Vodafone mistake has destroyed my credit rating to almost zero

[Daveraver69]

I recently tried to get a new mortgage and bank loan and was knocked back and advised to check my credit score, so I sent away to experian and another company for my credit score which was very healthy to find out that due to a mistake by vodafone back in 2016 I have had my credit score destroyed.

I took out 2 x sim cards for my children on a red value deal 20gb per month at half price, full price was £40 per month and I recieved a confirmation for the 2 x cards for £20 per month each.

Upon receiving the cards I was then send the usual first e-bill email without actually activating the cards, so order placed on the 19/02/2016 first bill send on the 22/02/2016 for one card at £20 and one card at £40

two or three phone calls later I was told it woudl be fixed and updated on the online account. Checked the next day before I went to poland 23/02/2016 still not corrected.

I then spend more time on the phone and online live help chat to be told it would be fixed yet one person told me yes £20 per month for both, and another told me £20 for one and £40 for the other, luckily I have kept the transcripts of the chat.

I then informed them to cancel the accounts as I was not happy with the mess on my new vodafone account, first time and last time dealing with them. I was told that was not a problem so I removed the direct debit from my account and went and got new sim cards for my children from another vendor.

I thought this was the end of it, a month later an email with a e-bill attached 21/03/2016 and again on the 20/04/16 for £20.04 Ignored this as I thought it was just another admin error and carried on my life. 

Then the e-bills stopped and I thought no more, until I went to get a car loan and found I had a very low and bad credit rating, I have had a great credit rating for a very loing time as I always pay my bills on time and never miss.

As i said at the top vodafone said I had defaulted on my account for some 5 months, so why not a claim me or an email or letter, why because someone did not do thier job correctly and cancel the accounts.

I need advice to get this sorted as right now I need to get a new house and I cannot get any credit whatsover over a stupid miustake

regards David

[Sorted75]

I also have a poor credit due to voda##~##'fone.

my credit dropped when I left Vodafone. As they put my account into default. When I left them I cancelled my direct debit as I'd finish.  Then nothing heard from voda##~##'fone.  But noticed my credit rating dropped dramatically.  Looked into it.  And voda##~##'fone said I missed 3 payments. After ages on phone. No-one in vodadhitfone could work it out.  And week late tried again  a muppet said £21.08 was owing.. I asked why have I not had a bill? Why does no one else know or able to find this?

I paid this to try sort the problem with my credit. But has not helped as they have still left my account in default.  Which its not.  Will never have an account set with voda##~##' font again or fibre.  They should not be allowed to have this power. Or at least learn how to close account correctly.

MOD EDIT: This post has been edited to remove inappropriate content please see Community Guidelines]

[Evie]

Hey there @Sorted75 - I understand how important it is for your credit file to show a true reflection of payments. If you would like us to look into this, please don't hesitate to drop us a direct message on social media.

Make sure to include a link back to this forum thread, your forum username and your mobile/account number.

[Bc2021]

I ended my contract with Vodafone after 3 years. I was told my last payment would be February 2021. Once that payment came out I cancelled my direct debit, as I always do when ending a contract. Last weekend (6 months later) I received a text message from a debt collecting company called Paydue.co.uk saying I owed 'someone' money.  I thought this was a scam, the text message even had mistakes in it.

I've contacted Vodadone twice about this (it's been really difficult to get through) and spoken to them and told them I was told February was my last payment. They had apparently been sending letters to my old address. I don't understand why they did try to ring, or email? You are a communications company? Regardless of the fact that Vodafone gave me incorrect information back in February, I paid the £15 anyway.

However, I'm still getting text messages from Paydue.co.uk, I've checked my credit rating and it's still telling me I owe Vodafone money (4 missed payments in fact). It's also saying that these 4 missed payments will show on my credit rating for the next 6 years. It's disgraceful that my credit rating (and my ability to get a loan, lease, mortgage etc) has been so badly impacted by a large communications company's inability to communicate with their existing and previous customers.

I've already been in contact with OFCOM to report Vodafone over this and I'd like to escalate this within Vodafone also. I would urge others to do the same, given there seems to be quite a few of us on here experiencing this issue with Vodafone.

[Farai]

Really sorry to hear about the experience you've had with this @Bc2021. We'd like to help you take closer look at the account and hopefully get to the bottom of what's happened here. We'd also be able to speak to our Credit File team regarding any adjustments that need to be made from our side.

So we can get the ball rolling on this, please drop us a private message via Twitter or Facebook here. 

[Bc2021]

Thanks Farai, I've already forwarded this message via Twitter. Look forward to hearing from your Credit File team. I'll keep others updated here on this forum on the progress of this issue.

