Law firm Piper Alderman has announced plans to sue Vodafone over failure to provide adequate services to customers.
Vodafone is finally being sued on behalf of 20,000 disgruntled customers for call drop-outs, weak data and internet performance and poor customer service.
Piper Alderman’s Sasha Ivantsoff, who has been putting together the case since 2009, is leading the class action suit. Claimants have come forward to explain the nature and extent of their losses as a result of Vodafone’s allegedly shoddy quality of service.
“We know of a doctor who couldn’t receive calls in the hospital, a mother who couldn’t contact her child’s day care centre and people who have had their credit rating unfairly tarnished by Vodafone.”
“We believe consumers have overpaid for services that were not provided, or were misled into signing contracts with Vodafone when there was no mobile coverage in their area,” said Ivantsoff.
In one of the complaints, Jilian, a disability support worker in Canberra, explains that her clients – who are living with various disabilities and mental illnesses -were unable to reach her in times of emergency for a period of four weeks due to no mobile coverage.
She said, “I know that my clients were trying to contact me and couldn’t get through. In at least one case it was an emergency situation. It wasn’t just a matter of my service coming and going – the phone simply did not work and my clients could not reach me when they needed me. It was very distressing for my clients and very stressful for me.”
Another customer, Sarah, who used a Vodafone dongle for internet access, missed out on buying a property in Melbourne she placed an offer for because the bank rejected her loan after Vodafone reported her to a credit reporting agency for an outstanding bill that didn’t exist.
She complained that Vodafone showed no concern over her situation and failed to help remove the false report from her credit record.
She said, “Everyone at Vodafone was revolting. They couldn’t find a copy of my account, but kept rudely telling me that I owed them money. They never contacted me about an outstanding account or informed me that they planned on ruining my credit record. I spent hours and hours on this matter and in the end missed out on the home I wanted. It was embarrassing to have to tell people I’d had my loan application rejected and it was a very frustrating experience for me all around.”
Piper Alderman encourages anyone who has experienced issues with their Vodafone service to sign up for their action by visiting their website.
