I wish I could say that this blog acts in much the same way as a public name and shame on Fair Go does.

However, at the end of this conflict, I certainly don’t feel like Vodafone comes out smelling like roses, or even neutral.

After several looonnggg and heated conversations with a Vodafone rep, I suggested that I had never intended to NOT pay any bills I owed, but it was difficult to pay something you have never been invoiced for (especially when someone else was accessing the account and I had never had anything to do with it post signup). I would be happy to pay the bill if they could please send me an invoice for it and wipe the debt collection record.

Vodafone begged to differ, claiming it is the customers responsibility to ensure they pay for a service regardless of whether or not they have received anything from them about payment. Apparently they had invoiced me religiously (who knows where to as their address on file was correct) and even when they hadn’t received payment, apparently following up with a phone call to the cellphone number they hold the account for was not a part of their debt collection process.

At this point, I was stuck. Not too keen to start paying through the nose for a lawyer just to prove my point, I rang the Citizens Advice Bureau. Charming people. They called me back within an hour and noted several people have called about telecom companies, with (shock horror) virtually exactly the same problem. Their solution: Bypass Vodafone, go direct to the debt collection agency with a firm letter about the disputed debt and their irrelevance in the picture. Apparently, you can’t pass a debt onto debt collectors without the customer ever receiving an invoice (funnily enough) and they will put it straight back on Vodafone.

In the meantime, The Vodafone Rep must have realised the same thing and did just that. Phew. So I call to pay the bill and…

“There is not debt here” says the new rep

“Oh yes there is!” I say and DEMAND to pay the amount I got invoiced and NOT, as requested ring the debt collection agency (Which had already confirmed they had wiped their debt).

So I pay up and ask for the set of notes she has written (apparently Vodafone reps have writing difficulty and often do not note down what actually happened) – so low and behold, I receive the notes and they are missing the whole part about me saying ‘CLOSE THIS ACCOUNT IMMEDIATELY AND WIPE ALL ACCESS TO EVERYONE’

Oh the joys.

Lessons learned:

• Always get emailed a copy of any notes from a dispute phone call and keep them on file with the name of the person who you spoke to.
• Use the Citizens Advice Bureau, they are aware of these issues and have dealt with them a lot
• Cross your fingers and hope that we double in population size so that another cellphone company enters the market