Vodafone debited on wrong day!

Surfer

Vodafone debited my account on the 31st of October instead of the 1st November. The agreement was for my account to be debited on the 1st of every month and they have done so every month up to last month which actually means my account was debited twice in the same month, October. This resulted in me incurring a £30 charge for a failed debit which I want to claim from Vodafone unless the bank waive the charge.

More importantly I want to be in charge of my money and have requested Vodafone to send me details so that I can set up a standing order. Vodafone have informed me that if I pay by any other method than DD, I must pay a £3 administration charge something I was never told when I signed up. Can they make you pay this seeing as it was them that messed up in the first place. To me it is like paying them so that you can keep your account up to date. I assume I can always ask them for a complete breakdown of the charge if they get too pushy. What do you people think I should do?

moozikgal

Did the bill prior to the payment on Oct 31st state the payment date of the Direct Debit was going to be 31/10 rather than 1/11? Under the Direct Debit guarantee, they should give you at least 14 days notice of the date the monies were to be taken, which should have given you ample time to arrange to have sufficient funds in your bank to cover the payment.

If the bill said payment will be collected on the 1st and it was actually taken on the 31st then you have a case, if it stated the 31st then you won't be able to claim under the guarantee but if this is your "first offence" with your bank then they may waive the fee. You prob won't get Vodafone to cough up for the fee as they have done nothing wrong...

Surfer

Vodafone are supposed to send me paper copies of my bill every month but they neglected to do so stating I had opted for "Internet" bills when all I had done was sign to view my bills online.
This was resolved at the beginning of October and it was agreed that they would continue to send me paper bills. Most times when you try and log into "View my bill" you are unable to do so because of technical difficulties. It was only when I logged online when the account had been debited that I saw the 31/10/07 at the bottom of the bill.
Anyway they still did not have the right to alter the date when I had specifically requested the account to be debited on the 1st of every month. I still have not received a paper bill as agreed.

What about their £3 admin fee if you pay by standing order? Surely that is not legal.

jrrowleyws

Yes, the £3 fee is legal, i'd imagine its in your contract.

Hopefullyuseful1

Hi Surfer,

Vodafone's Online Billing is an alternative to the paper billing you can have on your account. When you signup for online billing paper billing is automatically de-activated.

I also personally advise that if you get paid on the first of the month I'd set the direct debit for around the 3rd or 4th, as bank holidays and weekends can alter your direct debit date by 1 or 2 days (compared to normal) this would be shown on the bill in advance of the payment taken.

Hopefullyuseful

cjbjb

The fact the bill stated that they would collect the money on 31st October you haven't really got a leg to stand on as they will tell you that they did inform you in writing the day they intended to debit your account. If you ask Vodafone when the direct debit date is set for you may find that it has been luck that it hasn't collected earlier in previous months due to shorter months, weekends and Bank Holidays etc.
All though you may not be able to change what has happened you could call them and ask if you can change your direct debit date for future bills although I know that Orange cannot do that but not sure about Vodafone, worth asking and if not it just means keeping an eye on the information on the bill.

Surfer

Stupid me! I forgot to cancel the DD and Vodafone without notifying me of the new date debited my account again resulting in another £30 bank charge. Surely they should notify me of the new date for the DD.
I have now cancelled and they can go suck eggs! I have also found out that the £3 admin fee is NOT legal and is being investigated by Otelo at thsi time.

redux

Direct debits are usually collected about 12 days after statement date, as notified on it. So perhaps your experience may recur in any 31 day month. If you switch to a credit card standing arrangement the payment will be taken earlier, on the statement date.

Quentin

All cancelling the direct debit will do is get them charging you the £3 non direct debit fee every month.

As for sucking eggs, they won't be bothered, but will set all sorts of trouble in your direction if you fail to actually pay their bills.

Surfer

I have no problem paying them monthly but as far as a DD is concerned they can go suck eggs as an admin charge of £3 is illegal.
Every time you pay a bill do you have to pay the company a fee to pay your bill to stop them pursuing you.
Once this contract is finished we will be switching to PAYG on a monthly basis as it is more cost effective and you are in charge.

Surfer

Sorry, having a bad week. I just remembered that on the 31/11/07 I generated an email to Vodafone requesting that they cancel my direct debit instruction immediately. They then responded to the email on 5/11/07 advising me that I may incur a charge if I switched to any other method of payment. In effect, this was an acknowledgement that they had received my email and also the instruction to cancel the DD immediately.
However on 07/11/07 they debited my account again and as there were insufficient funds at the time, the DD bounced. As I had already instructed them to cancel the DD and they had acknowledged that they had recevied my instruction, will I be able to claim the £30 bank fee from Vodafone?