Help Needed: Recovering Our Company Account

What services do you have tied to the account? If it’s purely internet access, then if Odido cannot help, consider switching to a competitor. For that, you don’t need much more than the customer number, possibly not even that.

If you have a phone number tied to it, then port that number away, for which you also just need the name, address and the customer number.

Even if you prefer to have Odido as a provider, if you switch to a competitor, then you can move back afterwards, and ensure at the time of switching back, what you want as the contact info for the account.

As for the invoices, is the contract currently on the company’s name, regardless of who is the admin/contact person? If the contract is in the name of the company, then Odido needs to respond to someone who is registered in the KvK as the owner (or responsible board member). But you would need an uitreksel kvk (any company should have those on file) and the person mentioned in there. Not sure how Odido would like that person to contact them though, I can’t find a post address anywhere. Maybe have that person visit an Odido shop?

​@AutelNL 

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Thank you for your suggestion, but when I called them, they asked me to provide the contact person information that was used when the account was registered. However, I don’t know who that is, and then they said they were sorry but couldn’t give me any further information.

If you don't know who registered the account, how can you know that person left the company? (As you said in your start post)

You understand that that sounds 'fishy' (I'm sure the servicedesk thought so too.)

But the servicedesk should be able to identify the company by other means too. They could call back on the registered phone number, they could ask for a kvk-registry, or identify at a local Odido shop. I think you just got the 'wrong' person on the line.

​@rvk01 As someone who has worked with different businesses on IT matters, including small businesses, no, that does not sound fishy at all. It’s very common. As a small company, you need internet, so someone who handles operational office matters (this could be one of a few people) “takes care of it”. And then it works for several years, without problems, and one person has the login, in case some change needs to be done. That person with the login leaves, and if it was not on the most friendly of terms, then that login is no longer their problem. Since the person with the login doesn’t have to be the same person who requested the account in the past (just the one who had “received” the login from the previous one who had it, or the one who requested it), this leads to the situation described.

But the servicedesk should be able to identify the company by other means too. They could call back on the registered phone number, they could ask for a kvk-registry, or identify at a local Odido shop. I think you just got the 'wrong' person on the line.

Yes, that is the normal solution for a company. The “contact person” or “requester” is an efficient shortcut, but the “official” way of speaking on behalf of the company is by showing you are a person described in the KvK documents as representing the company.

The problem is that the servicedesk has high turnover (verloop), and if you’re not very lucky, you’ll get someone who only knows the easy/standard problems, and doesn’t want to deal with anything outside their script, including how to deal with such a case.

My money would be on either calling back a bunch of times, until you find a “veteran” by luck. Or take KvK documents to an Odido shop.

It would be helpful if Odido had a postal address that you could send a letter to.

Sure… but then you should know the details of the person that left. TS is saying that that person is not known. It seems that the supportdesk just wants you to provide the name of that person.

So… How can you not know who that person was? And if you don’t know who that person is… how are you sure they left the company? And if you do know the person… did you tell Odido who that was? What was their reaction then?

Sure… but then you should know the details of the person that left. TS is saying that that person is not known. It seems that the supportdesk just wants you to provide the name of that person.

Again, personal experience, but unless they’re ok with you rattling off several names, that’s not obvious. Especially if the internet line is e.g. 5 years old, and you now run into invoicing issues, it’s not unreasonable to think that several people have left a small company since it was set up, and you don’t know which one set it up.

Just saying, documenting who clicked through a website, to cause a box delivery of a router, and simple invoices on the known company bank account is not a high priority at many smaller companies.

That said, more important is: what is the route that a KvK-registered company owner should take to reach Odido itself, even if the people on the phone are not sure what to do what that info?

Thank you all for the discussion and help! I’ve managed to resolve the issue. Here’s what happened:

I gathered my courage and called customer service again. The agent asked for my name and date of birth, but I explained that I wasn’t the person who originally created the account. She said she couldn’t provide any further information. I told her that the original contact person had left the company long ago and we had no way to reach him. She replied, “I can only answer YES or NO now.”

So I mentioned the name of our company’s legal representative, and she said “Yes” — it matched. However, she insisted she could only speak directly to that person. Fortunately, the legal rep happened to walk by at that moment, so I quickly handed her the phone. During the call, we asked ODIDO to update the contact information, but the agent said she couldn’t do that — she could only add me to the contact list.

So for now, the issue seems to be resolved. I can log in to the ODIDO website and view the previous information, but I still can’t change the contact email listed on the account, even though that person has already left the company. Honestly, ODIDO’s customer service feels like dealing with the FBI!

😅

Not the ‘FBI’, but General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

If you make one mistake in not obeying this law, by giving out personal data ‘for free’ .. and someone reports this … there will be an issue.

Think that within your company these rules also apply, and you have to train regularly your staff to know how to act on it correctly.

So in fact, you have also this ‘FBI’ setting, because you have to protect personal data.

So ​@rvk01 was on the right track, not exploiting data to an unknown person.

Due to this GDPR, a lot of ‘people’ make millions of $ without being caught or brought to justice every single day. Key information can not be shared very easy anymore, so in many cases ‘they’ get away with it.

Thanks, my 2 cent

With all due respect, that is nonsense.

The GDPR is a serious law (AVG in Dutch), but it does not in any way suggest that a company is not allowed to tell a customer who the original contact person was. They're not allowed to divulge personal information in a way that is unreasonable for its purpose (e.g. Odido should not be telling a company representative what the date of birth is of a different employee of that company, to name a silly example.) But to share to that company who the representative is, is no problem at for GDPR.

The GDPR says you need to have proportionate measures in place to secure (personal) information given to you for processing, sure. Which is why Odido shouldn't make that information public, but there are plenty of reasonable things to do. For example (as I think someone mentioned above), to be able to request the information (previous/current contact person, and how to change that contact person) to be sent to the official address, either the invoice address or postal address. Or Odido offers a method of contact where you can send a KvK uitreksel and a copy ID to prove you represent the company, at which point the info should be available and possible to change.

What Odido is doing is "we're not sure what we're supposed to do, so when it doubt, just don't do it and blame privacy and/or security.”
To summarize:

1. GDPR has been law for 7 years.
2. Competitors of Odido don't have these stupid roadblocks or at least have reasonable alternatives. (A process for “changing daily control” of a business account because the previous contact person left the company is a crucial part of being able to have business customers. Every normal/decent B2B company has this.)
3. Conclusion: GDPR is not the cause. GDPR is an excuse.

A more specific example:, ​@AutelNL writes:

but I still can’t change the contact email listed on the account, even though that person has already left the company. Honestly, ODIDO’s customer service feels like dealing with the FBI!

😅

But this is very much a potential GDPR violation. Once a customer representative (that you trust, since AutINL is allowed to see all data and make changes on behalf of the company) makes it clear that a specific person/email is not authorized (anymore) to access data, including personal data (which I'm sure is in a normal business account), then Odido must act on this. The idea that the old email address is not allowed to be changed, but must remain on the account, is a breach of GDPR where I come from.

It seems super obvious that you should be able to restrict access to information to specific people or email addresses when a customer (or a "controller” in GDPR speak) makes that explicitly clear.