Yahoo Finance 'Vodafone said I owed no money, and then sent the debt collectors round'
For about 18 years I have been paying Vodafone by monthly direct debit, with the same reference and bank account details for most of that time.
My husband, also a Vodafone customer, and I have owned and lived at our address for more than 25 years.
SH, Cheshire
Almost 18 months ago, one of your Vodafone contracts was due to expire. You contacted Vodafone about current offers and took delivery of a new mobile phone and a nano Sim card.
Later you checked your online Vodafone account to make sure it was properly updated. On screen it said there was an error that Vodafone allegedly was working hard to fix.
Three weeks later you discovered your phone was barred. Two promises that the service would be restored within 24 hours were broken.
After this you threatened to go to an alternative network provider. A porting authority code, or PAC, was acquired.
You offered to return the phone, but were told not to. Hours were spent discussing the situation, then Vodafone called confirming no outstanding money was owed by you.
It was arranged for a courier to collect the phone. You noted down his vehicle registration and courier number for reference.
Two months later, though, you received a bill for £133 from Vodafone. A month after that you were approached by a debt collecting company demanding £79.
You made endless attempts to sort this out with a formal complaint ongoing. Then you had a text saying that you owned a Vodafone phone and that your bill was £68. Over the summer the same bill continued to be texted to you.
During this time you were going through worrying health issues involving a close relative, but still you tried to put a lid on this.
A Vodafone spokesman said: “A technical failure meant that a bill was generated after SH had closed the account, but it was not visible to our advisers as the balance showed as zero.
“However, a request to Mr and Mrs H for an overdue payment, which they didn’t owe, was then sent automatically.
“We’ve put a remedy in place and the account is now closed with nothing owing and nothing on the credit file.”
The latter was inaccurate in that it had recorded the supposed debt on the credit file without telling you. It now said it would take 30 days to remove this.
I protested that this delay was unnecessary given that you were the innocent party. In the past I have had long discussions with Vodafone about its slowness in acting when it has erroneously besmirched a client’s credit file in this way. It was supposed to have improved on this front.
Vodafone has now corrected the credit file and £250 has been paid for goodwill. This you added to and paid to the hospice where your relative had sadly died.
Despite your bad experience, the number of valid complaints I am receiving about Vodafone is waning.
Jessica Gorst-Williams tackles consumer problems for Telegraph readers every week. To contact her, click here. If you want to ask a general money question, email moneyexpert@telegraph.co.uk. The best of the answers are included in our weekly newsletter
