in my own home.

[Der Ritter]

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@jujubeess@  schrieb:

They do have legal means.

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And which legal means would that be?  Please explain into a little more detail.  Thanks.

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@jujubeess@  schrieb:

He continues to pay his bill, they continue to charge him.

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And that's what a contract is all about:  All parties involved fulfilling their contractual duties.

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@jujubeess@  schrieb:

But they have no legal right to restrict my access to a phoneline in my own home.

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And which of your legal rights are being violated?  Please explain into a little more detail.  Thanks.

Could you please also answer my question from above:

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@Der Ritter@  schrieb:

What precisely is it that you wish to achieve with this post?  I don't quite get it.

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Thanks.

[jujubeess]

The contract is only valid for that tenant at the particular residence. He is no longer a resident. He still owes the money, but he retains no rights to the property.

Which rights are being violated? Let’s change the scenario. Pretend I am 95 years old, with no cell phone, moving to a new address. Without a phone line I am unable to communicate with the outside world. But because the previous tenant left before his contract expired, I am now forced to live in social isolation and a dangerous situation. I am complaining about lack of internet, but this also includes the inability to establish a phone connection too.

I wish for them to grant me access, remove the previous tenants access, continue to charge the previous tenant, and allow me to pay them for my access. If the previous tenant desires the line again, he must prove residence at the home (I.e. his registration with the city).