Vodafone Nightmare

james011

I had a contract with vodafone from 2006. In October last year I decided to move to pay as you go. It took about a month. Once the move was completed I naturally cancelled the direct debit. Then out the blue, in late December I got a letter from Vodafone asking for £70 (i was on holiday so didnt see it until a week after it was sent). When i saw it, it immediately seemed complete nonsense because I'd already been pay as you go for a few months. When I rang Vodafone I got a nasty surprise. It seems that the money they were asking for relates to another mobile phone number that I've never heard of before. They told me it was for a mobile contract taken out in April last year in my name!! It seemed they had been debiting my account for £35 a month. (on top of the money I was already paying for my own legitimate mobile phone contract). So they were actually billing me for two mobile contracts simultaneously!! However, they said no 'air time' had ever been used on this mobile number. I asked them what the point of sale was and they said there was no record of it. But they said they were forwarding this to their fraud team and it would be resolved in 7-10 working days. But they told me this on the 4th January . Then I got an email from them last night saying that they were still investigating it and it would take 23 days! In this email they said it was raised as fraud on 14 January. So this means it could be well over a month before they even tell me what they have decided to do. In the mean time, my credit rating has already suffered as a result of this. Last thursday, they told the credit ratings agencies i was behind with a payment. How ironic that they are doing that when they are actually the ones that owe me money. On the phone yesterday they told me that no handset appeared to have been ordered with this mystery mobile phone number. So if it is a fraud does seem a very odd one, if there is no air time used and no mobile handset ordered! I cant understand why they did not freeze the account immediately and stop the billing. Particularly as they say there is not even a record of a point of sale. Will be very grateful for any advice about this.

tazdevil01985

james011 wrote: »

I had a contract with vodafone from 2006. In October last year I decided to move to pay as you go. It took about a month. Once the move was completed I naturally cancelled the direct debit. Then out the blue, in late December I got a letter from Vodafone asking for £70 (i was on holiday so didnt see it until a week after it was sent). When i saw it, it immediately seemed complete nonsense because I'd already been pay as you go for a few months. When I rang Vodafone I got a nasty surprise. It seems that the money they were asking for relates to another mobile phone number that I've never heard of before. They told me it was for a mobile contract taken out in April last year in my name!! It seemed they had been debiting my account for £35 a month. (on top of the money I was already paying for my own legitimate mobile phone contract). So they were actually billing me for two mobile contracts simultaneously!! However, they said no 'air time' had ever been used on this mobile number. I asked them what the point of sale was and they said there was no record of it. But they said they were forwarding this to their fraud team and it would be resolved in 7-10 working days. But they told me this on the 4th January . Then I got an email from them last night saying that they were still investigating it and it would take 23 days! In this email they said it was raised as fraud on 14 January. So this means it could be well over a month before they even tell me what they have decided to do. In the mean time, my credit rating has already suffered as a result of this. Last thursday, they told the credit ratings agencies i was behind with a payment. How ironic that they are doing that when they are actually the ones that owe me money. On the phone yesterday they told me that no handset appeared to have been ordered with this mystery mobile phone number. So if it is a fraud does seem a very odd one, if there is no air time used and no mobile handset ordered! I cant understand why they did not freeze the account immediately and stop the billing. Particularly as they say there is not even a record of a point of sale. Will be very grateful for any advice about this.

It could be a sim only contract ! Fraud teams need time to investigate give it time. They shouldnt report on your credit report whilst its under investigation.

DarkConvict

Please remember contracts have a minimum term, not a finite length. Its standard for all contracts to switch to 30 day rolling once the contract ends. This is why your contract did not end after 18 months, you are required to give notice to stop the service, and this is your responsibility.

At best they may give you upto 3 months back, but I would assume you won't get anywhere. If your leaving Vodafone they won't bend over backwards to keep you happy.

DarkConvict

A single late payment wont harm your file, a few wont do much either. Its a default that would do the damage.

If it is fraud they will clear the file. i assure you, your rating will be fine during the investigation.

mobilejunkie

Try telling that to my customers; when applying for a loan they might well be turned down by the bank with "a few" late payments - and, once declined, they can't reapply. Never underestimate the damage of any negative entries on a credit report - especially in the current lending climate!

james011

I agree with this comment: They shouldnt report on your credit report whilst its under investigation.

But that's exactly what they seem to have done. I just rang them up to ask them if they have now frozen the billing side but they told me they are currently having problems with their billing system, and to ring back in an hour. I had a look at 'sim only contracts' on the Vodafone website, but couldnt see any that would come to as much as 35 pounds a month.

To me the facts of this indicate a vodafone error rather than fraud. if it was a fraud the sim card would have been used by someone surely.

james011

Also the limited details they gave me yesterday on the phone do not seem to tally with what they offer in terms of 'sim' only deals. I just looked at their website and the maximum 'sim' only deal they offer is 365 days, whereas they told me yesterday that the mystery contract they have been billing me for is 24 months!

james011

I think you misunderstood. I had a contract that was first started in 2006. But they started to bill me for another one in addition from April last year. Didnt find out that they had billed me for this other mystery contract until a couple of weeks ago. By coincidence i decided to move from my old contract which had expired months before to pay as you go. (i gave them the appropriate notice to do so). So the situation is now that i am a pay as you go customer, but i am still being hounded for money that's to do with this other mobile phone number that i've only just heard about. plus they have taken 35 a month for about 7 months for this number off me already, on top of what i paid for my old contract!

Vodafone

Hi james011,

I can definitely understand why this situation has led you to worry and I am certain that the fraud team will be doing everything that they can to get this resolved as quickly as possible for you.

We want to give you as much information as possible around this and we're keen to help you further. If you would like us to look into this for you and let you know all of the information that we have at the moment then please feel free to contact the Web Relations Team. When contacting, please quote the code WRT135 in the subject line. This will ensure that the email comes directly to my team.

Our team will be more than happy to help and we hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks,

Espi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK