I posted the above in the Vodafone/Verizon thread and since I've now been in touch with Computershare I thought I'd go ahead and start a thread - good way to record what's happening.
Please note that this thread is purely about dealing with contacting Vodafone/Computershare after years of no contact in order to get everything up to date. Anything to do with the upcoming Verizon transaction should go into the other thread linked above. But if, like me, you never did anything and have moved multiple times since 2001 then this is what you need to do first.
So, as background:
I bought eircom shares in 1999 in the minimum amount, which from what I found in my box of stuff last night meant I had 97 shares (nearly 300 spent, and got 140-ish back in the forced Valentia sale or something like that). When they sold Eircell to Vodafone I received 47 shares in Vodafone. I still have that share certificate (issued in May 2001). I think I cashed one or two dividend cheques the first year but then I moved, shoved everything in a box and 'meant to deal with it one day'. I've since moved twice more, the last time to Germany.
In 2006 there was a change in the Vodafone shares and apparently a new share certificate was sent to me at my address from 2001 and never returned. So, presumably, my ex-landlord just threw it out. We were quite friendly so although he didn't have to contact me (he could have, knew where I worked, where I had moved to and had my phone number!) at least he could have "returned to sender". But anyway.
I phoned Computershare and told the guy (who sounded somewhat cluelss) that I had found my share certificate from 2001. He told me it was useless and he wouldn't be able to find me in the system with it. I explained that I was told yesterday to find that certificate with a reference number starting with "c" and followed by 10 numbers so that they could search for me. He sulkily took that number (it's under the first barcode on the right-hand side of the cert) and lo and behold, my details were all there in seconds.
I had to confirm my address at the time and then answer security questions. The questions were whether I had sold any shares in the last six months via Computershare or trade any shares in the last six months via a broker and given that I told him at the start I had done nothing for over ten years, they didn't really give me much of a feeling of security.
How and ever. He took my new address over the phone but seemed to struggle with the spelling of Dusseldorf. Hopefully the stuff will get here.
There are "a lot of outstanding payments" and he is sending a summary of that and didn't really want to go into anything like how I can give him bank details etc. - it's all in there apparently.
Then he said he would send me the mailing regarding Verizon. I specifically asked that if there was information regarding the taxation impact, he send me what is relevant for Germany and Ireland but he just kept saying, "it's all in there". Very much an attitude of go away and don't annoy me, I've ticked the boxes for what I think you need and you'll get it in the post. So, I'll wait and see what arrives.
He did tell me that the new share certificate issued in 2006 gave 8 shares for every 7 held. So, for the 47 I did hold, I now, according to him, hold 41.
