Vodafone default: advice please?

YOUNGMML

I general, I do not have a beef with Vodafone UK. My family have been customers for several years but I genuinely believe I have been treated unfairly. I’m perhaps going out on a limb here and wondering if the company might monitor the posts on this MSE forum. If so I’d really appreciate advice on steps that I can take to address a problem that I’m facing, with a default that they’ve placed on my credit score report. Notwithstanding that some consumers might be somewhat guilty of avoiding responsibility, this was not the case for me. I have to assume that somewhere along the lines, over the recent months of them having to quickly adjust to new working practices, that I fell through a crack in their processes w.r.t my daughter’s final mobile phone bill payment being unpaid. I feel that I had good intentions but I appear to have fallen through a loophole. I have tried in vain to find a way to explain this over the telephone. I’m hopeful that I might reach someone a Vodafone however in this forum.

It would be a weight off my mind if I can at least interact with someone on this.

Billy_B_North

What's tha actual story here? Did you miss a payment, and if so, how?

Nebulous2

Vodafone in general can be very difficult to deal with. They used to have a rep on these forums who was good at getting issues resolved, but I haven't seen him for a long time. 

However if you did not pay any outstanding balance when you closed the account, before cancelling a direct debit - then you may find you are stuck with it. Its good practice to leave your DD live until  the final bill has been paid. 

kaMelo

YOUNGMML said:

I general, I do not have a beef with Vodafone UK. My family have been customers for several years but I genuinely believe I have been treated unfairly. I’m perhaps going out on a limb here and wondering if the company might monitor the posts on this MSE forum. If so I’d really appreciate advice on steps that I can take to address a problem that I’m facing, with a default that they’ve placed on my credit score report. Notwithstanding that some consumers might be somewhat guilty of avoiding responsibility, this was not the case for me. I have to assume that somewhere along the lines, over the recent months of them having to quickly adjust to new working practices, that I fell through a crack in their processes w.r.t my daughter’s final mobile phone bill payment being unpaid. I feel that I had good intentions but I appear to have fallen through a loophole. I have tried in vain to find a way to explain this over the telephone. I’m hopeful that I might reach someone a Vodafone however in this forum.

It would be a weight off my mind if I can at least interact with someone on this.

It's not a new thing or because of the pandemic, it's been going on for years usually because people cancel the direct debit too early although there are other reasons.

Without more information though it's not possible to offer many suggestions. 

You said your daughter's final phone bill went unpaid but there are different scenario's to make a bill a final bill. Was the account cancelled, transferred away via PAC or was it assumed (incorrectly)  it would just end after the minimum term had passed?

Was the account paid via Direct Debit and if so did you cancel it or leave it in place? A final bill can be up to two months after the account closed.

Did you actively check everything was paid off or did you just assume it was?

It's not impossible to get Vodafone to remove a default but it's pretty close. Unless you can show it's entirely a Vodafone error rather than an oversight on your part I would set your expectations low.

Mjgraham

Hi,
i am having difficulty with Vodafone. they have recently put a default on my credit report even though i left them in july 2020, i had previously contacted them to establish when i could leave them without incurring penalty and at the same time asked them to cancel my account , this being more than 30 days from my conversation with them. after recieving several notifications letting me know my contract will be ended i left, or so i thought was the case and moved to my new provider. However in february of this year i recieved not a demand but a bill stating it is now with debt collection. i called vodafone, no mean feat trying to talk to someone, stating had they let me know i would have paid without the need for such drastic action. their reply was they did not need to let me know i owed them money which i find more than a little rediculous.
i realised i was going to get nowhere with them and so paid the outstanding amount to the collection agency. this was paid in february yet the account still shows not satisfied and still shows i owe them a further £46 pounds. I am now at my wits end and feel there is nothing i can do. they were informed more than 30 days of my termination request date yet they have kept and are still keeping my account open and defaulted. what if anything can i do?

thanks

Batesy1976

Mjgraham said:

Hi,
i am having difficulty with Vodafone. they have recently put a default on my credit report even though i left them in july 2020, i had previously contacted them to establish when i could leave them without incurring penalty and at the same time asked them to cancel my account , this being more than 30 days from my conversation with them. after recieving several notifications letting me know my contract will be ended i left, or so i thought was the case and moved to my new provider. However in february of this year i recieved not a demand but a bill stating it is now with debt collection. i called vodafone, no mean feat trying to talk to someone, stating had they let me know i would have paid without the need for such drastic action. their reply was they did not need to let me know i owed them money which i find more than a little rediculous.
i realised i was going to get nowhere with them and so paid the outstanding amount to the collection agency. this was paid in february yet the account still shows not satisfied and still shows i owe them a further £46 pounds. I am now at my wits end and feel there is nothing i can do. they were informed more than 30 days of my termination request date yet they have kept and are still keeping my account open and defaulted. what if anything can i do?

thanks

You'll have to wait for the account to be updated, which is taking a while because of current events.

But just to make you aware that the default won't be going anywhere, it'll just be marked as satisfied.

kaMelo

Mjgraham said:

Hi,
i am having difficulty with Vodafone. they have recently put a default on my credit report even though i left them in july 2020, i had previously contacted them to establish when i could leave them without incurring penalty and at the same time asked them to cancel my account , this being more than 30 days from my conversation with them. after recieving several notifications letting me know my contract will be ended i left, or so i thought was the case and moved to my new provider. However in february of this year i recieved not a demand but a bill stating it is now with debt collection. i called vodafone, no mean feat trying to talk to someone, stating had they let me know i would have paid without the need for such drastic action. their reply was they did not need to let me know i owed them money which i find more than a little rediculous.
i realised i was going to get nowhere with them and so paid the outstanding amount to the collection agency. this was paid in february yet the account still shows not satisfied and still shows i owe them a further £46 pounds. I am now at my wits end and feel there is nothing i can do. they were informed more than 30 days of my termination request date yet they have kept and are still keeping my account open and defaulted. what if anything can i do?

thanks

The bolded bits matter.

You cannot give more than thirty days notice to close an account and this seems ti be where it went wrong, the agent you spoke to should have made this clear however.
You can give notice to close an account which will close thirty days from that notice. You may be liable for any minimum term remaining on your contract though. If you want to close your account and don't want to pay anything extra then you need to time your cancellation notice to thirty days before your minimum term end date.. 


I know this is no help to you now but a belt and braces approach is to always always PAC your number away whether you want to keep it or not. If you don't want to keep your number just get yourself a random PAYG sim and PAC to this sim and then don't use it for anything. Eventually it will time out and the number will cease.  This approach guarantees your account will be closed.

Did you close the direct debit? it can take up to two months to receive your final bill and many defaults happen because people cancel the direct debit too early and unlike financial companies, who are bound by the CCA, mobile phone networks are under no requirement to notify you they are defaulting your account before they do so.

As such I think you're going to find it hard to get this removed unfortunately as you did in fact default. It's not impossible to do so but it will be challenging if for no other reason than trying to get to talk to anyone at Vodafone with authority is an absolute mare..