Cancelling contract with Vodafone 3g internet

 If they have not supplied equipment within 60 days there is no contract.

 Problem is I walked out of the shop with the router, just haven't had any connection, although they are charging me for a mobile telephone number (associated with the usb dongle)? I think it will e thrown back at them when I go back next month!

Mark

 Shame

they will try to charge you a cancellation fee.

Maybe the shop are a bit more approachable but the head office in madrid are just awful.

Unfortunetly you may have a lot of agro ahead !

I am and its 18 months later.

Very glad i read this because i am on the pay as you go 50euro a month vodphone (and 35 a month orange landline that wont let me cancel).

I was going to go contract with vodaphone to save me going to the shop every month to recharge it.

I wont now and will stick with pay as you go because cash is king.

Well we all know why Vodafones profits are up dont we!  And remember the Spanish Vodafone is just a franchise not direct with Vodafone, every country is independant. 

I was going to use Vodafone but not now thanks to this thread. Can anybody recommend a good broadband company in Spain for the Costa Calida area? I don't need telephone but do need reliable comms.

If Vodafone or any company are not responding to your phones and faxes you have to Buro fax it.  Its the spanish of registered post by fax. Costs about 3 or 4 euros from any postoffice.  Any lawyer will tell you to do this. 

So when you stop paying and they take you to court all you have to do is present the buro fax to prove you cancelled within the criteria on the date. And they lose.  Very simple.  But most Brits dont know this so the companies are pushing thier luck.  After all one months paid by a percentage of the customer base is a lorra lorra money.  Telfonica did it for years.

The phone companies are known for these tactics so the local ombusman will give you the correct number at most Ayuntamientos.

 After bombarding the reclamaciones_GdR email address with my complaint, I finally got an answer. Email the soporte address who I had been communicating with previously. Round and round in cricles .

Mark

Is there another email address? My mission started out with only the customer services telephone number which led with the help of you guys to a fax number and the email address you have just referred to. I have also sent a Buro fax in Spanish to the fax number.

None of which has raised a dickie bird from Vodafone. What is their problem????

 I rang them continually, my spanish neighbour rang them (and once spent almost 2 hours on the phone with them !)

I sent letters to madrid, sent letters recorded delivery to madrid, sent letters to their CEO.

How many replies did I get. ?

ZERO

Dreadful

 I've just spoken to Vodafone UK at Reading and asked how to complain. All they have is the sporte@ email address. They did say to try and find out (but wouldn't give out) the name of customer services director and address all complaints to them. I think I may be filling in the complaints book at the Vodafone shop when I go out next month.

Mark

 Aha, can send a burofax online: https://online.correos.es/Burofax/Inicial.aspx

Just need to know where to send it now please?

Mark

I have been trying to cancel for over a year now,tried phoning and they cut you off,ignore e-mails,stopped payment at the bank and they sent a solicitors letter and put an embargo on bank account,employed Spanish handholder to get on to them and he had no luck.Has anyone got a sureproof method of getting these people off my back!!!

Try dialling 22189 from the phone that you want to cancel. You will be connected to an english speaking person.

Make sure you get the name of the person you are speaking to. The magic word to use is BAJA.

It worked for me but if it fails then go to your local Ayuntamiento and make a denuncia. This action was advised by Vodafones own lawyers and is known to work.

 I bought a dongle from Vodafone Dos Mares & it wouldn't work. They didn't want to know and staff were most unhelpful. A computer shop found out it was old stock and needed some firmware updates..I won't be going back there in a hurry

 Yes, I had to do this for a poor lady whose husband has recently died, she's Finnish and didn't know which way to turn.  He had been trying to cancel a Vodafone USB dongle that had NEVER worked because the cover wasn't sufficient where they lived.  Eventually, by calling, sending a fax, and then a copy of the fax by registered mail, I got it sorted.

I also had a case with Orange where we ordered a USB dongle service by phone.  This is interesting because when they contract by phone, they give you 7 days after delivery of the equipment to test and send it back.  We were out of the 7 days when we discovered that again there wasn't sufficient coverage to use it.  After various threatening letters etc. I wrote another reclamation letter to them and copied in the Ministerio de Industria, Energia y Turismo.  It worked a dream...... I got a debt for eur342 cancelled.

In short, yes you probably need someone who speaks good spanish, an inordinate amount of patience and tenacity, but hey ho..... we're used to that here aren't we!  It isn't impossible :)

 it took me 3 years to cancel mine and i paid for it every month although i sent fax after fax.......finally after 3 years they got the message and stopped it.

Good luck.you will need it!!!!!!

