Gallatron2000. you shouldn't be being passed to Likewise - your agreement and the trade in offer was made with VM. If they choose to involve some third party contractor, that's fine, but the deal was between you and VM. Your obligation ends when you sent the handset off, and you hopefully have proof of posting (or a subsequent acknowledgement from either Likewise or VM that it was received). From there, it's VM's responsibility.
There have been repeated instances of VM fobbing off trade in problems, referring customers to Likewise, it's disappointing the company still won't take ownership and resolve things and that forum staff are still advising customers to speak to Likewise, despite those previous cases. Curiously I attempted a recent trade in with iDMobile and that didn't go as planned - sent a letter of polite complaint with all the details, promptly acknowledged, and it's all being settled on the terms I wanted with regular updates from their complaints team. Didn't need to get heavy with the consumer rights stuff, they just took the complaint, owned it, and resolved it. Read and learn, Virgin Media.
And that is your way forward. Ask the forum staff to open a formal complaint for you that the trade in has not been processed, and VM are fobbing you off referring you to a company with whom you have no contractual relationship. If that gets the right outcome then the job is done. If that too gets fobbed off, you reply rejecting any "resolution" they offer, asking for a deadlock letter, and with the deadlock letter you ask CISAS to resolve the matter, including compensation for the inconvenience and wasted time in the first place, and for the subsequent poor complaint handling.
Alternatively the forum staff could just push through the necessary credit to your account (plus a suitable goodwill element), and that would be a whole lot quicker for everybody, easier for everybody, and save VM the considerable costs of yet another drubbing by CISAS.
