Vodafone Default Removal

golfer31

My wife has had a default put against her name by Vodafone.

It all stems from an account that she terminated last year in September 2009 because of the poor service we were recieving.

Vodafone took no notice of the phone call she made to terminate the account followed by a written registered post letter of termination of course and kept charging her.

The eventually well into 2010 they agreed it was their mistake and credited her account back for the money they should not have taken.

But guess what they got the end date on the contract wrong - they said it was 31/10/2009 but in fact it was 11/10/2009 and we had verbal confirmation from a Vodafone telephonist of this fact. I am tokld that you can get a Subject Access Request off Vodafone to get copies of any conversations that are recorded costs £ 10 apparently.

So we wrote to them again explaining their continued mistake. Anyway several (at least 10) Vodafone letters and debt collection agency letters later we got no joy from them, they just didnt seem to understand the issue of the wrong end date on the contract even though we stated it in words of one syllabul.

In parallel we discovered in Nov 2010 to our horror they had put a default against my wifes name. So we called them first on 8/11 when they said that the matter had now been credited to ZERO nothing to pay and the default would be removed within 24 hours - this time we took the name of the person we spoke to.

Of course a quick check on Experience revealed that they had not in fact removed the default within 24 hours - so we phoned again for a seocnd time on 11/11/2010 when we were told same story nothing to pay on our account but this time they said the default would take up to a few weeks to remove due to their batch procedures so we could expect removal of default by end of Nov.

You have guessed it havn't you - YES Vodafone didnt keep this promise either and the default is still there and now their customer service is telling us that they will not remove the default.

The upshot is that our remortgage has been put on hold for a bill of £ 72 that we dont owe Vodafone for an account that we dont even have any more and a default which they have said that they will remove but havnt. Is this the way that the system is meant to work - i think not.

Does anyone know a good lawyer who has sued Vodafone and won we are in the market for one.....

Golfer 31

GeorgeUK

Hi Golfer - yup, that sucks.

First thing i would do i contact the credit reference agencies (experian, callcredit and equifax) and get a note put against that account disputing the default. All creditchecks are automated and this should flag up that a manual check is required.

Do you have Vodafone confirming that the default should be removed in writing? If not, i would ask for it. It would be better to get a copy sent to the CRA's asap. Both Vodafone and the CRA's are processing incorrect information about the account which is a breach of the Data Protection Act. Unfortunately you need to give them time to rectify the situation before you can call in the regulators.

It can take up to 2 months for a default to be removed - Vodafone may only send the request at the end of the month and after the CRA receives it, they may only process it at the end of the month so whoever told you it would be dealt with within 24 hours doesn't really know what they are talking about. They may put it on their system within 24 hours, but that's about it.

Right now i would contact the CRA's to get a note put against the account stating that the default is there in error and also try to get a letter from Vodafone confirming this. Hopefully you can then take that to the bank and get the process started up again.

If sending any letters, it is best to do so by recorded delivery.

Tixy

Agree with George's suggestions - one last thing to add on though - if you do put a note on your credit files once the default has been removed and you have had confirmation make sure you also remove the note you had put on - its one of those things people often forget.

Vodafone

Hi golfer31,

I'm sorry to hear of the issues you've been experiencing in removing this deault. If you'd like to email us via Web Relations Team then we'll be happy to look into this for you.

When contacting us, please include the code WRT135 in the subject line to ensure that the email comes directly through to my team. In the main message body please include a link to this thread and your username. Once you've sent this you'll receive an automated response advising you we'll be in touch as soon as we can. If you reply to this thread with the reference number for the email then we'll pick it up right away.

Kind Regards,

George
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

paulsad

I had all this with vodafone and eventually I got so fed up I gave up - web relations team supposedly tried to help eventually they put all the onus on me to prove I was innocent including asking me to provide bank statements from a company that I worked for - impossible as the company had ceased trading. It was a trifling amount that ruined a 20 year perfect credit history - and a genuine oversight including a house move so I got no knowledge of the debt till traced by a DCA - I still have a default even though I settled as soon as I found out. Common sense should have prevailed but Vodafone seems sadly lacking. I issued a Notice of Correction for what good that does.

paroncider

Seems like Vodafone is a bit notorious for applying defaults on the sly! I have a similar problem, though I've made the final payment and three telephone calls to Customer Services hasn't yet sorted this out. In each instance I've provided the bank details, amount and date that the payment left my account, as well as the account details of the Vodafone account I've sent payment to. Yet somehow they cannot find this. After being reassured by three different individuals that they'd search the payment (or get their manager to) and sort this out, nothing has happened. I finally contacted the Consumer Advice Bureau and on their advice have sent a letter to Vodafone Customer Relations and attached copies of my bank statement proving the payment indeed left my account. It's now been two weeks, so time to chase my letter up and speak to Consumer Advice Bureau again. The most frustrating thing of all? This is over a paltry £20, and I've actually paid the sum!

Vodafone

Hi paroncider

It’s disappointing to hear that you’ve not had a response yet. We’d like to get to the bottom of this for you as quickly as we can.

If you could provide us with a copy of the letter that you have sent to us via the e-mail using the Contact Us form on our website, using WRT135 as the subject, and a link to this thread, we can contact our credit team regarding your payment and advise accordingly from there.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards

Simon
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

paroncider

Hi Simon,

Thanks for reaching out. I actually ended up submitting a complaint via the website and had someone finally contact me regarding the letter. The good news is that it is finally resolved.

Many thanks.

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi paroncider

It’s disappointing to hear that you’ve not had a response yet. We’d like to get to the bottom of this for you as quickly as we can.

If you could provide us with a copy of the letter that you have sent to us via the e-mail using the Contact Us form on our website, using WRT135 as the subject, and a link to this thread, we can contact our credit team regarding your payment and advise accordingly from there.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards

Simon
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Vodafone

This is excellent news paroncider.

Thanks for letting us know that your concerns have been resolved.

All the best.

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK