Vodafone & Pastdue Credit

GeordieBen

Hey guys,


Back in December 2015, i had some difficulty with a breakup and work issues leading me to be out of work and out of the family home. Bills were gathering as i had no means to pay etc and this folling one is from vadafone, bare with me on this one


Ok so 13/12/15 i had an outstanding balance of 1,640.42 with a potential term fee of 2,361.65 and the letter explains that my services had to be suspended until the balance was paid.


By the end of Dec 2015 i was out of the family home, all contracts (phones, ipads etc) were left there. Without payment to vodafone on 22/03/16 there was a text message recieved from vodafone saying my services had been turned back on but at this point my account balance was £4,501.99


To this day i recieve emails of my account being active, phone(s) are still active and that my balance is now £10658.29 in which Pastduecredit are now chasing me for.


Whats your thoughts on this, surely this account should have been terminated in December 2015 and never allowed to get thus far. On my credit file this account is still showing as upto date and not defaulted, why is this also?


Thanks
Ben

sourcrates

Normally an account will be terminated if no payment is received for any length of time, and you reach your contract end date.


Although technically you need to call them to cancel, non payment usually has the same effect, except in this case it would seem,



What can i say, this matter could of been avoided long ago with a simple phone call, now you have a 10k plus debt to service.


All i can suggest is writing to Vodaphone, explain the situation, find out when the contract should of terminated, and get them to look again at the bill.


You will end up with a bill to pay here, the only unknown is how much you can get it whittled down to.

CakeCrusader

This is a whopping bill for a mobile phone network, are you sure that it's correct and have they given you a break down?

sourcrates

CakeCrusader wrote: »

This is a whopping bill for a mobile phone network, are you sure that it's correct and have they given you a break down?

I suspect there are multiple contracts for phones and iPads involved here.

GeordieBen

Correct this was for 9 contracts, i'd been with vodafone for years without issues..... I had got my kids Ipads etc and phones for family members. However the fact that the services was suspended on Dec 2015 and with still 0 payment should never have been reactivated. I'm not trying to avoid this bill, i know its mine.


But isn't there something that companies should abide by to stop people getting a bill like this? They have purposly activated my phones again to rack up such a bill.


Kinda looking for some sort of breach they may have done, in order for me to bargain with them i suppose. i'd be happy with 3/4k but 10k they've got no chance.

sourcrates

GeordieBen wrote: »

Correct this was for 9 contracts

That is a lot of contracts, you would be liable for the full amount of each, I`m assuming, 24 month contract, so if they were all fairly new, i can see how this ended up being 10k plus.


I cant offer much in the way of advice here to be honest, if you dispute the amount they are chasing you for, then complain, ask for a full breakdown of each debt, there are two ombudsman services that deal with mobile contract disputes, just Google the right one for Vodafone, they may be able to help.


Another angle to this could be affordability, were they using due diligence in allowing you to take out 9 contracts, did they do the correct affordability checks etc etc.

Vodafone

Hi Ben,

This certainly seems to be a strange situation.

So we can access your account to see what's happened, please email us 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 it's been received.

Kind regards,

Lee

Vodafone Social Media