Vodafone charged for a month after switch

[Troy McClure]

I switched 2 business accounts from Vodafone to O2. I had call them at the end of Febraury to inform them and ask them what I needed to do. The girl said the new company would take care of it for me and that I should do it near the end of the month to use up minutes. At the end of March O2 switched me over.
I noticed a months charge deducted by direct debit for April. I call vodafone and was told there is a 28 day notice period. I told this girl that I followed the instructions of one of her colleagues and by proxy had given notice. She said it make no difference I still had to pay as it's in the T&C. I asked if I gave notice why do I have to pay. She said all network do this and the fact I gave notice is irrelevant. I then said 'so I have to pay a months tarrif on 2 phones for minutes that I cant possibly use'. She said yes.
Can this be correct? Can they take a months tarrif from me even though I cant avail of it, especially after following the instructions of their staff a month earlier.

PS. I said you must have a recording of the conversation from February. She actually laughed and said 'we dont record and keep all call's only what we need' followed by 'your not getting your money back'.

 

[Janet]

What do the terms and conditions of your contract say?

It's entirely possible that one person made a mistake and as you have no record of what you were told (no follow-up email confirming, for example) it'd be hard to prove what you were told. Regardless of what you might have been told anyway, what is valid is whatever is in the small print of your contract.

Is it possible that you were paying in arrears rather than in advance? So then the bill you'd have received now would actually be for the minutes you used in March. Haven't had a contract mobile phone for years so not sure how they work but it's a possibility I suppose.

 

[gipimann]

I've switched a couple of times (between O2 and Vodafone) as a personal bill pay customer, most recently in January of this year, and have always been charged for the month after I move.

Any time I've enquired about giving notice as the OP described (from either company), I was told that if I was porting my number, I didn't need to give the required notice as per my T+Cs (28 or 30 days), but I'm charged a month's rental fee in lieu of that notice.

It appears to be a feature of the porting process.