Has anyone else had problems over their departure from Wanadoo?
I got my MAC code to transfer to my new provider in February (no problems, just a move to unlimited and faster downloads with another provider).
The transfer happened on 20th February 2006 with no problems.
Then I noticed that Wanadoo had taken their subscription out on 28th February as usual.
I rang on 20th March to ask for my money back and the girl made a call to BT to check the date of the changeover and said I would get a part refund for the unused time.
Great!
But today I got an email telling me to look at my statement online from Wanadoo.
Of course, you can't check your statement if you have left Wanadoo - so why send the email?
Then I checked my bank account and found that not only did they not give me a part refund for February as promised but they have taken another month's subscription in March.
Their logon computer knows I have left Wanadoo but their accounts department is still taking my money - very strange.
When I rang Wanadoo the girl made a call to BT to check the date of the changeover (sound familiar?) and then said that no refund for February was due 'as they were still providing a service' - even though the MAC transfer will have told them that the service had ceased!!
She did say that I was due a refund for March and that she had put it through and I would get it on 31st MAY - i.e. in 42 days!
My personal view is that there is something strange going on with the Wanadoo finances. They have taken money that is not theirs and they are delaying the repayment for over a month even though their own checks have shown that the money is repayable.
Delaying repayments and holding off cancellations are the sort of things that I would expect from a small company in financial difficulties and not an organisation the size of Wanadoo.
The final aggravation is that I can't just email a complaint to the company but must use snail mail with all its associated delays and inconveniences. They obviously feel that by doing this they will reduce the number of complaints. My answer is to draft my letter here and then I will copy it to send to them.
This is a very serious matter of Wanadoo taking money which clearly they are not intitled to. In other words it's robbery. I would contact your bank to ensure Wanadoo are unable to request any more funds from the account. Your bank may even me able to force (on your behalf) Wanadoo to had back the money which they have taken.
If your with Natwest, get on to their actionline function. Its free telephone banking. But the nice bit is that you can say these are unathorised transactions (which they r) and get your money refunded straight away by Natwest.
Natwest has more clout than yourself and will get the money back for themselves!
I have contacted my bank and they will refund me the March payment then claw it back from Wanadoo and prevent any further payments from going out.
I am just left with the balance of the February payment which should be returned to me by Wanadoo.
My reason for writing was my disgust at the way that they knew my service had stopped and yet cynically continued to take my money. As I said the logon computer knew I had left (so I couldn't read my statement) but the accounts computer is still trying to take my money.
This strikes me as a systematic and cynical abuse of the system.
They are a computer company so I think they should be able to arrange for one computer to talk to another - unless they think they can get away with it!
I am looking for the return of part of one month's payment - not much, I know, but multiply the same small amount over the huge number of members that they have and it adds up to a fair amount of money.
It would be nice if Ofcom would do something about the abuses of the changeover system but I believe that they will only investigate after I have spent about a year chasing the issue and after Klingon becomes an official language of the United Nations.
Site AdminJoined: 07 Apr 2006Posts: 784Location: United Kingdom
Hi jeremy
Welcome to WanadooProblems.co.uk
It's a similar story all-round I am afraid...
However.. A few tips worth noting...
Write down everything - every call, every email (from them to you and you to them).
Any letters you send should be SIGNED for by Wanadoo (it costs a little extra but you have proof of receipt this way).
If it goes on for much longer, sned them another letter with an invoice for phone calls, post etc.
Let us know how you get on...
There are similar stories on this forum so take a look at them and other's suggestions too...
Yesterday I cancelled the direct debit authorisation with my bank - this is April and my account was closed in February and today I got this email
Dear Jeremy
Wanadoo Broadband Account No xxxxxxx
Unfortunately, the payment details we have on our billing system appear to be incorrect and we need you to give us your new payment details as soon as possible.
To change your payment details, simply use the link below to login to your Wanadoo account and follow the necessary links. You will need to have your email address and password ready:
This email has been sent from an unattended mailbox. Sorry, but we can’t reply to emails sent to this address.
What cheek!! They are trying to take money for April now even after my calls yeaterday and last month.
And remember that I can't access my account to change anything because the logon computer knows I have left.
And there is no way to contact them except for the customer service team that has failed to do what it promised.
There is a possibility that they may blacklist me for non-payment of my subscription (WHICH I DON'T OWE) and that can affect my credit rating for other stuff.
The fact that they seem to have no systems in place to check that money is not taken from departed customers implies a it is deliberate policy to take monies not due to them.
Presumably if Ofcom investigates then Wanadoo would be forced to repay only those individuals that had complained to Ofcom (say 10 people) and the other thousands would lose their money and Wanadoo is quids in! I don't think Ofcom investigates systematic fraud as this seems to be.
