House purchase ruined by Vodafone's false default entry

shockedby_voda

I thought I would give Vodafone one last chance to sort this out, after numerous exchange of emails and live chats to the customer service team. Nothing has been resolve and it looks like my house purchase is going to fall through due to a debt I don't owe in the first place! Having read some of the other posts here, looks like I'm not the only one affected by this.


I held a mobile phone account with Vodafone for several years and decided to move away from them in September 2010 and port my number to O2. The Vodafone customer services representative informed me at the time that I should cancel my direct debit after the number has been successfully ported, which I did.

Vodafone charged me for an extra month’s line rental without informing me and because my direct debit had been cancelled, at the time of the number transfer, the account was left unpaid and eventually reported defaulted in March 2011. I was not informed of the balance or the default at any stage of the proceedings, despite Vodafone having my full address, email and mobile number at the time.

I only discovered the outstanding balance in July 2011 after accidentally logging onto my old Vodafone account. At this point I paid immediately and enquired whether this would affect my credit file. The customer service representative who took my payment assured me my credit rating would not be impacted. I subsequently checked my Experian report and discovered that a default has not been withdrawn from my file and exchanged emails with the Vodafone Quality Assurance team, who refused to act on the initial promise of the customer service representative. They also refused to believe that I did not receive any letters about the balance, insisiting their 'system' has records of letter sent to me. Where these imaginary letters ended up I do not know.

It is unreasonable to be recorded as having defaulted on a debt that I am not aware of. Vodafone have not informed me of the fact that they have reported detrimental information on me to the Credit Bureau, and in fact have given assurance that this will not happen. My phone number has remained unchanged throughout the last 6 years, and Vodafone provided the number originally.

I am in the process of applying for a mortgage and the fact that Vodafone refused to remove the false information from my credit file has caused considerable distress. I am finding it difficult to get the necessary credit as this undeserved, small balance default is on my file. Various lenders have said Vodafone must withdraw the entry before they can proceed with a mortgage. This is costing valuable time, and looks likely to cause my house purchase to fall through causing considerable upset, and the loss of solicitor’s fees.

Non-receipt of letters and phone calls is difficult to evidence, but at the time, I had more than £70k in credit balance in instant access savings account. . In addition, during the month of default I had access to over £10k of available credit. Obviously had I been informed about the outstanding balance, or notified prior to default, I would have paid immediately. I would never risk my credit rating over £32, especially while in a strong financial position.

I would complain to the watchdogs but the timescale they work on is much longer than what we need this to be resolved in order to get the mortgage approved. Any advice from the forum members as to how to get this resolved would be much appreciated!

McKneff

Your phone number may have been the same but did you move at all.

They will send letters to the address they have on file.

shockedby_voda

I did move, but my relatives were living in my old address and forwarded any mail that got sent there.

jojo9239

Write a letter of complaint, calls and emails are no good send them a letter recorded delivery. EE removed mine after a strongly worded letter xx

shockedby_voda

Thanks jojo9239 for your advice, I will try the letter route. I have previously complained through email and seem to have just been stoned walled and called a lier by their Quality Assurance Team who deals with the reporting to credit reference agencies.

Unfortunately I really need this resolved relatively quickly as the house purchase is about to collapse due to us not being able to get a mortgage approved. The other alternative is to pay a much higher rate which we can barely afford.

leighlaz

Keep chasing them. I will be putting a story on these boards over the next few days regarding fraud on my wife which involved somone taking out a contract and cancelling it. We then had a defaulted account which was stopping us from remortgaging. Experian were a great help and it got resolved in a week. Give them a call and see if they can help you in any way.

Vodafone

Hi shockedby_voda,

Thanks for your time on the phone yesterday.

As promised, I'll get back to you with an update as soon as I can.

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations

Vodafone UK