Obligation before passing matter to Debt Agency

Knight1

Looking for some advice if possible. I have recently ended my contract with Vodafone. On receiving my final bill it seemed a little too much and as a result I queried the matter with them. To my surprise the customer advisor agreed with me and advised my bill had been settled (surprising in the fact I had expected a reduction in my bill rather than it be completely nullified). Neither the less the matter was settled, right, WRONG.

Approx four weeks later I received a letter from a Debt Agency chasing me for the previously billed amount. As a result I contacted Vodafone to query the matter. They informed me the bill hadn’t actually been nullified and merely credited by £3.50 leaving me with a smaller bill and because I had not paid the bill it had been passed to the Debt Agency.

I am sure that Vodafone must have somekind of legal obligation of informing me of the revised bill in writing before passing the matter to the Debt Agency. Does anyone know any legislation which would cover this as I would really love to include this in my compliant letter to Vodafone.

Any other advise to resolve this matter would also be appreciated.

Quentin

No, they don't need to inform you about using a debt agency.

Can't you just pay them what you think you owe them and dispute the rest? That way the onus is on them. At the moment you know you do owe them, just think they charged you "a little too much". They clearly want paying what you owe!

(Next time someone on the phone says they have wiped out a debt for you, ask them to confirm this in writing!)

sporedude

Oh and if you refuse to pay, It can get to a stage where they !!!!!! your credit file.

chris_spackman

VYou could try trading standards.

I had a big problem with Orange and got my contract revoked by telling them that they are in breech of contract.

jayukps

If its gone to the credit agency that will automatically put a 5 year default on your credit file

KILL_BILL

just pay vodaphoone direct of what was confirmed and then if you receive any further correspondence from debt collects tell them to

1) go fck themselves
2) contact vodaphone to get the correct amount due
3) get a life


:T:T:T:T

Vodafone

Knight1 wrote: »

Looking for some advice if possible. I have recently ended my contract with Vodafone. On receiving my final bill it seemed a little too much and as a result I queried the matter with them. To my surprise the customer advisor agreed with me and advised my bill had been settled (surprising in the fact I had expected a reduction in my bill rather than it be completely nullified). Neither the less the matter was settled, right, WRONG.

Approx four weeks later I received a letter from a Debt Agency chasing me for the previously billed amount. As a result I contacted Vodafone to query the matter. They informed me the bill hadn’t actually been nullified and merely credited by £3.50 leaving me with a smaller bill and because I had not paid the bill it had been passed to the Debt Agency.

I am sure that Vodafone must have somekind of legal obligation of informing me of the revised bill in writing before passing the matter to the Debt Agency. Does anyone know any legislation which would cover this as I would really love to include this in my compliant letter to Vodafone.

Any other advise to resolve this matter would also be appreciated.

Hi Knight1,

If you still need some help with getting this sorted out could you email us your details using the 'Contact us' form on our website here?

When sending the email you'll just need to include a link to this thread within the body of it and state the code WRT135 in the subject bar.

Thanks,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

Guys_Dad

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Knight1,

If you still need some help with getting this sorted out could you email us your details using the 'Contact us' form on our website here?

When sending the email you'll just need to include a link to this thread within the body of it and state the code WRT135 in the subject bar.

Thanks,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

Perhaps you might be kind enough to advise members on the actual procedures and timescales that Vodafone employ in relation to passing debts to a 3rd party Debt Collector?

Is there a process of "x" letters to customer before passing it over or is there a particular time frame?

I am sure if we knew, it would be most helpful.

Thank you.

Vodafone

Hi Guys Dad,

Generally an account will be initially suspended around seven days after it has fallen into arrears. This action is usually taken following attempts to contact the customer to discuss any reasons why payment has not been made.

In the event the payment is still not received further attempts are made to contact the customer by letter to advise of the status of their account and asking them to contact us to discuss the situation further.

The next step would be disconnection of the service, which will usually happen around six to eight weeks after the account initially fell into arrears. Naturally we would like to avoid this but there instances where this becomes necessary.

Following disconnection further correspondence is sent to the customer again advising them of the status of their account and again asking them to contact us to discuss the situation further with additional advice informing them that should payment not be made within a specified timescale then the account may be referred to a Debt Collection Agency.

Around thirty days after disconnection the account would then be referred to a Debt Collection Agency which is again action we'd prefer to avoid but becomes necessary in some cases.

It's worth bearing in mind that the above may vary on a case by case basis depending on a customer's overall payment history with us.

Hope this helps.

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK