Default on credit score with Vodafone

rjrdunlop95

Hi, I apologise in advance if this is a bit long winded. I had my phone contract with Vodafone, and my ex husband had a line on my account. When we separated last year, my contract was at an end, so I switched providers, however his still had 5 months left. To try and be as amicable as possible, I allowed him to continue paying his phone line until the end of the contract, and then after that, he would take out his own phone line. When his contract had finished, he phoned to change the line over into his name, and was told that I would need to phone up and give my permission to allow it to be changed over. I done this, and explained that we had separated, and I didn't want his new contract to be under my name. The agent on the phone said that with me giving my permission to letting him take his phone number onto an account for himself, it wouldn't be in my name any more. Fast forward to a month ago. I received a letter addressed to myself, but instead of Miss, it was MR. From what I can gather, my ex has taken out the phone line, in my name, changed the address over etc (the letter has came to my address as they have had to do a trace on associated addresses), and they are chasing me for £1300. I explicitly told the agent on the phone last year that I didn't want him to have a phone contract in my name, therefore I didn't give permission for this new phone contract. I am trying to argue with Vodafone that I shouldn't need to pay this, as my permission wasn't given, for what was carried out. Because he hasn't paid the phone bill in 10 months, there have been defaults going onto my credit score. Even if I do have to pay these charges to Vodafone, does anyone know if I will be able to get the defaults erased? 

ddonq1412

the defaults will lye with you unless you have proof Vodafone confirmed the contract would be moved from your name.

sourcrates

Vodafone are a beast to deal with, send a written complaint to them, outlining what you have told us, they have 8 weeks to issue you a final responce -

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/help-and-information/complaints/contact-us

If you remain unhappy, escalate the complaint to ombudsman services, who can be found here -

https://www.ombudsman-services.org/

As regards the default, you must include removal of that in your complaint, you may have to escalate that particular problem to the ICO -

https://ico.org.uk/

rjrdunlop95

sourcrates said:

Vodafone are a beast to deal with, send a written complaint to them, outlining what you have told us, they have 8 weeks to issue you a final responce -

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/help-and-information/complaints/contact-us

If you remain unhappy, escalate the complaint to ombudsman services, who can be found here -

https://www.ombudsman-services.org/

As regards the default, you must include removal of that in your complaint, you may have to escalate that particular problem to the ICO -

https://ico.org.uk/

Thank you so much. I will try this

rjrdunlop95

ddonq1412 said:

the defaults will lye with you unless you have proof Vodafone confirmed the contract would be moved from your name.

But surely me repeatedly stating on the phone that I do not want the contract renewed, unless it was in his name, and the fact that I, the account holder, didn’t give permission for the contract renewal, would be enough for the contract renewal not to go ahead? I hadn’t even had the account set where he could phone and organise things, it all had to be me that dealt with it. 

D3xt3r5L4b

Did you serve your 30 days notice to not renew?

phillw

D3xt3r5L4b said:

Did you serve your 30 days notice to not renew?

Contracts can't auto renew. I would have thought that the phone conversation that you don't want a contract in your name was enough to be notification of cancelling, therefore they could only charge for 30 days after that point.
The first thing I would do is contact the police.

kaMelo

phillw said:

D3xt3r5L4b said:

Did you serve your 30 days notice to not renew?

Contracts can't auto renew. I would have thought that the phone conversation that you don't want a contract in your name was enough to be notification of cancelling, therefore they could only charge for 30 days after that point.
The first thing I would do is contact the police.

Contracts don't auto renew, they don't need to as they don't end unless someone or something ends them.

Mobile contracts have a minimum term duration but that's not an end point and they don't expire, they only end when someone makes them end. A transfer of ownership is a way of doing this but a casual phone call telling an agent "I don't want this contract in my name" is not good enough to achieve a transfer of ownership and Vodafone wouldn't (or at least shouldn't) have even spoken to him in regards to your account due to data protection. 
Transfer of ownership requires the account holder to fill out the correct form saying they want to transfer ownership and to whom.. The new owner has to be an account holder with Vodafone, if they don't have one already then they will need a credit/ID check prior to this happening to set up their own account. The account for the transferring number must be current and up to date also.
All these things have to happen before any "Transfer of ownership" can take place, if any part fails then the whole thing fails, if the whole thing fails then nothing changes unless you tell them to change it..
To protect yourself what you should have done is given thirty days notice to change the number to PAYG when the number had thirty days left of the minimum term

If he has somehow taken on a new contract in your name without your knowledge then it's fraudulent and you have two options. Report him for the fraud then complain to Vodafone stating this was a fraudulent act backed up with the crime reference number and accept that this may have consequences for him.
Or,
Pay the bill.

There isn't an easy out on this one.