Hello everyone,

I left Germany permanently last August and was unable to get Vodafone to release me from my contract which had been automatically renewed. Following the recent rule change explained here, [https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/r5o2fi/psa_from_1st_december_on_internet_mobile_phone/](https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/r5o2fi/psa_from_1st_december_on_internet_mobile_phone/), I confirmed with them on the phone in December they would cancel the contract provided I send them a cancellation letter (kündigung). I sent them the letter hoping that would be the end of it.

They then sent a debt collection agency after me for the months of phone + internet bills since August, which I paid in January against my better judgement. (Paying 200 euros for services never used is ridiculous… I disposed of the Sim nearly 6 months ago now!)

Today I received by post another bill which includes costs for January, on top of the debt which I already settled that they clearly haven’t updated yet.

My German skills are not good enough for this, and, bizarrely, getting ahold of someone speaking good English on their international Customer Service number has been a complete nightmare. Their domestic customer service was much better.

I’m also at a complete loss as to how they obtained my foreign address which I never gave to them. Initially the letters were forwarded to me via DHL which I set up myself, but at some point before I personally wrote to them with a return address they already had my new address. How can that be GDPR compliant?

I’m at my wits end here. Does anyone have experience in this matter, or an idea of what I should do next? I’ve just sent an email to [rechnungsfragen@vodafone.com](mailto:rechnungsfrage@vodafone.com), and received an automated message which included this:

“Ihre Fragen zur Rechnung und vieles mehr klärt TOBi am schnellsten: [http://vodafone.de/hilfe](http://vodafone.de/hilfe)

Wenden Sie sich bitte dorthin – vielen Dank.”

Am I right in assuming this means my email won’t actually be read by a human? Any advice would be gratefully received. Thanks.

​

EDIT:

Finally got through to someone from vodafone on twitter, though they might have ghosted me? It turns out that they have been charging me for cable too for the months since I left Germany permanently. That can’t be allowed, right? Sonderkündigungsrecht applies? This is a mess.

​

EDIT2:

Turns out the 200 euros they collected from me via the debt collection agency was for a cable bill, and that I still owe them 300 more euros for a phone bill. When I lived in Germany I paid 50 euros per month for internet + phone together, and was always on time with my payments via direct debit. They couldn’t unable to explain to me how my outstanding bill totalled up to 500 euros for payments since September – January. Absolute robbery.

For anyone visiting from the future, don’t use vodafone!

1 comment
Leave a Reply