Vodafone still charging me for returned sim card!

[mapozyan]

Hello,

In October 2020 I signed Vodafone Red M contract. Actually, the dealer who came to my apartment tricked me and told me it will cost me only 5 euros but then I looked online and saw that it costs 50 euros monthly.

I decided to cancel the contract and return the product. Here https://www.vodafone.de/widerrufsrecht.html I found the document explaining what to do if someone wants to return the product. I learned that I need send it to arvato distrubution GmbH, Warenannahme 2, Dieselstrasse 64, 33442 Herzebrock within two weeks. Which I did immediately.

Unfortunately, after one week the parcell was returned back to me.

Then I sent the parcell to the address where it originally came from, that is: Vodafone GmbH Warenannahme 30, Bielefelderstr 45, 33428 Marienfeld.

I thought that my contract is cancelled. But I was wrong. I figured out that I am still charged for Red M every month!

Can anyone help me solve this problem?

[reneromann · Accepted solution]

There are two parts for a withdrawal:

a) You have to send your withdrawal form directly to Vodafone within that 14 day timeframe from the day you receive the withdrawal form & information

-AND-

b) You need to send any devices back to the Arvato address

If you included the withdrawal notice inside the package (even if you would have used the right address in the first time), your withdrawal notice will not get forwarded to Vodafone. It is only up to you to send the withdrawal notice to the correct address, any withdrawal notices that receive late or aren't delivered to Vodafone at all due to not being addressed correctly are solely on your due. It would be up to you to provide proof that you've sent your withdrawal notice to one of the addresses stated in the withdrawal form in time.

Anyhow - if you missed to send the withdrawal form to the correct address in time, then there's no withdrawal possible anymore; you would then be bound to the contract for the next 24 months.

And one more thing: On the site you've linked, the address inside the retoure page as well as the linked info dok 220 is clearly the Marienfeld address. This document was created in May 2019(!) - and that's pretty long that Arvato doesn't use the Herzebrock address anymore for Vodafone returns. Any kind of delay due to using the wrong address is also solely on your side...

So I'm afraid that you're stuck to the contract if you've sent your withdrawal form to the wrong address -or- didn't declare the withdrawal within time.

[mapozyan]

Hello,

Thanks for your response. Now I realized why I sent the parcell - along with the withdrawal form - to the wrong address. I used Google search and got the old form file from vodafone.de website. You can try yourself:

It would be nice if Vodafone deleted the wrong form from their site before demanding the customers to send the correspondence to the right address. Perhaps I am not the only one who got confused there.

Anyhow, now as I am paying for the contract I would like to get my sim card back. Any chance to sort it out?

[reneromann]

Even on that form, it is mentioned that you have to send the withdrawal notice to Vodafone directly and only any devices to Arvato. As I already mentioned before - Arvato does not handle the withdrawal notices or cancellation notices, they are only a warehouse managing the device parcels for Vodafone.

And yes, I think it is possible that you get the SIM card back - you might need to call the customer care as this is the fastest way. Another possibility would be to send a message using the contact form. Anyhow I'm not sure if you will get English support there as support in other languages than German is given on a best-effort base.

[mapozyan]

Thanks a lot! Could you please approve that 0800 724 26 40 is the right phone number? I see it here: https://www.vodafone.de/hilfe/kontakt-zu-vodafone.html

[reneromann]

No, please use the 0800 172 1212.

The number you've mentioned is mostly only for the online shop.

[mapozyan]

Great. I will let you know how it goes.

[MasterScorpion]

"It would be nice if Vodafone deleted the wrong form from their site before demanding the customers to send the correspondence to the right address. Perhaps I am not the only one who got confused there."

One glance at that link ... dslshop.vodafone.de ...