[michellefoley89]

Vodafone Told us we had no contract with them and then charged us and put 4 late marks on my credit score, not the least of it and still fighting

I have been with Vodafone for 14 years and NEVER missed a payment until they screwed us in december and now again recently on two different contracts we have been trying to get out of for over a year now

In November 2020 my partner called Vodafone to cancel his contract, they said they would change it to a PAYG so he could cancel it and wouldn't be charged anymore after the months payment. They changed the wrong contract to PAYG and then reinstated it to pay monthly bt didnt change the other contract to PAYG. When my partner then called again they couldn't find the account so we were under the impression that he only had the one account in my name (which we had been trying to change over for at least 5+ years, having been told every time that it had been done and then not) and they o longer had the account under his name.

In February 2021 I contacted them again to find out why I had been charged for a contract that didn't exist and they said that it had been reconnected?? I realised the mistake they had made Vodafone disconnected and reconnected the wrong number and left the other contract, that we had told them we wanted cancelled, open, which we were then unaware of, as we had been told that it couldn't be found??!!

We had been trying to close this account now for 3 months calling them countless times about it. My partner had not used this account since August 2020, he didnt even have a sim or know the contact number, so we were paying for a service we were not receiving.

I called Vodafone in February again to cancel my partners account that was under my name, (even though it should have been changed to my partners name years previous) as we wanted to change companies and required a PUK code. I had filled in the form and not received a PUK code, so had called to get one, which had not been received and then when one was received it was the wrong code and froze our phone!

By this point they had kept messing up into another month, which they charged us for.... we eventually had to go to another company and pay £40 to get the phone unfrozen and unlocked.

Finally we were able to connect to the new company and after speaking to Vodafone and settling the bill in February, they told me it was done and there would be no more payments. Low and behold I get another bill the following month for another payment.

This finally settled I asked to confirm the account was closed after payment and was told we would not hear from them again. The next month they told me I still owed money AGAIN so I paid this and asked if everything was closed now and that there were no more accounts or surprise bills as we had already spoken to them several times to make sure there were no accounts left in either of our names and I had previously discussed in a LIVE chat with them that we had two accounts with them, one which was under my partners name that we were told was now PAYG (but apparently wasn't). Again they told us we wouldn't hear from them.

Then in April 2021 I noticed I was still paying £20 a month for the account which was supposed to be PAYG, we had asked to close several times and that my partner was told they couldn't find. In May my partner received a letter from debt recovery saying he owed Vodafone along with 2 Marks on his credit score!!! He was then emailed that it was being made to PAYG!! which it should have been already and Vodafone had made it impossible to contact them to put in an official complaint or even just speak to a person!! They have now charged him two more months and given him 2 more marks, which has now prevented us from getting a mortgage that we were in the process of applying for!!

As I said they've made it impossible to put in an official complaint needing a mobile number we explained to the debt recovery that we didn't have back in June, we haven't got for a service or a sim for and haven't used almost the whole time we were paying for it, you can even see from Vodafone records that the account has laid dormant, unused and yet charged every month in full. How are we supposed to rectify an issue when the company makes it impossible to contact them? We even tried going to the store and they said it had to be done over the phone, which as explained, we can not!

We contacted the debt recovery again and have paid off the debt and was told by them we still needed to cancel the contract with Vodafone, even though Vodafone have emailed us saying they changed it to PAYG when the contract ended in July. I do not believe them as this is what they stated a year ago and initiated all these issues in the first place!!!

The debt recovery have finally given us the phone number to the contract in question, which makes me wonder why they didn't offer it back in June when we first complained to them about the situation!!

These companies don't care about people, they just grab your money and then are done with you, they hire people on the phones that can not help you, do not allow you to go into store to talk about any issues or don't understand you, they don't communicate with each other and they put you in horrible situations but wont help you to rectify their errors!! They just think they can put a plaster on it by offering money off. That will not work with this as we now have those marks for 6 years and its going to affect the score for at least 18 months!!

I have all the LIVE transcripts but a lot of the conversations were had over the phone back in 2020, between August and December from myself and my partner so will be on Vodafones records.

[MarkD]

Thanks for your post @michellefoley89. If you send us a message using Facebook or Twitter, our team would love to discuss this with you. You can find all the contact details, just remember to include your Community Username in the message. 

[josk2005]

Hello i have the same issue as the OP i paid my final bills on an email recieved in May and now my credit has nose dived for the sake of £23 

 i asked the operater is this it, are my accounts closed, they replied yes sir.. i called agasin today and paid another 23 ish pounds still not certain my accounts closed.

 But experian credit went from full green to no fuel empty red. dam im apparently £10 in credit on one acc and £23 in dept in the other hows this happen there both registered to the same email and same name. same street address.

10

[Effie]

Hi @josk2005 I can certainly appreciate how frustrating and concerning this must be. Please drop the Social Media team a message here so we can get this all checked out for you. If there are any issues/ errors with the credit score, we can get this corrected. 

[michellefoley89]

Seek Justice Here :

https://chng.it/RZGGqZjQcL