When dealing with the Spanish you have to take into account their history, sounds odd but its true.  The Spanish were originally totally loyal and subservient to the church, then came the state followed in the 20th century by large corporations and an even more powerful and bloated state government from the time of Franco to the current day.  The majority of Spaniards, particularly older ones, would never dream of arguing with the church, the government or large companies, to the average Spaniard any representative of any of these groups are their betters and essentially must/should be obeyed.  Anyone with half a brain can see the potential for abuse of the population here, i wont go into the corruption that is endemic in Spanish society but its easy to see why it exists.  as far as telephone companies, utility companies and really any company you can think of in Spain that can take money directly out of your bank account, treat them as potential thieves, i dont say this lightly, even be wary of landlords that hold your money as deposits. With landlords i would never, ever pay them the last months rent or whatever your equivalent amount of rent would be for the amount of deposit they hold, if you feel the need you can tell them what you plan on doing, of course they will moan and groan about it but what can they do, you are leaving anyway.  Believe me, if you do pay them the last months rent you will never see your deposit again, remember what i said about hierarchy, the landlord considers you you be lower down the pecking order the he is, so when he can he will take advantage of this, its built into Spanish society, be warned.  Now, specifically to those people having problems cancelling a utility, phone, internet or whatever.  Call the company, tell them that you want to leave and cancel your contract, they may tell you that you have to wait a certain number of days for the cancellation to go into effect, thats fine.  In this case you tell them that on the date they have told you the cancellation with go into effect you will be cancelling their direct debit.  In the case where the company tells you that they require you to send a fax, you tell them very slowly and clearly that European law does not require you to send such a fax to cancel a contract, you can do this verbally as long as the company you are contracted with are able to verify your identity over the phone, since they would have done this as a matter of course at the beginning of your call, asking you for your  name,  account number, passport number etc, they have confirmed who you are and that you are indeed the authorised account holder.  Tell them that you are satisfied that you have complied with your duty to notify them of the cancellation and that you will be cancelling their direct debit immediately or on the date they tell you the cancellation will happen.  Now one thing to remember, believe it or not even if you have cancelled one direct debit its not unusual for the company to start another without you knowing and continue taking your money, particularly if you havent set up another account with them, for example if you are moving house and are just cancelling an account for one house and will be setting up another for another house.  If you will no longer be living in Spain but want to keep your Spanish account, you must now go to your bank and tell them that you want to cancel all existing direct debits, the next step is very important.  Then tell them that you want to block any direct debits for XYZ, and include individually all your utility companies, phone and mobile etc etc, everything!  They should give you a signed document saying that you have given this instruction, if they dont offer it then demand it.  Now if anything gets paid by the bank then thats the banks problem, you have your proof that you told them not to pay anything, hang on to that document.  This also applies if you are still going to be living in Spain but just want to get rid of a particular company that you dont plan on using again, like Vodafone for example.  Note, any instruction not to pay any given direct debit can be reversed just by going into your bank and cancelling that previous specific instruction for any given company. Consumer rights do exist in Spain, not so much written in local law as it is in say the UK, but at EU level which supersedes anything the Spanish may say or want to do anyway,  the only thing is the average man on the street doesnt know it and since that is the case the average employee of these companies, utility and phone companies, absolutely dont know it and for sure wouldnt have been told about it by their employers.  If you are in the right and you dont owe the company any money etc, you wont hear anything more from them, they'll realise that they've come across an informed customer, which is a rarity for them.  however if you do owe them money they may well seek to pursue you in the courts, but thats understandable and is pretty much the same anywhere.  Dont let them steal your money!

I wanted to cancel my Vodafone and was advised (by the Vodafone shop) to dial 123 and tell them that I was leaving Spain and shutting down my bank account but wanted to stay on PAYG.  The lady was very helpful and tried to persuade me to have a lower tariff.  I insisted I was leaving Spain and closing bank account.

Result,  account cancelled.

Bren

I've had similar problems with vodafone, trying to cancel a contract for a Modem USB. Two registered letters, two emails , a fax and a further email, all of which were ignored and followed by the continued sending of further bills. I accept that I made the omission of not including a copy of my ID in the initial correspondence however thay have had several opportunities to tell me this but couldn't be bothered.

The fax I sent in August though was perfect yet they still sent me a bill for the next month which they are now threatening to take me to court for and they are most welcome. They did however finally close the account on November 20th. What happened between the fax I sent in August and November 20th ? I made a complaint to OMIC and that seems to have woken then up suddenly.

Don't waste your time expecting a civilised level of service from this company.