Phone bill exceeds £850!!!!

NeedsVodafoneAdvice

Have been a Vodafone Customer for over 8 years.
Having had years of good service and being treated like a VIP due to being on thier higher priced contracts.

I walked into my local vodafone store about a week ago to check when my latest contract ends and when I may be able to upgrade my phone.
The staff member asked for my details as usual to get into the account and informed me there was an oustanding balance on the account which would need to be paid. He asked how I usually paid my bill and I informed him that i paid by direct debit.

He asked if I had had a new credit card and infact I had had a new card in may. So we both figured it was just one oustanding monthly bill of £60. He then asked if I would like to pay the £60 and clear the account so he could check the info for me. Of course that was no problem for me.

However when he came to see how much was actually overdue on the account it was over £850. He was just as shocked as I was at how high it was and after checking the details apparently the overdue amount had been because no payment had been taken since October 2009!!

Ringing Vodafone the following day confirmed what was found in-store. My account hadnt recieved any direct-debit payment since October and the overdue amount was over £850. Having spoken to a member of the phone staff I was patched through to collections as it was there department.
With the rude and short manager requesting I pay the overdue amout by the end of the day or my phone would be cut off. This was very rude and was if they were trying to make sure I couldnt check with my bank about the direct debits. Having expressed this over the phone, the manager gave me till midnight the following day to pay up the £850.
Checking with the bank it is found that no Direct Debit had been set up and no payments had been sent to vodafone.
Now I admit that I should have checked my account and made sure the payments had been sent.
However I did have to give vodafone all my credit details so they could set up a Direct Debit and recieve my payments.
However I also believe that Vodafone is at fault. Previously if I had been just a few days past payment due date then vodafone would have called me to take a phone payment or posted an invoice. However over the full 9 months I had not recieved any invoice or notice of missed payments.
In one of the phone calls vodafone admitted they were at fault as well for not having informed me of the missed payments but still stated that i had used their service and needed to pay for it. However I believe that seeing as they have a dedicated depeartment to the sole job of collecting payments then I have not recieved the full service and should not have to pay the full £856 and definately not within a weeks time, when the contract was supposed to be monthly affordable payments not one massive bill. Not only this but the £856 is more than 9x £60 so they are charging me interest.

Please may people read this and aid me in what to do about this I believe I havent had the service I pay for and shouldnt have to pay this full amount. Any Ideas? and thank you if you have read this I know its long.

[Deleted User]

I really don't see how:

a) They're charging you interest.
b) They let you get off for 9 months without paying.

Just because one bill was £60, doesn't mean multiplying it by 9 is right anyway. The others might have been for more.

Either way, you have used the services, and you'll probably have to pay a significant portion. I'd write them and see if you can negotiate a reduced settlement on the grounds of communal incompetence from all parties.

[Deleted User]

NeedsVodafoneAdvice wrote: »

I informed him that i paid by direct debit.

He asked if I had had a new credit card and infact I had had a new card in may. So we both figured it was just one oustanding monthly bill

And how would a new credit card affect a direct debit?

Sorry if I'm miscalling here, but I smell a troll.

zzzLazyDaisy

billbennett wrote: »

Sorry if I'm miscalling here, but I smell a troll.

Me too, the information provided does not make sense.

lucylucky

Troll indeed.

Credit Card - Direct Debit - does not compute

macman

And you didn't notice over no less than 9 bank statements that no payment was being taken?
You have had the service interest free for 9 months, so I wouldn't moan about having to pay it in a lump sum now.

jd87

Maybe the OP doesn't mean direct debit - maybe s/he means a continuous card payment authority - sometimes people pay phone bills this way instead. Maybe the bit about a new credit card could be to do with having a new card number issued (often happens if you've been a victim of fraud on your account) and this could have interrupted the card payments.

OP: a "Direct debit" is a regular payment directly from a bank account - setting one up involves you giving your account number and sort code. Is this how you would have arranged for your vodafone bill to be paid? Or did you actually arrange payments to come from your credit (or debit) card, where you would have given the long card number and expiry date to set it up?

zzzLazyDaisy

But the new card was issued in May (one month ago) and no payments have been made for 9 months.

Also whether it is a DD or a continuous credit, the payments are taken by the phone company, not sent by the OP's bank. The first time a payment was missed the phone would have been blocked straight away until payment had been made.

NeedsVodafoneAdvice

Apologies didnt mean credit card I meant Debit Card. And With Direct bank transfers have had to notify others such as loans companys that my cad has changed so they could update thier info.

What is a Troll?

To the person who said that I have had this SERVICE for 9 months interest free?

I would have been far happier to pay easy payments of £60 a month not one lump sum of £850!!!

And I agree with whomever said it doesnt make sense that they hadnt cut me off earlier. The staff at vodafone and collections also didnt understand how this had been missed. Had I not have notified them they still wouldnt have known.

As for seeing bank statements. My partner takes care of it and didnt realise I was meant to be paying by monthly payments directly.

Hope that ties up the lose ends??

seaniboy

I'd call Ofcom register a complaint & then request payments plan with the contact mumber Voda give you to clear arrears NOT full amount given V are at error. Voda call centres are not V employees they are all outsourced and to talk to a V employee you need to call the number Ofcom gives you.

V Retail are direct but cany do nowt, they area sales route & told to hand problems to outsourced customer services - I have had 2 V retail managers argue with thier third party call centres to no avail.

makavelianz

You may have thought you could get away from paying when you noticed they were not taking any direct debit payments, obviously that is not the case. I think as you have been found out suggest a monthly payment of £100+ to slowly pay of the debt, you have obviously been using their service just got away with paying for it untill now.