Loyal customer gets black mark and has life literally ruined

[jcwa86]

Hi, im 30 years old ive been a customer with Vodafone on and off since i was 14. Still have the same number since i was a teenager and got my first pay as you go with them.

Its been a really busy period in my life ive just got married and moved house. ive always paid my bills on time to everyone and had a perfect credit score on experian until recently when ive just found out i have a black mark against my name for apparently not paying vodafone on time. 

Its hard enough to get a mortgage and house these days as a young first time buyer and then vodafone come along and make it 10 times harder. 

When i cancelled my contract in april this year and transferred my code over to EE i was 100% sure i was told on the phone i had no further termination charges to pay. So adament that i told the  lady who rang my phone in june or july later this year that they should check their recordings. firstly i thought i was being cold called by someone trying to extract money from me and so i was reluctant to give away any information to them. i said if they were vodafone why has it taken this long to call me and why wasnt i told this in april. if they were so sure they should check their records and get back to me because there was no way i owed them money. 

A few months pass again after only this one contact from them and i find out i have 4 late paymemts on my credit report making my account delinquent for 6 years ......

Ive been so loyal to vodafone ive even now repaid what i believe i dont even owe to them and theyre telling me they cant remove the black mark. i feel a great sense of injustice and feel very sad and angry im in this position through in my eyes no fault of my own . especially since i proactively rang vodafone up in april to ensure i was all good with them ..... never missed a payment to anyone ever .

Please can someone help because this is literally ruining my life ive spent weeks trying to sort this out and i cant now move onto what should be a great new chapter in my life over a 60 pound vodadone bill. 

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi,

I appreciate and understand how damaging a default can be ,and the difficulty in having one removed from a Credit File.

Usually issues exist because a person has cancelled their Direct Debit before receiving the £0 bill and Sorry your leaving letter which confirms the account is closed. 

Vodafone are not required to advise a person they have applied a Default on their Credit File.  

This is a help guide I have written which explains which department to ask your case to be referred to - i.e 'Vodafone Credit File Support Team' - and how to add a 'Notice of Correction' via Experian. It is Free to add the Notice of Correction. This gives you the tools to add your own notes up to 200 words on your Credit File to explain why the Default is showing.

It would only be worth adding this if you think the default is wrong and shouldn't have been applied. 

Please take into consideration that a Default will only be removed if it was reported on your Credit File incorrectly.

This is the help and advice post I put together in the below link..

Default-on-your-Credit-File-and How-to-add-a-Notice-of-Correction.

[63johnw]

Hi. Did you get and use a PAC code from Vodafone to move your number? If you did that should automatically end your contract, you would then receive a bill with the last months charges before, as BOB has said, you receive a final bill with zero balance.

If you cancelled any direct debit before the final bill then then the most bills you should have owed would be one, not sure why you would owe 4 lots.

I would contact CS and ask for your file to be referred to the credit file support team, they can look into this for you.

[jcwa86]

Hi john. Yes i got a pac code. The thing that annoys me the most is i buy my phone outright and give my custom to vodafone purely out of kindness to them there isnt even a need for a contract as all i should owe is my air time. The amount of money ive paid them over the years goes into thousands. I have 6 years of green ticks on my credit score and 4 months of missed payments after only one call from them 3 momths or more after my cancellation. The even more ridiculous thing is because i have the same number i have multiple text messages from vodafone after i left them trying yo up sell me products. If they could invest more in actually texting people they have late payments and lettimg them know how much not ringing customer services is going to ruin their lives they may actually get better response and better life time value out of the customers who leave them. Instead they just try and sell you more stuff.

[jcwa86]

Hi, im 30 years old ive been a customer with Vodafone on and off since i was 14. Still have the same number since i was a teenager and got my first pay as you go with them.

Its been a really busy period in my life ive just got married and moved house. ive always paid my bills on time to everyone and had a perfect credit score on experian until recently when ive just found out i have a black mark against my name for apparently not paying vodafone on time. 

Its hard enough to get a mortgage and house these days as a young first time buyer and then vodafone come along and make it 10 times harder. 

When i cancelled my contract in april this year and transferred my code over to EE i was 100% sure i was told on the phone i had no further termination charges to pay. So adament that i told the  lady who rang my phone in june or july later this year that they should check their recordings. firstly i thought i was being cold called by someone trying to extract money from me and so i was reluctant to give away any information to them. i said if they were vodafone why has it taken this long to call me and why wasnt i told this in april. if they were so sure they should check their records and get back to me because there was no way i owed them money. 

A few months pass again after only this one contact from them and i find out i have 4 late paymemts on my credit report making my account delinquent for 6 years ......

Ive been so loyal to vodafone ive even now repaid what i believe i dont even owe to them and theyre telling me they cant remove the black mark. i feel a great sense of injustice and feel very sad and angry im in this position through in my eyes no fault of my own . especially since i proactively rang vodafone up in april to ensure i was all good with them ..... never missed a payment to anyone ever .

Please can someone help because this is literally ruining my life ive spent weeks trying to sort this out and i cant now move onto what should be a great new chapter in my life over a 60 pound vodadone bill. 

[jcwa86]

Hi, im 30 years old ive been a customer with Vodafone on and off since i was 14. Still have the same number since i was a teenager and got my first pay as you go with them.

Its been a really busy period in my life ive just got married and moved house. ive always paid my bills on time to everyone and had a perfect credit score on experian until recently when ive just found out i have a black mark against my name for apparently not paying vodafone on time. 

Its hard enough to get a mortgage and house these days as a young first time buyer and then vodafone come along and make it 10 times harder. 

When i cancelled my contract in april this year and transferred my code over to EE i was 100% sure i was told on the phone i had no further termination charges to pay. So adament that i told the  lady who rang my phone in june or july later this year that they should check their recordings. firstly i thought i was being cold called by someone trying to extract money from me and so i was reluctant to give away any information to them. i said if they were vodafone why has it taken this long to call me and why wasnt i told this in april. if they were so sure they should check their records and get back to me because there was no way i owed them money. 

A few months pass again after only this one contact from them and i find out i have 4 late paymemts on my credit report making my account delinquent for 6 years ......

Ive been so loyal to vodafone ive even now repaid what i believe i dont even owe to them and theyre telling me they cant remove the black mark. i feel a great sense of injustice and feel very sad and angry im in this position through in my eyes no fault of my own . especially since i proactively rang vodafone up in april to ensure i was all good with them ..... never missed a payment to anyone ever .

Please can someone help because this is literally ruining my life ive spent weeks trying to sort this out and i cant now move onto what should be a great new chapter in my life over a 60 pound vodadone bill. 

[jcwa86]

Thanks Lee ive tried to escalate this already to the credit team at vodafone but days and weeks go by with me hearing nothing from them.

[hrym]

Did you actually speak directly to the credit file support team or did the fronline customer services people say they'd pass the matter on?   That route (of general escalation) hasn't always worked satisfactorily in the past I'm afraid.   Call again (during office hours) and ask for the team specifically.   Politely but firmly refuse any offer of help from the frontline people.   Once you get through, you'll be able to lay out your case in as much detail as necessary and the team will have full access to the account history (at this stage, they're the only people who will).   They'll help if the possibly can.

[63johnw]

Hopefully one of the team here may be able to offer some help.

[jcwa86]

Hi hrym, no i havent had much spare time during normal working hours to resolve this directly. Im told they dont take direct customer calls anyway so would have to go through the frontline team