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No cut off or warning- now a debt of over £2000?!!

tia123
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

First of all, I am disgusted with the attitude my partner recieved from the collections team just now taking his call.

 

He received a very unexpected message 2 days ago telling him that due to unpaid charges, unless paid, his contract will be terminated. As he was completely unaware of any charges and wanted this to be resolved he called Vodafone to understand this further... 

 

On this call with collections, he was told that he has a debt dating back to Jan 2018!! Which now adds up to over £2000!!! No pre warning, no cut offs and no messages. Collections told him that they had sent text messages but of course HE NEVER RECIEVED THESE! If they'd sent him so many messages why would they have not cut his line off after such a long time -? it's over a year and a half later! ! He was obviously completely unaware of any issues - why would he be? His phone was running smoothly, no issues and certainly no notice!!!

 

He obviously tried to escalate this further than collections who were being no help whatsoever. They said things like "good luck with your debt" (sarcastically) and "I'm sending this to a debting agency, good luck with the bayliffs who will be in touch with you - have a nice day" (again very sarcastically) she followed this by terminating his phone contract BEFORE THE NOTICE PERIOD ENDED

- do they not understand how much of a hit a £2000 fine is for someone??! And how much this can affect someone mentally??? I am in utter shock and frankly disgusted. This should have never escalated to this point and surely vodafone has a duty of care for its customers?! Especially customers like him who have been with them for 10+years. 

BEWARE PEOPLE!

 

 

 

 

4 REPLIES 4

BandOfBrothers
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Well that's not a good response from the Vodafone Agents at all !

 

This is serious and could have also been reported onto his Credit File which lasts 6 years.

 

I'd certainly ask him to check his Credit File via Experian and or one of the other ways to check a credit file.

 

If you speak with the Vodafone Social Media Teams via Contact-us-for-account-specific-queries they'll help as they have account access and if needed bring in their Credit File Specialist Teams.

 

There is also the complaints route.

 

I wish you all the best with this situation.

Current Phone  >

Samsung Galaxy s²³ Ultra 512gb Phantom Black.

 

 

AnnS
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Hi @tia123 

 

At least by coming to the forum you have found the right place for your partner to find out what has happened.

 

With a credit limit being placed on all accounts, it would be extremely unlikely this would be for the number your partner is currently using.

 

If your partner has a bill for £2000.00, it sounds like this is the charge for a full 24 month contract with a different number, that would account for the text message alerts not being received.  When payments failed for the contract and there was no response, Vodafone would have cancelled the agreement leaving your partner immediately liable for the full cost of the contract.

 

This is going to take investigation from the Team here on the forum to find out exactly what has happened and make sure your partner is put in contract with the correct department.  The way to contact the Team is on this link::Contact the Team

I would like to mention that due to GDPR, this does need to come from your partner.

 

I hope it gets solved, apart from the damage to your partners credibility, it must be extremely worrying and Collections should have been more sympathetic and understanding.

 

 

 

Hi Ann, 

 

Thanks for your prompt response.

 

We have been in contact with a member of the team as instructed. In response to your message:

 

"If your partner has a bill for £2000.00, it sounds like this is the charge for a full 24 month contract with a different number, that would account for the text message alerts not being received.  When payments failed for the contract and there was no response, Vodafone would have cancelled the agreement leaving your partner immediately liable for the full cost of the contract." 

 

I can confirm this is not the case. Unfortunately, the balance on the number I am referring to dates back to Jan 2018. Therefore alerts should have been sent to his number that he should have recieved. Obviously these werent sent.

 

At the end of the day, we are still left in a position where my partner has a £2397 charge - with no forewarning from Vodafone in over a year an a half - Which by the way your website says you will:

 

"we cancel numbers as a last resort, and if we’ve done so you should have received several warnings from us in advance."

 

Plus its been over a year and a half! Vodafone so far have made no effort to reduce the blow of this huge charge, no effort to give a full explanation of why this was all left for so long, and have just cut his number off completely before the notice period ended (I assume this was done by Megan, the RUDE employee in the Collections department) - no level of care expressed to my partner as a customer AT ALL.

 

TimGriff6
13: Advanced Member

£2000 is a huge bil to have run up over 18 months and to suddenly realise it is there must be a big unpleasant surprise.  You say it relates to the phone number that has just been cut off so can you check back through your records to see how much you have been paying each month for that number?  If you have been paying for it, the bill must have been for something else.  Your partner may have not had a good experience on the phone last time but talking to Vodafone again is the quickest way to get to the bottom of it.  Do tell your partner to take lots of deep breaths before and stay very calm on the phone and you should be able to track it down.