Help with bill of £2,300

imagine123 · 1 November 2007 at 1:13PM

Hi, New to posting normally just lurk in background soaking up tips, but am looking for some help with a problem. My son recently took out a contract phone with Vodafone paying £45 per month when after 3 WEEKS it would not work. On contacting the company he was advised that his phone had been blocked as his bill was over £2000, apparently run up due to exceeding his download allowance. As you can imagine we were taken aback by the speed in which such a bill could be run up and even more concerned with the tardiness in making him aware of the problem. I contacted the company to discuss the matter and eventually spoke to a very pleasant lady in the "collections" department who sympathised with our plight never having seen a bill of that size in such a short time, but she advised that nothing she could do to reduce the bill and the longest they could hold the debt was 3 months meaning my son would have to pay out ove £700 per month, way beyond his means. I advised that I would contact customer services to discuss the matter further. I emailed customer services, explaining the situation, commending them on the courteous, professional staff I had encountered so far, stating that I agree that my son has to take some responsibility for not reading the T & C's of usage but that the company also has a moral responsibility and duty of care particularly towards new customers for whom they have no credit history asking to discuss the situation further. I received an email back stating that I needed to talk to the collections department. :mad: I emailed back asking, must admit by this time quite sarcastically, that they re-read my message which clearly stated that I had already spoken to them and again asked for someone to contact me. I received a phone call from an Indian based agent and they offered to reduce the contract from 18 months to 12 and give half price line rental for 6 months giving a future saving of £405, very nice but does not deal with the outstanding bill, must admit it is very difficult to reason with someone for whom english is not their first language. I have spoken to trading standards who state that if son has used the service he is liable for the debt, no help there.... This forum is my last hope... is there anyone out there who has had a similar problem, any suggestions on how I can tackle this successfully... any such help would be much appreciated.:rolleyes:

Quentin · 1 November 2007 at 1:19PM

You will have to bite the bullet. (Assuming your son is over 18).

You can only try and come to some arrangement with them over "time to pay".

Badger_Lady · 1 November 2007 at 1:33PM

Gosh, that's harsh...

the only similar instance I've come across was Broadband - my Dad hardly gets to use his internet connection because he travels a lot... his company were offering a pay-as-you-go service at 10p a minute (or something like that) rather than the usual unlimited monthly service, so he switched over to save money.

Anyway, he couldn't disconnect (my Dad's a retired IT consultant so, if anyone can do it, it's him!) and by the time he contacted customer services he'd run up a bill of over £2,000!

Luckily, in that circumstance, the company wrote off the majority of the bill (taking the circumstances into consideration) and, to avoid any further problems, my Dad switched back onto a monthly service at £12.

If your mobile company is not taking such a lenient stance, I don't see what else you can do (since it was within the contract), but I would push it with them - take it to the top, try to find the CEO and contact them with an explanation of what happened and how this bill was run up. If they have a monthly bundle for downloads (I think Orange do one for £5 a month?), compare the prices and ask that you be switched and that the outstanding amount be written off in retrospect.

There are no guarantees that this will work, but best of luck to you!

Jazzyjeff_2 · 1 November 2007 at 1:34PM

Nothing you can do really apart from keep trying. If it gets passed to a debt collection agency you could always try and negotiate with them by saying he has no way of paying it, will they accept a payment of £750 or £1,000 - something like that...

That is a heck of a lot of downloading, a hard lesson learned! T-mobile or 3 are the best for mobile internet usage.

Happy_Shrimper · 1 November 2007 at 1:41PM

That is staggering! There should be a limit on how much you can run up before blocking or contacting the customer. Maybe something like 10x your monthly tariff.
To allow it to get to 2300 is shear profiteering on vodas part.
You have my sympathy and unfortunately no idea how you can reach an amicable agreement.
Out of interest, how much data did that buy you? Get to T-Mobiles Flext Web'n'Walk or Threes X-Series pronto!

Happy_Shrimper · 1 November 2007 at 1:44PM

A long shot, but would Watchdog be interested? Little bit of bad publicity works wonders ;-)

Kilty_2 · 1 November 2007 at 2:01PM

3 weeks - £3 per MB (I guess) - £2300 - 766mb?!!

What the hell was he downloading :eek:

mulerider · 1 November 2007 at 2:02PM

I remember reading about Vodafone data charges in another thread. Seems as though Vodafone have major problems with data charges been pretty inconsistent with usage.

Just found the thread, click on the link below.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=568982

Hope this helps..

What content was your son viewing on his phone?

dmg24 · 1 November 2007 at 2:58PM

Could I ask how old your son is? If he is over eighteen, surely he should be sorting this out?

The same thing happened to my cousin, he went on holiday and his bill was over £1000 for the two weeks. My uncle paid the bill for him (the contract was in his name, as my cousin is under eighteen), but my cousin is having to pay back every penny.

Legally, Vodaphone have done nothing wrong. There is a moral aspect to it, but that does not override the fact that your son used the service, and hence is liable for the bill.

I hope you can sort something, but if Trading Standards cannot see anything wrong, I doubt you will get anywhere with reducing the bill (hopefully I am wrong) x

peterstannard · 1 November 2007 at 3:02PM

Happy_Shrimper wrote: »

To allow it to get to 2300 is shear profiteering on vodas part.

Lets not forget that their not a charity

bobstheboy · 1 November 2007 at 3:16PM

If your son took out the contract as you stated he must (should) be over 18 and they would have done a credit check. If he is over 18 then why are you doing the negotiations on his behalf ?

A hard lesson but people have to act responsibly and read what they are signing up to and the costs involved when using a mobile phone.

Bob

Help with bill of £2,300

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