Wanadoo obviously have no worries that their sharp practices will have any repercussions.
Jeremy watch out, they have done this before! If you dont contact them and get it cancelled, they sell the debt onto a company called 'Intrum Justica'. Basically, these guys threaten you with legal action.
Make logs of all your correspondence with them and send every letter recorded delievery
I rang them in the afternoon and they said that the email was generated because they had tried to REFUND me the March money.
Strange - millions of people get paid by bank transfer every month and none of them has given their employer a direct debit mandate.
As the bank told me when I cancelled the direct debit authority, Wanadoo does not need it to give me money - they only need one if they want to take money from me..
I don't think the guy I spoke to was lying deliberately when he said that they did but he certainly seemed to believe it.
I don't want to think about who may have given him this bit of misinformation.
The supervisor I spoke to said that he would arrange a cheque but it would take up to 28 days!! And I had to remind him about the lost days in February which he assured me would be added to the cheque.
The implication is very strong that Wanadoo has cash flow problems and has rigged things to hold on to other people's money for as long as possible. Multiply this delaying trick by thousands and the interest adds up - Ofcom, where are you?
I'll shut up now and leave my tale until something else happens.
Well its nice to see that someone else is having sinilar problems.
We moved house at the start of feb and after going through the whole waiting 28 days, BT visits etc we were told that we are unable to get broadband here so we had to cancel our account. We were told that we would get £39.99 refunded - one months subscription and moving fee. We thought this was all fine and waited for the refund to appear in our bank account. After several weeks there was no refund but they had taken another £15.52. After finally getting through to someone who could understand our complaint we were told that we would get the refund of £39.99 on 19th April. No mention of the other £15.52 they took off us after we had ended our service! We have now passed the 19th with no sign of a refund - they may have refunded it to our wanadoo account - which no longer exists - but have not refunded it to our bank account!
We have now been emailing them for several weeks trying to get answers to very simple questions only to get replies which are down right rude from people who are obviously unable to read and understand simple english language. In the latest reply to my question of when I will get the refund to my bank account they just copied and pasted the previous response from them saying that we will get the refund on 19th - oh but they had put that bit in capitals! Do they really think we are stupid? It only makes them look like a bunch of incompitent idiots who can't read a simple e-mail. I didn't use long words - i simply put please could you advise when I will get the money refunded to my bank account! They also expect us to wait till 19th May for the refund of £15.52 that they took out of our account after our contract with them was cancelled!
Oh and I also tried to get a reference number off them for the CISAS to take my complaint further. This is the route which there website says you should follow. I got a reply to that one basically saying that complaints should be made to OFCOM but they can't give me any contact details for them. Either the site is wrong or the person who sent me the e-mail?? It just seems to me that they don't know what they are doing and employ far too many students who really don't care except about the money in there wages to buy beer!!!!
Joined: 21 Apr 2006Posts: 94Location: Fallowfield, Manchester
I may be about to have similar problems. Today I got a letter in the mail wittering about Wanadoo being renamed. I rang to ask why I got it as I am no longer a customer. The customer support person checked and Wanadoo claim not to have been told that my MAC had been used and so have taken May's payment. They claim it will be refunded by the 22nd. We all know what their promises are worth
Just to let you all know that i eventually got my first month and moving fee refunded on 4th May - my billing date was 19th!!! Just waiting to see if I get the other £15.52 they took from my account after my account was closed back.
NOTE TO ALL: CANCEL YOUR DIRECT DEBIT ASAP WHEN YOU CLOSE ACCOUNT WITH THEM - THEY DO NOT NEED IT TO GIVE YOU REFUNDS!!!!!
I got my refund through after cancelling direct debit!
Yep, this all sounds very familiar. I closed my account on the 9th March, after experiencing many of the same problems I've read about here. I had the foresight to cancel my direct debit at the same time, which was just as well, since a couple of weeks later some guy rang me up demanding payment. When I explained to him that the account was closed, he confirmed that there was a note on the account saying that I had requested it closed, but that it was still open. He couldn't, or wouldn't, explain why this was, but closed the account and told me that there would be nothing further to pay. I have since received further demands for money, and have written to Wanadoo explaining my position in no uncertain terms. A copy of my letter can be seen here:
I have just this morning received a reply from Wanadoo explaining that this was due to an administration error, which I find hard to believe. The clear implication is that Wanadoo have a system whereby a customer request to terminate an account can be recorded and read by subsequent operators, but without being acted upon. I can see no use for this, other than to allow Wanadoo to continue charging its customers for a service they no longer require, but I am hoping that they will further elaborate in response to my next letter.
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