Vodafone screwed my credit score

Mosquito46

On 11 July 2016 I took out a 24 month contract. On July 28th both the phone and tablet were stolen and unauthorised calls made to Spain etc. Reported to police and company. The company refunded money for Spanish calls. A company employee (now ex-employee) told me the contract was now closed. A letter from the police said the same. So I thought that was the end of it. Nice company I thought. But the company was still billing me and sending me messages – to a stolen phone! I was of course unaware of this. In January 2017 company wrote to me by post. This was the first I was aware of the mounting debt. I both phoned and wrote to the company to try to sort it out. During this time they nevertheless marked my credit file. The full amount owing was paid in February 2017 and the account properly closed. I am 71 years old and have never had bad credit in my life. This was misinformation from a company employee.
So I wrote to the agencies to place the above notice of correction. Vodafone refused to budge. So following the advice of MSE, I wrote to the Financial Ombudsman who has now said they don't deal with this kind of complaint! They say I should go to the Ombudsman Services - Communication Office because it's about a phone company.
Surely this is financial matter?

seatbeltnoob

it is very rare of a phone provider to cancel a contract just because a phone was stolen. There may have been a miscommunication but ultimately it will be regarded as your words against theirs and vice versa. (unless you can produce recorded evidence).

How was the account closed? was it closed after you paid off the full remaining balance of the contract or just closed after you effectively became up to date with your monthly payments up til that point in time?

if it is the former than it strengthens their case that the contract was never terminated earlier, but if it's the latter than you can argue it I suppose - to whom I dont know.

I'm sorry about your situation.

Geoff1963

the company was still billing me . . . This was the first I was aware of the mounting debt

Were they taking money from your account ? A contract would surely have a Direct Debit ; and the bank would tell you if a request for payment was rejected.

[Deleted User]

Mosquito46 wrote: »

But the company was still billing me and sending me messages – to a stolen phone!

That doesn't surprise me.

Many moons ago, my Sister-In-Law had her handbag stolen, containing, among other things, her Orange mobile phone.

As thy had no landline, I loaned her my mobile phone, so she could ring them and report the theft.

Later that day, I tried to make a call, only to find there was no service.

Orange had only gone and cut off MY mobile phone! :doh:

How they thought we'd called them from a stolen phone, I have no idea.

PixelPound

Mobile phones are service agreements not financial contracts - they don't lend you money they provide a service which they charge for, so FOS is correct its not them its the consumer ombudsmen. Having the phone stolen doesn't get you out of the contract, if you requested it be closed then they may well have done so but will have, as per the agreement, charged an Early Termination Fee which is usually the unused portion of the contract. So if the contract was ended in July, that will have been 23 months ETF, if they continued to bill you for 6 months before then defaulting the account it will be 6 months airtime debt plus 17 months ETF. If you paid when they wrote, then luckily it will probably be just that, rather than more - such as recovery charges etc.

Did you have a Direct Debit on it, and if so did you cancel it.

It will seem unfair but it will all be in the T&C that very few ever bother to read when they take out a phone. People assume common sense applies, nope that's why they put it in small print.

Vodafone

Hi Mosquito46,

If you'd like me to look into this, email me via the form here.

To access the form you'll need to enter the code WRT135.

As well as stating your query in the question box, please also quote "MSE Forum".

Once sent, you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post it on here and I'll check I've received it.

Kind regards,

Lee

Vodafone Social Media

Mosquito46

Lee, WRT135 [#16467420]

Mosquito46

Sorry for the delay in replying, I thought I’d get an email if someone responded.

Seatbeltnoonb: I thought the account was closed in August and so cancelled the direct debit. I was wrong obviously as I later discovered. The ex employee told me it was closed. It was properly closed in February this year when I paid off the outstanding amount to clear it once I was aware of the situation.

Geoff 1963 – I cancelled the DD when I was told, erroneously, that the contract was cancelled. So the debt was mounting up but I was unaware of this.

Bedsit Bob: You would think they would know better than to send messages to a phone that had been reported stolen. They are after all supposed to be a communication company!

Nic_c: I am not disputing I owed the money. My point is that by firstly sending the messages to a stolen phone that a debt was mounting up they were incompetent and that secondly, despite I paid the total amount owing within a month of becoming aware of this and having been in correspondence with them, Vodafone still entered the default on my credit files which I think was unfair of them in the circumstances and totally crap in terms of customer relations.My rating went from 999 Perfect to 643 Poor. Just for that! I tell everybody I can about this! Not twitter though, Yet. Lol