Payed for two internet contracts for the last year (same household)

[Optionscontract]

Cher Monsieur / Madame, 

Tout d'abord merci d'avance d'avoir pris le temps de lire mon message et je m'excuse de ne pas parler allemand.

Nous avons réalisé, avec ma femme, que nous avons payé deux fois l'année dernière. Le contrat était d'environ 30 euros par mois. (Nous avons juste Internet illimité) 

Le semble que nous ayons payé 2 contrats pour un ménage. 

Je peux vous thunder plus de détails sur le compte bancaire d'où vous avez pris l'argent.

Merci pour votre aide.

Meilleur

Youri

C'est tout le retrait de la vodafone de l'année dernière. 

[Tina]

Hello Optionscontract,

the revocation for your wife's contract was unfortunately not received within the revocation period. you were informed of this in the letter in mid-December 2019. for this reason, it was still charged.

After consultation with our complaints management team, we can offer to cancel the contract immediately. Okay?

Best regards

Tina

[Optionscontract]

Dear Sir, Madam,

1.     Cancellation of the contract ***  

Thank you for cancelling it.

Please read below.   

1.     Withdrawal period argument (for the period Nov 2019-Dec 2020)

I disagree; I exercised my right of withdrawing within the right period of time (attached the documents received form Vodafone that proves you received it in the right time and accepted it).

 Please see below the chronology to better understand what happened (and the documents attached):

-       I, D. LEVY, called your Vodafone centre and concluded a contract beginning of Nov 2019. I never received any email or written confirmation, and was waiting, but nothing arrived.

-       I have called many times, and Vodafone was always confirming that there was no contract at my address, or under my name.

-       On November 19th, 2019 my husband went to the Vodafone store on Friedrishstrass (Berlin) with our Amneldung and my ID card and, again, he has been confirmed that there was no contract under my name and at our address.

Therefore, he has been requested to do another contract with you, which he did.

-       On Dec 4th, 2019, we received the first mail from Vodafone that confirmed the contract under D. Livy’s name (spelling mistake proving that the communication was bad, event my name was written wrong) and informed me about the 14 days- withdrawal period.

As per the law, if a consumer enters into a contract with an entrepreneur orally, the right to withdraw from the contract begins “from the point at which the consumer received the goods and the entrepreneur has indicated the right to cancel the contract in text form”. Oral indication of the possibility of withdrawal from the contract is not enough and in such cases the consumer can withdraw from the contract even within 6 months.

 Therefore, the starting point of my cancellation period was Dec 4th, 2019 – and therefore until December 18th, 2019 included.  

 -       On Dec 13th, 2019 (please see attached) we received a new mail from Vodafone confirming the processing of the cancellation request.

-       Because we wanted to make sure about such a cancellation, we went back to the Friedrishstrass store in Berlin, and a colleague of yours confirmed it, but advised us “just in case” to send a letter (here attached as well). We therefore sent it, both by mail to 991166 Erfurt, DE and by email to kabel-widerruf@vodafone.com on Dec 17th, 2019 including our Amneldung confirming that we were living on the same apartment.  

As said in a previous correspondence, we have no Vodafone box under the contract ***, and therefore you should be able to check that we could never use the services. Also, it is in good faith that Vodafone should admit that there are no circumstances under which a married couple needs 2 boxes under 2 contracts for the same apartment.

I am therefore asking you to:

1)    Confirm the cancellation of the contract *** from now and for the future (as you confirmed in your previous answer), and

2)    Confirm the reimbursement of the wrongfully withdrawn amounts from Nov 2019 and Dec 2020 included.  

I thank you for your kind help with this matter,

Best regards

Best 

Edit: deleted personal data.

[Tina]

Hello Potionscontract,

the order confirmation was sent on 15.11.2020. According to our information, it was successfully delivered.

The package was in the post office for a few days because the messenger could not deliver it. Since it was not picked up, it came back at the beginning of december.

The contract is terminated. You will receive the cancellation confirmation separately. Unfortunately, i cannot confirm a refund.

Best regards

Tina

[Optionscontract]

Dear Tina,

Thank you for your answer.

As you said yourself, the package was not delivered, and I probably did not receive the notice to pick it up because of the spelling mistake.

I have never received the order confirmation (otherwise I would not have contracted a second contract), and in case of a lawsuit it would be Vodafone responsibility to prove such a reception, which I doubt will be feasible since I have not received anything.

On the contrary, I have received the letter of confirmation of cancellation on December 13th, and therefore I had only good reasons to think that the contract was cancelled from this moment. Not to mention that such a termination, sent during the 14days period (from Dec 4th), was also a termination for cause (due to the employee’s mistake) and therefore no delay should have applied at first.

That being said, the amounts have been wrongfully withdrawn, and taking money for no service provided (no box, no internet debit used but same bank account withdrawn twice) is called theft. 

I would rather like you to confirm the refund, or to provide me with the necessary information to submit an application in order to start an arbitration as per respect of Vodafone's own T&Cs.

Thank you,

Regards

[Bambusbjörn]

Hi,

I sympathize with your situation and sadly this is Vodafone's standard practice. I too paid for two contracts for a year without noticing, as the amount was deducted from my account once at the beginning and the the mid of the month. Clever of Vodafone, stupid of me not to notice. Upon asking for a refund, Vodafone simply refused, although it is plainly absurd to have two contracts on one and the same  internet connection. Vodafone must make a lot of extra money this way.

I wish you best of luck in resolving this annoying issue, you do have better arguments and proof than I had. If you have valid / written proof, maybe the "Verbraucherzentrale" near you can help you to bring Vodafone to their senses, they may even help you to find competent legal assistance.

[Optionscontract]

Hi Bambusbjorn,

Thanks for your message!

I have, indeed, valid and written proof because I have received a confirmation of processing of the cancellation on Dec 13, 2019, and they continued to withdraw the money. Being a lawyer myself, I do not intend to just “forget” about the unlawfully withdrawals.

As you saw, I have requested to be refunded or to start a mediation procedure – the Verbraucherzentrale might be super helpful (monopolies/oligopolies always push to take advantage over consumers despite laws, but the Consumer Centre may resonate then indeed).

Thank you again!  

[Stephan]

Hi Optionscontract,

the order confirmation and the letter of activation of this contract were sent by post separately from the package with the router. For both letters there is no report of postal returns. We can therefore assume that the letters have been delivered.

As a gesture of goodwill, the contract has now been terminated on 27 December prematurely and as already written there will be no refund.   

Regards

Stephan