Vodafone sold vulnerable man unwanted contract without contacting his attorney

Vodafone has sold an unwanted contract to a vulnerable man without contacting his attorney.

The man’s sister, Tania Taylor, who has power of attorney for her brother, has repeatedly attempted to contact the supplier to cancel the contract after her brother was taken advantage of in August.

She said: “When checking my brother’s finances in September, I noticed his phone bill was £79.37. I rang him immediately to find out if he had had his phone stolen or given it to a friend to use. I was gobsmacked to find out that he said he accidentally got a tablet.”

Ms Taylor, who took over control of her brother’s finances in 2017, says her brother told her the unwanted purchase was sold after a Vodafone sales representative had phoned him and ‘wouldn’t leave him alone.’

Whilst the account and contract are in her brother’s name, the address, security PIN and correspondence are dealt with by Ms Taylor.

She added: “He just said yes because ‘that’s what they wanted me to do and they wouldn’t leave it’.

“My brother is a vulnerable adult, who has been assessed as lacking the capacity to make decisions, which would have been clear on the phone. He received a call to increase his monthly bill and buy a product he didn’t want. Not only this, the rep also managed to support my brother in changing the address on the account and the PIN from the ones I had set.”

Despite an unbroken security seal, Tania says the local Vodafone shop told her brother and his support worker that they couldn’t help as the purchase was outside its cooling off period.

The unwanted tablet is now locked away in a safe, ready to return.

Ms Taylor continued: “We have contacted Vodafone live chat, who said they couldn’t do anything either. I’ve emailed the directors and been completely ignored on social media. I have requested transcripts of the conversation between my brother and the rep who phoned him, plus a copy of Vodafone’s policies for vulnerable adults.

“I am disgusted that Vodafone has contacted a vulnerable adult to mis-sell goods, assisted with changing security details that my brother can no longer remember, and allowed increased levels of money to come out of an account in my name, without any contact with me whatsoever, despite having information on his account that he is a vulnerable adult with an LPA in place.

“I have been further disgusted at the inability of Vodafone staff to do anything but place another brick wall in our way. I will be contacting the ICO in relation to the GDPR breach and I will be contacting the Ombudsman in relation to knowingly setting up an illegal contract with a vulnerable adult who lacks capacity.”

She added: “The distress and upset and frustration it has caused my brother is undeniable: me and the rest of our family have also been completely bowled over by this mess, and the amount of time and resources that are required to attempt to get a satisfactory result.

“My brother has severe autism amongst other conditions, and this has made his anxiety rocket. He is contacting me several times a day, every day, asking me if this has been fixed yet.

“His autism means he can become obsessive over particular things, and for him, his main obsession is money. This is causing him a horrendous time, thinking that Vodafone are going to take all of his money.”

When Rochdale Online contacted Vodafone for comment, they confirmed the incident is under investigation.

A spokesperson for Vodafone said: "We can confirm that Tania is named as an authorised contact on the account but there are no special instructions regarding the account holder’s vulnerability and he remains the account holder. 

"We have listened to the after-sales call where we discussed the costs and savings with Ms Taylor's brother and he confirmed the information back to us.  

"As a goodwill gesture, we are happy to take the device back and remove the charges and, with his permission, we can also add instructions to his account that no further sales calls are to be made."