Payment not taken in 5 months?

[dj9928]

After some advice here guys.  I took my contract out is September 2016, I paid September and Octobers bill but since then zero has been paid.  I should add since day 1 they managed to completly mess up my billing, I did post about this issue but it seems to has now been removed. "Message Not Found" it now says!!

But onto the current issue, I contacted Vodafone in November to report payment hadn't been taken, they said the DD wasn't set up correctly, they put me on hold and checked again, they then told me the DD was set up and payment would be taken next month, fine I thought, the next month came and went nothing taken.  I call them again, they check everything out and tell me I have been awarded 3 months free line rental for??? This is the best bit "Being a loyal customer"  Thinking this was rubbish I call again and get told the same thing.  I thought OK and thought no more about it until February.

I call again, "Yes you had 3 months free line rental, payment will start next month, Oh and I see you have been awarded a 20% discount" Great I thought, the next month came and went still not billed, I am due to be billed today, checked just now BILL PAID balance 0.00

Someone has made a major ##~## up here, Surly a big company like Vodafone couldn't be so incompetent? And its not for lack of notification of the issues from me, I have told them several times and it will have been logged that there were problems but yet they refuse to do anything.  I can't afford to pay the outstanding line rental in one go which I'm sure will amount to over £150 at this stage.  

So where do I go now? a formal complaint? Ofcom? as this will come back to bite me on the rear through no fault of my own, and as I said these billing issues have been going on from day 1 of my contract when they put me on the wrong plan and charged the wrong amount.

[dj9928]

This is taken from live chat just now.  Total rubbish if you ask me.

Info at 7:02, Apr 26:
Sorry for the delay, we are currently experiencing high volumes. Please hold for the next available adviser.
Info at 7:02, Apr 26:
You're now chatting with Parash.
Parash at 7:02, Apr 26:
Hello, you're chatting with Parash, how may I help you today?
Parash at 7:02, Apr 26:
Hello David, Good morning!!

Hi, Payments have not been taken on my account since November last year, I was told I got 3 months free line rental for being a loyal customer, I then got told payment would be taken in March and it wasn't and it hasn't been taken in April either. What is going on with my billing?

Parash at 7:06, Apr 26:
Let me look into your details so I can get up to date with your account.

Can you see the issue?
Parash at 7:13, Apr 26:
Yes, I've sorted it out.

Parash at 7:13, Apr 26:
And be assured that you'll get the normal bill from the next bill cycle.

And no doubt I will be billed for all the previous months?

Parash at 7:16, Apr 26:
No, you won't be billed for the previous month's. you've got total 6 month free rental instead of 3 and as you're our loyal customer we'll make sure you should gets charged only for the coming months not the previous.

So there you have it, Told a new story each time I contact them,

[Getafix]

Have you looked at your Bills online?

The Bill will tell you what is owed and what has been collected for previous month. It will also show any charge that is waived or discounts.

[Devlinl92]

Best way to check if they are telling the truth would be to login to your online account and check the full bills which can be downloaded as aPDF. They will have your line rental amount on one line followed by a line below that which will read something like "Free Plan (1 months)".

[bcnemil]

Hi there

I noticed exactly the same thing with my contract, so decided to contact them. When I rang them I spoke with some fresh adviser who spoke with his manager to double check I am getting proper informations - the outcome was "with some customers we have this problem, we are working on it and the most they can charge me for this (once they sort out payment issue) is for last two months". I was assured it is not my fault and I will not be charged for 5 or even 10 months in one go. 

Let me know once your bill is sorted 

[hrym]

I assume you've checked your bank account to see if payments have gone out?   I was looking at historic bills recently and they all suggest that no payment was taken, although it was and this was confirmed at the time.   As has been said, if you look at the PDFs, that should confirm the details and I think more recent bills do also confirm payment receipt.

If Customer Services have confirmed a glitch, you should be OK, but also don't ignore any SMS about a bill being overdue and make a manual payment if that happens.  If you haven't received an SMS, that does rather suggest that Vodafone don't think a payment is due.

There have been issues in the past with some banks being difficult with DDs from mobile phone companies, so it may be worthwhile checking with yours that one hasn't been rejected.   They'll probably say no in the first instance as frontline people can't see that, so you may need to persist.