An old friend from my teenage years came to visit at the hospital last week and in the course of our conversation she joked about my legendary fixation with writing complaint letters back in the day. One good thing to come out of spending hours at the ICU Ward is the inordinate amount of downtime when baby Noah is asleep. This has spurred me to pick up where I left off, except it’s even easier to do so now in this digital age without the need for stamps and post office lines. And of course, when I get nowhere with them, I can always post the back-and-forths here 😛
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26 June
to vcredit,
Account No: xxx xx xx xx
Some months back when one of my “3” mobile phone contracts expired, I was coerced by the 3/Vodafone store staff to upgrade to a Vodafone service, which I did. Unfortunately the connectivity was so bad I requested to be transferred back to “3”, and after liaising with the TIO your office agreed to cancel my Vodafone contract and execute the transfer. I was assured by your staff that the outstanding balance on my Vodafone account would be automatically wiped out since I was only on your plan for less than a day when I made the request for the change back.
Last week, I went to get 2 of my other mobile phone plans renewed and was told this time that I had no choice but to transfer to Vodafone and was assured that your connectivity issues have been resolved. When they attempted to do the service upgrade to Vodafone, my account showed up as having been “flagged for collection”. I can only imagine this is a mistake on your part and I look forward to your response confirming you have now rectified your error. Failing that, I will be in touch with the TIO with an official complaint regarding this unethical practice.
I look forward to your reply.
Jackie M
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V to Jackie M –
Hey Jackie,
Thankyou very much for your email. Unfortunately in terms of billing and customer account issues, this is not something that can be assessed by the VHA credit department. Please contact either customer care or your local dealer to assist in your request for these services to be upgraded and migrated to a new vodafone account.
Kindest regards,
Simon
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26 June
to V
Simon please be advised that
1) I no longer want to transfer or upgrade my services to Vodafone.
2) I did contact yr local dealer who were the ones who referred me to you.
3) I want my account status about being flagged for collection to be removed. That is all.
If you are unable to assist please refer me to someone who can rather than to people who have already told me to in turn contact you.
As someone who has never had a credit problem you can appreciate my confusion about this black mark on my account and would expect your immediate rectification failing which I will have to involve the TIO again for what i perceive to be underhanded tactics on Vodafone’s part.
Sent from my iPhone
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(6 days later)
Jackie M to V
Still waiting on your response, Simon.
Jackie M.
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V to Jackie M –
Good Morning
The confusion from the Credit team appears to have been caused by your correct, full surname has not been provided in any e-mail below (only the initial, M) Also, you’ve stated your application was declined due to a billing issue and not provided your application number.
I have had a search with the account number (which is not something the Credit team uses to assess applications) and can confirm this is not a credit team issue.
The reason your application has declined is the store has attempted to submit your application under your old account number 705383368. As there is no active service under this account number, the system automatically declined the application.
The application will need to be submitted correctly, under a new account number.
If you have any further isues when you resubmit your application again, under a new account number, please feel free to contact the credit team to discuss.
When you contact the credit team, please provide your correct, full name and your application number (not account number).
To confirm: Happy to review your application again, once it is submitted correctly under a new account number to create a new account.
Thanks
Bruce.
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Jackie M to V –
Bruce, that is incorrect. I would appreciate it if you could re-read my email correspondence thus far, but
1) In case you missed it the last time, I DO NOT want to submit an application to Vodafone any more.
2) My concern is NOT that I am unable to submit an application. It is that in the process of transferring my ‘3’ service to Vodafone, they discovered that Vodafone has previously “FLAGGED FOR COLLECTION” my old Vodafone account. I should NEVER have been flagged for collection per my explanation in my previous emails.
3) I’d like to highlight the word “PREVIOUSLY” in the above point. The “3” store did NOT attempt to submit an application which then got rejected. They never got that far. They SAW that I had an EXISTING Vodafone account. They SAW that it said it was “FLAGGED FOR COLLECTION”. They told me because of that, NO PROBLEMS transferring my service anyway, but I would not qualify for the special deal they had spent minutes trying to sell me on before that came up, and would instead get a run-of-the-mill contract. Minutes of my life I will never get back, I might add. Which is why I’ve decided I’m not transferring to Vodafone any more. Because life’s too short.
4) I WOULD, however, like to have that status REMOVED because obviously if “3” can do a cross check and find that to be the case, what more any other companies I do and will deal with in the future when it comes to credit checking.
5) The account number I submitted to your office originally was in fact given to me by “3” as the number to quote, along with your email address ie. vcredit@vodafone.com.au. If you were to state that the credit department does not use account numbers as a point of reference, maybe that is something you need to take up with your colleagues at “3” since I’m obviously only following orders. I can even scan and send you the piece of paper on which they scribbled both pieces of information as they waved me away, if that’s any help 😛
I look forward to your timely response to this matter.
Jaclyn xxx xxx (my full name, for what it’s worth)
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Another super-long email from Bruce on what the Reseller needs to do to resubmit my application (with my inevitable reiteration that I do NOT want to reapply), before he finally rang me out of frustration and vented for a good half-hour at my inability to understand what he was trying to say. I had to tell him to chill out because he talked so fast and in such high pitch I actually thought he was a woman for the first few minutes. Yes, woman by the name of Bruce. He was THAT convincing.
Bottom line – “Flagged for Collection” is a generic message all Vodafone resellers get when an application is declined. It is MEANT to convey that my account is in arrears EVEN THOUGH IT’S NOT. It’s meant to raise red flags so the Vodafone reseller calls up their credit team to find out, to then be told, no, all it means is that it’s an old, closed account – they shouldn’t attempt to migrate to a CLOSED Vodafone account; they have to create a NEW Vodafone account. Quite simple, really, to Bruce.
I’m sure he’s still puzzled why I’d be concerned that next time I apply for, say, a credit card, some credit checking agency might pick up on that account status and decline my application. That just doesn’t happen according to Bruce, because of privacy laws, supposedly. I wouldn’t know; at this stage I’m happy just to have given Bruce a great start to his week by raising his blood pressure levels. He was so adorably flustered I almost wanted to adopt him.
Memories of Malaysia 