My seasonal cheer has taken a dent.
I am irritated.
I want to get a microsim for my new toy, my ipad. My treat as I didn’t go away for a proper holiday in 2011, and that would have cost more. As I don’t expect to be using it on the hoof a tremendous amount, I first opted for a top up pay-as-you-go option from Vodafone. Only to learn that they never work.
Back to the drawing board, and an option for very low use, £3 pcm rolling thirty day contract, also with Vodafone.
Great. Super. Let’s go for that.
I failed the credit check.
Some mistake, I told the people in the shop, Carphone Warehouse. I’m not in debt.
And then started my own non-festive version of the Twelve days of Christmas:
Day One, contract refused because of failed credit check. Staff member looks at me as though I have some fatal and very contagious disease. He wants me out of the shop as quickly as possible.
Day Two, joined Credit Expert for thirty day free trial to see my report as advised by the shop. My report says I have a better credit rating than 71% of the population.
Day Three, having failed to see how the gladsome news received on Day Two changes the refusal, since apparently Carphone Warehouse has already seen this, I email Credit expert. They promise to reply shortly.
Day Four, the promised reply having failed to materialise I search for and find a telephone number. I call.
Day Five, armed with the advice given by the nice man from Credit Expert, I head back to the shop. an equally nice woman tries, as advised, to do a manual check. She has no instructions how to do this. She calls Head Office. She is told that it is Vodafone, not Carphone Warehouse, who has spurned my cash.
Day Six, I call Vodafone, and find there is not an option for ‘if you have been refused a contract, press xx now’. I speak to someone who passes me on to the New Connection Service. Again, a very nice person. She promises to contact the Escalations Service, and tells me I should hear within forty-eight hours. I take her name, just in case.
Day Seven, today, the Escalations Service not having contacted me, and it now being nearer seventy two than forty-eight hours, I call again. Fortunately, I had also thought to ask the helpful woman for a direct number. I speak to a very nice man. He emails the helpful woman who replies that the Escalations Service has considered my request, but the refusal is upheld. The man says he will try again. He calls me back to say that I have been declined as my score is too low. This decision is final. I ask what my score needs to be, since I know that 71% of the population has a lower score, and £3 pcm is hardly bankruptcy territory. He does not know.
So, here I am with my enviable credit rating being refused a contract with Vodafone, there is apparently no right of appeal, nothing I can do.
Credit Expert suggested the problem might be that I don’t have debts, so they can’t see how good I am at paying them off.
It’s all very well for Polonius to tell Laertes, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be,” but he didn’t need a microsim for his ipad. If Credit Expert is right, I should be out spending money on plastic like it is going out of fashion. I’ve signed up for a course in the New Year, £143. Over £7000 left on my credit card.
I have contacted a newspaper column who got my money back for me on a different occasion, and I am hoping the team there will be able to get this sorted.
Merry Christmas!
The money system is unintelligible!
Good luck and may Day 8 be sim-ply mahvelous, dahling!
Completely unintelligible, and unaccountable as far as I can see.
Except for us! Just ask a bank if you accidentally overdraw your account! Grrrrr…
What good is being better than 71% of the population when everybody knows that 90% of the population is on the fiddle?
Hi Badger–I am on the fiddle. I think. What does that mean? >:-D
I have started my books/movies/music list, but I got distracted with baking my fool head off.
Now we are traveling in our rickety camper…. and I get supremely lazy when not at home. However, I DO keep promises!
BTW, is a microsim different from those sims you can get as many as you like for free, like for your phone or camera?
I know you can get free microsims from O2 but then you have to sign up to a plan of about £10 PCM to use it. So I should get stuck in the same loop I imagine.
Telecoms credit policies can be influenced by a number of things and I can imagine that since Vodafone are predominantly a business proposition, they have high hoops for you to jump through – and for something that costs about the same as a Vento latte! Credit Expert may well be right that you don’t have enough of a credit footprint to assess – start using your credit card like a charge card and pay off your bill in full every month.
I’d suggest you have a look on LinkedIn and see who the Finance Director and Customer Service Director are – then email them directly (probably firstname.lastname@Vodafone.co.uk or .com). It will go to their Executive complaints department to deal with and you might get a bit further, sooner. If you would be prepared to pay a deposit, tell them.
Good luck!
Thanks for that advice Sophie. I’ll check it out, though first I shall see if Paul Gosling manages to sort my problem for me. Can I see that info if I’m not in LinkedIn?
I honestly don’t know what you can see if you’re not a member. Try it and see?
We are now in Edinburgh, but it’s all gone awry as my Mum was taken into hospital yesterday. She’s much better today but still needs some test results before she can be discharged, which we hope will be tomorrow and a very quiet Christmas will follow. Bertha and Mackenzie are resuming their friendship with Daisy, Mum’s cat, and getting bolder with Lucky, my sister’s dog, who is as frightened of them as they are of him. Fun and games!
I’m so sorry to hear about your mother. Is she very shaken by having to go back? My uncle, Mum’s favourite brother, collapsed last Thursday and spent the weekend in hospital. Like your mother, he has to go back in the New Year for tests. I hope all is well and that you enjoy your quiet Christmas. It sounds as though you will have plenty of animal antics to entertain you.
Keep us up to speed. xx
Mum’s still in and needs to have a CT scan. They are waiting for a porter to take her there as I write. I’m very much hoping that it’s just been an infection which has now been dealt with. She is shocked, but I’m hoping that she’s going to be honest with the doctors about her symptoms because her friends are seeing this as an opportunity to offload to me about all the things she hasn’t told her GP up till now. If she doesn’t, I’m going to sprag on her when we go to the appointment I’ve set up for her next week 😀
I’ll be thinking of you. This does not sound like a restful Christmas. If she is fine, and I do hope sheis, it might be an opportunity to p,an for the future so all your minds are at ease. xx
Apart from that, what do you think of your IPad?
Yeeks…what a tale…I do hope the REST of your holiday won’t be as frustrating as the past week. Not being a techie I don’t quite know what it is you are trying to purchase BUT it hardly matters – one shouldn’t have this much trouble getting ANYTHING – EVER – PERIOD!
Pam 🙂
Thanks. Pam. I agree wholeheartedly with what you say! 🙂
I think the iPad is great. I borrowed one over the summer and really enjoyed it, but felt to get the best of it I needed to have the mobile option. At this rate that’s still doubtful. As this is mine, I am getting to now it better. I had been thinking of an iPhone and I may yet succumb, but this seemed a more sensible option. Learning o love apps! Have you arrived safely in Edinburgh, Sophie? How the kittens? Not Cat lost his purple collar yesterday, so now has a faux suede one with diamanté. I thought of you!
How very frustrating!
Money Box on R4 may be able to help too…
Defies belief. You have money! You want to purchase! Like lahgitana said. Unintelligible.
Great entry isobelandcat
Happy Christmas to you and your family as well 🙂
Ooh, where are you off to? Keep us posted and have a very merry Christmas!