to provide the result of my original complaint, after chasing VM for a deadlock letter which they did not really send, they just sent some letter telling me that as I had not responded within 28 days they are closing the matter which was not the case as I had responded countless times which was all documented. So I took this letter and then launched a formal complaint on the communications ombudsman website which was very easy and efficient. it took 2 working days to be assigned to an agent who then called me to ask some questions and tell me what the process would be. He then explained that he would contact VM for me and see how they may respond. I had already uploaded all my evidence in detail. 1 day later via the ombudsman portal, VM already offered me "as a gesture of goodwill" a compensation figure which was the exact and total amount I was requesting, NOT lower. So I accepted that right away and am expecting full payment of that by cheque. If they do pay the full amount by cheque then I would have received the full compensation for the 142 days despite all their false claims and excuses. Part of it was paid as credits to my VM account and the rest will be paid by cheque.
I have two recommendations:
1) keep documents of everything, including:
phone calls: I date stamped, time stamped each call over the months into an excel table with a total number of minutes spent on the phone discussing the matter with VM. My mobile provides just exported all calls to that number so it was easy to put in a table.
whatsapp chat messages with VM customer service. At the end of each chat message I exported the transcript and colour highlighted the relevant sections of the chats and promises of the installs which all failed until it was finally installed 142 days later.
Scan all the letters VM sent and date them as they often arrive without a date on them
Keep all emails in a folder and then screenshot them all in chronological order into a PDF. Annotate them, mark them up to show the relevant claims and sections or promises.
Screenshot your VM media account if you need to show balances, £'s figures etc.
Screenshot the complaints / cases section of the VM website if you have raised a case with them and then all the date and time stamps when they say they are looking into this. Mine went on for months without any response.
Try to pull all correspondence, emails, website, chats, calls, whatsapp messages into a timeline of events and then PDF it.
With all this evidence it was 5 attachments I uploaded on to the ombudsman website for the claim which was resolved and paid in full within 5 working days as the evidence was so clear.
2) final recommendation don't be put off by the constant excuses, lack of responses from VM, some of it is done deliberately to put you off completing an official complaint to make you give up. Take your case to the Ombudsman with the right and detailed documentation and you will have a strong and easy case.
Mine resulted in the full compensation of £901.
