Then I would suggest raising a complaint and having the matter investigated.
Vodafone changed billing systems a few years ago and lots of people had issues. It was widely publicised at the time, there was a lot of traffic on the forum and it was subsequently fixed.
However there are still posts like yours where credit reports are impacted after leaving Vodafone, the pattern seems to be:
- Accounts not being closed correctly so keep reporting to credit scores long after you've left (assuming the final bill has been paid, it just adds a 'paid' marker each month so no issue)
But the more serious scenario seems to be, and no-one has ever articulated what's going on is:
- The large number of people who seem to have outstanding final bills with Vodafone yet don't seem to be aware until either they see it on their credit file or external debt recovery companies get involved.
The way to avoid this seems to be ensuring you just leave your direct debit in place for a few months after you leave so if any monies are due, they're taken.
Now it seems from your post, you have no issue with monies being owed. You just were not made aware.
In order to comply with the direct debit guarantee scheme, Vodafone need to:
- Bill you
- Give you the appropriate time to highlight errors
- Take the money
That's the basics and seems to work for most people. However when someone doesn't pay (e.g. a final bill after porting out, cancelling DD's etc) then Vodafone need to ensure they're alerting people. If you've been locked out of an online account then a final bill should be sent. If a final bill isn't paid then a reminder needs to be sent. This is the but that seems to be lacking. In order for defaults to be warranted, the company needs to uphold their part of the deal as well.
I wish you good luck with this.
