SIM fraud

[ianmcqui]

Hello everyone.

'Pay as you go' 'Pay as you go' SIM fraud at Heathrow dispensing machines

On arrival at Heathrow Terminal 4 a few days back I bought a Vodafone 'Pay as you go' SIM for GBP20 from the dispensing machine at the exit. It carries a yellow sticker claiming "Preloaded with GBP10 talktime", which was the prime reason for my buying it as I needed to make several local and international calls. On activating it, however, I kept getting error messages saying it had no balance for either voice calls or text messages.

From Heathrow I took it to Vodafone's Paddington Station store, where the sales lady promptly told me this was a common fraud being perpetrated on unsuspecting users of Heathrow dispensing machines. She refused to do anything about the GBP 20 I had just wasted, so I was forced to pay for another GBP 15 topup to be able to use the SIM. What's worse, she also said the SIM itself would have been free if I'd bought it from her store!

I tried complaining to Vodafone on their UK website, and after filling in myriad details, the complaint disappeared into a black hole with only this cryptic error message to show for my pains:

"Sorry, there seems to be a problem

We’re working as hard as we can to fix the issue. In the meantime, if you need to get in contact please send us an email using this link."

Having done so, they're now putting me through even more hoops, demanding I create an online account and provide even more details just so they can verify my bonafides!!

What's intriguing is that they haven't yet tried to deny either the existence of such fraud, or their knowledge of it .
On arrival at Heathrow Terminal 4 a few days back I bought a Vodafone 'Pay as you go' SIM for GBP20 from the dispensing machine at the exit. It carries a yellow sticker claiming "Preloaded with GBP10 talktime", which was the prime reason for my buying it as I needed to make several local and international calls. On activating it, however, I kept getting error messages saying it had no balance for either voice calls or text messages.

From Heathrow I took it to Vodafone's Paddington Station store, where the sales lady promptly told me this was a common fraud being perpetrated on unsuspecting users of Heathrow dispensing machines. She refused to do anything about the GBP 20 I had just wasted, so I was forced to pay for another GBP 15 topup to be able to use the SIM. What's worse, she also said the SIM itself would have been free if I'd bought it from her store!

I tried complaining to Vodafone on their UK website, and after filling in myriad details, the complaint disappeared into a black hole with only this cryptic error message to show for my pains:

"Sorry, there seems to be a problem

We’re working as hard as we can to fix the issue. In the meantime, if you need to get in contact please send us an email using this link."

Having done so, they're now putting me through even more hoops, demanding I create an online account and provide even more details just so they can verify my bonafides!!

What's intriguing is that they haven't yet tried to deny either the existence of such fraud, or their knowledge of it .

Personally I'd be finding somewhere that sold superglue and mess up the coin slot!

 

[Spectre]

Not sure how it works but if true then DW wide boycott should be applied.

 

[ianmcqui]

I'm highly unlikely to ever buy one of these SIM cards from a vending machine at Heathrow airport but
I guess there might be other machines in the country with the same scam.

You have me intrigued, a boycott?


Regards, Ian.

 

[Spectre]

I'm highly unlikely to ever buy one of these SIM cards from a vending machine at Heathrow airport but
I guess there might be other machines in the country with the same scam.

You have me intrigued, a boycott?


Regards, Ian.

If there is something up I'm sure when alerted that members would refrain from buying.

How would the scam work though?

 

[Spectre]

Interesting...

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[ianmcqui]

Looks like this is not so isolated an incident and has been going on for some time.

You'd think they'd have sorted it out by now, but they couldn't give a ***t obviously!

When I see someone kicking the ***T out of a vending machine I ignore it because I know their pain.

Alicante hospital, I was there regularly for my fathers treatment and this young woman had a problem with the drinks machine this morning.

The dammed thing kept spitting two of the coins back at her like 20 ish times and one went under it, she obviously only had enough change.

She was rather rude each time and kept shouting"joder" Spanish for "F***", a lot of the older people in the waiting room were hissing at her each time.

They do that the Spanish, a bit like when we TUT!

Anyway she ripped off the bottom cowling off the machine back to get her coin, I watched intensely as she was a babe and the thong was, well a thong!

I'd get a call from my mum "where are you?" I'm at "Gran Via" Oh! "what are you buying?" "Nothing just sat on a bench watching the girls go by!"

Who goes shopping in a bikini?

I miss Spain Very much.

Yes ladies on here men do window shopping too! LOL.

 

[Vendpoint]

ianmcqui please contact

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to resolve your issue with the Vodafone sim card.

The sim cards are not a scam, it should have been loaded with £10 of credit & if it wasn't then please accept my apologies. I would need to return the sim card to Vodafone to investigate but you would receive a refund in the meantime. All sims in the vending machines are purchased direct from Vodafone's distribution channel; I'm sorry that Vodafone didn't help you but unfortunately there are a lot of sim cards on the market that aren't legitimate and they don't have the resources to investigate all of them.

 

[buzzer]

ianmcqui please contact

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to resolve your issue with the Vodafone sim card.

The sim cards are not a scam, it should have been loaded with £10 of credit & if it wasn't then please accept my apologies. I would need to return the sim card to Vodafone to investigate but you would receive a refund in the meantime. All sims in the vending machines are purchased direct from Vodafone's distribution channel; I'm sorry that Vodafone didn't help you but unfortunately there are a lot of sim cards on the market that aren't legitimate and they don't have the resources to investigate all of them.

do you have any connection with this company?

 

[deedie]

im guessing he/she does, going by the name.

google vendpoint, and the company who owns the vending machines is the first hit

 

[Vendpoint]

Yes, I do work for Vendpoint. I noticed your comment on the forum & wanted to try to resolve this. If customers are not happy with their purchase, we are keen to resolve the situation.